Scents Inspired by Your Favourite Destinations.
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Places have a smell.
Salt and sun cream on a beach. Spices and warm stone in a market. Pine and cold air in the mountains. And it’s one of the reasons scent and travel are so linked, because a fragrance can genuinely remind you of a place more effectively than a photograph sometimes.
This guide matches some of the world’s most popular holiday destinations to the types of scents that belong there, so whether you’re planning a trip or just want a fragrance that captures a place you love, you know where to start.
Perfumes to Wear in The Mediterranean
Think Greece, the South of France and the Amalfi Coast.
It goes without saying that the scent of the Mediterranean is bright and clean with citrus groves, salty air, white flowers in the heat and a little cedar underneath.
Scents that remind you of this part of the world tend to use bergamot, neroli, sea salt and white musk as their foundation. They’re classed as ‘solar’ or ‘citrus floral’ on most fragrance sites, performing well in warm weather because they don’t become overwhelming when your skin heats up. If you’re someone with a warmer body temperature or tend to find heavier scents too much in summer, this is the scent family worth exploring first.
At Eden, our Paradoxe inspired perfume captures this really well, so invest in it for those warm evenings by the Mediterranean ocean.
Perfumes to Wear in Morocco
Marrakech has one of the most distinctive smells of any city, thanks to rose water, leather, incense from the mosques, spices drifting out of the souks and sweet mint tea being poured nearby.
Fragrances inspired by Morocco use rose absolute, oud, amber, cardamom and sandalwood. They’re warmer and more complex than most everyday scents and they develop slowly with oud and amber taking an hour or two to fully come through on skin, so always try these on your wrist rather than a paper strip before buying.
At Eden, Blanche perfume alternative is a perfect match for this country and is well worth trying if richer, more complex scents are what you’re after.
Perfumes to Wear in The Tropics
If you’ve ever been to Bali, Thailand, the Caribbean or the Maldives, you know the smell here is lush and warm. Think tiare flower and frangipani in the air, coconut on skin, a softness that’s hard to replicate anywhere outside of actual humidity. These are the dominant notes: tiare, ylang ylang, jasmine, which tend to be smooth and rounded so they wear well even in the tropical heat.
Tiare flower is worth knowing about if you don’t already. It’s the base ingredient in Monoi oil, recognisable from many sun and hair products, with a creamy, sweet quality that’s genuinely distinctive. A fragrance built around it smells unmistakably like a warm-weather holiday.
Eden’s Bronze Goddess inspired perfume is a great starting point if this is the direction you’re looking for.
Perfumes to Wear in Scandinavia
Scandinavia is made up of the countries Norway, Iceland, Finland and Sweden. These places smell completely different to anywhere warm. The atmosphere is infused with cold mineral air, pine resin, the greenness of birch trees and woodsmoke from somewhere in the distance. Nordic-inspired scents use cedarwood, juniper, birch, cool aquatics, green notes and white musks without sweetness or warmth to speak of.
They’re a brilliant option if you find most fragrances too heavy or too sweet, or if you want a green perfume that smells clean and stands apart from the popular scents.
Our Matcha perfume captures exactly this, thanks to its understated, clean aroma that is Scandi in essence.
Perfumes to Wear in The Middle East
Oud is one of the most expensive raw ingredients in perfumery, coming from the resinous heartwood of the agar tree, which takes decades to form naturally. Across the Gulf, in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman, it’s central to fragrance culture in a way it simply isn’t in the West.
Perfume there is worn generously, layered and meant to be noticed, with oud sitting alongside rose, saffron and amber at the heart of most blends.
These are deep, long-lasting scents that project well and stay on skin for hours. If you’ve visited this part of the world and want to hold onto something of it, or you’re drawn to richer, more serious perfumery in general, this is the category to explore.
At Eden, Angelica Tuberose inspired fragrance uses genuine oud at a price point that’s genuinely hard to find elsewhere in this space.
Not Sure Where to Start?
All of our fragrances are inspired by iconic designer scents that you can wear anywhere around the world — so there’s a good chance the one you’ve been looking for is already here.