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8 Perfumes That Smell Just Like the Ocean
The sea doesn’t have one smell. There’s salt spray, seaweed on the rocks, wet stones and the coconut lotion on the towel next to you, and ocean perfumes pick one. Maison Margiela Sailing Day is open water, Ellis Brooklyn Salt is salty skin and flowers, and Hermès Eau des Merveilles Bleue is wet pebbles.
What Makes a Perfume Smell Like the Ocean?
Mostly one molecule. Calone, which Pfizer discovered in 1966, smells of sea breeze, watermelon and cold air, and its structure is close to compounds made by brown algae. Perfumers started using it in the 1980s, and by the early 1990s it was the basis of a whole marine trend: Acqua di Gio, L’Eau d’Issey and dozens of blue bottles after them. Calone is why “aquatic” often smells faintly of melon.
The real seaside smell is different. Much of it is dimethyl sulfide, released when bacteria break down a compound that algae make. It smells of seaweed and low tide, and almost nobody wants to wear it. So ocean perfumes approximate the nice parts: Calone for the air, seaweed and ambergris accords for salt and skin, mineral accords for stones. Beach perfumes swap all of that for coconut and white flowers.
| Perfume | The sea | What’s with it |
|---|---|---|
| Maison Margiela Sailing Day | Calone, aldehydes, red seaweed | Coriander, iris, rose |
| Bond No. 9 Jones Beach | Calone | Orange blossom, white musk |
| Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio | Marine notes | Bergamot, neroli, rosemary, persimmon |
| Hermès Eau des Merveilles Bleue | Mineral stone accord | Juniper berry, patchouli |
| Ellis Brooklyn Salt | Vegan ambergris | Tiare, magnolia, sandalwood |
| Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 68 | Ocean air | Dragonfruit, lychee, jasmine, vanilla |
| Maison Margiela Beach Walk | Coconut milk | Ylang-ylang, heliotrope, bergamot |
| Vacation Eau de Toilette | Pool water, sea salt | Coconut, banana, swimsuit Lycra |
8 Ocean Perfumes
Maison Margiela Replica Sailing Day
Sailing Day is the most literal sea on this page. Margiela builds its aquatic accord from Calone, Aqual and aldehydes, adds juniper, coriander, iris and rose, and finishes with red seaweed, an ambergris accord and ambery woods. The seaweed is what makes it: a salty, slightly green note that pulls it away from melon and toward rope and wet decks. One wearer gets a salt-and-metal impression closer to a boat on open water than a beach.
Bond No. 9 Jones Beach
Named for the Long Island beach, Jones Beach is short and direct: a Calone marine accord, orange blossom, and an Ambrox woody accord with white musk. Orange blossom gives the Calone a sunny, slightly soapy warmth, so it reads as a beach day rather than a storm. It’s the simplest way to smell what Calone does on its own.
Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio
Alberto Morillas’s 1996 Acqua di Gio set the template for the blue marine cologne. It lists marine notes with bergamot, neroli and green tangerine, then rosemary and persimmon over patchouli and cedar. Rosemary gives it a Mediterranean, herbal edge, a hillside above the sea, and persimmon adds a soft fruitiness most of its imitators drop. This is the EDT; the EDP, Parfum and Profondo are different perfumes.
Hermès Eau des Merveilles Bleue
Bleue skips water entirely and goes for the stones. It’s juniper berry and patchouli around a salty mineral accord: wet pebbles and dry wood, cooler and quieter than anything else here. Pick it if aquatics usually smell too sporty to you. Original Eau des Merveilles is a different, ambery perfume.
Ellis Brooklyn Salt
Salt is the sea on skin. Ellis Brooklyn pairs ylang-ylang and violet leaves with Tahitian tiare and magnolia, over musk, a vegan ambergris accord and sandalwood. Ambergris is the key: the real material is a salty, skin-like substance that washes up on beaches, and the accord gives the flowers that warm, mineral edge. If you want the flowers more than the ocean, it’s an easy daily perfume.
Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 68
Cheirosa 68 is pink dragonfruit and lychee, then Brazilian jasmine, ocean air and hibiscus, over sheer vanilla and sun musk. It’s a fruit cocktail on a beach in Rio, with the ocean as the breeze rather than the subject. As a hair and body mist it’s light and meant to be sprayed often.
Maison Margiela Replica Beach Walk
Beach Walk is the lotion side of the seaside: bergamot, lemon and pink pepper, then ylang-ylang, heliotrope and coconut milk, over cedar, white musk and benzoin. Heliotrope smells of almond and soft powder, and with coconut milk it’s sun cream on warm skin. It’s the sweetest pick here and the least watery; wear it next to Sailing Day and you’ll smell how far apart two “beach” perfumes from the same house can be.
Vacation Eau de Toilette
For the ocean as experienced from a lounger. Vacation’s notes, as Dermstore lists them, run from coconut water and coconut milk through banana and pineapple to pool water, swimsuit Lycra and sea salt. It’s more sunscreen than sea, and funnier than anything else on the page.
Lotion or Sand?
If the coconut in Beach Walk and Vacation is what you’re after, our sunscreen perfumes go further into it. Beach perfumes mix the two, and for the citrus side of Acqua di Gio, try the citrus list.
Table of Contents
- What Makes a Perfume Smell Like the Ocean?
- 8 Ocean Perfumes
- Maison Margiela Replica Sailing Day
- Bond No. 9 Jones Beach
- Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio
- Hermès Eau des Merveilles Bleue
- Ellis Brooklyn Salt
- Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 68
- Maison Margiela Replica Beach Walk
- Vacation Eau de Toilette
- Lotion or Sand?
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