To us, skin scents are the perfume equivalent of ‘no makeup’ makeup or a slick of blush-colored lip gloss. Rather than a larger-than-life flower bomb of heady gardenia in your typical women’s perfume, they can only be smelt by the wearer and someone who is so close, their eyelashes skim your neck when you embrace.
To amplify the humid nature of a skin scent, they typically have a shadowy note of musk in the background. For Narciso Rodriguez, it has become a signature and a constant feature of all of his fragrances, including the new eau de parfum All Of Me. “I’ve always loved musk – how three people can sit in a room, put on the same oil and it smells completely different on each skin,” he notes. “There’s an individual beauty to that, which has always been fascinating to me and why musk is the foundation of all of the scents.”
Olivier Cresp, perfumer and co-founder of Akro concurs: “Musk gives a clean aspect to your skin, which is both reassuring and relaxing.” In other words, they’re the viral vanilla girl aesthetic bottled and they’ll never be offensive in a crowded elevator.
The best skin scents, at a glance
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Maison Margiela Replica Lazy Sunday Morning Eau de Toilette
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Prada Infusion D’Iris Eau de Parfum
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Most Unexpected: Narciso Rodriguez All Of Me
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Narciso Rodriguez All Of Me Eau de Parfum
Meet the floral fragrance that moonlights as a skin scent. It opens with a fresh burst of rose petals before geranium and black iris burst through for depth. The soft landing is courtesy of musks blended with milky notes, ensuring this scent meshes seamlessly with your skin.
Most Viral: Phlur Missing Person Eau de Parfum
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Original photo from Alanna Martine Kilkeary testing Phlur Missing Person Eau de Parfum
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Phlur Missing Person Eau de Parfum
Few fragrances can claim to have reduced its wearers to tears. Inspired by the longing we feel for someone that we miss, the blend of jasmine, neroli blossom and creamy musk smells uncannily familiar and comforting.
Most Iconic: Glossier You Eau de Parfum
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Original photo from Anastasia Sanger testing Glossier You Eau de Parfum
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Glossier You Eau de Parfum
When Glossier launched You it had an ambitious aim: to create a universally appealing scent that melds with your skin’s own chemistry for a perfume that’s unique to you. The blend of warm amber, mineral-tinged ambrox, softly spicy pink pepper and powdery iris does precisely that. It’s beloved by our Glamour editors and the most affordable perfume on this list.
Best Scent for Lazy Weekends: Maison Margiela Replica Lazy Sunday Morning Eau de Toilette
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Original image of Alanna Martine Kilkeary testing Maison Margiela Replica Lazy Sunday Morning Eau de Toilette
Maison Margiela Replica Lazy Sunday Morning Eau de Toilette
As ever, this Maison Margiela scent tells a story. Lazy Sunday morning, inspired by the feel of delicate cotton sheets brushing against naked skin and softly filtered light, combines lily of the valley, iris, patchouli and white musks for a fragrance that feels both sensual and calming.
Best Luxury: Byredo Blanche Eau de Parfum
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Byredo Blanche Eau de Parfum
Nothing conjures up the smell of warm clean skin and worn clothes quite as realistically as this Byredo perfume with its blend of velvety sandalwood, creamy musk and a soapy aldehyde. “With Blanche, I wanted to capture the idea of texture and fabric and skin—and to translate a level of intimacy which is very human,” Ben Gorham, founder and creative director of Byredo, said of the scent.
Best for Floral Lovers: Prada Infusion D’Iris Eau de Parfum
Prada Infusion D’Iris Eau de Parfum
The sweet spot between dousing your pulse points in a lightly scented water and still managing be long lasting, eludes many skin scents. Rest assured, this apothecary-sounding infusion laced with iris and incense won’t flutter away after a few hours.
Best Offbeat Scent: Commodity Paper Personal Eau de Parfum
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Commodity Paper Eau de Parfum
Stationery may sound like an unlikely starting point for a perfume, but with touches of sweet amber and Iso E Super, it softly caresses the skin.
Frequently asked questions
“Skin scents are sensual and unique in that they smell different on everyone,” declares Rodriguez, the man who arguably put musk – surely the most intimate of skin scents – back on the map with the launch of his first fragrance Narciso Rodriguez For Her.
Interest in sensual perfumes certainly isn’t new but skin scents typically fall into two camps. In one corner, perfumes that mimic the smell of naked skin with powdery iris, creamy musks, velvety woods and vanilla.
Some of them smell powdery and soapy; others conjure up flushed, damp bodies thanks to just the merest hint of something animalic or spicy. And then there’s those scents that conjure up the tactile feel of silk against bare skin or cotton without the anaemic smell of freshly laundered sheets.
Chanel Jersey, for example, billows in soft and milky with lavender, musk and vanilla while Byredo Blanche skews towards warm clean skin with a soapy aldehyde and Glossier You adds a damp, salty note to the mix. Narciso’s All Of Me is the equivalent of putting rose and geranium petals in a milk bath.
In the other corner are perfumes laced with Iso E Super, a molecule designed to intensify your unique natural skin scent. It’s almost invisible on your pulse points, although you may catch a whiff of wood or musk, but Iso E Super is essentially ‘eau de slept-in sheets’.
“Speaking scientifically, pheromones are the only olfactory way that we can appear sexy towards another human,” says Ulrike Hager, founder of Feminista, which uses a high percentage of Iso E Super as a means of amplifying your pheromones.
These airborne aphrodisiacs, secreted via sweat, leave a barely detectable vapour trail but are thought to signal our readiness to mate. “Pheromones are actively involved in sexual attraction and, upon release, they can stimulate arousal, desire and lust.”
Which perhaps explains why #pheromoneperfume and #skinscents have garnered more than 135 million combined views on TikTok.
What are the benefits of a skin scent?
And added benefit of skin scents is that they are quietly reassuring on days when you need something soothing to cut through the noise. “The smell of musk and vanilla are warm on your skin and make you feel like you are in a cocoon,” says Olivier, who namechecks Night by Akro as a comforting fragrance.
But ultimately, Rodriguez sums it up best by saying that skin scents, and musk in particular, “is very personal and sensual; something that is a second skin that is very easy to wear, makes you feel good and gives you confidence.”
A version of this article was previously published in GLAMOUR UK.
Read the full article here
