11 Summer Scents You'll Want to Bathe in This Season

Summer comes with some universal associations, but the way we spend the year's warmest months is a personal endeavor—one that should be accompanied by an equally special summer scent. “What I love about summer is that there are so many ways to interpret it,” says Givaudan perfumer Christine Hassan. “Fresh and carefree, solar and beachy, sultry and seductive, etc. It makes it easy to always find something you love to wear and create your summer memories with.”

Balmy heat and a sense of freedom factor into summer's narrative, with vacation-minded fragrances furthering the fun. "As temperatures rise, people often gravitate toward scents that evoke a sense of freshness and vitality," says Chriselle Lim, owner and creative director of Phlur, who favors citrus notes or light-skin musk florals for summer wear. "The best kind of summer scents are fresh, bright, and sexy that linger into warm summer nights."

The season also provides the perfect vehicle to test-drive some of the year’s most sniff-worth fragrance trends (think: sour citrus, milky musk, and solar florals), blended to create free-spirited perfumes that will have you wafting summertime vibes as you walk by. Along with the sense of summer, more literal highlights of this time of year help round out the fragrance menu. "Aquatic notes are wildly popular," says Brianna Arps, founder and CEO of Moodeaux. "Those that draw inspiration from the ocean and those that mimic other elements of nature (ex. coconut water)."

No matter which scent trends resonate with you, summer's less-is-more mentality means that a mist of your go-to perfume is more of a staple than an accessory. Read on to discover which scents the experts will be spritzing this season.