Smells Like Sunshine
Let's get one thing straight: I'm a pale Canadian who has spent most of her life fending off frost bite and Seasonal Affective Disorder. While that might make you think I'm unqualified to discuss all things pertaining to warm weather, I'm happy to inform you that you are sorely wrong.
It's because of the lack of warmth in my life (both literal and emotional) that I am so obsessively in-the-know when it comes to the many ways to make your life "beachier". My approach doesn't involve tanning beds, wearing sarongs at inappropriate times or embarrassing "Life's A Beach" poster art purchased from Etsy. Instead, I slather and spray myself with beauty products that convince me I don't, in fact, have a severe vitamin D deficiency.
Bitch, I love beachy smells. I want to smell like a grown-up Coppertone baby guzzling coconut rum year round. I want the scent of my skin to perpetually give off a sun-kissed aura, even when I am translucent and glowing like an off-brand Casper comic. I have spent years building up my Summer Smells™ collection, on a Kramer-like mission in which I will probably never be satisfied and eternally crave Just One More. However, I like to think I've found some of the best of the best, and so I'm going to share them with you. If you're also a summer seeker, please read on. Steal my secrets. I want us all to be a tiny bit happier.
Bobbi Brown • Beach
I guess this one is the true motherlode when it comes to beach fragrances. I mean, look at the name. It's just "Beach". Such a statement requires absolute confidence that the fragrance inside the bottle will, in fact, smell like the damn beach. Beach captures sea spray, sand, a delicate waft of jasmine and not much else. That's not to say it's not a beautiful scent though. Its simplicity truly reflects clean, seaside air without any sweetness or heavy, warm notes. It's soft and beautiful and easy to wear, and layers nicely with more coconut-y scents for a cocktails-by-the-sea vibe. A bestseller for a reason.
Maison Margiela • Beach Walk
I have the rollerball of this one because I'm not made of money, folks, and I highly suggest picking one up at Sephora for days when you need some scent therapy. Of every fragrance on this list, this is the one I get the most compliments on, and the one I most begrudgingly share the name of. It takes the idea of Beach and runs with it with wild abandon, like two scantily swimsuit-ed teens making out under a boardwalk. The coconut milk is heavy here--thank God--and not at all artificial smelling. It truly smells like you're sipping the sweet stuff from a straw. But there's citrus, musk and tropical flowers (ylang-ylang and heliotrope, to be specific) to balance everything out and keep it from being saccharine. It's so gorgeous and sexy without being heavy-handed, and it makes me want to move to Tahiti and never talk to any of you ever again. But alas ...
Jennifer Aniston • Jennifer Aniston
I will never be the kind of snobbish person to turn their nose up at celebrity scents, since so many of them are actually really damn good. I mean, I'm still after a bottle of J.Lo Glow. That stuff was delightful. But I digress. Here we have the namesake perfume from the forever queen of beachiness, Rachel Green. I mean, Jennifer Aniston. You know her, she of the perfectly wavy, always effortlessly sun-lit blonde hair, and the eternal tan that makes you wonder how her skin looks as good as it does. Celebrities ... they're such a mystery. But this scent leaves nothing to the imagination. It's been compared to Beach, but it carries its own by throwing in rose with the jasmine, and a nice base of sandalwood and musk for a skin-scent vibe. It's clean without being soapy, and smells like the beach in the very early hours of the morning. Plus, it's not going to set you back a rent payment, because some of us want to smell like the beach on a budget. Thanks Jen. You're the best.
Giorgio Armani • Sun di Gioia
The di Gioia fragrance family from Armani is a really nice collection of light, fresh and crowd-pleasing spring and summer fragrances, and the best of them (my favourite) is Sun di Gioia. I'm gonna be honest with you: it smells a lot like Beach Walk, but with vanilla taking the place of coconut. It's also got a healthy dose of amber and ambrox giving it an overall warmth that feels like sun beaming down on your chicly sunglass'd face, and finally a touch of iris is thrown in for a slightly powdery finish. Of all the scents I've listed here, this one is the most warm-smelling. It is the equivalent of hot afternoon sun warming your skin as you fade in and out of sleep. Just make sure you're wearing your SPF. Sunburns are the worst.
Demeter • Suntan Lotion
Suntan Lotion is the cheap and cheerful little sister to the sophisticated Beach. It smells so strongly of newly bloomed orange blossom, with the suggestive tang of chemical grease you get when zinc-y SPF 30 combines with your body heat. That's not to say it smells off, or weird, it just smells exactly like what it's supposed to. Getting a whiff of this in the middle of January is enough to make a grown man weep for pubescent memories of summer camp. It is nostalgic, clean and thoroughly unpretentious. I just wish the staying power was stronger, but it's a cologne, so throw it in your beach bag and reapply often (just like you would your actual sunscreen. I'm serious about this, folks).
Honourable Mentions
Nuxe • Huile Prodigieuse
This isn't a perfume, which is why I didn't put it on the main list, but it deserves acknowledgement anyway. Huile Prodigieuse is a multi-purpose oil that you can slather wherever you need a heavy dose of hydration. It's loaded with nourishing ingredients like sweet almond and macadamia oil and it smells like the sexy summer night you've always dreamed of. Anyone who gets close enough to sniff this from your gleaming collarbone will instantly be drawn in and probably propose to you immediately. If you're not looking for marriage, maybe find an unscented lotion instead.
Atelier Cologne • Orange Sanguine
Orange Sanguine may not necessarily be a beach scent because it doesn't have the typical tropical vibes of the usual suspects, but it reminds me of summertime just as much. It belongs on a shelf somewhere in that villa from Call Me By Your Name. The geranium and citrus notes are so fresh that spraying this makes me want to sit down in a sun-bleached wooden chair to peel and eat an orange, preferably plucked from my own tree at my own summer home, hidden away in the north of Italy. However, I'm currently on my couch in snowy Canada (it's nearly April, what the hell), eating Cadbury Mini Eggs. You can't always win. But you can buy this unisex cologne and smell like Armie Hammer probably does, and isn't that all any of us really want?
Elizabeth Arden • Sunflowers
Anyone who grew up in the '90s knows and likely loves Sunflowers, the most inoffensive and nostalgia-inducing of '90s scents. Honeydew melon and peach notes add a sweet but not sickening side to the typical jasmine-rose-orange blossom feminine heart of this beloved and easy-wearing scent. A base of musk, sandalwood, amber and oakmoss make for a clean and warm dry-down. Wearing this makes me think of laundry drying in the sun in a neighbour's backyard while I watch a VHS of Now & Then in my basement in a well-worn pair of faded denim overalls. A lot of trends from the '90s probably shouldn't come back, but in my very professional and well-respected opinion, Sunflowers will always be in style.
** Sometimes I use affiliate links to share products on this page. That means, if you purchase any of these products via those links, I may receive a small percentage of the sale from the store. However, these are all products that I have purchased and tested on my own dime and time.
