This fresh, citrusy unisex perfume is made in small batches in Los Angeles, California -- and you can tell it's crafted with care. Subtly blended notes of woods, peach, citrus and air create a bright, nautical scent that made each of our editors go, "Ooh, I love that one."
Drom Fragrances perfumer Caroline Ivanica, explains it like this: "People who hate perfume identify with discrete fragrances that give them a 'second skin feeling.' Citrus notes are most of the time a top scorer -- they offer a natural freshness."
Take it from the name itself: This clean, hypoallergenic fragrance is meant for a woman, who is "unclassifiable," says Banwart, "a woman who likes to smell like she is wearing nothing at all." Like the Demeter cologne sprays, this scent is composed of a single note, called ambrox, which Banwart says is usually used in perfumery as a base note. "Here it plays the lead role for a fragrance that it is noticed only by others -- not by the wearer."
One-of-a-kind perfumes don't always come cheap, and certified organic perfume line Strange Invisible Perfumes from Venice, California makes it easy to shell out the dough. Their botanical, unfiltered perfumes are hand-blended and bottled in limited batches, and they smell as expensive as they are. For perfume haters, their impossibly natural L'Invisible fragrance is a winner -- it's composed of a unique blend of scents like amber, ylang ylang, lemon and rose, and ends up smelling subtle and enigmatic. In other words: Invisible.
Too often perfume captures all the wrong parts of nature: sickeningly sweet fruits and nauseating florals. But Olfactive Studio's avant-garde Panorama fragrance walks the wild side of outdoorsy scents. Described as "the fragrance of a true 21st Century urban jungle," Panorama is composed of interesting notes like wasabi, fig and bamboo leaf. The scent is spicy, grassy and modern -- hard to put your finger on -- but it definitely doesn't smell like perfume. And that's what we're going for.
If you're terrified of spritzing so much perfume that you feel like you'll faint, here's a genius alternative: Solid perfume. These discreet metal tins from Le Labo are filled with a wax made of sweet almond oil, coconut oil and soybean oil that's totally free of alcohol, phthalates and paraben. The wax is scented with the single-note fragrance extract of your choice (we recommend Fleur D'Oranger and Jasmine). Then you just rub a touch of it onto your wrists or neck -- and voila. We (almost) promise you won't faint.
