Dive In! The Aquatic Scents Unlocking Our Inner Mermaid
September 8 | 4 minute read
Words by Izzy Wight
Forget your sun and rising sign – are you more mermaid or fairy? Personally, I’ve had a penchant for the mystical, silvery-scaled elegance of merfolk since my days playing in the pool.
While adult life quieted the call of Atlantis (only slightly), the recent rise in mermaid-related media has brought with it an overwhelm of salty, shimmering nostalgia. Nautical nonsense has made a runway reprise, the sequel to everyone’s favourite mergirl coming-of-age movie, Aquamarine, is making its way to our screens and in the beauty world, beachy, aquatic scents are suddenly everywhere.
Interested in channelling Ariel? Here’s what to spritz.
If H2O: Just Add Water had a scent, this would be it! With refreshing citrus notes (calamansi, bergamot), marine accords and creamy coconut, PHLUR’s Island Swim is pure, summery fun. You'll want to spritz this mist liberally – the light-blue juice is sweet at first, but settles into a beautifully bright, oceanic scent. Best worn with a bikini and a frangipani behind the ear.
Like all good mermaids, this scent is sparkly and sweet, with a generous sprinkle of sea salt. Balancing breezy mineral accords with heavier, dessert-oriented notes like whipped cream, Vanilla Salt offers a modern take on gourmand. The olfactory equivalent of ice cream eaten on a beach boardwalk.
The latest creation from the Brooklyn-based fragrance house, Rose Pacific is wild, cliffside rose bushes, sprayed with ocean air. While being underwater is, technically, not conducive to having a signature scent, I imagine a mermaid with pearly-pink scales spritzing this in the morning. It’s the fruity, coastal cousin of Rose Atlantic.
It’s common knowledge that a mermaid’s favourite time of day is dusk (what are they going to do... prove me wrong?), and Maison Margiela’s latest fragrance is a tropical ode to golden hour. Nosed by four masterful perfumers, it opens with a warm, spicy mango, melting into white florals and settling into a soft, smooth, woody vanilla blend.
While the Little Mermaid was, famously, captivated by all the gadgets and gizmos of dry land, the scent of silverware and candelabras is not very enticing. The best mermaid-esque scents celebrate the treasures of the sea, like salt-crusted driftwood and hidden beachside forests. A crowd-pleasing blend of musk, sea salt, citrus and sage, Jo Malone’s iconic cologne is delightfully soft and skin- (or should that be scale?) like.
