I’m a proud Leo, and as any of my fellow lions will tell you, our favorite season is upon us in just two short months. No shade to spring at all—New York City is an absolute dreamscape when all the trees are blooming—but after a particularly gray and dreary start to April, I’m definitely fantasizing about warm and hazy summer afternoons at the park or beach. Until the period of linen sundresses and patio margaritas is upon us, I’m switching up my go-to perfumes for scents that capture all the mineral, juicy, fresh, and aquatic vibes of the season.
One of my favorite things about adjusting your fragrances based on the season is how differently they will wear on your skin in the fluctuating temperatures. When the sun is blazing down on your bare shoulders (protected by plenty of sunscreen, of course) and you’re glistening with a fine layer of sweat from an afternoon of outdoor activities, the juice of your perfume is going to react differently with your skin’s pH. It’s basically magic!
So, for my fellow fragrance nerds or just a casual perfume fan looking for a new scent to channel those pending vacation vibes, here are my must-have summer perfumes.
Channel the Beach Boardwalk
As a true water baby, I love any scent that can capture the salty sea atmosphere of a day at the beach.
If you’ve always wanted to experience a classic New England summer, complete with a lobster boil, oodles of champagne, and an afternoon of sailing around the cape, meet your new favorite fragrance. It’s windswept and salty with a woody sage base that demands attention.
This is summer in a bottle, period, end of sentence. Salty notes of ambergris mingle with earthy Tahitian tiare, floral and fruity ylang-ylang, and musky sandalwood. It’s a dream fresh-smelling perfume for summer.
Bask in the Sunshine
For a bright, sunny, and vaguely citrus scent, look to solar fragrances for your next summer perfume.
While the perfume version of my favorite summer Diptyque scent is sold out, this affordable body mist option still delivers those delicious fig, bergamot, jasmine, and iris notes. It’ll transport you to a sun-drenched balcony in the Mediterranean, sipping Aperol spritzes in the breeze.
As a fresh solar scent, this eau de toilette is basically bottled sunshine. The energizing combo of bergamot, coconut, and heliotrope is everything I want in a summer perfume.
Show Some Skin
A skin scent is subtle, comforting, and incredibly intimate, aka exactly what you’d want out of a sexy summer fling.
I’m not typically a vanilla girlie, but this blend is so minimalist and inviting, all I want to do is take another whiff of my wrist after a spritz. Musk and salted praline add a hint of spice.
I adore this sexy skin scent year-round, but when my skin temperature rises in the summer heat, it takes on a whole new musky dimension. With notes of skin musk, orange blossom, bergamot, and blonde wood, it clings to my body like a sensual nude veil—heaven.
Take a Dip
Hannah Baxter lounges by the pool.
Is there anything better than swimming underneath the summer sun? Well, wearing fresh, cool, and crisp aquatic scent might be a very close second.
If you’re looking for a tropical vacation in a bottle, run, don’t walk, to pick up this lush and floral perfume. I swear you can smell a hidden waterfall in every spritz, but perhaps it’s the notes of water, passion flower, jasmine, and vetiver.
Ethereal, fruity, and perfectly balanced, this blackcurrant and bergamot scent is a must for your summer lineup. The hint of musk grounds the juice for pure seasonal glamour.
Find Your Main Squeeze
Summer is the season of citrus, so bring those crisp and tart scents to the forefront of your perfume lineup.
Good lord this fragrance is absolutely delicious (not that you should eat your perfume). Mandarin and California lemon kick off the top notes before the scent dries down to a heady neroli and jasmine blend, with sparkling hints of cotton candy.
Fresh, zesty, and rather unexpected, the wood and floral notes ground this citrus fragrance for a painfully cool perfume that is sure to garner compliments. Lemon, bergamot, iris, sandalwood—it has all my favorite summer elements for a bright and sexy seasonal scent.
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