If you’re a 21st-century woman with a stressful job and a calendar full of SoulCycle classes, then chances are you’re not into super-heady fragrances. Powdery ones smell like your Nana, floral orientals smell like your mom, and fruity body mists smell like your high school bestie. Clean scents (think light, airy, and shower-fresh), on the other hand, are likely more your speed.
First, let’s clarify what we mean by “clean.” It’s not the smell of your apartment after you’ve scoured it with Pine-Sol. “That’s a more industrial, deodorant clean and, even if you like the scent, there’s a utilitarian quality that will never be truly beautiful,” says fragrance expert Chandler Burr. The clean we’re talking about is more conceptual. “It’s pure luminescence, or light turned somehow into scent,” he says. “New materials, including some terrific fragrance molecules, have allowed scent artists to create them.”
But what is it that makes "clean" scents so appealing? (Other than the fact that we can get away with washing our hair less when wearing them.) “Clean scents allow women to communicate themselves in a sharper, more clearly defined way than classical fragrances,” says Burr. “They let us speak much more in our own voices.” Intrigued? Click through to find nine of our favorite so-fresh-and-so-clean-clean scents.
Imagine lounging in freshly laundered, 800-thread-count sheets, as the sun glints through your floor-length linen curtains. From your balcony, you feel a soft breeze ruffle a lush garden of white flowers below. Sounds dramatically poetic, but it's exactly what this cocktail of lily of the valley, white musk, patchouli oil, and aldehyde smells like.
Maison Margiela, $125.00, available at Barneys New York
According to the brand, this cologne is an attempt by Thierry Mugler to recreate the scent of a soap he discovered in Morocco. The resulting mix of neroli and bergamot is green, zippy, and energetic — but not in an overly squeaky, Irish Spring kind of way. “It’s like the cool glow emitted from a space station,” says Burr. (Because who doesn't want to smell like that?)
Thierry Mugler, $60.00, available at Macy's
No matter how many hours you spend holed up in the corner of a cigarette-infused dive bar, this elixir of 22 notes — among them earthy petitgrain, bitter grapefruit, warm amber, and verdant vetiver — can make you smell spa-day fresh. Hence why it’s recently become a cult favorite among cool girls and models.
Le Labo, $160.00, available at Barneys New York
Rumor has it this scent was inspired by a walk near the Aswan Dam on the Nile, which is spotted with garden islands. (Sounds nice, right?) The blend of green mango and lotus smells pleasantly exotic and sparkly — not fruity or overly sweet — and a hint of sycamore wood brings it down to earth.
Hermès, $135.00, available at Hermès
Unless you’re blessed with synesthesia, colors don’t have scents. But here, creator Ben Gorham attempted to evoke the purity of white using white rose, light woods, and aldehyde. The result is sharp, pure, wearable — and one of our favorites, ever.
Byredo, $230.00, available at Neiman Marcus
While sunrises and dewdrops don’t have a fragrance, per se, but they do have a feeling. In this bottle, it's evoked by clover leaf, green tea, and spearmint. “It’s a work so beautiful, it brings tears to your eyes,” gushes Burr.
Guerlain, $93.00, available at Nordstrom
If you were ever so lucky as to skip along the Champs-Élysées on the first barelegged day of spring, stopping to nuzzle fresh herbs (tarragon) and citrus blossoms (lime and bergamot), then you already have this scent committed to memory.
Jo Malone London, $125.00, available at Nordstrom
The top-note trifecta of lemon, orange, and mandarin could leave you smelling like a slosh of sangria. But sheer woods, musk, and jasmine anchor the juicy citrus peel for a crisp, earthy finish.
Clean, $38.00, available at Sephora
Lily of the valley, frosty musk, and leafy green team up for a simple, soap-and-water scent. If, that is, the soap were handmade in the French countryside and the water were plunged from an icy, babbling brook.
Philosophy, $48.00, available at Sephora
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