Remember toasting smores on late summer nights when the air had just turned chilly enough to snuggle under a blanket with your high-school crush? This cozy unisex scent brings back that sense of comfort — thanks to tonka bean, vanilla and a creamy musk — and manages to do so without being too clingy or overbearing (unlike that crush, ahem).
If a freshly-laundered, gauze cotton dress were to be air-dried in nothing but bright light and coastal air fragranced by waves of jasmine on the vine, tuberose and orange blossoms, it would smell just like this veiled, floral musk.
DedCool Milk Layering + Enhancer Eau de Parfum, $90
Little wonder this whisper of a scent reminds us of pulling on a cotton long sleeve that still holds a trace of amber and light musk from a previous wear: Milk is meant to be layered with other scents to tweak their profiles. While it does act to mellow some of our more bold perfumes, we enjoy the fragrance plenty on its own; the warming, yet airy and vast scent somehow captures that time of day when the summer sun breaks and starts to mingle with cooler air.
Maison Margiela is known for naming its fragrances after the experience it evokes and this latest scent is no exception. Indeed, Springtime in a Park smells as if we hung some sort of left turn out of quarantine and into a blooming botanical garden lush with lily of the valley and dotted with pear trees. But it's not all about the blooms: Thanks to a clean, air-like quality of white musk, the scent matures into something subtle, but fresh.
We can't count the number of times we've wished for a skin care product to be cloned as a fragrance. It's something that rarely happens — and when it does, often it's not quite the replica we're looking for. Sol de Janiero is the exception: With its first fragrance, the brand has managed to turn out a scent that recalls warm coconut, salted caramel and a touch of sun tan oil. It smells exactly like the addictive Bum Bum Cream we've worn for years and is everything we need to be transported to a heat-soaked Brazilian beach party.
