Nothing beats looking good, feeling good and the cherry on top: smelling good. If you’re anything like me, and you love a warm, comforting scent, but can easily get a headache from overbearing fragrances, then you need to try “skin scents.” The idea behind skin scents is that perfume is meant to be a second skin with a low sillage that clings to you and works uniquely with your skin chemistry. It makes for an intoxicating scent that smells like you but better! It’s understated, effortless and so chic. Here is my list of favorite perfumes that will make people wonder if you’re wearing a perfume or if you were just born that way.
1. Another 13 – Le Labo
First on the list is the fragrance that got me hooked on skin scents. Another 13’s magic ingredient is called ambroxyde. It’s a synthetic musk that, despite its artificial nature, smells like clean, warm skin. Jasmine and moss add a quiet, earthy complexity.
I couldn’t stop sniffing my wrists whenever I wore this. It’s simply addictive and lasts the entire day!
2. Not A Perfume – Juliet Has A Gun
Contrary to the scent house’s name, this “perfume” is disarming. It’s my current favorite, because it’s much more affordable than Le Labo, but has the same “you but better” scent. This is a molecular perfume, meaning it’s composed of a single synthetic molecule: cetalox. When I initially sprayed this on a tester strip, it smelled like almost nothing, as is the case with most molecular fragrances. But once on skin, Not A Perfume interacts with your chemistry and blossoms into a clean, musky, ambery scent.
While I find it more straightforward than Another 13, and the longevity isn’t quite as strong, it’s still impressive for such a minimalist formula.
3. Milk – Dedcool
Creamy, sleepy, skin. That’s how I would describe this one. Dedcool lists notes of bergamot, white musk and amber. I found Milk to be the sweetest scent on this list, but the sweetness doesn’t shout; it’s more of a whisper. Unfortunately, I find that the longevity of this scent is not the best. It was honestly almost gone after a couple of hours. Still, nothing a reapplication can’t fix. It’s worth it for a scent so yummy!
4. You – Glossier
The quintessential clean girl fragrance. The base notes are ambrette and ambrox, giving it a warm, slightly sweet and musky scent. The perfume has a slightly floral scent, which I don’t usually love, but it works perfectly in You. Like all the perfumes on this list, it’s suited for all occasions. I have to say that I got the most compliments when wearing this one! And as college students, You by Glossier gets brownie points for being the most affordable on the list.
5. Missing Person – PHLUR
I personally haven’t tried this one, but because of how viral it went on social media, I just had to mention it. Its list of notes sounds like the perfect potion for a delicious skin scent: bergamot nectar, jasmine, white musk and sandalwood. One TikTok reviewer claimed Missing Person smells like “someone you love,” while another said it smells like the sweatshirt your special person leaves at your place. Either way, it sounds beautiful.
Scent is so much more than a concoction of flowers and musk. It can hold memories, identity and confidence, making finding a signature fragrance so personal and intimate. The best perfumes, though, don’t overpower and instead allow what is most important to shine through: you! After all, it’s you wearing the fragrance, not the other way around.