If you’re looking for perfumes that capture the feeling of a holiday, try fresh and floral scents with tropical or aquatic notes. Our top picks include Tom Ford Soleil Blanc for a Maldives-inspired luxury vibe and Clinique Happy for beachside freshness. These holiday fragrances are perfect for summer getaways—or just daydreaming about one
Scent has the power to change our mood and transport our minds to far-flung places with just a spritz. Perhaps you’re stuck in the office dreaming of a beachside escape, or are already missing your most recent summer escape? No matter where you find yourself this season, these holiday fragrances can take you wherever you long to be. Capturing Mediterranean coastline strolls, golden hour cocktails in the Maldives, or the buzz of bright-lights city breaks, these scents are a vacation in a bottle- no passport required.
What Is The Best Holiday Perfume?
The best perfumes for hot weather and summer holidays tend to be lighter, fresh scents with fruity, floral, green, and aquatic notes. That’s because warm weather causes fragrance oils to evaporate more quickly from the skin, intensifying how they smell. This can make headier, richer perfumes become overwhelming, while more delicate fragrance formulations will truly sparkle on the balmy air.
What Are the Best Notes For Summer Perfumes?
Notes from these fragrance families create a light and breezy holiday feeling on the skin:
Citrus: Grapefruit, neroli, lemon, bergamot, mandarin, and lime give an invigorating brightness like rays of sunshine shimmering down.
Ripe Fruits: Succulent and juicy fruits like pears, apples, peaches, mangoes, coconuts, and berries give a vibrant sense of youthfulness and a carefree glow.
Delicate Florals: Fluttering rose petals, peonies, jasmine, tuberose, and freesias give a soft, romantic feel, like wandering through a summer garden in bloom.
Green: Earthy and fresh, notes like mint, basil, green tea, rosemary, galbanum, and violet leaf give a cool, lush effect.
Aquatic: Sea salt, ozonic accords, seaweed, calone, cucumber, and marine notes evoke clean, open waters crashing on the coastline, and sparkling forest streams.
Warm Woods, Vanilla, and Musk: Aromatic woods like sandalwood and cedar, sweet vanilla, and sensuous animalic notes like ambergris and musks give a warming effect, like sun-warmed skin.
Combinations of notes from each of these groups give holiday fragrances that carefree, summertime glow.
The Seven Best Holiday Fragrances That Smell Like Summertime Destinations
These perfumes are particularly evocative of the most dreamy summer destinations.
Hugo Boss Orange Eau de Toilette Women’s Perfume – Seville, Spain:
A vibrant burst of crisp apples, juicy peaches, and zesty bergamot swirls with sweet orange blossoms and ripe plums. Soft, sweet vanilla and gently warming cinnamon notes are underpinned by an aromatic base of olivewood and sandalwood. The overall effect? One of sitting in the sunshine in an Andalucian plaza, sipping sangria, surrounded by friends without a care in the world.
DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Parfum Women’s Perfume – New York City, USA:
Synonymous with the buzz and raw energy of NYC, this scent zings with an electric sense of optimism and exciting possibilities. Modern, sleek and bold, with grapefruit and apple creating an uplifting and invigorating effect, and a hit of cucumber adding a sense of effortless cool. Honeyed tuberose and delicate rose and lily-of-the-valley offer a smooth sense of femininity, with a warm, tactile base of sandalwood and amber. It’s dynamic, it’s captivating, and as bright as the lights of the iconic New York City skyline.
Clinique Happy Eau de Parfum Women’s Perfume – Honolulu, Hawaii:
Uplifting and infused with all the joyful potential of a sunrise on a tropical island beach, this is holiday happiness in fragrance form. An explosion of citrus fruits bursts with positivity and vigour, given softness and sweetness by juicy plum and apple notes. Then, a radiant bouquet of florals comprising Hawaiian wedding flowers, orchids, freesias, lily-of-the-valley, rose, mimosa, and magnolia settles gently upon the skin. Base notes of amber and musk offer a soft, warming caress in the background, like balmy Pacific breezes at the end of a serene day spent at the shore.
Armani My Way Eau de Parfum Women’s Perfume – Amalfi Coast, Italy:
Calabrian bergamot leads the way in this elegant holiday fragrance, whisking you away to craggy Mediterranean coves and azure seashores. Smooth, creamy tuberose and delicate orange blossoms give a gentle sweetness, while ladylike jasmine blooms give a sense of calm refinement. The warmth of cedarwood and powdery white musk gently underpins this scent that drips with old Hollywood glamour.
Yves Saint Laurent Libre L’Absolu Platine Parfum Women’s Perfume – Provence, France:
The epitome of Provençal summertime sophistication, evoking strolls through lavender fields and evenings sipping fine wine as the sun sets. Aldehydes give a clean, airy feel to sparkling bergamot and mandarin top notes, before its heart of lavender, blue lavender, and orange blossom softly unfolds. Its base of vanilla and amber provides a subtle sweetness and warmth, all that’s needed for this distillation of timeless French grace and elegance.
Tom Ford Soleil Blanc Eau de Parfum Unisex Perfume – The Maldives:
Unapologetically luxurious and sun-drenched, this is the olfactory equivalent of barefoot strolls on a private island in paradise. Bright bergamot is given a playful zing by pink peppercorns and cardamom, before the smooth, indulgent creaminess of pistachio, benzoin, and tuberose florals flow forth. Tropical notes of ylang-ylang, coconut, and tonka bean provide an exotic sweetness, given a tactile warmth by its amber base. Here is a scent that can make summer feel endless, all year long.
Davidoff Cool Water Eau de Toilette Men’s Aftershave – Cornwall, UK:
Evoking wild clifftops, surging seas, and a rugged, wind-whipped shoreline, this classic fragrance is the perfect match for Cornwall’s dramatic coast. Seawater, mint, calone, and green notes speak of long, blustery coastal walks, sea salt in the air, and crashing Atlantic waves. Sandalwood and jasmine give a hint of sweetness before its base of oakmoss, tobacco, cedar, and ambergris develops. Together, these anchor the fragrance with a rugged earthiness worthy of the south-west’s lush forests. The overall effect is cool, clean, as revitalising as a windswept afternoon on a Cornish beach, and unapologetically masculine.
