beach Archives - The Perfume Society

Vitamin Sea – fragrances for wishing you were still there…

Recently, the tide has turned for salty, marine-themed scents (and PS: they’re not just for summer anymore – evoking glacial lakes and Nordic fjords as well as sun-kissed beaches). But why now this sudden swell of sea-inspired fragrances, you may wonder?

There’s something about the emotional pull of the sea that is eternal. For centuries, it has led philosophers, artists and scientists to pontificate as to exactly why we’re so drawn to the ocean. The Persian mystic Rumi, ruminating on the subject in the 1200s, declared: ‘You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.’ He wasn’t far off, actually.

Modern science has identified that the discovering the human brain is 80% water. More than 70% of the world’s surface is covered by it (over 95% of that yet to be explored). Indeed, it’s hard to disagree with author Arthur C. Clarke, who once astutely remarked: ‘How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.’

So it’s perhaps unsurprising that water exerts such a tidal pull, in our lives. And that as we seek to calm ourselves and reconnect with the elements via our senses, water-inspired scents have been one of the biggest scent trends we’ve seen these last couple of years. These new water-inspired creations don’t simply seek to evoke the ocean, but rivers, waterfalls and deep, coolly inviting lakes. It isn’t only memories of holidays they evoke, either – as lovely as that undoubtedly is during these colder, greyer months; instead, it’s about harnessing the all-year-’round mood-boosting qualities of seascape scents, which we encourage you to paddle and then plunge into, here…

BDK Sel d’Argent
The salty kiss of warm skin, sheer orange blossom shot through with the sparkle of grapefruit and crunchy green galbanum. Think sunlight dancing on waves, somewhere fabulously expensive.
£155 for 100ml eau de parfum harrods.com

Thomas Clipper Atlantic
A spirited journey across the sea, with crisp citrus melting to a fuzzy, honeyed blossom; the deeper base of spice-flecked wood and musk a wonderfully evocative nod to adventure.
£99 for 50ml Cologne thomasclipper.com

Montblanc Explorer Ultra Blue
Luminous bergamot shivers to an icy plunge of alpine freshness. The exclusive, silvered patchouli is the scent of wet stones; ambergris, dawn’s mist still clinging.
From £35 for 30ml eau de parfum theperfumeshop.com

Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Forever Pour Homme
Intensely juicy grapefruit fizzes to a cool, shady breeze of violet leaf and Javan vetiver oil across eerily still water; the base a soft white swathe of musk and patchouli.
£55 for 50ml eau de parfum boots.com

Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male on Board
Oh Captain, my Captain! Salt-licked skin tastes of sun-lotion and geranium leaves, a faintly boozy rum-like amber swirled with tonka bean. All aboard!
£72 for 125ml eau de toilette lookfantastic.com

Kenzo L’Eau Kenzo Pour Homme Hyper Wave
Inspired by Japanese art’s iconic ‘Hokusai wave’, zesty mandarin invites spontaneity, soaring to the crest before resting on a bed of moss.
£46 for 50ml eau de toilette boots.com

Cartier Rivières de Cartier Luxuriance
‘Life is often said to flow like a river,’ reflects Mathilde Laurent, wild botanicals rippled through rosemary, mastic, oak and geranium; a cold knife nestled on a riverbed.
£104 for 100ml eau de parfum johnlewis.com

Nishane EGE / ΑΙΓΑΙΟ
A tribute to the Aegean Sea carrying common bonds between Turkish and Greek culture; yuzu zings through violet leaves, basil and mint to the deliciously sticky olibanum and liquorice base.
£275 for 100ml extrait de parfum ab-presents.co.uk

Skandinavisk Kapitel 4
The herbaceous green embrace of crab-apple entwined dog rose evokes Scandinavian waterways, damp moss, rock pools and the freedom of ‘navigating with no fixed destination’.
£45 for 30ml eau de toilette skandinavisk.com

Laboratorio Olfattivo Salina
A literal evocation of the sea in all its salty glory, one imagines a message in a bottle tossed on roiling waves, a poem of pine trees and sunlight lustily sung on barnacle-bottomed boats.
£90 for 100ml eau de parfum flannels.com

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Acqua di Parma + La DoubleJ take us to the beach

Acqua di Parma, in collaboration with La DoubleJ, have dressed an entire beachfront with the new Blu Mediterraneo by La DoubleJ capsule collection for a summer of pure Italian style…

At PSHQ we’re literally salivating over these pictures of the Bocelli family’s bathing establishment, because although we may not be able to wiggle our toes in the sand and gawp at the azure waters, this stunning collab allows us to travel in spirit via the radiant fragrances and vibrant colours of the new capsule collection.

In the utterly stunning location of Alpemare Beach Club, Forte dei Marmi in Tuscany (which looks like it should be the set of a Wes Anderson film, don’t you think?) for the first time ever, Acqua di Parma have dressed the beachfront for the entire Summer season! And now, you can dress your home to transport you to the Med every time you see those so-happy pops of colour or catch a waft of the glorious scents.

Comprising fabulously luxurious body products such as the Shower Mousse (£37 for 150ml), lightly scented with the lemon, myrtle, jasmine and salty marine breeze notes of Mirto di Panarea, a Body Scrub (£50 for 200ml) fragranced with their Fico di Amalfi grapefruit, bergamot, lemon and fig (which is basically like sexy marmalade), and even a range of Travel Accessories (we have our eyes on the Confetti Blue Beach Towel, £255 – would it be a bit extra to say we dream of spritzing this with one of the Blu Mediterraneo collection (from £49) and ‘travelling’ with our noses as we sit in our back gardens?) we’re spoiled for choice!

We say: if you can’t be there in person, let perfume whisk you there right now. So spritz that sunshine-filled fragrance and light that candle, because the beach will wait until you can get there again, but your mood can be lifted in mere seconds by the magic of summer scents…

By Suzy Nightingale

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in to the water… Five modern aquatics to dive into

Merely mentioning the word ‘aquatics’ in perfume circles has fragrance lovers getting all dewy-eyed (or, alternatively, chlorine-soaked and weeping bucket loads) at memories of the 90s tidal wave of easy-breezy ozonic scents: perfumes that conjure images of salt-tousled, home-highlighted hair and an all-pervading smell of melon and cucumber.
The unmistakable wind of change that shook up the 90s scent scene was partly due to fragrances delighting in overdoses of the synthetic ingredient Calone – less memorably named “methylbenzodioxepinone” – first discovered by Pfizer in 1966 and then rather confusingly trade-named “Calone 1951.”
Used by perfumers to give a stylised seashore waft of a faintly floral, watermelon purity at the heart of their compositions; Calone is weirdly similar to the structure of pheromones excreted by certain species of brown algae, which is undoubtedly fascinating but not the most romantic seaside image, so it’s no surprise advertising focused on salty, suntanned skin and sunset kisses.
Calvin Klein’s Escape was a huge 90s hit, and it heralded an era of those tousle-haired beach-babes we so longed to be, taking the aquatic theme and plunging to the deep end as L’Eau de Bulgari, L’eau d’Issey, CK One and Acqua di Giò swam in similar – now unisex – streams.
Some of those original blockbusters have more than withstood the test of time and are genuinely worth revisiting – Davidoff Cool Water (literally) springs to mind, as does the restrained genius of Issey Miyake’s L’Eau d’Issey and Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani: perhaps the olfactory equivalent of paddling in the comfort of an oft-repeated Friends episode – you might know what you’re getting but goodness it’s nice to reminisce, they were extraordinarily high quality, and still retain the power to make you incredibly happy.
With the 90s revival having heavily influenced fashion for the past couple of years, it’s interesting to see that wave of resurgence has now reached the perfume world’s shores. With nary a hint of waxed-within-an-inch-of-their-lives Baywatch extras among them, these contemporary aquatics are less beach-body-ready and more about modern travellers exploring the world via scents that feel genuinely fresh (as in new, not simply refreshing) using clever Headspace Technology and ingenious ingredients to evoke unique locations that feel dewy, cooling and mysteriously alluring.
Pop on your water-wings and dive on in to these…

Two seas perpetually meet within this ethereally beautiful evocation of Denmark. As the waves kiss, the tide withdraws to reveal a coral glow of ambrette with orange flower, jasmine and rosehips crystalised with salt. Wisps of incense drift down shore with a warm-skin snuggle of vanilla as the sun dips low.
Nancy Meiland Églantier £105 for 100ml eau de parfum
Buy it at Nancy Meiland
The sparkling original launched in 2004, for this latest fragrance perfumer Christine Nagel keeps the effervescence but adds huge amounts of space – a sense of crisp white linen, air misted with salt on the breeze, tears of laughter tasted on the lips and an indigo depth of patchouli and dry woods as it settles.
Hermes Eau de Merveilles Bleue £72 for 50ml
Available from March, buy it at John Lewis
Humongously green – a florist-shop explosion of freshly snapped stalks, fat buds bursting and white flowers tied raggedly with twine – this would fill an entire fairytale palace with its otherworldly life-force, and echoes of salty waves mercilessly crashing on rocks as lightning tears the sky assunder.
BeauFort London Fathom V £95 for 50ml eau de parfum
Buy it at BeauFort London

That moment when the sea melts into the sky is expressed through the seamless serenity of transparent lime, a slowly exhaled mint melding with juicy blackcurrants, softened by blowsy mimosa blossoms and the clarity of white musk. An Event Horizon of celestial bliss and graceful escapism.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian Aqua Celestia £130 for 70ml eau de toilette
Buy it at Selfridges

Harking to their barber shop heritage, Penhaligon’s invite you to take your ease with a wet plunge from hot to cold, the deeply cooling herbaceous notes of eucalptus and rosemary balanced with the clarity of lemon and fir balsam, patted dry with fluffy white cedar scented towels and a tingle of glowing incense.
Penhaligon’s Savoy Steam £148 for 100ml eau de Cologne
Available from March at Penhaligon’s
Written by Suzy Nightingale

Salt is in the air: a latest trend…?

A trip to the great British seaside is always a real treat, truly to behold come rain or shine – whatever the weather actually. Though, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who is rushing to the coast for one last dip, before we officially draw a line under summer. It’s in our DNA as Brits to want to escape to the sea, whether it’s to walk the dog and wonder how on earth you’re going to get said wet canine back in the car, or the craving of a ‘wake-up’ like none other as you brave the great ocean.

Perhaps it’s the smell that’s so addictive. In the heat it’s dry, dusty sand and sun cream, but with a twist of watery freshness blown in from the shore. In the cold, it’s the thick heavy wind that batters you from every angle, ‘blowing out the cobwebs’, so to speak. For both, there is always one key ingredient – salt. We love the stuff. Perhaps because of these experiences, or perhaps it’s the sticky, certain ‘tang’ we can’t quite put our finger on.

There are some incredible historical scents that include sea salt, of course who could forget Miller Harris‘s Fleur de Sel, or Heeley’s Sel Marin? This season, salt is in the air again and we think we’re spotting a trend floating in the undercurrent.

Jo Malone London Wood Sage & Sea Salt £82 for 100ml cologne

Try it at: www.jomalone.co.uk

Classified as a woody fragrance, created by master perfumer Christina Nagel, it perfectly captures the spirited feeling you experience when walking a windswept shore. The fragrance clogs the nose with a freshened, heavy sweetness, but retains warmth, like cold, weather-beaten cheeks that burn. Notes include ambrette seed, red algae, grapefruit, as well as those key components – sea salt and sage.

Shay & Blue London Salt Caramel £55 for 100ml

Try it at: www.shayandblue.com

Salt brings caramel alive and this is clearer than ever in Shay & Blue’s latest scent, Salt Caramel. Created by Dom De Vetta and Julie Massé – taking their inspiration from the Queen Charbonnel et Walker’s sea salt caramel truffles – it’s a truly indulgent fragrance. Notes include burnt caramel, sea salt, sandalwood, tonka bean and vanilla. Good enough to eat.

Calvin Klein Reveal £37.50 for 100ml eau de parfum

Try it at: The Perfume Shop

Created by master perfumers Jean-Marc Chaillan and Bruno Jovanovic to summon feelings around the smell of sun-kissed skin in the evening sunset, enveloped in cashmere. The top opens with fresh and flavorful sea salt and pepper. The heart adds ambergris and powdery iris, while the base is smoothed with sandalwood, musk, cashmere and vetiver (another potential female fragrance trend we’re sniffing of late).