If there’s one area of the beauty industry where I feel my opinions have merit – it’s fragrance. I’m not much of a skincare junkie, or a makeup guru, but fragrance has always felt more poetic to me.
And is there a more poetic time of year than the spring? As we hurtle into the heat of summer, scent becomes a more distinctive part of our routines. The aroma of blossoming jasmine, ripening fruit, rain-soaked asphalt.
Each of the fragrances below I have lived with, worn on skin, seen countless online reviews about and judged not only by their notes on paper but by the way they wear IRL. Their selection on this list is based on a few measures: projection, longevity, and the emotions they stir.
So, read on for our cartography of scents that define spring.
1. Diptyque Do Son (Eau de Toilette)
Notes: Orange Blossom, Jasmine, Pink Pepper
Available from: MECCA, amazon.
Finding its muse in the picturesque Vietnamese seaside resort of Do Son, this fragrance is dreamy, distinctly feminine and strangely nostalgic. What most people mistake for jasmine is a top note of African orange flower, fettered by rose, iris, tuberose, pink pepper, benzoin and musk. It transitions beautifully from day to night, balancing perfectly on the edge of floral and earthy.
2. CHANEL Les Exclusifs Sycamore (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Vetiver, Tabacco, Violet
Available from: CHANEL
Created by the noses of Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake, Sycamore is vetiver reduced to its purest, most elegant form – dry, smoky, with a kind of effortless elegance. It feels like an Aesop store in a pine forest. Luxurious, woody, androgynous.
3. Perfumer H Saddle (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Italian Bergamot, Vanilla, Egyptian Jasmine
Available from: MECCA
Like warm, moulded leather from a saddle, this scent is anything but horsey. There are elements of polished wood, smoke lingering in still air, maybe even some clove and vanilla alongside an herbal green patchouli. It is warmth impressed with time, the kind of richness only patina can give.
4. Matiere Premiere Santal Austral (Extrait)
Notes: Nepalese Black Cardamom, Sandalwood
Available from: Libertine Perfumerie, David Jones.
Santal Austral is an organic sandalwood oil from Australia rendered creamy and luminous by Nepalese black cardamom absolute. The cardamom threads a cool fire through its core, keeping the wood alive and vibrant. And as an Extrait, it’s also incredibly long lasting on the skin.
5. Maison Louis Marie No.04 Bois de Balincourt (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Nutmeg
Available from: Maplestore, Sephora.
Sandalwood softened by sweetness, like sunlight pouring through green leaves. Bois de Balincourt is gentle, meditative, and endlessly wearable. It’s underscored by subtle hints of nutmeg and cinnamon, which ground the scent alongside a kiss of vetiver.
6. Editions de Parfums By Frédéric Malle (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Neroli, Rosemary, Bubblegum
Available from: MECCA
Translating to ‘Dirty Brat’, this fragrance toys with tradition – a cologne reimagined with sugared candies and a touch of violet. But don’t be fooled, there’s still a soapy, clean and even salty note to this one. It’s fresh and remarkably unexpected.
7. The Nue Co. Functional Fragrance De-Stress
Notes: Palo Santo, Bergamot
Available from: MECCA
De-Stress is clarity bottled. Herbal, airy, and cleansing. Nue Co. is all about functional fragrance – a scent designed to tap into the power of your olfactory system. This one was developed over five years with The University of Geneva and created by renowned perfumer Frank Voelkl (known for Le Labo’s Santal 33). Spray onto pulse points and breathe deeply.
8. TSU LANGE YOR Sage’s Rose (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Myrrh, Vetiver, Sugar
Available from: TSU LANGE YOR, MECCA.
You’d be mistaken for thinking Sage’s Rose is a fragile bloom – but myrrh brings it an unexpected smoke. You’ll find it’s more rooted in a rose bush’s thorns, stems, and soil; an herbal edge that sharpens the florals, giving it poise rather than powder. The brand calls it a ‘spectral bloom’ on their website, which is perhaps most indicative of its true resinous and shadowy nature. Put simply: it’s HOT.
9. Korres Midnight Dahlia (Eau de Toilette)
Notes: Red Berries, Bergamot, Apricots
Available from: MECCA
Midnight Dahlia is all velvet and shadow. It feels like night air on bare skin. Rich, but tempered by coolness. It’s a heady cocktail of bittersweet stone fruits, heart of peony, and grounded in the more surefooted base note of patchouli.
10. One Day Jasmine Tea (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Tea Leaf, Clary Sage, Musk
Available from: One Day Perfumes.
Startlingly photorealistic – and from the hand of one of the chicest perfumeries on the market these days – this fragrance mirrors the floral steam rising from porcelain, both delicate and a little bitter. A wash of Oolong lends it smoke and tannin, grounding what could have been an overly luminous bloom. It’s meditative, herbacious, and with some beautiful floral nuances.
11. CELINE Reptile (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Tree Moss, Cedar, Leather, Pepper
Available from: CELINE.
Reptile unfurls as leathery, but not dark. It’s featherlight and has the dryness of paper – airy where you expect density. Even CELINE’s own website describes it as ‘beguiling’, an olfactory other half to Hedi Slimane’s iconic rock star portraits. If your spring plans entail long, cocktail-fuelled evenings into the night, then this is should be your go-to.
12. 19-69 Atlântico (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Pink Pepper, Passionfruit, Incense
Available from: Above the Clouds.
Produced in collaboration with big wave surfer Nic von Rupp, Atlântico crashes open with salt and sun; citrus sparkling on the crest of a wave, and with a restless, seaweed-green heart. But it’s not all aquatic. That 1960’s Californian sensibility comes through in a more bohemian way with hints of woods and incense that smoulder like skin warmed inside a beach shack after a day by the sea.
13. NASOMATTO Narcotic Venus (Extrait)
Notes: Tuberose, Jasmin, Lily, Spices
Available from: Camargue, Saison, Beauty Affairs.
What do you get at the end of a quest to bottle the overwhelming, addictive intensity of female sexual power? An overdose of white petals. Creamy, buttery, tuberose. Tropical flowers. It presents as heady, voluptuous, almost delirious. It overwhelms in the most deliberate way. And as an Extrait, it will last on the skin for up to 24 hours.
14. Byredo Alto Astral (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Coconut Water, Aldehydes, Sandalwood
Imagine spun sugar melting on sun-warmed skin. A fragrance that balances sharpness with creaminess, the salty with the sweet. It’s got notes of coconut water and even amber. It’s Baccarat Rouge on vacation – bronzed, dressed for escape.
15. Le Labo Lavande 31 (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Lavender, Bergamote, Tonka
Available from: Le Labo, MECCA.
Lavande 31 strips lavender of its softness, revealing it at its most sharp, green, almost bracing. Musks give it a saline hint, making it luminous rather than powdery. It feels like your Grandmother’s potpourri re-engineered for the modern hand. More precise and electric.
16. Caroline Herrara Good Girl Blush Bowtastic Collector (Eau de Parfum)
Notes: Citrus, Almond, Amber
Available from: Myer.
From the nose of Louise Turner, this new collector’s edition of the iconic Good Girl fragrance is dressed in a pink bow, but its scent is anything but naïve. Bowtastic reimagines the duality at the heart of the Good Girl collection – the tension between light and dark, sweet and sensual. A sparkling burst of citrus colliding with almond’s gourmand warmth.
