Arquiste X Vacation ad, image courtesy of Arquiste

Smells are like Viewfinder pictures, clicking past mental images of those perfect summer days you’d half forgotten about. Smell hotdogs grilling on a nearby barbeque and there are grass-stained picnics with white bread sandwiches and pickles and orangeade, fuel waves of charcoal heating … a puncture and exhalation of Miller beer being poured brings back the crack of a bat … mineral asphalt hot from the sun brings back cherry sno-cones as Santana blasts from a car window and an open hydrant turns West 92^nd street into a river … burnt sugar and birch sits down on a pine needle carpet with children toasting campfire marshmallows, trying to scare each other with ludicrous ghost stories. And, perhaps above all else, a sweet whiff of coconut oil and citrus summoning an eternal beach where the sun is always high, the waves crash in loud whispers, strange shells wash ashore tangled in seagrass, and childhood is forever.

Givaudan Senior Creative Perfumer and Vice President for Perfumery Rodrigo Flores-Roux and Carlos Huber, image courtesy of Arquiste

Vacatio, from Arquiste creative director Carlos Huber in partnership again with Givaudan master perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux, and and au courant brand Poolside FM who owns Vacation©, invite you to relive back-then summer days with a perfume that marries poolside and classic sunscreen notes. The resulting fragrance is a big, coconutty grin of a fragrance that smells like a Palm Beach babe slathered in Bain de Soleil – that most gorgeous of vintage suntan oils (it came in a gelee, for heaven’s sake!) – wandered into a suburban poolside complete with inflatable pink flamingos and damp swimsuits laid out on plastic chairs to dry. Turn on the transistor, kick back with some mellow tunes, and join the fun!

 

Arquiste X Vacation   

If the first spritz of Vacation doesn’t make you smile, you might want to have your zygomaticus muscles checked. Thick coconut milk and banana spread out in a creamy slick along with some juicy pineapple and, just a moment after, a distinct plastic note. It’s like drinking a pina colada on a floaty raft in the middle of the pool. A few minutes later, petitgrain and bergamot cut a rivulet of tartness through the rich fruitiness like a bright sunbeam and that acidic touch along with the salt notes that crop up a little later keep Vacation from veering tween-y. There’s also a lovely delicate fizz of something in the top that I initially thought might be some quiet aldehydes, even though they are not listed. Whatever it is, it gives the fragrance a sophisticated lift.

Flores-Roux’s compositions always seem to me to move to a distinct beat. Arquiste’s fab Ella, for instance, positively slinked around the poolside like a samba, all quiet sizzle, and the lovely, sensual A Fuego Lento for Frassai dipped and elongated like a tango. In Arquiste X Vacation, the notes drift out slow and easy like yacht music; a touch vintage, deliciously evocative. Musk in the middle brings a smell of skin, and the watery facets emerge that combine sea brine with a subtle but clear chlorinated drift. And yes, there is a definable smell of wet Lycra©. Suddenly, I have a craving to play some Gypsy Kings and fish out my old turquoise Ray-bans.

Vacation ad courtesy of Arquiste

I swear, I can feel my skin warming up as I wear this right now. After each note has made an appearance, they all coalesce into a nostalgic, yummy harmony of summery scents that simply makes me want to smile. When you need a quick trip to mid-August, Vacation is a little piece of magic.

Notes: Coconut water, coconut milk, petitgrain, solar musk, banana, pineapple, bergamot, sea salt, pool water, swimsuit lycra.

Disclaimer: Bottle of Arquiste for Vacation; “Vacation” generously provided to me by Arquiste. My opinions, as always, are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Editor’s Note: Vacation, a Limited Edition sold out. We congratulate Arquiste Creative Director and Rodrigo Flores-Roux for winning the 2021Fragrance Foundation Award for Misfit in the Indie Category.- Michelyn Camen, Editor in-Chief

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