We have had Brat Summer, Diet Pepsi Summer, and Sombr Summer (we pray for you) but the summer of 2025 has been about letting go of certain memories like sights, sounds, and smells. Here are our five picks for the Off-Duty Summer scents, perfect for the yearners on pause, waiting for the right fragrance rotation to jump back on speed-dial. Which scent — which testament of your heart — will you be trailing with this season? Choose your pick below.
Penhaligon’s Daphne Bouquet
Penhaligon’s Daphne Bouquet is a tart sweetness that lingers, yet it is earthy and grounded. It is an expression of ‘the great love’, a feeling that we all hope to experience. You get a sense of grass crunching beneath your feet as these daydreams come so naturally, all-encompassed by the accords of the Daphne flower. It is a feeling of being held by familiar hands, reminding you of the first love, a memory you may revere, but also protect.
Read More: From Nature to Bottle: How Perfumes Are Made Today
Bvlgari Allegra Insieme
It can be easy to lose sight of togetherness. To feel like you, alone, occupy a space of someone else’s. Crafted by father-daughter duo Perfumer Jacques Cavallier and Camille, Bvlgari’s Allegra Insieme asks you to look back at the people who held your hand before someone else might have let it go. The scent shuffles between the hard ridges of cedar and peonies enveloped as a love letter. It is an ode to the collective, the ones that taught you that space was your own.
Dolce&Gabanna Light Blue
The yearning we know usually looks like a slow, free-falling buildup to something whole. But what of catapulting into the spontaneous that used to be so easy? Dolce & Gabbana’s new Light Blue Fragrance culminates in a freshness seeking to wash away the tension, the one holding us back from the allure, a citrusy pinch just acidic enough to neutralise kisses of the ocean on your skin.
Byredo Blanche Absolu de Parfum
Things seem to spin faster in the stillness of the night. But Byredo’s Blanche Absolu de Parfum is that soft reset and rewind. The pinch of pepper is a loud wake-up call, dressed as a quiet light of the morning. The scent is just a bit fuller than Blanche Eau de Parfum. Its dry amber base is warm, stringing you along a rosy trail, like the first breath of the duvet. It takes you back to when you once existed somewhere between home and the ones who are fleeting, the epitome of the Off-Duty Summer scents.
Read More: 8 Luxury Fragrances of 2025 That Intentionally Embrace the Floral Heart
This article was first seen on MENS-FOLIO.
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