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8 Fabulous Perfumes That Smell Like Lavender
Lavender used to mean your grandmother’s drawer or a barbershop. Now it turns up in women’s perfumes too. These eight show both sides. Start with YSL Libre for lavender with orange blossom, Le Labo Lavande 31 for lavender that smells clean, and Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male for the barbershop.
Why Does Lavender Smell Both Clean and Warm?
Because of two molecules. Linalool is soft, floral and slightly woody, and linalyl acetate is fruity and fresh; together they make most of true lavender’s smell. That combination reads as clean, which is why lavender has scented soap and laundry for centuries. Add vanilla or tonka, though, and its herbal side turns warm and almost sweet.
There’s a cheaper cousin too. Lavandin is a hybrid of true lavender and spike lavender. It yields far more oil and has more camphor, so it’s sharper, more medicinal and more “clean laundry”. Many perfumes that list lavender use lavandin, and Armani Code names it.
Lavender is also the backbone of men’s perfume. The fougère, lavender over coumarin and oakmoss, began with Houbigant’s Fougère Royale in 1882, and Caron’s Pour un Homme put lavender with vanilla in 1934. What’s new is women’s perfumes like Libre borrowing it.
| Perfume | The lavender | What’s with it |
|---|---|---|
| YSL Libre EDP | French lavender | Orange blossom, musk, vanilla |
| Guerlain Mon Guerlain | French lavender | Jasmine sambac, sandalwood, vanilla |
| Le Labo Lavande 31 | Lavender | Bergamot, neroli, musk, tonka |
| Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male | Lavender | Mint, vanilla |
| Giorgio Armani Code | Lavandin | Green mandarin, tonka, cedar |
| Dior Sauvage EDP | Lavender | Sichuan pepper, star anise, vanilla, Ambroxan |
| Gucci Guilty Pour Homme | French lavender | Lemon, orange blossom, patchouli, cedar |
| Ariana Grande Cloud | Lavender | Pear, coconut, praline |
8 Lavender Perfumes
YSL Libre
YSL describes Libre EDP through French lavender, Moroccan orange blossom, musk and vanilla. It’s a men’s fougère idea in a women’s perfume: the barbershop lavender is still there, but orange blossom and vanilla make it soft and warm. One wearer who normally dislikes lavender bought a bottle after a sample, for the vanilla and orange blossom. Libre Intense, Le Parfum and the other flankers differ.
Guerlain Mon Guerlain
Mon Guerlain highlights French lavender, jasmine sambac, sandalwood and Tahitian vanilla. It’s lavender in Guerlain’s house style, the vanilla-heavy tradition that runs back to Shalimar. Sandalwood makes it creamy. Softer and sweeter than Libre. This is the EDP, not the Intense or EDT.
Le Labo Lavande 31
Lavande 31 opens with bergamot and neroli, then lavender, over ambery and musky notes with tonka. Neroli and musk make it smell like freshly dried laundry, and the lavender sits inside that clean haze. The least sweet lavender here.
Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male
Le Male (1995) is mint, lavender and vanilla. It’s the barbershop in a tin can: cool mint, the herbal lavender of shaving cream, then soft vanilla. Ultra Male, Le Parfum and Elixir are separate perfumes. Our vanilla cologne list has its relatives.
Giorgio Armani Code
Code lists green mandarin, lavandin, tonka and cedar. Lavandin’s camphor sharpness against tonka’s hay-and-almond warmth is the fougère in miniature, and green mandarin keeps it bright. It’s the evening version of the barbershop.
Dior Sauvage Eau de Parfum
Sauvage EDP is Calabrian bergamot, then Sichuan pepper, lavender and star anise, over vanilla and Ambroxan. Lavender is easy to miss under the pepper and Ambroxan, but it’s what gives Sauvage its clean, aromatic middle. Star anise adds a licorice sweetness.
Gucci Guilty Pour Homme
Guilty Pour Homme is pink pepper and Italian lemon, then orange blossom, neroli and French lavender, over patchouli and cedar. Lavender and orange blossom together are the same pairing as Libre, here made drier and woodier. A neat way to smell how the same idea shifts between a men’s and a women’s perfume.
Ariana Grande Cloud
Cloud is lavender, pear and bergamot over coconut, praline and vanilla orchid. Lavender is the cool, herbal edge that keeps the whipped cream from being cloying. The sweetest lavender here, and the cheapest.
More Herbs and Clean Smells
For lavender’s soapy side, see our soap perfumes. The vanilla colognes follow Le Male and Code further, and the tonka list covers the fougère’s other half.
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