2025 summer fragrance rotation
my perfect perfume tray and candle rotation for june, july, and august
“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”
Anyone who knows me knows that I love perfumes, and I’ve historically been the go-to person among my friend groups whenever they need a perfume recommendation. I also think there is something so special about trying to describe scents, because they differ based on your skin chemistry with the perfume. Your sense of smell is also actually directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, which are the two regions that control your emotions and memories. I think that’s why I think of perfumes as something precious, something that requires a lot of thought to purchase (also because most of them are very expensive).
As such, I truly believe that one of the loveliest and most romantic things to describe are perfumes. Like literature, each scent interprets differently for everyone and attaches itself to a personal constellation of memories. Talking about perfumes is quite literally the olfactory form of translating and analyzing a text.
Scents hold so many memories, that sometimes, I will smell something specific and have a vivid flashback, transported back to somewhere from years ago—a mundane day at the park with my parents when I was seven, on a school bus in middle school, or even think of friends I fell out with years ago. I’ve given perfumes away because I associate them with memories I don’t want to be reminded of anymore (perfumes that are terminal for me).
Here is my summer perfume rotation for this year (eleven bottles) with some candles I like burning in the summer (seven candles) which I think is a great blend of floral, clean, light gourmand, bright, and romantic. More of the underrated, niche perfumes I own are beyond the paywall! I tried something new and made moodboards of each perfume from Pinterest pictures.
CASAMORATI dama bianca
NOTES || kumquat, lime / violet, italian iris, lilac, egyptian jasmine, lily-of-the-valley / vanilla, malt, white musk, sandalwood, cedar
An angelic powdery kumquat-vanilla scent with a purple floral note that chases you through the day on the dry down. Lira (Casamorati’s lemon vanilla pound cake scent)’s spring counterpart. A delicate breeze through a flower garden in mid April, citrus covered in icing sugar and baby powder that falls into a pillowy vanilla white musk base. All notes draped in diaphanous, billowing linen, Dama Bianca is a soft, ethereal presence in the springtime whispering about precipice of summer.
(layer with Diptyque’s L’eau Papier for more muskiness, and with Indult’s Tihota for more sweetness.)
PARFUMS DE MARLY delina
NOTES || lychee, rhubarb, bergamot, nutmeg / turkish rose, peony, musk, vanilla / cashmeran, incense, cedar, haitian vetiver
Princess in a bottle. Delina is an hyperfeminine fruity floral that doesn’t whisper at all and follows you throughout the day in the same capacity. The sweetness of the lychee and tartness of the rhubarb slowly simmers in a pot of candied pink flower petals, creating a jammy concoction dashed with vanilla. A romantic ode to running through a rose garden in the springtime with a picnic basket full of pink fruit, covered in a cashmere blanket. A compliment chaser in the warmer months.
NISHANE wulóng chá
NOTES || bergamot, orange, mandarin orange / oolong tea, nutmeg / fig, musk
Iced oolong tea sipped in a sleek glass cup on a temperate spring day under a citrus tree, wearing a loose linen shirt and a perfect pair of blue jeans. Wulong Cha is a classic green tea scent done flawlessly; the coolness of the tea notes are well balanced out by the brightness of the citrus notes, although subdued and waxy enough to blend in seamlessly. The absence of any woody notes and the creamy fig musk base creates an airy clean hotel lobby scent.
(I prefer spraying this on clothes, as I like the scent of it before it reacts with skin)