Aah, the familiar smells of summer: The tropical, coconut-y scent of sunscreen and after-sun lotions. The smoky haze of hamburgers sizzling on the barbecue. The sweet, earthy aroma after a late August rainstorm. This summer’s biggest fragrance trends capture the scents of the season, with some more unexpected than others. “People seem to be craving big, bold fragrances that make a statement, even in warmer weather,” says Franco Wright, cofounder of retailers Luckyscent.com and Scentbar. “On the other hand, skin scents are still very much in demand.”
Unexpected tropical fruits and transparent white floral notes dominate summer’s buzziest fragrance launches. “It’s going to be a fruit and flowers kind of summer,” says Bee Shapiro, founder of Ellis Brooklyn. “Solar scents are lovely, but I think the wave of sunscreen-inspired fragrances has waned.” When it comes to skin scents, salty accords breathe fresh, mineral-y air into the category, while icy eucalyptus and hot Sichuan pepper spice things up for those who prefer green and earthy eaux.
Unsurprisingly, gourmands aren’t going anywhere. “Social media commentators are predicting a move away from gourmands, but as far as sales and interest at our stores go, we certainly haven’t seen that yet,” says Wright. What brands are doing is adapting edible-inspired scents for the hotter weather, developing perfumes “with less of the weight and warmth that makes us associate the category with fall and winter,” says Arielle Weinberg, founder of Arielle Shoshana.
Perfumers are also taking inspiration from nostalgic summer treats like ice cream and Italian aperitivi. “It’s a really interesting time in fragrance because customers have this entire world of fragrances at their fingertips and there’s this hunger to seek out newness and novelty,” says Jeniece Trizzino, vice president of innovation and physical product at Scentbird. Ahead, discover all the newness and novelty you’ll be smelling everywhere this summer.
Be Ready To Smell Like Bananas
We’ll spare you the cringeworthy early-aughts song lyrics and give it to you straight: Banana-inspired scents are summer’s biggest perfume trend. Searches across Google and TikTok are up by 46.8% from last year, according to Spate data. “Banana is still a relatively new note in fine fragrance, which makes it exciting,” says Nicole Mancini, principal perfumer at DSM-Firmenich. “It’s being reimagined as something modern, fresh, and unexpectedly elegant.”
Banana can make for a great base note, explains Ines Guien, vice president of operations at Dossier. “Paired with deeper, spicier notes like rum and ginger, it is transformed into something perfect for day or night.” Nanatopia by Borntostandout, for example, is a shockingly seductive scent that mixes a banana bread accord with caramel and rum.
Let’s not forget the fragrances that smell like straight-up bananas, such as 27 87 Perfume’s new Hakuna Matata eau de parfum. The scent features a sugared honey note that, on first spritz, smells akin to those hard banana candies from the ’90s. However, the white flowers quickly take over and soften out the cheery fragrance.
White flowers are combined with banana in Kayali’s Maui in a Bottle Sweet Banana for a gourmand take on a tropical summer fragrance. And Marc Jacobs Daisy Wild Eau So Intense uses a banana blossom accord for a sparklier, less-foodie approach to the trend.
Perfumes Are Adding a Pinch of Salt
Once reserved for aquatic and marine fragrances, salt is being sprinkled across many olfactive categories this summer, including skin scents (like Ellis Brooklyn Salt), florals (LoveShackFancy Love on the Beach and Glossier Fleur), woody blends (Issey Miyake Le Sel d’Issey), and spicy perfumes (Réservation Parfums Riviera Californienne). “Salt has become an incredibly versatile ingredient in fragrances,” says Mancini. “It brings a touch of freshness and a mineral quality that can enhance other notes.”
According to the perfumers we spoke to, salt grounds a fragrance, meaning it infuses any eau with an earthy, airy quality. It’s one of the reasons perfumer Dora Baghriche added it to Glossier Fleur. “A flower isn’t just its petals,” she says. “You can smell it in the air and in the ground.” Bringing the mineral salt accord into the equation adds that earthiness and airiness, while also softening the scents’ floral notes.
