Is it the coolest time ever in New York—late ’70s, early ’80s, the punk scene? It’s got to be top three,” says David Moltz, the ebullient perfumer of Brooklyn’s D.S. & Durga, when discussing his salt-sprayed ode to Rockaway Beach. The fragrance shares its name with the sandy stretch of Queens accessible by public transit, but it’s the Ramones’ 1977 hit about the place that inspired Moltz: “A quick song about the simple joys of life,” he says.
When fragrances bottle up a sun-soaked holiday, where do we want to be transported? Francis Kurkdjian, Dior’s perfume creation director, hit the Côte d’Azur, finding himself caught in the cross breeze of roses and a “majestic fig tree, my sole companion,” on the way to making Dioriviera. For Elad Yifrach, whose design brand L’Objet just debuted four perfumes, Corsica calls. The island’s shoreline prompted Côté Maquis, a blend of labdanum, marine air, and cashmeran.
After all, the truest mandate for summer break is rejuvenation, paving the way for uplifting scents. “It’s all about emotion first,” Vyrao founder Yasmin Sewell says of her fragrances’ focus on well-being, with the new Sun Ræ summoning joy. The ingredient list reads “almost like an Ayurvedic potion”; it also reminds her of an Italian cologne. A morning juice at the Beverly Hills Hotel caught the nose of Louis Vuitton master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud.