Fruity notes are making a comeback, with many new launches featuring ingredients you’re more used to seeing in the chiller cabinets of the supermarket.
Luscious peach, glamorous cherry and the positively otherworldly dragon fruit are just a few of the beautiful notes creating a modern harvest of aromas. Might this new trend be inspired by our increasing love of world food flavours and tropical cocktails?
Our feeling is Tom Ford’s successful Lost Cherry fragrance, launched in 2018 and created by perfumer Louise Turner, had something to do with it, with its bold, glamorous use of the note. Suddenly, fruit notes got interesting and sexy, becoming the hero ingredients rather than the support players.
These palate-cleansing fragrances offer a succulent, mouth watering brightness; they’re the groovier cousins of the sticky sweet gourmand trend that has been dominating the market. There’s a sense of deliberate optimism about them, layered with a strong sense of fun and glamour and peppered with gentle eccentricity. Hold tight, fragrance fans, this could be a wild ride.
Suncrest by Ulrich Lang New York – peach fuzz in a bottle
The first fruit in the bowl is the mouthwatering Suncrest, by Ulrich Lang New York, named after a popular American strain of peach and so delicious you really do want to lick the bottle. Peach Fuzz is Pantone’s colour of 2024, so Ulrich was ahead of the game when he launched this fresh-off-the-tree scent in 2023, it’s as if you are holding the sun warmed fruit in the palm of your hand.
It has a glistening, juicy sparkle, full of clean lemony freshness and sunshine. There’s a hint of sweetness, but mostly it’s all about the melding of zingy, peachy fleshiness with grown-up hints of freesia-style florals. Original, upbeat and gorgeous.
Indecent Cherry by Born To Stand Out – badly behaved cherries
Cherry is having a moment in fragrance, with perfumers exploiting its rich, lusciously velvet qualities, replacing familiar Cherry Tune vibes with something altogether more adult. Born To Stand Out’s Indecent Cherry is a good example and it gives us a chance to talk about this deliberately provocative South Korean brand, with its headline grabbing fragrance titles.
Indecent Cherry opens with a glossy cherry note, softening – through textural saffron and amber – to a more sensual and almost cosy warmth. But there’s a rebellious heart here, the fragrance blooms into a smudge of leather, a musky rose and is that boozy strawberry peeking through? It feels naughty, but with a ‘who, me?’ innocence layered through it. Deliciously fun.
Camélia by Ella K – well travelled dragon fruit
Adding a well travelled vibe to the fruit bowl is Ella K’s Camélia, which features the devilishly exotic dragonfruit. Its unusual strawberry-pear note is used here with a zing of ginger to create an energetic, mouth watering start to the scent. It’s fruity, but also refreshing, with hints of freshly squeezed fruit juice sipped at sunrise on far away beaches.
Here brand founder Sonia Constant, has created an olfactory image of a camellia she experienced in northern Vietnam. As the fragrance progresses it switches to an accomplished and clever floral, throwing a red camellia note together with a bunch of orange blossom and jasmine. It’s warmed through with a delicate vanilla and patchouli and lingers long on warm skin.
Rose Rhubarb by Experimental Perfume Club – the rhubarb renaissance
The rhubarb note is having a renaissance, with its crisp, fruity-herbaceous tang providing a usefully unexpected hook for modern perfumers. It’s the ingredient that is hard to pin down when you first inhale a fragrance containing it, but once you know, it’s so very obvious you wonder how you missed it.
With E.P.C’s Rose Rhubarb, we’ve moved away from the allotment and into the boudoir, where a bunch of beautiful English roses are gently scenting the room. Layered over their sweet floralness is the rhubarb, bringing an energy and earthiness to the fragrance. It’s a stunning combination, clear, sensual and elegant but very grounded in nature. No custard needed here.
Carioca Heart by Jusbox – pineapple with a bossa nova beat
Created by Italians and inspired by Brazilians, it’s no wonder this gorgeous, fun loving Carioca Heart feels full of fruity party vibes. We’re big fans of Jusbox, whose brother and sister founders Andrea and Chiara Valdo use music as a starting point for all their scents. Here they’ve chosen to celebrate the seductive Bossa Nova beat by celebrating sparkling- rather than sweet- pineapple and lickably luscious mango notes – we are on Copacobana beach after all. It’s balanced with soft vanilla and sandalwood for a fragrance that manages to be both joyously celebratory and comforting sensual at the same time. Viva o perfume!
Our beautiful images are by Josh David Payne and styled by Megan Mandeville.
