A warm breeze swirling salt air off the shoreline, the sun on your skin, the sound of waves tumbling—beachy scents are designed to bottle these experiences. And often, a key note for conveying that feeling is, well, salt. Its minerally nature can make you feel like you’re dipping your toes in the sand, even if you’re whiffing a test sample in the middle of the mall. But this year, it’s gaining more traction, becoming a more dominant player in fragrance blends in general—and it’s not expected to lose steam come Labor Day, either.
“Over the last few years, we are seeing sea salt becoming a more fashion-forward fragrance trend,” says Mary Testa-Gough, associate vice president of product and fragrance development at Bath & Body Works.
Like sprinkling sea salt on a dessert to enhance its richness, the scent is prized for its versatility, complementing and even enlivening a range of fragrance notes. It “creates a more faceted sensorial contrast,” she adds. “It pairs beautifully with blue aquatic watery notes, musk, creamy vertical woods and amber, sandalwood, cedar, oud, solar florals such as orange blossom. When combined with tropical fruits such as mango, passionfruit [and] pineapple, sea salt amplifies the juiciness while adding a savory mineral quality that feels both unexpected and addictive.”
Beyond being an unexpected twist that elevates a fragrance, our desire for that pinch of sea salt represents a larger cultural movement: a growing shift, as humans, to touch grass; even through the scents we wear. That may be why less conventional scents, like tomato—with its earthy, herbaceous notes—and banana (fruity, yet a little vegetal) have also taken hold in recent years. We’re craving complex scents that can root us in the present, even if we’re in 9-to-5 environments that plant us in front of screens.
