Marine perfumes

Sea notes under many names

On a notes list the sea appears as marine notes, sea notes, seabreeze, sea salt, seamoss or seaweed, and they are not the same thing. Marine and sea notes are composed accords. Salt and seaweed point to a texture that is mineral and slightly briny. Seabreeze and ozone describe air rather than water. Most of them are built from aroma molecules and accords instead of being extracted, so each house writes its own sea, and the note changes a great deal from one perfume to the next.

The sea in unexpected company

Fruit is one partner. Lorenzo Pazzaglia Summer Hammer opens with mango, pineapple, coconut, tropical notes, bergamot and white rum, puts coconut milk, marine notes and white flowers in the heart, and ends in vetiver, musk, sandalwood and Indian amber. Pernoire Naki is labelled Fruity · Floral by the house. Peach, almond blossom and passion fruit sit above fig leaves, sandalwood and white flowers, and the seabreeze arrives only in the base, with osmanthus, white musk and vanilla.

Leather and ice are another. Stéphane Humbert Lucas Sea my Love lists mandarin and salt in the top, leather, jasmine and sea notes in the heart, and amber, musk, patchouli and benzoin in the base. Zoologist Penguin carries the house tagline Icy Salty Sea + Suede: antarctic air, an ice accord and juniper berry open, pink pepper, saffron and cistus follow, and sandalwood, musks, seamoss and suede close the base.

Citrus, fig and ozone make a third. Lorenzo Pazzaglia Sex-Sea opens with a long list of top notes: yuzu, bergamot, mandarin and pink grapefruit among them, plus absinthe, mint and cedar. Fig, ozone and marine notes meet white flowers and oakmoss in the heart, and seaweed, salt, ambergris and patchouli form the base. The same house, Lorenzo Pazzaglia, also makes Summer Hammer.

Heart, base or both

Marine notes sit most often in the heart, where they connect a bright opening to a warm base. Summer Hammer, Sea my Love and Sex-Sea all do this. Lower down the vocabulary changes. Seabreeze in the base of Naki and seamoss in the base of Penguin read as a lingering trace rather than a splash, and ambergris and salt carry the idea further still.

Picking your marine perfume

Decide whether the sea should be the subject or the accent. As the subject, it wants salt, seaweed and ozone around it. As an accent, it works with fruit, flowers or leather in the heart and does the brightening. Then look at the base: musk and sandalwood keep it soft, amber and benzoin warm it, suede and patchouli darken it. Citrus, musk and sandalwood are the natural neighbours to explore next.