Trendy fragrance notes of summer 2025 For an olfactory wardrobe of sea, sun, nature and lazy vacation days

Summer doesn’t ask permission. It seeps into your skin, your hair, your suitcase. It throws open the windows, changes the scent of the air, lets your body undress and rewrite itself. And with it, inevitably, perfumes change too. The olfactory notes and concentrations become lighter, more airy, more fleeting, but no less present. On the contrary, presence becomes more sensual, more tactile, more immediate. It clings to the skin like sand after a swim. Because summer fragrances are olfactory postcards that speak of vacations, melting ice creams, ocean dives, tomato and orange salads, sunscreen-drenched bikinis, and nature walks. Like Eden-Roc by Dior, which, with marine salt notes, white florals, and pine, evokes the sun-soaked luxury of the South of France. Or Sun Song by Louis Vuitton, a perfume that captures the many facets of orange blossom, like summer in a bottle.

But what are the fragrance trends for summer 2025? What are the coolest, freshest notes to pack in your suitcase? Summer 2025 balances nostalgia with experimentation, with green notes, modern musks that smell like sun-dried sheets and bare skin, salty touches, and pop fruits like ripe guava and fig, plus some unexpected turns. Like tomato.

Scent notes of summer 2025

Juicy fruits, hyperfruits, and Tropicalia

Fruit is back, but it’s lost the lip gloss shine. Forget the sugary strawberries and melons of the '90s. The summer 2025 fruits are ripe, plump, round, and unexpected. Guava, banana, plum, and cherry appear in fragrances with a natural, never-cloying sweetness. They’re "transfigured," never literal: guava meets white ambers, banana blends with sandalwood, and iced matcha becomes a metropolitan elixir. It’s the rise of sophisticated hyperfruity perfumes. Example: Strawberry Moon by Snif, not a dessert, but a green, acidic strawberry cut with woody and mineral notes. Or Lost Cherry by Tom Ford, where cherry becomes sensual, not childish, through woody and almond accents. Even banana enters the adult perfumery scene in 27 87 Hakuna Matata, merging with bergamot, honey, and jasmine.

Citrus: freshness, with style

Citrus is the ultimate summer cliché, but for good reason. A bergamot, lemon, or mandarin accord refreshes in a way a cold shower can’t: awaken, cleanse, regenerate. But beware: today's citrus fruits are no longer the innocent squeeze Grandma used to make us for snacks. They are more layered, sharp, adult. In a word: interesting. Take, for example, Palermo by Byredo, blending bergamot, rose, musk, and amber. Or Mandarino di Sicilia by Perris Monte Carlo, with a bitter peel and creamy finish. And Neroli Portofino by Tom Ford, still widely loved, remains as airy and crisp as a perfect white shirt.

Mediterranean garden: fig, leaves, tomatoes

Nothing says summer like sunscreen on skin or the scent of saltwater. Fig and tomato are this season’s stars. They evoke garden terraces, childhood memories, lazy siestas. Fig is bittersweet, milky-green; tomato surprises, it smells like crushed leaves, sunlit gardens, earthy hands, and chilled white wine. Try Pomod'ORO by Omnia Profumi with anise, basil, carrot, and licorice. Or Papyrus Moleculaire by Maison Crivelli, with a green, matte, tactile vibe. Even fougères are back, lavender, aromatic musks, tonka bean, reimagined in unisex, rougher forms, like raw linen.

Ocean in a bottle: aquatic, solar, and salty notes

Aquatic notes are back, freed from their '90s nostalgia, now more sensual and narrative. Today’s ozone smells like linen shirts and dry salt on skin. The sea is a state of mind. Sel Marin by Heeley is minimal yet evocative: open water, seaweed, wind. Solar perfumes still celebrate sun-kissed skin and sunscreen, but with a twist: not just monoi and coconut, but also gardenia, amber, white florals, light woods. Classics: Soleil Blanc by Tom Ford, Beach Blossom by Jo Malone, Replica Beach Walk by Maison Margiela. Even Terroni by Orto Parisi, with its earthy, spicy, woody base, evokes hot volcanic land under the sun. New: Salted Muse by Orabella (Bella Hadid) with sea salt, pink pepper, lavender, woods, and crunchy amber.

Modern musks: intimacy in a scent

Summer is not only about the sea, ice cream and sunshine, it is also about intimacy, contact, bare skin, silent embraces. That's why musk is one of the most beloved notes this year. But it is not the dusty musk of the past: it is soft, milky, velvety. It blends with the skin and sublimates it, like a white shirt on a tanned body. The new musks are divided into two streams: New Clean, transparent, similar to clean skin, to an unmade bed in the morning; Soft Creamy, more enveloping and intimate, like a light talcum powder or an unexpected hug. Far from the overbearingness of winter scents, the musk here is whispered, but present. It does not want to be noticed, it wants to be felt. Glossier You led the way: a scent that smells like you, but better. From there, the strand exploded into a thousand variations. A few examples? Skin by Clean Reserve, Musc Invisible by Juliette Has a Gun, Lazy Sunday Morning by Maison Margiela Replica: scents that tell the skin with notes of ambroxan, iris, rice, white musk. But also with a hint of mystery.

White florals: jasmine, gardenia, and tuberose

Flowers reinvent themselves every summer. This year they are creamier, brighter, more cinematic. Think of a 1960s diva vacationing in Capri with a silk scarf and oversized glasses: that's what her perfume smells like. Sunny, sophisticated, sensual, without ever becoming overpowering. Classic feminine notes such as rose, iris, violet, and orange blossom return, but in very modern, light, talcum powdered versions, yet as exciting as an old photo album. A perfect example is Prada's Infusion d'Iris. In these warm months, however, the favorites remain white flowers: jasmine, tuberose, gardenia. They are the protagonists of Do Son by Diptyque, a floral scent yes, but with wind and water and rice. Never cloying. Or Tubereuse Astrale by Maison Crivelli, a sensory journey among tuberose, cinnamon, musk, peach, leather, and vanilla.

The olfactory wardrobe of summer 2025: improvise, mix, change skin

Summer is anything but static. It is the wind changing direction, the mood fluctuating between the desire to disappear and the desire to shine, the skin reacting to light and salt in ever new ways. So why stop at one scent? Welcome to the age of the olfactory wardrobe, where one is not looking for “the” perfect perfume, but a mini-collection to alternate, overlap, reinvent. A citrusy body mist as soon as you wake up, like Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue Sun; a briny floral for the afternoon, like Ellis Brooklyn's Salt, which smells of waves and warm skin; and finally a velvety, intimate musk for the evening, like Escentric Molecules' Molecule 01 + Iris, which whispers more than it speaks. The formats also lend a hand: body mist, eau légère, hair mist. Scents that are less intrusive, more layered, more playful. Like You Or Someone Like You by Etat Libre d'Orange, which is practically a terrace conversation between a mint leaf, a wispy rose and a stack of literary magazines. Because, after all, summer is never just a season. It is a state of mind, a collection of smells that return when you least expect it: the cool shade of basil, the sunscreen on your collarbones, the scent of salt in the crease of your elbows. And summer fragrances don't have to surprise. They have to belong to us, if only for a day. Whether it is a black cherry, a tomato leaf, a transparent musk or a jasmine tired of being romantic, the important thing is that they can tell something true. Even if we don't quite know what.