8 weird-chic summer fragrances

beach balls, fig, salty skin, amaretto, & grapefruit soda

Summer always feels like a short story.

I’m usually less hopeless, probably drinking an iced hojicha and reconnecting with summer fruit. The memories made each summer feel the most sacred— more than the other seasons (I know, I feel like I’m cheating on autumn). Even the mundane ones. Each summer that passes through is like a beached treasure chest hidden in some kind of secret, forbidden cove: tangled, salty hair; sweat; neon flip-flops that know all of your summer sins. That’s how I want to experience perfume too: like being taken on a journey or told a secret. It keeps things interesting, and keeps me curious. Just like summer. Do you feel the same?

Whether you want to smell wet, chlorinated, or fizzy, there’s surely a [perfume] fruit below for you— waiting to be picked.

Click here to find out what else lives in a DIGITAL FRUITS summer.

Hint: NYLON Magazines circa 2011, matcha, neon lingerie…

Snowbird by Binaurale

Sun-warmed skin, eating pears and figs at a picnic with your lover. A new release from one of my all-time favorite perfume brands.

Pink Pepper, Dewy Pear, Fig Natureprint®, Carrot Seed, Violet Absolute, Patchouli Prisma, Natural Myrrh, Guaiacwood, Virginia Cedar

Holy Hell by Universal Flowering

The smell of your car after a long beach day. Sand, sunscreen, wet beach balls.

Neroli, Melon, Beach Ball, Toasted Seashells, Violet Coppertone, Ambergris

Free 00 by Vyrao

What heaven smells like. If creamy oranges and blooming jasmine flowers had a baby in Atlantis.

Lemon oil, Mandarin oil, Orange Flower, Jasmine, Vanilla, Sandalwood oil, Waterlily, Musk

Orgasmo by Hilde Soliani

If Sex & The City were a perfume. A cosmopolitan and a girl’s night out. Hot pink. The concept of 2006. A creamy, doughy, amaretto cookie. Hot people love Hilde, and yes, that is her face on the bottle (perfect).

Almond, Amaretto Liqueur accord

Hypnotizing Fire by The Harmonist

The kind of subtle and intoxicating you expect from summer. A self-seducing gentle flame. Fresh June berries at midnight. A soft spell. IMO, it’s the summer answer to winter’s Blackmail by Kerosene.

Pepper Tree, Pimento Berries, Cloves, Bulgarian Rose, Patchouli, Praline, Vanilla, Benzoin, Oud

Odette by Gumamina

Sparkling grapefruit soda, swinging on a wooden bench on your best friend’s porch. The sprinkler is on. You just made a rhubarb tart together. Pastel terrycloth and ivory flats.

Grapefruit Soda, Rhubarb, Rose, Orris, Tonka, Musk

Shop these perfumes, bonus recs, and other DIGITAL FRUITS curations on my ShopMy here!

Kaigan by Kintsugi Perfumes

Dreams of summer along the Italian coastline— alone. You just read the Artist’s Way. You’ve rediscovered freedom through your own creativity. You’re taking pottery classes now.

Bergamot, Mandarin, Basil, Cypress, Fig, Sea accords, Saffron, Cedarwood, Musk, Civet

Summer of 84 by Kerosene

Melting popsicles and suburban summer grass. Fresh-cut melons getting a little too sun-baked in the backyard.

Grapefruit, Lemon, Bergamot, Melon, White Flowers, Fresh Water, Musk

PS: NEVER blind-buy a full bottle. I have more samples to explore than full bottles— and I like it that way!

Check out Lucky Scent, Scent Split, or a local parfumerie (most do online orders) for samples. I love The Marie-Marie and Fumerie in PDX, and am obsessed with Stéle in NYC.

If you could develop your own perfume based on your favorite summer (so far), what would it smell like?

For me, 2 summers ago. And if it were a fragrance, it would smell like overripened peaches, hay, leather cowboy boots baking in the sun, rosemary, and chlorine.

And if it wasn’t 2 summers ago, it was 2008: cotton candy + grass.

Talk to you soon.

<3, Emma

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