Perfume makes a perfect Mother’s Day gift because it brings so much happiness. For one, it’s a luxurious product, but more than that, smells are so evocative and linked to memory that they can have a lot of meaning. To help you pick out a perfect Mother’s Day scent for your mum or mother-figure, I’ve taken a look at eight best-selling fragrances – eight failsafes that any mum would be proud to have on their dressing table.
#1 Something Sweet
You might expect the legendary Flowerbomb to smell intensely floral, but that’s not the case. The explosion that comes out of the quirky, grenade-shaped bottle is instead a delicious one. Flowerbomb smells like the most boujee candy floss ever, flavoured with a dash of rose water for extra boujee-ness. With inspirations from Angel, namely the contrast of sugar and patchouli, Flowerbomb is an entirely unforgettable fragrance that’ll blow you away – no wonder it’s become such an icon. Flowerbomb is perfect for a mum who has a sweet tooth.
#2 Something Timeless
La Vie Est Belle (Life is Beautiful) was a revelation. When it launched in 2012, nobody was expecting Lancome to change the landscape of mainstream perfumery, but in a way that’s exactly what they did. Following Angel, Flowerbomb popularised the genre of sweet, candy floss fragrances, but it was La Vie Est Belle that luxed-up the genre. Mixing sugared flowers with a velvety core of powdery iris, La Vie Est Belle set the stage for our addiction to sugar scents to continue. It smells delicious; what can I say? If your mum loves a touch of luxury, then this is the one for her.
#3 Something Daring
If you compare Black Opium to the original Opium, you will find that they share little in common other than a similar bottle and phenomenal popularity. Like Opium in its heyday, Black Opium is an icon tied to the tastes of the day. With Opium, it was all about resins, spices and flowers, but with Black Opium, the theme is gourmand. Almost everything is edible, or at least it feels that way – delicious coffee, vanilla bean, creamy white flowers. It’s decadent, dreamy and dare I say, a little bit dangerous. No wonder everybody loves it and your mum will too if she likes things a little bit daring!
#4 Something New
Roses never go out of style, and neither does Dior. So, considering both of these facts, it stands to reason that Miss Dior Rose N’Roses is the most sublime fragrance. Created as a fragrance that “smells like love”, Rose N’Roses boasts a cocktail of roses (essence of Grasse rose, and Damascus rose) drenched in citrus and whipped up in a whirlwind of white musks. Rose N’Roses is contemporary, delicate and effortlessly beautiful – nothing quite says “I love you mum” than a fragrance created to smell like love!
#5 Something Elegant
JOY was a big deal for DIOR – a new feminine pillar fronted by a huge Hollywood star (I don’t need to tell you who) for a new generation of women. The coup with JOY, however, is the fact that it is quite retro. Its mix of jasmine, rose, mandarin, sandalwood and musks make for an effortlessly wearable floral with a slightly aquatic touch with a decidedly cool ‘90s feel. Wearing it, one pictures themselves as Jennifer Lawrence lounging comfortably in the expansive swimming pool from the JOY ad campaign, and let’s be real, we all want to be Jennifer Lawrence.
Learn more about JOY by Dior’s luminous scent here.
#6 Something Different
Mugler are famous for creating fragrances that divide opinion. They do not cater to all tastes; instead, they craft bold olfactory signatures that evoke the space age, extraterrestrial glamour that made the House of Mugler such a powerhouse in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Alien, like Angel before it, is a distinct and unique fragrance that is instantly recognisable, and therein lies its strength – it does not smell like anything else, and when you smell it, you know exactly what it is. With a solar flare of bergamot, a towering core of syrupy jasmine, and a mysterious base of blonde woods, Alien is a luminous and exciting fragrance that deserves the attention it demands. Alien is the perfect mother’s day fragrance for a mum who dares to be different.
#7 Something Fun
Packaging a fragrance (and a rather delicious one at that) in a bottle shaped like a stiletto was a stroke of genius, and I’m pretty sure it plays a large part in why Good Girl has major “gotta have it” vibes. But brazenly attractive bottle aside, Good Girl is a bang-on-trend scent that mixes erotic, creamy white flowers (swathes of jasmine sambac and tuberose) with the bitter, rich qualities of cocoa and coffee, with sweet almond and tonka bean thrown in for good measure. All together it smells as chic, fun and addictive as a killer pair of heels. If your mum is a shoe-addict then this one is a no-brainer and seeing as shoes always work best in pairs, I guess you’ll have to buy two bottles!
Read the full Good Girl perfume review here.
#8 Something Classic
Out of all the bestsellers on this list, J’Adore has been around the longest. It has fully stood the test of time and smelling J’Adore today, more than 20 years after it launched, it still smells new. J’Adore’s success is its beauty. With golden flowers, J’Adore creates a feeling of sunlight at dusk. It shimmers and sparkles with dewy freshness and is one of those fragrances that simply works for any occasion, whether smart or casual. Perhaps versatility is the reason for its success – that and the fact that it smells absolutely gorge.
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