AS SEEN THROUGH VOGUE
The best summer perfumes will take you on a journey, even if you don’t leave the house. Perfumers understand that our sense of smell can conjure memories or thoughts of places we’ve yet to visit, and with summer releases, they’ve put that knowledge to good use. Instead of defaulting to the season’s standard scent profiles, creators at niche houses and designer brands seemed intent on taking their audiences along for the ride. The moment’s notable new arrivals are transportive; they attempt to capture the spirit of joyful experiences and eventful historical periods.
Each new fragrance offers an excursion, and whether they lead wearers back in time to the courts of 18th century France or into the luxury hotels of the 1960s, they make for eventful trips. One spritz and you’re standing beneath the Northern Lights in Norway’s fjord; another, you’ll be frolicking on the sun-drenched beaches of Malibu, California. Optimistic and evocative, the best summer perfumes—and the idyllic scenes that inspire them—are a ticket to paradise.
Most are familiar with the green maté powder regularly used in cuisine, but its cousin is the focus of Montale’s Blue Matcha. While green matcha comes from the Camellia Sinesis plant, the indigo variant is made of butterfly pea flowers common to many Southeast Asian countries. At first spritz, the aromatic qualities of the maté are front and center, but as time passes, the scents’ darker facets come to the fore. Notes of tobacco leaf, cedarwood, and leather make for a drydown that’s smoky and alluring.
