For many of us, the scent of summer can be defined as the smell of sun cream, layered over warm and salty, ocean-sprayed skin. These nine fragrances bottle up that exact musky, sun-creamy goodness, for when you want to smell like a nostalgic sunny day, not perfume.
When summer rolls around, we adjust our beauty arsenal. Foundations with SPF, for instance, replace full-coverage formulas, while our choice of best long-lasting perfume might reflect the balmy weather. Fruity perfumes are, of course, a classic choice, but for us, our most precious summer memories tend to be accompanied by that creamy, often coconutty, waft of sunscreen.
So, if you want to envelop yourself in that same nostalgic, sun-warmed scent year-round, or are looking for something lightweight for the months ahead, these perfumes smell like sun cream in the chicest possible way.
These 9 perfumes smell like sun cream - but far more luxe
When the summer months arrive, we find ourselves reaching less and less for our stronger, headier scents. Many of our favourite woody and spicy perfumes feel a bit out of place on a bright June day, and instead, we seem to crave solar perfumes, with musky, sweet and slightly aldehydic notes - the sort that smell reminiscent of freshly applied SPF or sun-warmed skin and clothes.
You can, of course, just skip perfume altogether and simply apply your favourite smelling sun cream - or a body lotion with a similar, lightweight scent - but if you want to project sunny radiance all day, every day, these nine options are glowing examples of fragrances that smell like sun cream.
RRP: from £29 for 10ml | Notes: Balinese Coconut, Madagascan Black Pepper, oak moss and salted musks
This is by far one of the most deliciously summery scents we've ever smelled. It's delicately sweet and creamy, thanks to the coconut note, but there's also a musky, salty quality that makes it sparkle and emanate warmth. Once sprayed, it melts into the skin and makes you smell as though you've been at the beach all day, in and out of the sea, having just topped up your sun cream.
RRP: from £100 for 50ml | Notes: Sandalwood, jasmine lactone and vanilla
Warm, creamy and skin-like, Sunny Side Up is another fragrance that manages to capture that sun-warmed sun cream quality. It's milky, musky and slightly floral, with sweet hints of vanilla and more complex hints of ambrette, salicylate and iso E super.
RRP: £29.97 for 30ml | Notes: green, solar and powdery notes
If you're looking for an authentically sun-creamy scent, NIVEA's aptly named Sun eau de toilette is the perfect choice. After all, it was designed to smell like the brand's iconic sun cream range, with its blend of fresh and powdery solar and floral notes. Even the bottle itself feels perfectly summery and ideal for taking on the go with you or packing in your vacation luggage.
RRP: from £58 for 50ml | Notes: Amber, coconut milk, sandalwood, vanilla, vetiver, myrrh, mandarin, Sicilian Bergamot, lemon, Tiare Flower, jasmine and lavender
If you're a lover of both sweet and fruity fragrances, Bronze Goddess needs to be on your radar. It's creamy and warm, with sparkling hints of lemon and mandarin, though its vanilla, coconut and musky amber notes are what shine through and give this fragrance its 'skin-like' appeal. It's a cult-favourite summer perfume for a reason.
RRP: from £24 for 90ml | Notes: Pistachio, almond, heliotrope, jasmine petals, vanilla, salted caramel and sandalwood.
Touted as one of the best Sol de Janeiro perfumes and best budget perfumes, in general, Cheriosa 62 is a lovely, versatile option for gourmand and vanilla perfume fans. It's warm, creamy and delightfully decadent and can be as easily layered as it can be worn on its own. It also doubles as a hair mist, for days when you want a more gentle, summery scent.
RRP: £99 for 50ml | Notes: Mandarin, pink pepper, vanilla cream, coconut milk, orange flowers and jasmine
This Phlur perfume, like Floral Street's Arizona Bloom, really nails that sun-bathed, sun cream-covered skin smell that we all attribute to the height of summer. This blend features more of a citrusy edge, though, thanks to its mandarin opening note, which feels initially very fresh, but there's also a skin-like, almost-sweaty quality (but in a really good way, we promise!) that makes it very alluring and beachy.
RRP: £60 for 30ml | Notes: Pink pepper, lemon, ylang ylang, coconut milk, heliotrope, musks, cedarwood and benzoin
A bestseller among Maison Margiela's Replica perfume collection, Beach Walk smells exactly like you'd want it to. It's creamy, salty and delicately floral but with that warm and musky base that clings and melts into your skin, making it smell like you...on a beach walk. Like Golden Rule, we would say this has that slightly sweaty (yes, still in a good way), sun cream quality - as if the cream has soaked into your skin and mingled with traces of sea salt and your natural musk. It's versatile, unisex and beautifully lightweight, so it's a great crowd-pleaser.
RRP: from £68 for 10ml | Notes: Bergamot, Egyptian Jasmine, ylang ylang, amber and tonka bean
Soleil Blanc is on the pricier side, but is a social media favourite and frequently cited as a perfect sun cream-esque scent thanks to its sparkling blend of Egyptian Jasmine, amber and tonka bean. It's creamy and incredibly moreish, though we would say a few of the other options offer a very similar impression, but for a fraction of the price.
RRP: £125 for 75ml | Notes: Mandarin, pink and black pepper, pistachio, iris, carrot, tonka, frankincense and amber
Granado's perfumes boast a range of chic and complex scents, but for Digital Beauty Writer Naomi Jamieson, Tropicália always gets her vote: "This scent somehow manages to be both familiar and unusual all at once. From first sniff, you're greeted with a hint of saltiness, followed by that coveted creamy sweetness, by way of notes like pistachio, tonka and amber - but then, that gives way to something slightly more nuanced. You get powdery iris, carrot and hints of spice, which makes this scent a lovely and slightly niche summer signature."
What notes create that sun cream-y scent?
Often, body sun creams will boast a very creamy, lactonic sort of scent (that matches their consistency), along with notes of coconut and vanilla. So, if you're looking for a summery perfume, we would start there.
Floral notes, like jasmine, orange blossom and lavender, are also present in many of the aforementioned perfumes, and deliver that fresh, powdery quality. A certain sense of warmth is also key, so yes, look for vanilla notes but also woods like sandalwood and spicier notes like pink and black pepper.
Many of our favourite summer scents also feature salt or aquatic accords, so even if you're not a lover of very gourmand or floral fragrances, you can still achieve that 'sun-warmed skin' sort of effect with a musky or salty number.
