I love summer. Yes, I'll complain about the heat like everyone else, but I'd rather bake than freeze any day. Plus, the fruit! Even if you don't like summer, you have to admit that the abundant variety of fresh fruits (that haven't been flown in from another continent) is worth a little extra sweat on your brow. Here are 9 reasonably new-ish (all came out within the past 5 years, and most of them within the last 2 years) fruit fragrances to help keep you feeling cool and lighthearted, plus one veg, because you have to have your veg, right?
Passion fruit ~ If you haven't yet tried Arielle Shoshana Eau de Parfum, do. It's new, it's indie, it's fun, and it was made by a perfumista. And it does not stint on the fruit.
Coconut ~ Put the lime in the coconut, translated into perfume: Lolita Lempicka Elle L'Aime. It's got a tropical beach vibe that's the perfect antidote for a hot summer day when you're sitting in traffic instead of sitting where you should be, having a drink by the water.
Lime ~ You want lime but no coconut? April Aromatics Ray of Light is every bit as bright and happy as the name implies. In some alternate perfumista universe, I just found a bottle at a price I could afford. In this world, I'm making do with samples.
Berries ~ Possibly not quite so cheerful as some of the other selections I'm presenting today, but for a berry-ish gourmand-ish thing that verges on fruitchouli, Annick Goutal Tenue de Soirée is both easy to wear and reasonably sophisticated.
Fig ~ Vilhelm Parfumerie Purple Fig is exponentially more exuberant than your average fig, and the additions of lemon and cassis up the fruit quotient.
Peach ~ For a small niche concern, Parfums de Nicolaï has made an impressive percentage of my summer favorites, and I think this is my only repeat from a previous list. The peach in L’Eau à la Folie has just the right amount of sparkle and verve, and it's not too sweet for a hot day. The bonus: it's reasonably affordable for niche.
Lemon ~ Tauer L'Eau is a crisp and clean lemon musk for a post-Love's-Fresh-Lemon generation, custom made for a hot summer day when nearly anything else is just too much.
Lemon ~ Another lemon option, in case you don't love the Tauer, Maison Francis Kurkdian Petit Matin, works in a more classic mode, and wears like a sparkling summer concoction of lemon and soft creamy flower petals. A perfect no-brainer for a summer morning.
Lemon ~ A third lemon option, because hey, it's summer, you can't make lemonade without lemons! Imaginary Authors Mosaic is in the modern mode, and it's bright, bright, bright, with a little twist of weird.
And the veg ~ name a more cheerful fragrance with a lettuce note, and I'll eat my hat. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Kaleidoscope makes me smile every time I wear it. I have been plotting an order of the body lotion ever since I smelled it.
Do add your own summer favorites in the comments! And you can find more Top 10 lists at Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc and The Non-Blonde.
Note: top image is foods_Juice_kids_WIlfa [cropped] by Stiftelsen Elektronikkbransjen at flickr; some rights reserved.
Great List, I was say thaTenue de Soirée is on my list as well as Ari’s passionfruit
Gallop for Rose and leather
Heure Exquise also
I think I will have a Songes summer.
A Songes summer sounds perfect!
I’m wearing Nuit de Tubéreuse – I love big white florals for summer. Here are my top ten:
Parfums MDCI Nuit Andalouse
L’Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubéreuse
Guérlain Terracotta
F. Malle Cologne Indélibile
F. Malle Eau de Magnolia
Bulgari Au Thé Bleu
Etro Palais Jamais
Prada Infusion d’Iris
Le Labo Ylang 49
Atélier Cologne Blanche Immortelle
Great list, and several of those have made our Top 10 of Summer in the past.
Robin, I have been searching for PdN L’Eau à la Folie , but I can’t find it anywhere. Anyone know of a place in the U.S.?
My summer favorites:
Etro Anice
L’Artisan Thé pour un Été
Chanel Allure Homme Edition Blanche
lostmarch L’eau de l’Hermine
Carthusia Mediterraneo
Looking forward to trying Ari’s passion fruit!
Oh dear, it’s no longer shown on the PdN site. I would not have included it if I knew (or remembered?) it was discontinued.
Ah – that explains it then. No worries.
And adding to my list (can’t believe I left this off as I’ve been wearing it every day!):
Fendi Theorema Esprit d’Ete
Anything Theorema is good stuff
I got a little excited there for a moment. I blasted through a 30 ml bottle of a la Folie a few years back and couldn’t replace it.
The PdN discussion brought me to her website and reminded me of another summer favorite that I haven’t worn yet:
PdN Juste un Reve
Then stock up!
WHAAAT?! I was just coming to comment that a little L’Eau a la Folie makes everything better most days, it’s one of my favourite scents from a favourite line. Blast! Thank heavens I have a huge bottle. Springpansy, if you don’t mind mail-ordering from Germany, First in Fragrance appears to still have some.
Thanks, but darn – site says “product not available at the moment”
Perfumelounge.nl has one last bottle left (and yes, it says it’s discontinued)
(No affiliation)
I’ve heard in the past that sometimes products aren’t available on the website but can be ordered by phone.
Weird! I don’t think that was there a few minutes ago. I couldn’t possibly have created a run on it?
I don’t know if she brings things back? I do know I never saw Exotique again.
Man, Patty’s gotta stop breaking our little hearts!
And she’s not even the worst offender.
I share your enthusiasm for ripe summer fruits, especially berries and stone fruits. Black plums are my favorite, and during July I could happily eat blueberries at every meal.
I wear Jo Malone Wild Fig and Cassis, but more often in spring and fall than in summer. In the warmer months my preferred fruit fragrances are the citrus ones — predictable, I know — like AG Eau d’Hadrien and Atelier Orange Sanguine.
The DSH with the lettuce note sounds delightful, and the mention of veggie scents has inspired me to dig out my ancient decant of L’Artisan Fleur de Carotte and wear it today. I might also have to rebuy Demeter Tomato, an old favorite (though I realize that tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable). And I still pine for Caswell-Massey Cucumber Cologne.
I can’t wait until my fruit CSA starts, although that’s late in the summer — but the peaches & plums are fantastic, and the grapes are so amazing I’m thinking of digging up our boring concord grapes and planting some better varieties.
Mercurygirl,
I used to wear JM’s Fig and Wild Cassis. It was one of my favorites, but it was discontinued. When I found out, I purchased 2 FB’s and have already drained both. Enjoy and cherish your bottle.
Great list Robin! Among my favorites:
Chanel 19 EdT
Chanel Cristalle
O de Lancome
Byredo Pulp
Diptyque Philosykos
Guerlain AA Herba Fresca
Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine
PDN Week-end
Profumum Roma Acqua di Sale
EL Bronze Goddess
Nice! Lots of those made my prior lists. It’s hard to do these every few years without repeating yourself, but really, there isn’t a summer where I don’t wear Cristalle & Bronze Goddess & Herba Fresca…
I prefer Cristalle in the wintertime..gives me the lift that I need
Cristalle is also beautiful in winter. Like you, I wear it sometimes in cold weather to cheer me up.
I wore vintage Cristalle many years ago (won’t be telling you what years-LOL!) and I wore it then exclusively in the winter!
We enjoy almost all of the same scents. Great list!
I kinda hate summer. Bugs, heat, humidity… kids underfoot all day…
But then there are gorgeous sunsets and airy blue-green days, baseball and family reunions too, so I’ll deal with it.
But it is absolutely the time for fruities! Plus fruity florals, because just like you can immerse yourself in trashy beach reads and wear tank tops and paint your toenails sea green and get away with it during the summer, those lightweight airheads of the fume world hit the spot during this season.
Arielle Shoshana is just so good. I am still dithering on buying some, but it makes me think of Kauai and all the POG (passionfruit orange guava) juice we drank there. Think I’ll fire up the blog again and talk about summer fruities and fruity florals.
I hate bugs & humidity too. Going to stop complaining about kids underfoot since this is my last summer with my only kid underfoot before he leaves for college! And as much as I have complained about it in the past of course I will miss it when it’s gone.
Yes, absolutely on the kids being home. I was sort of kidding.
Bookworm is in New Haven for the summer, and Gaze takes off for college in August. It’s going to be quiet with only Taz, and quieter still when *he* leaves in two years…
Enjoy your last 2 years! It’s trite but I can’t believe how fast it went.
When I had my son someone told me, “The days are long but the years are short.” I’m not quite three years in and I can already see that these are the truest words ever spoken.
YES, that’s exactly it.
Yes to sea green mermaid toenails! That color is coming up on my summer rotation. Currently I’m sporting bright glittery blue toenails???? I’m way too old for this color, but summer beckons fun toenails!????
We’re never too old for fun toenails!
Oh man, POG! We drank gallons of that when we vacationed in Maui as kids. Good memories.
I love summer. Living in the endless winters of dreary, freezing, snowy, windy Poconos has turned me into a summer person. And occasionally I do like snow, but jeesh! As time goes on I cherish every hot sunny living by the pool day I can get! My favorite summer fragrances haven’t changed much the past few years (not a lot of new bottles coming my way), but I think they are summer classics, heavy on the citrus (and heavy on the Goutals!).
AG Eau de Hadrien
AG Eau de Sud
AG Ninfeo Mio
AG Eau de Ciel
AG Rose Splendide
Dior Escale a Portofino
ITB Cologne a la Francais
Cartier Baiser Vole edp
Cartier So Pretty
Chanel Cristalle (edp or edt)
Chanel No 19 edt
Guerlain Vetiver
And you have all those lakes for summer swimming, right? Or are most of the Pococos lakes on private property?
As we say here; we have two seasons: northern summer and southern summer. So no surprise that my collection has a lot of summer choices! Getting it down to 10 was hard, but here, in no particular order, it is:
PdN Eau Exotique
Ava Luxe Fig Leaf
Jacomo #8
Hermes Un Jardin Sur le Nil
PdE Wazamba
Pacific Malibu Lemon Blossom
Bulgari Thé Rouge
AG Ninfeo Mio
L’artisan Seville L’aube
Chanel Bel Respiro
Interesting how many repeat fragrances I am seeing. We are a more cohesive bunch than it immediately appears.
Lovely list! Un Jardin Sur le Nil was on my list of summer faves too. I haven’t tried your other picks but I just got Seville A L’Aube and look forward to trying it. You’ve given me more ideas — thanks!
My summer favorites are:
Parfum d’Empire Azemour
Eau d’Italie Acqua Decima
Le Galion Cologne
Jacques Fath Green Water
Prada Infusion de Mimosa
Neela Vermeire Creations Bombay Bling
Jul et Mad Aqua Sextius
Van Cleef & Arpels California Reverie
Tough day yesterday, so in the evening I made an icy G & T and sprayed a haze of Azemour around me. Perfect for a summer’s eve.
Hope today is better.
Nice!
Summer in Houston is so hot and humid I feel like the only way to beat the heat is to not give in. More than half of my summer picks are big and full. Shalimar, Patchouli 24, CdG Black, Yatagan, vintage Opium….
On the other hand, L’Eau Chic, Epice Marine, Cinema, Diorella, and L’Interdit have been occupying a lot of my “day off” days. There’s no one way to get it right obviously, and I don’t know what I’ll wear until it happens.
Interesting! And does it work, can you really wear Yatagan in Houston in August?
Robin, your list is pretty mouth watering. Thank you. I wear a lot of summery scents in winter as they always brighten my day…and help guard against the feeling of slogging through mud. Recently my list looks like
Lale. Soapy lemon . One of my top ten perfumes.
Epice Marine, and Paprika Brasil. Both spicy but sheer.
CDG Airborne. Chalky lemon and a bit raspy in the throat
Pomegranate Noir. Thing has a real lift. Sometimes layered with the ginger lily one ( forget the name but the Christine Nagel JM)
Interlude
Then, when cosy really is needed: Coco, 1970 or Immortal Beloved (both boozy), and my little sample of TF Tobacco Vanilla, Olympic Orchids Woodcut. Journey
Best surprises: Olympic Orchids Kingston Ferry and Smell Bent Dead of Winter and Prairie Nymph
Really beginning to understand my taste in perfume. Bit rough around the edges and with a few twists. Not many florals and light on elegance!
Oh, I have not even tried Lale!
But just as you begin to understand your taste in perfume it will probably change! At least, that’s what happened to me.
I nearly put Paprika Brasil on my list too. It is a very underrated scent but lovely.
Interesting list, although I also more a flower – vétiver fan in summer, so my oldie summer staples are lys med, vétiver pour elle, i love ny, nuit de tubéreuse, Manoumalia, and man more
I wear a lot of those in summer too, but the effort to not repeat past years inspired the fruit theme
I understand you, if I didn’t have all those FBs…
Okay, okay! Y’all wore me down with the constant swooning over Arielle Shoshana and I just HAD to get myself a sample. And so what if a few luscious-looking soaps and body lotion happened to fall into my cart as well…? Donatella forgives.
Of course she does!
Body products don’t count!
This summer top ten feels different to me than lasts. It’s hotter, for one thing. I don’t have to go to the office during the summer and so my picks are more casual than they might otherwise be.
No particular order:
Brakken Femme
Bombay Bling
Corsica Furiosa
Memory of Kindness
Fleur de Sel
Vert de Fleur
Purple Fig
Fille de Berlin
Mito
Tokyo Bloom
That’s what I’ve been wearing anyway!
Weather here has alternated between unusually cool and unusually hot — very little “pleasant” June weather.
Some of my favorites may be odd choices, in SF, it’s not unusual for us to wear cashmere sweaters in Summer.
1 – Annick Goutal Eau de Camille
2 – Antonia’s Flowers Tiempe Passate
3 – Chanel Cristalle
4 – Diptyque L’ Eau Trois
5 – Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic
6 – Hermes Eau des Merveilles
7 – Jean Patou Eau de Patou
8 – Lancome Magie Noire
9 – Robert Piguet Bandit
10 – Roger & Gallet Bouquet Imperiale
**Bonus perfume Speziali Fiorentini Fig and Poppy
Oh, so nice to see a mention of Tiempe Passate! I miss that one.
Robin, I decided to try it based on a review on NST from way back in the day.
It’s been a great love of mine ever since! It evokes memories of my childhood spent on Eastern Long Island.
And here I am still waiting, after all these years, for her to do a travel size. I guess it ain’t gonna happen!
Robin, It would be nice, given how many bottles we all probably have! This is one that I pretty consistently go to for comfort or when I want an easy to wear perfume that has moderate sillage. I find it comes and goes throughout the day and just when I think it’s completely gone, I catch a whiff of it.
I live in Los Angeles and while I usually love the summer, these days it’s the hardest part of the year at my job, so I’m looking forward to the fall. That said, I do enjoy the following fragrances this time of year (in no particular order).
1. Olfactive Studio Close Up – just got a full bottle of this, and it’s atypical of what I normally go for in the summer, but it’s this gorgeous, sexy, warm scent that has so many of the notes I love year-round (rose, amber, musk, patchouli).
2. Memo Moon Fever
3. Maison Louis Marie Bois de Balincourt
4. Anamor All That Matters
5. Prada Infusion d’Iris
6. Keiko Mecheri Canyon Dreams
Oh, then hope summer will speed by for you! I need to try Close Up.
Thanks, Robin! I’ll look forward to reading what you think of Close Up.
I seldom see Canyon Dreams mentioned, but like it very much and treasure my decant.
Winter faves 2017:
Shalimar Ode à la Vanille
Shalimar Cologne
Lush Lust
Lush Vanilia
Armani (vintage)
Falling Trees
Samsara (vintage)
Maharajah
Lolita Lempicka
Yves Rocher Voile d’Ambre
EL Beautiful
I usually wear Shalimar Mexique in (northern hemisphere) winter, and the cologne in all seasons but summer. In warm weather, Souffle and the EdT are what I tend to gravitate to. I might have to mix it up this year
Great list, felt cozy & warm just reading it!
Like most people in the PacNW, I live for summer and slog through 300 days of cold and rain, grey skies and gloom waiting for it, year in and year out. We don’t have to contend with bugs or humidity, or much heat for that matter, and you’ll never hear a complaint from me. (This is where I differ from most of my neighbors, who think 75F is “hot,” but is still jeans weather in my book. If it were 80F inside and out year-round, I’d be in heaven.)
Anyhoo, perfumes I’ve loved in summers past:
Chanel Cristalle Eau Verte
Marni and Marni Rose
Phaedon Dzhari
Diptyque Oyedo
Bottega Veneta Eau Légère
Chanel No 5 EdT
ELdO Fat Electrician and Atelier Vetiver Fatal
Annick Goutal Eau du Sud
Hermès Kelly Caleche (EdP)
Van Cleef & Arpels California Rêverie
This summer I anticipate Cristalle EdP, No 19 EdC, Guerlain Vetiver EdT, and Tauer Au Coeur du Desért, and Hermès Caleche will get lots of wear time. I also always spend a few days with Dior Poison and YSL Paris, as they bloom beautifully in heat (well, warm weather anyway
)
I still remember when I first moved to SoCal and used to laugh when people complained about the “humidity”!
Love your list, you have lots of my favorites.
Makes sense as a few of them I bought based on your reviews
And the only time I ever registered humidity in SoCal was after I returned from a week or 2 in Phoenix, when I couldn’t figure out why LA’s 95 degrees felt just as hot as 120 in the desert. lol
Hermes’ Un Jardin Sur le Nil is my go-to fragrance when it is hot and humid and I just want to flop. It is just so refreshing and languid at the same time. I find Penhaligon’s Blasted Bloom to be very summery and energizing: https://scentsandsensibilities.co/2015/12/21/fragrance-friday-blasted-bloom/. I turn to rose scents more than fruit scents in the summer; I’m enjoying EB Florals’ Sultry Rose, which I got as a Scentbird selection, and the Jo Loves White Rose and Lemon Leaves from her discovery set; there may be a FB of that in my future!
Sur Le Nil, esp. the body milk, is still one of my summer favorites.
It’s summer all year here, which doesn’t really coincide with my love a woodsy, gourmandy, orientaly, warm and cozy perfumes, but I shall persevere!
1) Corsica Furiosa
2) Ninfeo Mio
3) Forest Walk
4) Corsica Furiosa
5) Vetiver Extraordinaire
6) Vetiver Tonka
7) CSP Coco Figue
8) Bronze Goddess
9) Guerlain Vetiver
10) Zelda
11) Corsica Furiosa
Thank goodness for vertivers!!
Apparently you have a real soft spot for CF????
Hey, it deserves 2 spots!
Not sure I have 10 favorite summer perfumes, so I’ll call this a list of summer all-stars instead. No particular order to these, just typing as I think of them.
AG Ninfeo Mio
Atelier Orange Sanguine
Atelier Cedrat Enivrant
Alaia Paris EdP (Black bottle)
Guerlain Terracotta Le Parfum
EL Azuree
Prescriptives Calyx
Tauer Incense Extreme
Possible contender for the list is Hermes Un Jardin en Mediterranee.
Oh, I’m pretty sure I don’t really have 10 “true” favorites either. It’s just fun to come up with lists.
Ack! I just realized I left off a couple of ELdO’s that belong on the list: Fat Electrician and Fils de Dieu. Shame on me!
Loved reading everyone’s lists! My list is heavy on citrus and white florals:
FM Eau de Magnolia
AdP Magnolia Nobile edp
AG Neroli
L’Etrog
Eau de Guerlain
Guerlain Mahora
Guerlain Neroli Outrenoir
And these would be on the list if I owned them:
TF Orchid Soliel
VCA California Reverie
L’Etrog is such a great scent!
Thanks for the list of summer scents, Robin. I live in Houston, TX which should tell all how I feel about summer. Since its always so hot, sticky, and humid here, I try to keep my fragrances as light as possible. I will need to add the Arielle Shoshana to my list. It seems like it is a favorite here at NST with a lot of the posters, so I need to go ahead and make that purchase. Here are a few of my favorites:
– Narcisco Rodriguez
– Byredo Pulp
– VS Pink’s Fresh and Clean – this is a must body mist for me in the
summer
– SJP’s Lovely
– Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine
– JM Nectarine Blossom & Honey
– JM Blackberry & Bay
– EL Bronze Goddess
Oh, nice mix — that covers all the bases.
Love lists, and fun theme this year!
My current top 10 summer faves are (in no particular order):
1) Hermes Eau Des Merveilles
2) Hiram Green Dilettante
3) Chanel Cristalle
4) Neely Vermiere Pichola
5) Hermes Vetiver Tonka
6) Annick Goutal Vetiver Cologne
7) Narciso Rodriguez for Her EDT
8) Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan (strangely, for baseball games especially)
9) (getting much more difficult now…) Hiram Green Shangri La (not really summery at all but I do like it in the heat)
10) Chanel 19
For baseball games! I like the idea.
I have this list from spring and I don’t know that I would amend it much for summer (https://listmimsy.wordpress.com/2017/03/24/a-handful-of-spring-perfumes-sneaking-into-my-icy-winter-heart/)
Possibly by adding Le Temps dune Fete and Eau de Mandarine Ambree?
Both good choices!
I recently just ordered a bottle of Ninfeo Mio for the summer after using up a sample years ago, but it smells different than I remember. Much creamier and less green. Is my nose misremembering? Or could this bottle be bad? I got it off of Overstock and haven’t purchased perfume from there before. Thoughts?
So hard to say, since it’s possible it was your sample was off, or possible it’s been reformulated in the meantime, or if your sample was dab, possible it simply smells different to you when sprayed…the possibilities are endless. Of course it is possible that the bottle you bought from Overstock has gone bad, but in that case I would not expect it to smell creamier and less green.