Beachifying ingredients

There are many reasons to wear perfume, to feel more confident, to turn the head of someone you've always fancied, or to cover the post-gym musk. But fragrances are capable of much more. They can, given the right circumstances, transport us back in time. That's why we are drawn to scents of people we love or from places we love to remember. We can tap into that power: recapturing the happiness we experienced tanning on a beach this summer.

Introducing; three perfume ingredients that can transport you back to the beach and help cure your post-holiday blues.

1 - the well-known coconut. Coconut tends to appear in summery perfumes, sometimes paired with vanilla, sometimes instead of it. It provides a milky sweetness used to round off perfumes, and a unique fruitiness that can only make you think of the beach.

2 - the beloved Tonka bean. While widely used in cosmetics, perfumes and foods globally, this long black bean has a more dangerous reputation than you might think. They are so troublesome that selling Tonka Beans to eat has been illegal in the US since 1954. But we aren't eating our perfumes, and the toxicity level is proven to be outlandishly low. Tonka beans then are a 'dangerous delight', capable of adding a rich sweetness reminiscent of dark caramel to anything, be it a dessert or perfumes.

3 - Perhaps the most beachy ingredient is sea salt. It is another widely used fragrance ingredient in summer perfumes. Something is intoxicating about the sweetness of coconuts or the richness of tonka beans. But without the marine scents of sea salt, it would all become a little overwhelming, like sitting on a beach without a breeze or shade. Sea salt is used naturally to cut through the thicker, richer notes used in perfumes.

Ready to alleviate some of those post-holiday blues? Try some beachifying scents, check out the ones suggested below. Or choose something yourself by filtering with the ingredients above.