Fragrance has been experiencing a bit of a resurgence this year. After years of decline, sales are up 61 percent for perfumes and colognes. But what does that mean for us? Fragrance is a highly subjective category, and there are so many options to choose from.
As a consumer, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the many fragrance choices in the beauty aisle, but you can make better decisions when you know what to look for. Here are 24 of our favorite perfumes that you’ll want to add to your fragrance rotation this summer, according to Cosmo deputy beauty director Lauren Balsamo:
This spritz from Dior is a crowd-pleasing floral for all of you lavender lovers. Master perfumer Anne Flipo combines a blend of Damascus rose, ylang-ylang extract, and Grasse jasmin grandiflorum to create this seductive scent.
Middle notes are a perfume’s main theme and provide the initial impression you smell after applying a perfume. These scents tend to last longer than top notes and are usually more musky. They can be derived from natural sources or created synthetically (such as linalool or coumarin, both of which are found in orchids).
A perfume’s base is the final scent that appears once the middle and top notes have evaporated. The compounds in this section are typically rich and deep, and they’ll stay with you for hours after application. Perfumes in this category may include woody hints, spices like clove and cinnamon, or aromatic molecules such as vanilla.