Perhaps this scenario is familiar: You express enthusiasm for a fragrance, and a friend notes — maybe with a little smugness — that she doesn’t wear perfume. She’d rather smell “fresh and clean.”
Little does she know that the fresh and clean smell she likes so much is perfume. The bar of soap in her shower, the box of laundry detergent she bought last weekend, the spot remover she uses when kitty has an accident — it’s all scented and calculated to smell clean. These products define and perpetuate our idea of “clean.”
Soap? Musk and orange blossom practically define “soapy” these days, although the musk could also be hopped up with rose, linden, or grape-sweet lavender. Citrus, especially orange, often registers as clean. Pine smells clean, too. Think of Pinesol or the tree-shaped air fresheners dangling from so many rear view mirrors. Thanks to the calone explosion in the 1990s, the combination of ozone, melon, and cucumber often read as rain fresh. Air fresheners have ruined lilac for me for good. And then there’s powdery clean.
Besides industrial fragrances, whole perfume lines have risen dedicated to smelling fresh. Witness Clean. Dana Classic Fragrances Love’s Baby Soft line has their own brand of clean. (You’d think Fresh would be a clean fragrance line, but these are the people who brought us Brown Sugar.)
But what does clean really smell like? Clean sheets smell like cotton. Clean dishes don’t smell like old food. Clean skin smells like skin. (A clean dog still kind of smells like a dog but that’s o.k.) None of them in their natural state smells like a guest soap.
If you’re going to be surrounded by fragrance anyway, why pretend it doesn’t exist? Unless you deliberately want to play on the public perception of clean, why not move beyond the clean musk and orange blossom and choose something that fits your mood or expresses your personality? No matter how freshly scrubbed I am, I’m more likely to want to smell happy or smart or interesting than “clean.”
When you do want to feel fresh and clean, decide that what that means to you. Maybe it means lavender or cucumber. Or maybe it means nothing but a bath with unscented soap.
When you want to smell “fresh” and “clean,” what fragrances do you reach for?
Note: top image is Color soap bars on fluffy white towel [cropped] by Horia Varlan at flickr; some rights reserved.
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I had a bottle of Aqua di Gio, because it reminded me of the smell of Imperial Leather bath soap.
What a great association!
Soundtrack suggestion: “Clean” by Depeche Mode…
Love it! Much better than “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair.”
I usually reach for Bulgari Pour Homme when I need to smell ‘clean and fresh’.
I don’t know that one. Bulgari Green Tea is probably pretty clean to many people, too.
That is the one Bulgari Tea that I don’t have…
It’s a classic!
The only “fresh and clean” scents I have much truck with are those tinged with green or woody notes, ie. Mugler Cologne, Irish Spring, and anything pine-centric. A burst of forest-air freshness rather than room-spray floral or Calonic sneeze fluid. Failing that, a simple citrus musk usually scratches my itch for fresh n’ clean (Mugler Cologne covers this ground as well). Overall, though, I feel clean fragrances are best suited to the shower or laundry room, not a perfume bottle. Where’s the fun in that?
My thoughts exactly! I do want my bathroom to smell clean, but I’d rather smell a little more interesting than that.
I reach for AG Mandragore Pourpre if I’m aiming for “fresh & clean”. Its mix of anise & other herbs, mint and citrus makes me think of a person after their morning ritual (showered, teeth brushed, splash of cologne) which, to me, is preferable to smelling like a pile of laundry.
As for the wider point – in The Guide, either TS or LT rightly point out that experience and familiarity play a large role in how we perceive and categorise scents so if a person were to grow up with soap smelling like Opium then that would be their idea of a clean smell.
Point well taken. Once I saw a patchouli-scented stick deodorant and my jaw dropped.
L’Artisan Patchouli Patch is pretty darn woodsy-clean smelling.
It’s so hard to think of patchouli as clean! Maybe I’ve been around too many unwashed patchouli wearers…
Funny because its true! Ironically, I’ve been using a patchouli soap for the last two weeks. I love spicy-smelling soaps and toiletries in general. I don’t care about smelling soapy or citrusy and anyway, the scent wears off rather quickly post-shower.
There’s something skin-like about patchouli, too.
Ha! Perhaps the rationale is that something so strong is bound to mask any other smells quite effectively.
There are just so many ways “fresh and clean” could go!
My mom (now in her 70s) is a Total Sucker for a perfume that smells like fragranced soap. Aldehydes can be part of that “smells like soap” experience, and so can musk and certain floral blends. Witness her favorite perfumes: Chanel No. 5, Coty L’effleur (she even said of that one, “It smells clean – just like nice soap!”), Eliz. Arden 5th Avenue, Anais Anais, and Jovan Musk for Women.
I love that my mini bottle of AG Eau du Ciel (I think it’s d/c now?) smells very close to the way that the sheets dried on my clothesline smell. I don’t often want to smell like that, but when I do – well, there’s Eau du Ciel. Mariella Burani is a clean, just bathed-and-talcumed sort of smell, too. Orange blossom can often smell very much like soap to me, and that generally displeases me – if I’m getting “soap” out of a fragrance, I’m not interested.
And just recently, my picky almost-12-year-old (Taz, as he’s known on the blog) went sniffing with me, and he really liked Clarins Eau de Jardins, which is a very pretty, light, citrus-rose-woods fragrance. “It smells… fresh,” he said. “Fresh” does appeal to me in a way that “clean” often doesn’t, but since I find citrus on the boring side, I don’t wear it often; the exceptions are a couple of citrus-florals that I usually wear only in humid summer weather – Guerlain AA Pamplelune (no, no cat pee on me, cat pee would be the opposite of fresh) and Moschino Funny! Taz likes those as well.
Years ago at work I put on some Eau du Ciel in my cubicle. The girl in the next cubicle had a visitor and she remarked about smelling some kind of “cleaner.” So I’d say you’re dead on with that one! It [her remark] wasn’t meant to be derogatory, but a pure reaction to the sudden change in the air.
That’s funny. Now I’m going to have to smell it again.
I wonder if there is a Bizzarro World where soap fanatics (savonistas?) discuss their likes/dislikes of “perfume-y” soaps?
Love “savonista”!
Funny!
Hi hi! (=an appreciative giggle with Swedish accent)
Great comment with lots of good suggestions! I sure hope Eau du Ciel is still in production, though. It would be heartbreaking to see it disappear.
Eau du Ciel is on Nordstrom’s website, so I would take it that it is not discontinued. I can’t say whether it has been reformulated though.
Thank you!
That’s awfully funny – that people who claim they don’t wear or like perfume end up wafting their “cleanliness” as perfume-free. Rather hypocritical, I think.
I’ve mentioned this before, but for quite a while, the scent of laundry washed with our Tide detergent reminded me of Guerlain’s Jardin de Bagatelle. So does that mean JdB translates to “fresh and clean?” Absolutely no. It’s the other way around – my clothes smell scented, not that I mind. I think they’ve switched formulas, though. The hubby does most of the laundry these days so I’ll have to do a load from end to end to see what it smells like these days.
I DO think of citrus/green fragrances in that vein. I would put Sisley’s Eau de Campagne in that class; Eau Sauvage and any number of vetivers. Isabelle’s Ceylon also has that quality, even if it does incorporate a heady floral aroma. So I suppose, then that any type of citrus/green tea scents that’s not decorated with spices, woods, or vanilla would also fit the bill.
Commercially, Irish Spring is probably the ultimate except we don’t use it in our house (being a Scottish household….). I loved the scent of Yardley’s Old English Lavender before they neutered it and turned the bar white. I do like L’Occitane’s lavender and verbena soaps. Though that’s not quite commercial, it’s what I buy for my house most of the time…
Gah, my husband just bought a colossal package of Irish Spring at Costco. I hate that stuff (and not just because I, too, am of Scottish extraction). To my nose, it’s not so much fresh-and-clean as headache-in-a-box. I wish he’d revert to pinching my fancy bath products.
I do love verbena-scented stuff, though lavender puts me to sleep. And my mom is so into lavender that it seems like “her” scent to me.
Verbena is wonderful, I agree.
I can’t think of Irish Spring without going straight to “Manly, yes, but I like it, too”.
Irish Spring has a very “in your face” kind of freshness. I liked it a lot when I was young, but nowadays prefer more – ummm, “refined” options.
Any soap advertised with a seafaring jig probably doesn’t qualify as refined, that’s for sure.
When I started dating my husband, he used Irish Spring. I asked him to switch to a new soap, not because it’s not a nice scent — I agree it’s very manly. It is also my dad’s scent. It would not due to have that scent around when being romanced.
Yes, that could have been a little creepy.
How terrific that you don’t have to deal with laundry! Although I would love laundry that smelled like Jardins de Bagatelle.
I would, too.
I agree that experience has so much to do with our perception of a clean smell. To my nose, castile soap is a clean smell. Any of the Dr. Bronner’s liquid soaps do it for me but especially the lavender one. Murphy’s Oil Soap and Kirk’s Coco Hardwater soap also but I won’t be wearing those of course. As a fragrance, lavender is something I’d reach for to smell clean and fresh.
When we go camping or I have to bring something multipurpose, I always bring a Dr. Bronner’s Lavender. It’s sooo good!!!!!! Awesome dishwashing liquid, too.
I adore the packaging, too.
Hmm. Now I’m pondering fragrances that might hint at Murphy’s Wood Oil soap. I actually think some are out there.
My fresh ‘n’ clean scents include Eau de Rochas, Cristalle EDT, Ninfeo Mio, Tokyo Milk Sea and Sky, and Demeter Earl Grey Tea. Interestingly enough, the Guide describes Eau de Rochas as having a vaguely “garbagey decandence”; a fair number of folks get an ashtray effect from Cristalle (which I just noticed myself, and love); and I’ve heard Ninfeo Mio described as smelling like bug spray and/or cat pee. So I guess I’m really a dirty girl at heart
The scent that truly makes me feel refreshed inside and out, though, is CdG Avignon. I have no personal church-related associations with incense (though that would have been nice), but there’s something about it that seems to restore my mind and body to their factory settings, as it were.
I love all your perfume choices! And it only seems fitting that Avignon would push the reset button.
Yep, to me Eau de Rochas has something dirty in the drydown — which is what I love about it!
That goes for me, too!
I love Eau de Rochas – kind of dirty, but kind of clean, too. I want to smell some of the others you list.
Can’t stand the scent of most detergents – there was one, though, that smelled like Coppertone – kind of lily-like, I guess.
My favorite clean scent is what people smell like when they come inside after being outdoors for awhile.
NancyG, I love that smell, too, especially when it’s really cold outside and that person comes inside. There’s a smell to their bodies and clothes that’s indescribable. Or, maybe I just can’t describe it any longer after having lived in the south for 15 years. But I remember wishing someone could put that “outdoors” smell in a bottle.
That’s a great smell. I love how the weather can cling to a person for a few minutes.
I am a recruiter and use Avignon as my office room spray. No one has ever mentioned that it smells like church, but I do believe it has a “confessional” effect on people.
It is like Fel-Away for cats; it calms everyone down.
You’re a crafty one!
Clean, for me is anything lavender, Chanel’s No. 5 Eau premiere or Eau de Cologne, Body Shop’s White Musk, most of Philosophy’s “Grace” scents, Lush’s Silky Underwear powder and…well, soap. I do also like soap.
Yep, soap is a good one for smelling clean!
For fresh, I’ll reach for something green (Krizia Uomo) , a green chypre or a floral chypre (Balmain de Balmain), a citrus (Monsieur de Balmain), something with green tea (The pour un été, Bvlgari The vert extreme) or something very light like L’eau de l’Hermine. Verbena works really well too.
For clean… anything without cumin or vetiver (I know!… I just don’t really like vetiver). Lavender, neroli and lily-of-the-valley have been done so poorly and soo often that they never smell clean for me.
Green chypres often read as crisp and fresh to me, too. Miti is a good example.
I believe the appropriate perfumista response to the abovementioned friend in the first paragraph is to remark with a mixture of consternation and pity: “Oh, you mean the Procter & Gamble type of fresh and clean?” And fall silent, then change the subject.
Jk.
Well, sort of. This is the reason why I think we have quite a bit of responsibility to expose our kids to “good” smells, not just leave their olfactory memories to the likes of P&G and Unilever. It’s quite sad that few of the younger generation have any connection with anything beyond Tide, Pantene, Axe and BBW. I’m sure that if you’re reading this article, your kids, if you have any, have probably smelt a variety of nice soaps, but I think we could do with more olfactory awareness.
Oh, and “clean” to me is no odor. “Fresh” is citrus and neroli. Typical eaux de Cologne types. And maybe with a bit of woods and musk like Bulgari pour Homme.
Yes, that’s a good response! I usually settle for a withering look.
Pantene, in the days before P&G (and another predecessor) used to be a heavily scented, high-end brand. When I was young, I used to spend my hard-earned pennies to buy their products becaused I loved how they made my hair smell.
I remember fragrant Pantene.
Nice! I never had the chance to smell it, but I understand why you sought it out.
The original Pantene was gorgeous! Only sold in better department stores. I loved it!
Oh, I agree! Pantene in the late 80′s was the bomb! Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific was another great shampoo! I bought a bottle on ebay just for the memories.
Ooooh – I used that one in high school!
I loved their marketing. No messing around with mamby pamby names like Spring Mist or Gentle Cleansing Breeze.
That’s a good point. I do try and expose my kids to variety of smells, as well as to variety of food, so that as they grow up they will hopefully develop complex palates. Just yesterday after I picked a bunch of fresh mint from the garden I shoved it under my daughter’s noes for a smell. ‘Hmmmm … nice … ‘.
Yes, I love encouraging my son to smell everything natural, or even things that are not natural, as long as his understanding of the world isn’t limited to what is being aggressively marketed to us.
You’re a good parent.
Oh, I wish *that* were true, but thanks
I bet they will soon be bringing things to you to smell, too!
Aging myself, but singing Echo and the Bunnymen’s ‘Do it Clean’……anyway. Clean: really? Doesn’t everything smell rather rank in its natural state? And a true state of cleanliness lasts only a few minutes before things start turning again. I think it’s so interesting; the older I get, the more I realize that people have a very strange notion of clean. It’s like the people that live in a ‘clean’ house……sometimes, it’s just that stuff is picked up but the house itself it actually filthy. Or vice versa; stuff is strewn everywhere but all the hard surfaces are spotless.
I’m kind of like that. I am huge on showering; I’m not a clean freak but I enjoy showers, they are soothing and I can surround myself in steam and the sound of running water. However, I like my scents to have an element of funky. On the rare occasion, though, that I simply want to smell like I only showered (which, as noted, still indicates a scent) I like:
Parfums D’Orsay Etiquette Bleue
Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic
CdG Sorbet Series Peppermint
Mazzolari Musk
Sometimes, Perfect Veil.
I always associate clean with Ivory, citrus scents, and sandalwood. My mother is Dominican and every summer we would go to the DR and stay with my grandparents. My grandfather used a Sandalwood scented soap, then followed it up with 4711. My grandmother used ivory for everything. I guess it stuck with me.
Oh, now I want a sandalwood soap desperately! (And a few weeks in the Dominican Republic!) I agree, too, on how fresh mint smells.
Roger & Gallet have discontinued most of their original soap fragrances including the sandalwood, but if you find some, it is lovely.
Have just acquired a berger lamp, which promises to “clean” the air, and which has a varied and interesting range of fragrances; I was looking for an NST review, but can’t find one. I have tried the neutral and tea options supplied by the discovery set and bought a bottle of the Cedarwood, but would like to know if others have tried and which scents they liked most.
I’ve never heard of a berger lamp. It does sound like the sort of thing we’d review, though. I’ll have to look it up online.
Oh, I too had a grandmother who “used Ivory for everything”! And like you, that’s the scent I usually associate with “clean”.
Yes! Ivory truly smells like soap to me.
Shisheido Tactics, CdG Monocle Scent One: Hinoki and Scent Two: Laurel, most colognes though especially Guerlain Eau de Coq, Camay soap, Pacifica Nerola Orange Blossom and Malibu Lemon Blossom, a good number of the Geurlain AAs–Anisia Bella, Herba Fresca, Flora Nerolia, Jasminora, Kenzo Air, Dior Fahrenheit 32, Guerlain Vetiver, White Linen and Aliage, and Yardley Lavender soap for starters. Hmm, I guess I like smelling clean!
I forgot about those fragrances that smell like Swedish saunas! That, at least, is what Hinoki reminds me of.
Fragrances in my collection that evoke “clean” for me would be CK Eternity and Acqua di Gio… Strangely, when I was pregnant, I had a craving for the scent of Pinesol and disinfectants. Didn’t go as far as wearing them though. lol
You must have done a lot of cleaning while you were pregnant! Nice nesting, I guess.
When I crave the “Pine Sol” smell in my home, I either spritz a natural lemon verbena spray or go straight to my decant of AG Eau D’Hadrian, bought for this purpose! Umm, wish I had some with me now in my hot and muggy car… (No, I’m not driving!)
Pinesol is super persistent, too. Whew!
Ah yes, the smugness of the ‘unscented’. Particularly grating when you know that they use a ‘clean’ smelling detergent, fabric softener and an overly CLEAN smelling shampoo- all of combine to create a miasma that precedes them and lingers after they are gone. Grrr!
I think only babies and small children can really smell clean and milky sweet. When I want to feel fresh, I choose lavender and verbena and some citrus. L’occitane Lavender and Verbena soap is lovely as is the Bulgari Pour Homme shower gel. For fragrances, I go for Clarins Eau Dynamisante or Eau de Jardins, White Linen, Hove Verveine, Aliage, Eau de Guerlain, Mugler Cologne or Origins Birthday Suit body oil.
Oh, and have to agree with Avignon as well. Return to factory settings is a great way to describe the feeling!
I love that name “Birthday Suit Oil”! I agree, too, that babies smell like heaven. Cats, too.
Two of the scents I’ve been wearing the longest are my ‘clean’ go-tos – O de Lancome, and Eau Dynamisante. I’ve been wearing O for more than 20 years (since high school) and the Eau for more than 10. Before I became a serious perfume-addict, I was pretty much only interested in clean/fresh/citrussy scents, and these 2 old faves still get plenty of wear, even though my tastes have expanded considerably beyond clean and fresh.
It sounds like you have some good “utility” scents. That’s nice!
“Cold” scents smell clean to me. Citrus colognes, Mentifolia, Fou d’Absynthe — anything that’s a little chilly and astringent to the nose. I only wear White Linen when it’s unbearably hot, because even though it is as harsh as a tile cleaner, that stuff smells like cold metal and starch and is a wonderful antidote to sweaty hot misery.
True, WL really cuts through doesn’t it?
I completely get what you mean. Nice observation! I can’t imagine a fragrance that could be both cold and dirty.
My mom hates any perfume or scented products so I didn’t grow up around much perfume until an aunt gave me a bottle of Opium for my birthday as a late teen.
If I want a clean scent (which isn’t often) I like citrus-Mandarin Basilic or Jardin Sur Le Nil. I’m not sure why I associate citrus with clean, but maybe it’s the zestiness that is so attractive early in the morning.
I’m not sure if it’s this blog that has the article about Shalimar being so scandalous when it came out because it had the audacity to be “dirty”! I love it! I think you should do an article on “dirty” fragrances in the future! Wearing Black Afghano now, but it is not a clean scent. Love it!
I love your idea about a post on dirty perfumes! I’ll get thinking on that…
Dixie, I placed a test paper sprayed with Jardin Sur Le Nil in my pocketbook and it got absorbed by my cell phone case. My phone smelled like Jardin Sur Le Nil for two months. It did smell clean! But not sure I will ever want to wear Jardin Sur Le Nil now.
LOL!
Bergamote by TDC is my favorite “clean” scent, along with Mugler Cologne and the various tea scents.
Good ones. Bergamot is so clean, and so is tea.
I love my earthy green chypres, but the ultimate clean fragrance for me is EL’s Pleasures, and I’m very fond of it.
I once saw a comment on a fragrance forum from someone saying that she feels ‘so pretty and put together’ in Pleasures, and I agree. I think in ‘put together’ there is a hint about why people like ‘clean’ (in whichever way they interpret it or create it): ‘clean’ means that you have got yourself sorted out, you have had time to pamper yourself, you have kept away all your personal annoyances or demons, and you can face the world. There is a great deal to be said for that.
Wonderful post Angela, one of your best. Oh, and you are so right about lilac. Recently I bought a sample of Ineke’s After My Own Heart, which is a lilac scent. To me it may as well be named After My Own Air Freshener.
Oh yes, Pleasures! Absolutely clean.
What I fear is that air fresheners are starting to turn me off to actual, live lilac flowers. That would be a huge shame.
to me Pleasures does not really smell clean, rather like a scent that is supposed to cover something unclean, almost like a deodorant. I don’t find it horrible but it does not give me a clean feeling wearing it. Maybe it’s just too strong and persistent.
To me it’s really laundry-ish.
I was afraid of the same thing, but I walked past a bouquet of lilacs recently and was bowled over by how fabulous they smelled. No relation to the Febreze version, thank heavens.
Good! (Plus, good for you for encountering lilacs this time of year. Or maybe in you’re in the southern hemisphere?)
I am so glad lilac hasn’t made the leap into air freshener for me yet. En Passant is lovely (if too short-lived).
Make sure you conscientiously avoid lilac air freshener, then. It’s insidious stuff.
Duly noted.
Clean to me means no perfume. Just clean. I do not wear perfume if I want to smell clean.
Irish Spring on a man is an aphrodisiac.
If clean needs to have a scent, Molton Brown makes a hand wash scented with myrrh and musk and this is the best kind of scented “clean” I can imagine, cleanliness as sensory ritual.
I’m more of a Dial girl myself, but I know exactly what you mean about men washed with Irish Spring!
I think all of the Molton Brown hand cleansers are fairly euphoric.
That’s quite a recommendation!
prada infusion pour homme is my ultimate go to for fresh and clean ! its so soapy and smells like baby powder in the most expensive way imagineable! i love it so much i got it in the 400ml bottle, taking out the prize for largest bottle in my collection, great post today
I keep reading great things about Prada Infusion Pour Homme. What do you think of this for a woman?
I would totally recommend this , I believe it sits half way between masculine and feminine ! I find it almost gender neutral as it smells so clean like a fresh white shirt straight out of the dryer! I packed it recently on a trip to visit my parents and I almost left it behind as mum mum loved it so much ! I loved it more thou, so I was not that generous ! I did however buy here infusion iris absolute ! She was very happy ! Infusion homme was described as a soapy extension of it original female version , highly recommended! Plus I have seen it massively discounted on fragrance x
Oh no, I’m a powder addict and now I’m lemming this. I will have to test it. And I’m shameless with ‘cross-dressing’ gender-perfume wise, doesn’t bother me at all that it is supposed to be for men.
Me to ! I have and wear about 8 female fragrance! Fragrance never discriminates who wares it ! Only the people how spray it . To me a smell is a smell, When I wear no 5 I get so many compliments , it’s so unexpected to smell florals on a male by it really works ! Yeah us
I applaud your attitude!
This was the one I was going to mention! To me it is a fine milled uber-luxurious soap scent. Ultimately I preferred Infusion d’ Iris (another clean and collected smell) but they are actually different enough to have both. Also, I think both are equally unisex, but then you are speaking to a girl who happily wears M7!
M7, awesome ! I love this beauty . This will always be in my collection. Good for u , x
I don’t think any of my mens’ frags smell particularly masculine on me so no bravery required ; )
Thanks for the mini-review! I can tell I need to get out and smell it pronto.
Wow! That’s a big bottle–proof of just how much you love it.
I came across a set of the Infusion d’Homme soaps at a discount store recently. They smelled divine, but I’m not a huge fan of the fragrance itself, so I passed on them. But if clean is what you want, Infusion d’Homme is terrific stuff (and entirely unisex, IMO).
WL is my absolute favourite ‘soapy’ perfume. I walk my dogs early Iin the morning and even here on the south coast of England we don’t always get a lot of those days when you know it’s going to be a shimmery hot one. But when we do, WL is what I reach for. Funnily enough, now autumn is setting in, this is the time I yearn for the smokey flavour of tea, ie Tea for Two.
Oh yes, Tea for Two is so perfect in autumn. Even the colors outside seem to match it.
First my head hung in sorrow – I have no clean fragrances. Dirty Girl. Then I cheered up – I have Donna Karan Gold! Could count as clean, me thinks. Or fresh, at least. In a greenish way…hmmmm?
Especially if its the EDT version which has some light melon at the top!
One of my freshest fragrances is a lily–Un Lys by Goutal.
And the EDP also has a clean-lily facet…I just meant the EDT is more conventionally fresh!
For you it does! That’s what counts.
For me, clean scents are not too aggressive, and not terribly sweet. Dry, powdery, kinda crisp-feeling reads ‘clean’ to my nose. My go-to scents for clean are Aroma M Geisha Blanche – this stuff smells like super-expensive white soap and hot cotton towels and is amazing. If I want a less creamy clean, then Lovely by SJP. I know it doesn’t seem clean to most people with all the musk, but it smells like an old soap I used to use in college so to me it has the association. If I need something very light feeling and clean, I go to Bulgari’s White Tea.
Oh, and iris. Odori Iris to me is very clean, and I love it a lot. I just got a decant in the swapmeet, and I can see myself tearing through it!
I take it someone had something to do with this sample….
I’ll let Fountaingirl share her secrets during the swapmeet poll.
Iris is so magical–it can be clean or dirty, depending.
All this dreamy lens on clean has me yearning for a hot bath!
Ha! I don’t reach for clean and/or fresh scents! I’m an oriental perfume kind of girl. Clean to me smells of nothing – I use Dr. Bonner’s in the shower and the smell doesn’t linger. I also make my own laundry detergent – one ingredient is grated Ivory soap, which takes me back to childhood, but again, the scent doesn’t make it past the rinse cycle.
Fresh in my mind would probably be the classic eau de colognes or maybe something like Jatamansi. While I like this fragrance group, they’re not my favorite and I rarely reach for them.
I definitely see you as more the sultry type than the squeaky clean type.
Oh gawd! I love it!! Thank you, Angie! I am so NOT sultry. LOL!
Certainly you smell sultry…
Enjoying the topic and all the comments. My clean’n'fresh mode is achieved with Castile by Penhaligon’s.
With a name like that, how could it be anything other than clean?
I wonder how clean smells are perceived culturally. Surely they are diverse.
I know that here in the US, musks are a biggie because they were cheap and powerful and got used in laundry detergent early on. Aldehydes (thinking of No 5 imitations) for personal products like soap, etc., are everywhere. Mimosa is the “baby products” smell, I think. I remember reading somewhere that in France what we call the “baby powder” smell doesn’t have that connotation there. I wonder what does?
Functional fragrances are very interesting. I remember using Simple Green for something and just going nuts until I realized it smells like sarsaparilla, unusual but nice. Lily of the valley is used in lots of cleaning products and has sort of ruined it for me after working with them professionally. Urinal cakes anyone? Pew.
You’re so right about lily of the valley. That one can smell industrially clean to me, too.
And urinal cakes! Ugh!
Sometimes the soap-like facet of a perfume is attractive to me, like with Infusion d’ Homme. At other times, recognizing something ‘soapy’ can ruin a perfume for me. I adored Orange Star until my bf said it smelled like detergent. Now all I get is orange blossom from it and its made me go off neroli in general!
While most of my collection is orientals I use my fresh/clean/collected frags a lot more – especially in summer. I feel more confident if I still smell ‘clean’ by late afternoon, on a hot day, and when I’m drowsy and hot these scents are also refreshing and help me be more alert.
I would be reaching for: Cristalle eau de Verte, Apres le Mousseau, Encre Noir, Osmanthus Interdite or Herba Fresca. L’ombre Dans Leau is nice but I only have a sample – the same with Bel Respiro. And Delrae’s Eau Illuminee would work well too…
Oh, and another which I do have is Tom Jones – violet and bare rock. Beautiful and clean but also somewhat desolate.
And I forgot my staple – Infusion d’ Iris EDP. This one makes me feel professional as well: )
That’s a great all-round fragrance.
Tom Jones?! There’s a new celebrity fragrance out there, and it’s named after a 1960s hairy-chested crooner?
Is it called My Delilah?
Or maybe The Green Green Grass of Home?
OOPS! I meant Stephan Jones – a milliner not a crooner – LOL!
What a letdown! But Stephen Jones is a good one.
I spritz on Carriere when I want that clean aura.
Recently tried CdG Amazinggreen. It has a phase where smells like showering with the original bright green Herbal Essences shampoo and Irish Spring. Took me back to the 70′s
And a second candidate for a clean scent.
Man, those Herbal Essence TV commercials were practically obscene. I bet they sold tankers of that stuff, though.
I love this witty post, Angela!
Sinnerman’s comment above made me realize that most of the scents I think of as “clean” are unisex.
I’m not really into “clean” perfumes, but I guess I might count Guerlain Vetiver (which also links to Thalia’s comment about “cold” scents feeling clean) and TDC Osmanthus. There are a few more “fresh” perfumes I like, such as Chanel 28 La Pausa and Iunx L’Ether, and Hermes Eau d’Orange Vert, but again “fresh” is not my thing, but I feel like I need a few since I live in hot, humid DC.
It’s good to see a few readers remember Ivory and Camay soaps – and what about Prell shampoo?
Prell shampoo! What a blast from the past. And even just thinking about it, I can remember its scent.
Love Prell shampoo. I’ve only used it once – in a Turkish bath in Istanbul, but each time I smelled it after…Oh (blissful feelings just remembering!)
I had no idea Prell was so exotic!
Followed by Tame cream rinse. There wasn’t the huge selection of shampoos and conditioners then that we have now.
Creme rinses as a whole seemed to have disappeared.
Yes, Prell! Although I don’t remember the scent–only the green tube.
I don’t like “clean” perfumes – too bare, not enough character to them. My clothes are already minimalist – I need the perfume to liven them up and make my presentation different than everyone else in my small town (hard to be different when everyone shops at the same Walmart!).
That said, I do wear wear Fresh Citron de vigne when I have a migraine and have to go out (I feel naked without some perfume). It is as light and close to fresh as I own.
Your make a great point about livening up minimalist dress with baroque perfume. A touch of Shalimar is perfect with a sheath dress.
Has anyone ever spritzed their favorite scents onto a dryer sheet and tossed it in with the load? I just thought of trying it with my Shalimar Eau Legere….
I’ve sprayed a damp handkerchief with cologne and tossed it into the dryer. It really does work!
A lot of sins are committed in the name of “clean”. I hear my co-workers throw this around. I always think it’s the party line for those with a limited scent vocab. Something faux elitist about. When I ask them what they wearing, their respose is usually the name of something I feel smells false and chemical. It a scent relaxes my mind, that translates to “clean” for me. The scent of creosote after a desert rain will set you free. I love aldehydes and a clean musk like Musc Bleu, because they remind me of what clean feels like.
Is anyone old enough to remember those boxes of floral bubble bath that came individually wrapped in waxed paper with the name of a different flower on them. I recall carnation
Cont….. and jonquil. They were heavenly. Yes, I was tking a bath, so I was clean, but I was also probably six, so life still felt clean. If I could kind these again I would buy them all up. Thanks for putting up with my two-part blah-blah.
Were they the pressed cubes of bath salts, wrapped in gold foil? If so, I remember coveting them. So nice.
You have a really good point about “clean” being an easy thing for someone to say who hasn’t developed a broad appreciation or vocabulary for scent.
Those cubes were fun, and the next incarnation. Good stocking stuffers, and beautifully wrapped. The flower scents were nice when simple things were given more attention. Like talc w/ a pretty puff. I never see those, even at the holidays. And those soap cats that grew fur and had a red mouse embedded in them. God, I’m old.
The soap cats sound fabulous!
I remember those when was a kid too. Those were great. My mom also had some bath salts that were in plastic containers that looked like pieces of fruit.
I love that. Did she use them, or were they just for show?
I learned the hard way how heavily scented soap can be. Years ago my family ran out of shampoo and wen would have to drive too far to get some. I had read that one could make shampoo by grating soap and boiling it. I boiled Ivory and added yarrow, thinking I could get it to smell better. Not. To this day I can’t stand the reek of Ivory soap.
Industrial musk is what laundry is presumed to smell like these days, and we now find soaps labeled Egyptian Cotton rather than Egyptian Musk. I use unscented detergent so as not to clash with my perfume, but also because I read that musk molecules don’t break down. That gave me the creeps.
Rose fragrances, unless dirtied up, often convey “clean” to me. Maybe that’s simply because every rose I’ve ever stuck my nose in was pristinely fresh and silky.
It’s true about musk molecules, they’re heavy and they stick around! That’s why they use them in fabric softener to keep laundry “smelling fresh” for days. :/
Those new softeners with slow release scent “pearls” or whatevr, those are the creepiest.
I don’t trust them either.
Your observation about Egyptian musk becoming Egyptian cotton is insightful! And your story about washing your hair with Ivory is awful. My hair would be a tumbleweed after that.
There was simply nothing pretty about that experience!
I agree with rose often being clean-ish – like Paul Smith’s Rose and PW Tea Rose…
I used to spray my sheets with Stella. I guess that’s a clean association.
Ugh, I hate scented products. I use almost all unscented products: deodorant, shaving gel (Aveeno’s. It’s fantastic!), dish soap, laundry detergent, dryer sheets. I just hate the idea, and the smell.
For clean/fresh perfumes? I think of Le Vetiver by Lubin. It’s perfect, and feels like a winter day in the woods, with the clearest blue sky. I really do need a bottle of it. I wonder why I didn’t buy it when Luckyscent liquidated their stock of it. :<
That’s a great vetiver, the Lubin vetiver.
My clean goes like this: Osmanthus Different Company, Outrageous Frederic Malle, Gucci Envy, Lime Basil Mandarin Jo Malone
Your clean is exuberant!
White Rain shampoo
Sweetheart soap
Does anyone remember these? They smelled delicate and CLEAN.
Husband uses Irish Spring (still!). It’s way too strong for my nose but it does keep deer from eating your roses if you put the soap cakes on sticks in your garden.
I guess the deer won’t accidentally eat your husband, either.
As a child, the smell of Camay soap (the old one), Imperial Leather soap or Johnson’s Baby Powder were “clean”.
Nowadays the Italian line Felce Azzura smells clean to me.
and possibly Nivea anything.
I do not associate any specific smell with the idea of “clean” – for me “clean” smells like nothing, like clean skin.
There are fragrances I call “clean” such as Shiseido Zen (the old one), Calvin Klein Truth or Estee Lauder Pure White Linen. But once scented, I don’t feel as clean as when I get out of the shower with only a trace of scented soap on me.
YES on the nivea!!!!! It pains me that they don’t make bath products in the original scent anymore……same as Dove, etc. Which adds another element….the original ‘clean’ scents are now considered ‘too soapy’. I hate all the shower gels that Camay, Nivea, Dove, and there’s another one but I can’t remember are making now, with pomegranate and lemongrass and peach….none of which actually smell like any of those things.
I love Nivea. Where’s my little blue tin?….must go moisturize hands.
I love those Nivea tins, too. I have one on my desk at home and one at work.
Johnson’s baby powder is a wonderful, gentle clean.
My mom liked to clean with bleach so that’s a smell that I associate with clean. Fresh to me is citrus or ocean scents. I like the smell of laundry products sometimes but not enough to want to smell like that myself. I don’t mind perfumes with a soapy note to them but if they just smell like a generic bar of soap then I’m not interested. One fragrance I do own that reminds me of clean that doesn’t smell like bleach is Baiser Vole. It smells a lot like a bubble bath we had in the house when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure in mom could have soaked me in bleach she would have. The woman bleached everything. Instead I got soaked in the bubble bath.
Glad you didn’t get bleached! I agree with Baiser Vole being a clean-ish scent.
Was she prone to spraying everything with Scotch Guard, too? It seems like those two go hand in hand.
I like to be clean, but never want to *smell* clean
That sums it all up perfectly!
That is exactly the point, while personally I like the idea of the complex smell of skin including clean skin. For example, I had hopes in NR Essence and more so Essence Musc but they don’t work for me, while Chanel 18 or Osmanthus DC do the trick.
So a “skin scent,” maybe. Those can be hard to find but wonderful once you do find them.
I think of iris as clean. I grew up using Johnson’s baby shampoo which, in the 80s, smelled almost exactly like prada’s infusion d’iris. Both of them read as incredibly clean smelling to me (the johnson’s smells awful in its current incarnation though – like medicine).
SL iris silver mist and Xerjoff irisss also smell really clean to me. Fresh, wet, clean.
I think the cleanest ‘pretty’ perfume I own is I profumi di Firenze magnolia dolce. Heavenly and pure to my nose.
20 years of using fracas has also taught me to associate its top notes with clean and just-showered. The dry down, and all the other tuberoses, are another story
Oh how I wish I had paid more attention to Johnson’s Baby Shampoo! I wonder if it still smells so good?
I forgot to mention that a lot of times when I think something smells incredibly clean and fresh (narciso rodriguez essence, prada infusion d’iris) I start to get annoyed with it after wearing it for an hour or two. There seems to be something that makes me feel cold in these scents! Like literally cold. I prefer the warmth of tuberose on my skin!
I’m not big on cold scents, either, most of the time. Tuberose doesn’t always read as particularly warm on me, though–lovely as it is.