What do Fruity Fragrances Actually Smell Like?
“Thomas, AKA The Candy Perfume Boy, is explaining everything you need to know about fragrance families. From chypre to fougere, after reading this blog series you’ll be an expert in the different types of olfactive groups.”
Fruity scents – fragrances made with delicious notes of fruits and berries are more than just fragrance fodder for tweens (not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind, tweens deserve scent too!), they can be incredibly beautiful. What’s more, fruity notes are great at complimenting other materials, emphasising the many facets of florals, and much more. So yes, let’s celebrate all that is good and great about everything fruity!
To help you navigate this essential genre, I have picked out four fragrances that show just how varied and fun fruity notes can be. From twists of blackcurrant and big squeezes of cherry to invigorating fruit cocktails, fruity fragrances are the most fun of all genres. Here are four to get you started.
#1 Pear
Pears are a stubborn fruit. You put them in your fruit bowl, and they refuse to ripen, only doing so when you have left the room for a few moments before becoming inedible mush upon your return. Gah! While they may be frustrating, they do smell great, and they bring a juicy, watery freshness to a fragrance with just a hint of dewy sweetness.
Issey Miyake’s L’Eau d’Issey Pure Petale de Nectar blends the fresh, golden sweetness of honey pear with rose and sandalwood to create an elegantly transparent trail that feels like cream coloured silk. Everything is just delicate here: hints of honey, tiny splashes of pear dew and thin strips of creamy sandalwood. It’s as lovely as a ripe pear (if you can find one, that is).
#2 Cassis
Cassis (blackcurrant buds) is a curious material. It has an intensely fruity, jammy and rich berry-like aroma that works exceptionally well when paired with flowers (such as rose). It’s a Godzilla of a material but when tamed can bring the scent of beautifully rich purple berries into play. In Tubereuse Mystique, cassis becomes the glittering purple sequins on a white velvet gown of tuberose; his is fruit at its most couture.
#3 Cherry
Cherries add so much fragrance and flavour to the world. There’s atomic red cherryade which probably hasn’t seen a real cherry in its life, let’s be real and delicious bakewell tarts, filled to the brim with jammy cherry goodness. Cherries really are excellent and bring a rich and intense deliciousness that works well in fragrance, pairing perfectly with the jammy facets of rose and the deep, inky nuances of patchouli.
Speaking of rose, patchouli and cherry, Guerlain’s La Petite Robe Noire is the perfect example of how perfectly these materials work together. This little black dress pairs the juicy sweet vibrancy of cherries with smoky black tea, opulent roses and patchouli to create a liquorice-like flourish of fruitiness. It’s proof that fruit notes really can be incredibly chic.
Read the full La Petite Robe Noire range review here.
#4 The Ultimate Fruit Cocktail
What about fruit notes working together? Can you find a fragrance with an entire cocktail’s worth of fruitiness? You certainly can, and as you’d expect, all sorts of fruit notes pair together perfectly, intensifying and contrasting facets of freshness, sweetness and juiciness. The Only One 2 by D&G is a good example of fruity notes working together in harmony, with blackberry, pear, and red berries wrapped around a warm, woody violet note to create perfect, fruity equilibrium.
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There’s more! Read the previous instalments of the series below…