For most people, summer calls for a full-on product revamp. This could mean switching up textures and shades across everything from face and body care to your hair color, makeup aesthetic, and nails. But no one is more serious about a seasonal product swap than the perfume girlies.
From an olfactory standpoint, this time of year traditionally brings forth airy, citrus scents, marine notes, and fresh florals. Lately, however, perfume aficionados have been drawn in a different direction. Solar fragrances have been taking over summer perfume lineups, and their coconutty floral notes are bringing a boost of joyful energy and exuberance. It’s hard to resist their happy, infectious vibe, and perfume brands have clearly taken notice: Solar scents are everywhere now, in everything from long-lasting eau de parfums to breezy, refreshing body mists.
What Exactly Are Solar Scents?
This scent group isn’t like the more classical perfume families you already know, like fougères or chypres. “Solar is a new category that appeared in our lexicon in the late 2010s,” says Caroline Sabas, a senior perfumer at Givaudan.
But these scents weren’t always known by that tag. “We would say [of such fragrances] that they gave a solar impression, or they had solar notes. And then the solar category appeared as it was different and the consumer really resonated with it,” Sabas says.
It makes sense, as Sabas describes these scents as a summer day in a bottle. “Solar fragrances evoke many things, such as being on vacation, a sunny day, the beach, warmth, serenity, happiness, sensuality, and freedom,” she says.
Inside The Bottle
Elements that bring forth a sun-drenched tropical beach day are often go-tos for this category, and their notes can range from salty to coconut, juicy fruits, suntan lotion, and lush florality.
For Sabas, key aromas in this genre include orange, tiare or frangipani flowers, coconut, and citrus. “Also salicylates, which are synthetic raw materials that, to me, smell exactly like the beach,” she adds.
In terms of structure, solar juices often open with bright citrus notes such as orange, bergamot, or neroli. “In the heart, the main notes are the white flowers such as tiare, jasmine, ylang, frangipani, and salicylates. And for the base, solar scents often have soft ambers, coconut, vanilla, and musks,” says Sabas. Of course, this is open to each perfumer’s interpretation — you might encounter white florals as top notes, or more ephemeral coconut impressions like coconut water.
Shop Solar Perfumes
An all-time beloved solar scent is Tom Ford Soleil Blanc, a fever dream of a beach holiday come to life. Sabas also counts Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess and Replica Beach Walk as OGs in the category.
In fact, Sabas was one of the perfumers instrumental in creating and popularizing the solar category, as the nose behind Jennifer Lopez's Miami Glow. It’s still one of her favorite creations.
Though these scents are summer-forward, you don’t have to be constrained by the seasons. “Wearing them all year long will bring you a joyful, sensual feeling,” says Sabas. Co-sign to having an endless solar summer.
A spicy ginger opening gives way to coconut water and orange flower, geranium, and tuberose, tied together in a musky bow. This scent celebrates the art of doing nothing, which is exactly what you’ll like to do as you recline by the pool.
Perfumer Calice Becker reinterpreted the Polynesian monoï oil with this potent fragrance, featuring coconut oil, tiare flower, ylang-ylang, vanilla, guaiac wood, and cistus added to the mix. It’s sexy and enticing — everything you’d want from a tropical getaway, bottled.
A solar expression of Gucci’s Bloom collection, this one is viewed through amber-tinted glasses. Tuberose, coral jasmine, and orange blossom are married with vanilla and drenched in a veil of warm amber. She’s a grown-up solar floral.
This delectable mist opens with a salty coconut note, then softens with tiare flower, leaving behind a sandalwood wash. It’s the perfect summer pick-me-up; spritz over your hair and body, then pair it with Phlur’s companion Peach Skin spray so that some juicy fruits can enter the chat.
Mists have been having a moment, and if you spend time with this one, you’ll understand why. It’s meant to evoke golden rays on bare skin with sun-drenched pineapple and soft wood notes — delectable enough to let the bright fruit shine without veering too sweet.
Inspired by Oscar de la Renta's sun-drenched gardens in the Dominican Republic, Bella Soleil opens with a tropical fruit salad of prickly pear, mango, and citrus. It then unfolds into a heart of jasmine, osmanthus, and tiger orchid, melting into a warm musk, amber, and vetiver dry-down.
This joyful juice was created to commemorate life’s happiest moments, and spritzing it brings a hit of joy. An orange blossom and mandarin opener leads to jasmine and peach, with musk to finish.
The Caribbean sends us a message in this perfume bottle via notes of coconut, vanilla, papaya, and woods. Think white sands, a pretty drink, and no agenda for days.
This SPF 50 oil from a sunscreen-native brand is a welcome two-for-one. Slathering in this protective, water-resistant elixir gives limbs their own glowment, while the ambery wood scent — with its crisp coconut, vanilla, and green fig notes — works perfectly whether you’re poolside or under a beach umbrella.
Beach, but make it in the southern hemisphere. That’s the vibe Arquiste’s founder Carlos Huber and perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux were going for with this fragrance. A jasmine and frangipani-scented breeze mixes with the aromas of sea, surf, and salty rocks on a beach in Sydney.
Being “cheirosa” — or always smelling delectable, as they say in Brazil — is not hard to do with this mist that delivers delightful notes of solar tuberose, coconut mil,k and vanilla.
Banana is the tropical note you didn’t know you wanted, but trust Mona Kattan to convert you. This tropical juice has the fruit front and center, with coconut cream, gardenia, and jasmine supporting it. Rum and vanilla bourbon add a boozy, vacay cocktail vibe.
This one is a fresh expression of the solar category, with notes of ylang-ylang, coconut water, and bergamot. It also features a lovely floral heart with gardenia, jasmine, and orange blossom notes, and dries down with vanilla and musk.
Salt water and skin musks layered over sandalwood and ambrox make this a sexy skin scent. Then comes the fun part: Lush florals of frangipani, ylang-ylang, and gardenia mingle with island coconut.
