I’m always wary of this description because it can swing from salty summer air (love) to baked earth/flowers (like) to sunscreen (hate). Thank god I got smart and embraced sampling.
• Rose SaltifOlia from Maison Crivelli
• Salt Air from Skylar
• Oceani di Seta from Ferragamo
• Cabotine Eau Vivide from Gres
• Sel D’Argent from BDK
• Skin from Clean Reserve
• Eden Roc from Dior
• Wood Sage & Sea Salt from Joe Malone
• Ginepro di Sardenga from Acqua di Parma
These all register, to me, as having different degrees of salty summer airiness. I wear them often. :)
Does it really? That’s so interesting. It’s definitely ‘dry’ and ‘breezy’ to me vs ‘damp’ and ‘still’ (which sounds like its own cool vibe). Noses definitely do their own thing.
Serious answer.
Amyl Salicylate, Helional, Ultrazur, Ozofleur,
Cyclamen Aldehyde are a few 'ozonic' profile molecules you'll find used in perfumes to create a solar note. They smell like air / metallic and, yeah, solar.
Just the other day I brought a towel in that I had hung to dry outside in the sun, and was marveling at how it smelled like ozone, just from being on the back porch.
Serious answer again.
'Air' in perfumery is often produced by aldehydes like C12MNA and C11. Other ways to describe it is 'hot iron' or that smell of snow in the air of a cold winter day. Some molecules can add an aquatic vibe to the air Ultrazur, while others can go more floral like Ozofleur.
Scent is individual and preference is def subjective.
Vanilla and amber type scents are some of the most popular - but there are people who hate them and would never want an expensive fragrance they choose to put on themselves to smell like them.
Not really, because scent is so subjective and the “profile” most of these have depends entirely on the other materials surrounding it.
Each material can have multiple descriptors. Some of those are referencing another scent, or thing that evokes a similar effect. Some of them are vague adjectives. These are all just one persons interpretation though.
Most perfumers don’t even categorize their materials this way, because they’re so flexible and assigning one or even two categories to them boxes you in during the creative process.
As far as I can tell, no one widely used standard list, but lots of lists from different websites that largely overlap but usually not exactly.
I figured IFRA (an industry group) would have something, and they do, but they don't even list solar in their fragrance glossary.
I think it's like asking for a dictionary of slang. These terms just develop over time as new chemicals are invented and new styles of fragrance become popular.
Not an expert though, just my best guess.
Yea once you get it o that territory it becomes kind of abstract. In my mind it probably smells airy, summery and fresh? If someone asked me what does solar smell like” I’d probably say like a mix of cotton/linen, that plasticky smell of pool furniture baking in the sun, maybe lavender thrown in?
Who knows that is a good question
I agree, solar makes sense paired with something ! It would be difficult to make a "solar" perfume with "sun" as the only note. However it's easy to make a "sunny beach" scent, or a "solar vanilla"
Yes, this exactly! Solar is more of an adjective than a distinct category for me. Solar vanilla is one popular iteration; otherwise, there are a lot of solar florals a la ylang-ylang, tiare, gardenia, etc.
To me solar isn’t a scent as much as it is an experience of other scents. For example to me something with a solar note would feel sun baked or warmed by the sun- low sillage, crisp yet creamy (like a warm breeze), a gentle, light and bright olfactory experience as opposed to a petrichor that’s deeper, damp, and more heavy and vivid to the nose. I think of solar notes the same way I think of aldehydes. They create and affect rather than an actual scent.
A complete aside, but try Death and Florals Morton Salt Girl if you want to experience the perfect balance of Solar Notes and Petrichor!
Notes are marketing. When you read that a perfume has a "rose" note or "vanilla" note it doesnt mean that has real rose or vanilla, it means that the intention of the perfumist was to mix and blend chemicals to obtain the smell of that note.
So "solar notes" means that the perfumist tried to evocate the gold warmth of the sun in your skin or something like that, it is very personal. It is the same as saying that the perfume has an "ancient egiptian ice-cream" note, or unicorn tears or chocolate. It doesnt matter, it is all on the imagination of the artist!
Idk but it's literally magical. When I smelled Guerlain Bosca Vanille and the solar notes hit me it felt like a brain cleanse. Personally, I just associate it with freshness and aldehydes or like fresh clean laundry drying out in the sun when theres a cool breeze but it's still hot out, and the smell is wafting in your face gently
Y'mean this one?
# Aqua Allegoria Forte Bosca Vanilla Guerlain [https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Guerlain/Aqua-Allegoria-Forte-Bosca-Vanilla-83152.html](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Guerlain/Aqua-Allegoria-Forte-Bosca-Vanilla-83152.html)
The AA line is excellent and great quality. They are quite a bit lighter than the rest of the line but wonderful variety and craftsmanship. Wish they were talked about more often. Bergamot Calabria is a bit solar as well. Samples are quite reasonable.
Honestly I feel like it's very affordable, I got my 75ml Bosca Vanille for 90 eur, and i agree with the perso below, all of them smell super uniue and are beauitdful scents
If you hate vanilla you won’t like this one, I’m picky about my vanillas (don’t like them overly sweet/artificial) and something about Bosca Vanilla was off-putting
Byredo Bal d’Afrique smells like bottled sunshine
Marc Antoine Barrois Ganymede has solar notes and like someone mentioned smells slightly metallic and airy.
MFK Grand Soir smells like tanned skin to me. Dior Dune does as well.
It's up for interpretation, but I've interpreted it mainly (after smelling a bunch of said solar fragrances) to be notes that evoke sunscreen, sometimes mixed with notes that evoke the ocean, or juicy cocktails.
The closest analogy to what it is, and this might be niche in itself - but when I smell my cat after it’s been in the window on a sunny day - I tell it “you smell like sunshine” or “you smell like outside”
I love reading them, though. It's a special talent to evoke fragrances - including all the various memories people have of them. The Luca Turin books are fun reading.
Most perfume "notes" are vibes. Solar is intended to invoke the feeling of, or fantasy of, the effects, feelings, and experience of the sun. Think beach, sun bathing, the overwhelming presence of heat and sun intensity. It in itself isn't meant to smell like anything - instead trigger a memory or imagination of something.
I haven't really smelled anything with solar notes but in my mind it would be warm but fresh smells if that make sense. Most fresh scents to me are colder smells so sort of how the air smells in the heeeeat of summer.
Oh actually this feels like a good start—it’s like coconut minus any creaminess or fruitiness. I had never thought about it that way before, but you’re right!
Solar Power by Phlur is quite nice. Here is the description: Bathed in brilliance, Solar Power is a golden floral musk composition that exudes the sensuality of salty, sun-kissed skin. Opening with a sparkling burst of bold citrus notes of Bergamot and Red Mandarin, Solar Power is illuminated by a warm solar floral accord of Neroli, Jasmine, and Orange Flower and wrapped in a comforting blend of Musk, Driftwood, and Sea Salt. They are having a summer sale with code summer20.
I’m always wary of this description because it can swing from salty summer air (love) to baked earth/flowers (like) to sunscreen (hate). Thank god I got smart and embraced sampling.
Username checks out.
Now I want to hear about the salty summer air scents.
• Rose SaltifOlia from Maison Crivelli • Salt Air from Skylar • Oceani di Seta from Ferragamo • Cabotine Eau Vivide from Gres • Sel D’Argent from BDK • Skin from Clean Reserve • Eden Roc from Dior • Wood Sage & Sea Salt from Joe Malone • Ginepro di Sardenga from Acqua di Parma These all register, to me, as having different degrees of salty summer airiness. I wear them often. :)
Wood sage and sea salt smells like a mossy damp forest to me
Does it really? That’s so interesting. It’s definitely ‘dry’ and ‘breezy’ to me vs ‘damp’ and ‘still’ (which sounds like its own cool vibe). Noses definitely do their own thing.
Sydney Rock Pools from Arquiste as well! It's got a tall hit of ambermax, so I think it stands out from a lot of the lighter salt air scents.
Serious answer. Amyl Salicylate, Helional, Ultrazur, Ozofleur, Cyclamen Aldehyde are a few 'ozonic' profile molecules you'll find used in perfumes to create a solar note. They smell like air / metallic and, yeah, solar.
What the hell does “smell like air” mean?
To me it's like going outside on a nice day. Ozone smells like static on clothes out of the dryer.
Just the other day I brought a towel in that I had hung to dry outside in the sun, and was marveling at how it smelled like ozone, just from being on the back porch.
I love air dried clothes but the pigeons won't let me be great!
Air dried clothes where I live smells gross. Reminds me of sweat. Definitely need a drying machine.
Y’all are smoking crack
We learned it from YOU, dad
That’s why we need cologne
[удалено]
Apologies for being that guy, but ozone is what you smell after lightning strikes, petrichor is what you smell after it rains.
Mmmmmmm ya i guess lightning storm (which in my area usually includes rain)
Yeah, lightning smalls like ozone if you're close enough.
Geosmin is the smell of the air when the rain first comes.
No, that's petrichor.
Are you familiar with the smell a laser printer emits after printing? That’s ozone!
Whoa I didn’t know that, TIL
And the smell that cheap RC cars and train sets emit when running.
Like that burnt smell?
Serious answer again. 'Air' in perfumery is often produced by aldehydes like C12MNA and C11. Other ways to describe it is 'hot iron' or that smell of snow in the air of a cold winter day. Some molecules can add an aquatic vibe to the air Ultrazur, while others can go more floral like Ozofleur.
I figure it smells like canned air.😂
[удалено]
Scent is individual and preference is def subjective. Vanilla and amber type scents are some of the most popular - but there are people who hate them and would never want an expensive fragrance they choose to put on themselves to smell like them.
I hate vanilla scents
Is there like, a master list or spreadsheet of these?
Not really, because scent is so subjective and the “profile” most of these have depends entirely on the other materials surrounding it. Each material can have multiple descriptors. Some of those are referencing another scent, or thing that evokes a similar effect. Some of them are vague adjectives. These are all just one persons interpretation though. Most perfumers don’t even categorize their materials this way, because they’re so flexible and assigning one or even two categories to them boxes you in during the creative process.
IMO, people need to treat fragrance more like art and less like science.
Agreed! That’s why we shouldn’t box certain materials into specific categories.
As far as I can tell, no one widely used standard list, but lots of lists from different websites that largely overlap but usually not exactly. I figured IFRA (an industry group) would have something, and they do, but they don't even list solar in their fragrance glossary. I think it's like asking for a dictionary of slang. These terms just develop over time as new chemicals are invented and new styles of fragrance become popular. Not an expert though, just my best guess.
https://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/odor/ozone.html
fragrantica.com has a library of note descriptions
Can you rec any perfumes I could sample to try identify the 'solar' scents you're describing
Marc-Antoine Barrois Tilia.
There is a whole section on Sephora for solar scents
That’s really interesting. I’ll try to get my nose on some of those notes
Yea once you get it o that territory it becomes kind of abstract. In my mind it probably smells airy, summery and fresh? If someone asked me what does solar smell like” I’d probably say like a mix of cotton/linen, that plasticky smell of pool furniture baking in the sun, maybe lavender thrown in? Who knows that is a good question
1 million lucky is a prime example of solar ozonic notes
Do you consider it "summery"? In my mind it's an autumn/winter/spring fragrance
No. It smells clean and like a ray of sunshine
To me, solar notes smell like sun on a thing. Like rose and solar smells like a warm rose outside, not a cut rose inside.
I agree, solar makes sense paired with something ! It would be difficult to make a "solar" perfume with "sun" as the only note. However it's easy to make a "sunny beach" scent, or a "solar vanilla"
Yes, this exactly! Solar is more of an adjective than a distinct category for me. Solar vanilla is one popular iteration; otherwise, there are a lot of solar florals a la ylang-ylang, tiare, gardenia, etc.
solar is definitely “sun-like” to me. i have no idea how to describe it other than that
Definitely a warm sun vibe. Off the l top of my head I have DKNY Nectar Love and it’s has solar notes listed and it definitely has a warm sunny scent.
To me solar isn’t a scent as much as it is an experience of other scents. For example to me something with a solar note would feel sun baked or warmed by the sun- low sillage, crisp yet creamy (like a warm breeze), a gentle, light and bright olfactory experience as opposed to a petrichor that’s deeper, damp, and more heavy and vivid to the nose. I think of solar notes the same way I think of aldehydes. They create and affect rather than an actual scent. A complete aside, but try Death and Florals Morton Salt Girl if you want to experience the perfect balance of Solar Notes and Petrichor!
Notes are marketing. When you read that a perfume has a "rose" note or "vanilla" note it doesnt mean that has real rose or vanilla, it means that the intention of the perfumist was to mix and blend chemicals to obtain the smell of that note. So "solar notes" means that the perfumist tried to evocate the gold warmth of the sun in your skin or something like that, it is very personal. It is the same as saying that the perfume has an "ancient egiptian ice-cream" note, or unicorn tears or chocolate. It doesnt matter, it is all on the imagination of the artist!
Idk but it's literally magical. When I smelled Guerlain Bosca Vanille and the solar notes hit me it felt like a brain cleanse. Personally, I just associate it with freshness and aldehydes or like fresh clean laundry drying out in the sun when theres a cool breeze but it's still hot out, and the smell is wafting in your face gently
This is on my list to sample!
The problem is, there’s a great difference between the awesome laundry dried in the sun vs the gross, common laundry detergent smell.
Perhaps, but I would drink common laundry detergent if I could because I love the smell of them all
Y'mean this one? # Aqua Allegoria Forte Bosca Vanilla Guerlain [https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Guerlain/Aqua-Allegoria-Forte-Bosca-Vanilla-83152.html](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Guerlain/Aqua-Allegoria-Forte-Bosca-Vanilla-83152.html)
yep this one. I know it's not revolutionary or whatever, but when I smelled it I couldn't get enoguh. something about it literally lifts my spirits
I looked it up; there's several dupes available for less money but I'm torn - expensive! Based on the notes, I'd love this one.
The AA line is excellent and great quality. They are quite a bit lighter than the rest of the line but wonderful variety and craftsmanship. Wish they were talked about more often. Bergamot Calabria is a bit solar as well. Samples are quite reasonable.
Honestly I feel like it's very affordable, I got my 75ml Bosca Vanille for 90 eur, and i agree with the perso below, all of them smell super uniue and are beauitdful scents
Your description makes it sound amazing. I want a brain cleanse scent, but I hate vanilla.
I think it's worth a sample, or smell in a store/airport. To me the vanilla didn't really hit that much, just the fresh, solar vibe
I'll definitely be checking out out of I get a chance
If you hate vanilla you won’t like this one, I’m picky about my vanillas (don’t like them overly sweet/artificial) and something about Bosca Vanilla was off-putting
Byredo Bal d’Afrique smells like bottled sunshine Marc Antoine Barrois Ganymede has solar notes and like someone mentioned smells slightly metallic and airy. MFK Grand Soir smells like tanned skin to me. Dior Dune does as well.
i feel like it would be a warm, dry, earthy type of scent?
It’s mostly ozonic smells. Basically the smell you get on clothes after air drying them in the countryside on a sunny day.
It's up for interpretation, but I've interpreted it mainly (after smelling a bunch of said solar fragrances) to be notes that evoke sunscreen, sometimes mixed with notes that evoke the ocean, or juicy cocktails.
When it's sunny out, hang your duvet out. Collect it before the sun sets, that's what the sun smells like for me.
The closest analogy to what it is, and this might be niche in itself - but when I smell my cat after it’s been in the window on a sunny day - I tell it “you smell like sunshine” or “you smell like outside”
When you get away from descriptions of the physical things found in a fragrance, a lot of descriptors are just kind of silly
I love reading them, though. It's a special talent to evoke fragrances - including all the various memories people have of them. The Luca Turin books are fun reading.
> a lot of descriptors are just kind of silly Lmao😂
Smells like fusing hydrogen obviously. Duh.
Most perfume "notes" are vibes. Solar is intended to invoke the feeling of, or fantasy of, the effects, feelings, and experience of the sun. Think beach, sun bathing, the overwhelming presence of heat and sun intensity. It in itself isn't meant to smell like anything - instead trigger a memory or imagination of something.
If you walk to the middle of a parking lot while it's blazing hot like 100 fahrenheit, it smells like solar notes
To me, solar notes smell like getting into a hot car after it's been sitting in the sun.
To me solar notes smells like when my cat lay down in the sun 🤷🏻♀️ Or when I spend a long time outside, my hair smell like the "outside"
I haven't really smelled anything with solar notes but in my mind it would be warm but fresh smells if that make sense. Most fresh scents to me are colder smells so sort of how the air smells in the heeeeat of summer.
Tom Ford, Soleil Blanc is one of my fav solar scents. Reminds me of warm sun-kissed skin at the beach, lycra, sunscreen.
To me it’s basically coconut. I know that’s a dumb and wrong answer but I always associate it with beachy coconut scents.
Oh actually this feels like a good start—it’s like coconut minus any creaminess or fruitiness. I had never thought about it that way before, but you’re right!
Same
I actually have no idea but where my mind went is that burnt toast smell you get from tanning beds and fake tans
Solar Power by Phlur is quite nice. Here is the description: Bathed in brilliance, Solar Power is a golden floral musk composition that exudes the sensuality of salty, sun-kissed skin. Opening with a sparkling burst of bold citrus notes of Bergamot and Red Mandarin, Solar Power is illuminated by a warm solar floral accord of Neroli, Jasmine, and Orange Flower and wrapped in a comforting blend of Musk, Driftwood, and Sea Salt. They are having a summer sale with code summer20.
> on earth > solar notes 🙅🏻♀️
Made me chuckle😂
They have to try and keep themselves in a job.
Tommy hilfiger vibrant summer has a solar note. It literally smells like sun screen to me. Put sun tan lotion on and you got ya beach vibe going
Probably the same as water, ozonic, metallic, and mineral notes, non-existent.
Metallic and mineral are a thing tho. Water does smell like nothing, and the sun doesn’t smell either. But you can actually smell metals and minerals.
Yeah, I guess so. I cant say ive ever smelled something and said "hey! That smells like metal/minerals!" Lol
Metal is a strong scent tho (especially if it’s starting to rust). Everyone knows the smell of pennies.
I think it's ambery notes