Do you have a signature scent? Lately, it seems like everyone has multiple signature fragrances. Which is exciting! Perfume has never been trending harder than right at this very moment, which means there is always something new to discover, and if you look hard enough, a scent with a note that you’ve always been searching for. For me, it’s the smell of exhaust fumes (yes, really)—but we’ll get to that later.
With so much newness, it’s hard to know where to start when searching for a new fragrance. One exciting development that has come along with all this newness is that, instead of gendering scents “for men” and “for women,” many scents hitting shelves these days are unisex, made for everyone. Of course, all scents are unisex, but these were created without any of the strict parameters that often come with gendered scents, opening them up to endless possibilities.
If you’re searching for a scent that’s perfect for you, for your friend, partner, or really, for anyone, then look no further. I'm a fragrance expert and I've rounded up 15 of the best unisex scents on the market right now.
Best Floral Perfume: Tom Ford Black Orchid Reserve
Saks Fifth Avenue
Black Orchid Reserve. Doesn’t that just sound luxurious? Like a credit card or a whiskey, two things I love to abuse. This scent is all of the things that make Tom Ford, well, Tom Ford: Alluring, mysterious, and sexy. It’s a deeper, darker expression of the cult classic Black Orchid, one which amplifies the ylang ylang for a glowing, lush floralcy that’s immediately cast in shadow by a dark roasted tonka and a black truffle accord, both adding an earthy depth. Patchouli holds it all down with its bold, anchoring base. This reimagines the original Black Orchid for an audience that’s looking for the strongest, most potent fragrances available. Tom Ford has never been one to be anything less but bold, and Black Orchid Reserve revisits the beloved scent for a version that’s even more of a force than the original.
Top Notes: Black Truffle Accord
Middle Notes: Black Orchid Accord, Ylang Ylang, Ghost Orchid Accord
Base Notes: Patchouli, Roasted Tonka
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Skin Scent: Escentric Molecules - Molecule 01
Escentric
The fragrance that smells like nothing. Molecule 01 is one of the most storied and polarizing fragrances in the industry because it’s a scent that you can’t really smell…until you do. Oh, and when you do, you’ll want more and more of it. It’s made of one singular note, Iso E Super, which is a synthetic molecule that is quite the shapeshifter, smelling a little like musk, a bit like wood, maybe some skin, but mostly nothing at all—that is, until it does. It interacts with everyone's nose a bit differently, pulling you in and then disappearing without a trace. It’s perfect for people who might not want to wear something too bold, but still want a little something. It has gained a cult following because there’s just something about it that many find magnetic. It’s half perfume, half science experiment, half art installation (yeah, that was three halves—just go with it.) It’s a true “if you know, you know” scent—and when you do know, it’s unforgettable
Base Notes: Iso E Super
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Warm Scent: Krigler Villa Isar 224
Krigler
Ultra-luxury fragrance houses are often afraid to have a little fun, but Villa Isar 224 is so much fun. Inspired by the founder’s trip to snowy Bavaria in the early 1900s, this scent smells like sipping a cup of cocoa in a warm ski lodge, lit by a flickering fire, as large snowflakes fall outside your window. It is indulgent to say the least, and delicious. While many fragrances are afraid to veer into the chocolate territory, Villa Isar 224 gives you a mug of rich hot cocoa filled to the brim, with almond, caramel, licorice, and vanilla floating in the air around you. This is every bit as irresistible as it sounds, and will keep you warm and cozy even on the coldest winter nights (whether or not you’re hitting the slopes).
Top Notes: Honey, Cocoa, Almond
Middle Notes: Cream, Licorice, Carmel
Base Notes: Vanilla, Tonka Bean
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Chypre Perfume: Coty Infinement Aristo Chypre
Coty
The Coty Infiniment collection is full of innovative, immersive takes on (mostly) florals, and for a true lover of floral scents, it’s wall-to-wall bangers. I’m not really a floral person myself, but Coty’s take on a chypre is so good that I’ve literally been obsessing over it all year. A chypre is a classic profile in perfumery made up of a bright citrusy opening, a floral heart, and an earthy, mossy base. Now, the lesser part of me would say that sounds boring, but luckily, I’d be wrong. Aristo Chypre is an arresting, transcendent chypre that goes heavy on the rose and patchouli (neither of which I even like, for the record) that creates something rich, familiar, deep, and enveloping. It’s so good it almost feels like a hallucination, a fever dream. It’s like they took the most high quality version of a chypre, rounded its edges, enhanced the warmth, and made it even more magnetic. I seriously love it so much I can barely even find the words for it, which is crazy because I never shut up.
Top Notes: Chypre Accord
Middle Notes: Rose
Base Notes: Patchouli
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best New Classic Perfume: Hermès Barénia Eau de parfum
Hermes
When it comes to luxury houses that are doing interesting fragrances, Hermès is really the one to watch. Their collection runs the spectrum of approachable, everyday scents to concise, artistic takes on familiar notes. Barénia is their newest franchise, another one from the chypre family, that’s classic, timeless, and great on everybody. The white ginger lily is the star of the show here, which is nearly more ginger than floral, but delightfully so. It gives the scent a sunny, glassy, faceted feel that’s at once juicy, sweet, and spicy. For a fragrance that starts off intriguing and ends up being obsession-worthy, I can see this being great year round, but especially in the summer months. It’s lively, joyful, and full of light, and gets better the longer it's on skin.
Top Notes: Miracle Berry, Bergamot
Middle Notes: White Ginger Lily
Base Notes: Patchouli, Akigalawood, Oak
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Niche Perfume: Serviette Byronic Hero
Serviette
In an industry that is populated with more and more “niche” fragrances every day, niche has almost become, well…mass. Serviette is a new niche fragrance brand that’s so exciting, it’s either breathing new life into the word “niche," or shirking it altogether—Byronic Hero is a perfect encapsulation of just how. This scent takes some of the most common notes in fragrance, like rose, patchouli, and oud, and creates something that feels one of a kind. Byronic Hero is livened up by clove, saffron, and fir balsam, creating a fully realized world, and finished with a hint of diesel exhaust (which, yes, is a very good thing). It’s a hypnotic wear that keeps you coming back for another sniff over and over again, and the same can be said for the rest of the collection from founder Trey Taylor.
Top Notes: Clove, Saffron
Middle Notes: Rose, Fir Balsam
Base Notes: Oud, Patchouli, Diesel Exhaust
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Coffee Perfume: Bianco Profumo Caffé Amaro
Bianco Profumo
Caffé Amaro is a love letter to nightlife—to the ones ending their dinner with an espresso, the service industry workers sneaking shots of Fernet at the bar, the It girls sipping their espresso martinis. It brings together all parts of a night out—the double espressos, the greens from dinner, the amaro from the nightcap—and blends them for something rich, sweet, a little bitter, and very bold. It’s an aspirational, imaginative, sexy take on a dinner that goes so late, you end up closing the place down, Polaroids on the table, lipstick on the napkin. This one is so fun and fascinating, I’ve been thinking about it since I first got my hands on it, and have been wearing it as much as possible, but especially on my longest nights out.
Top Notes: Mandarin, Orange Bitters, Artemisia
Middle Notes: Bitter Fennel, Parsley Accord, Genet
Base Notes: Patchouli, Hazelnut, Espresso Accord
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Cannabis Perfume: Alloy Studio Silver Haze
Alloy Studio
Don’t let the category scare you; this one doesn’t smell like weed. It smells like all of the best memories of bad behavior that weed smoke might evoke. Not that I would know anything about that! It’s sweet, deep, and a little dank. It smells like a strawberry gas station cigar, pink spices, rich chocolate, sweet saffron, retro floral iris, and, okay, maybe a little weed. Designer weed. It’s indulgent and nostalgic in concept but contemporary in execution. Silver Haze is one of the most surprising and fun wears of the year. My mind wanders back to and fixates on it just like the vices it’s inspired by.
Top Notes: Strawberry, Saffron
Middle Notes: Cannabis Sativa, Chocolate Powder,
Base Notes: Silver Ambroxan, Iris, Pink Spices
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Nostalgic Perfume: Clue Perfumery Dandelion Butter
Clue Perfumery
Dandelion Butter is the most transportive fragrance I’ve smelled in a long time, and one I find hard to stop obsessing over. Inspired by hot summers in the Midwest, it’s a feeling as much as a fragrance. Think warm, humid air, pungent broken green stems, milky sap, and the comfort of salted butter. As someone who grew up in the Midwest and felt disconnected from “the perfume world," I love seeing a brand from there create something that encapsulates that experience so deftly that it’s almost like time travel. All of their scents are just as fully realized as this one. As Matt Belanger, co-founder of the NYC perfume boutique, Stéle, put it, Clue’s perfumes are “a complete thought," and I’ll be thinking about Dandelion Butter for a long, long time.
Top Notes: Pollen, Dandelion Greens
Middle Notes: Yellow Dandelion, Milky Sap
Base Notes: Salted Butter, Dandelion-Stained Chin
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Floral Perfume: D.S. & Durga Cognac Reign
D.S. & Durga
D.S. & Durga will always give you the unexpected when it comes to fragrance, and Cognac Reign is no different. Instead of a boozy cognac fragrance as the name might lead you to believe, they take elements of a cognac cocktail, like the oak barrels, citrus garnish, and a cognac essence made from real cognac, and pair it with a plush, powdery orris. It’s a marriage of the bold idea of a strong drink with the softness of orris for a fragrance that’s not as much of a contradiction as it is a duality. It defies all of your expectations and creates a sensorial, touchable scent that’s so soft, you’ll want to wrap yourself up in it.
Top Notes: Caramelized Bergamot, Antique Wood
Middle Notes: Cognac Essence, Concrete of Orris
Base Notes: Tonka, Limousine Oak
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Vanilla Perfume: NETTE Thé Vanille
NETTE
It’s safe to say that we’ve reached peak vanilla, which is not a complaint. But while many of them offer similar, sweet profiles, Thé Vanille has been a singular experience since the day it launched. It’s a warm, creamy vanilla, balanced by earthy matcha and mate, with just a bit of depth from cardamom and turmeric. Sweet but not cloying, warm but not heavy. It’s elevated, versatile, and so, so good. We are lucky to have so many vanillas to choose from, but while many other scents are chasing the most viral vanilla, NETTE rewrote the book and created the new cult classic.
Top Notes: Salt Accord, Cardamom, Turmeric Root, Mate Extract
Middle Notes: Narcisse Absolute, Magnolia Flower, Matcha
Base Notes: Orris, Vanilla
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Luxury Perfume: Bottega Veneta Almost Dawn
Bottega Veneta
For all of the luxury brands eager to enter the fragrance category right now, Bottega really showed up and showed out. Almost Dawn from their new Mezzanotte collection, which features even stronger formulations than their first offering, blends sweet hazelnut and rich white truffle, for a very unique scent that’s earthy, velvety, and very, very interesting. It’s a bold wear but never overpowering, and brings together seemingly dissimilar notes and makes them blend harmoniously, creating a scent that's as much of a question mark as it is an exclamation point. It gets better every time I wear it, and it’s kept me coming back for more.
Top Notes: Pink Pepper, Black Pepper Essence, Truffle Alba Accord
Middle Notes: Chestnut Wood Accord, Patchouli Essence
Base Notes: Cedar Essence, Vanilla Absolute, Tonka Essence, Clearwood, Sylvamber
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Fresh Perfume: Arquiste A Grove By The Sea
Arquiste
The recent tomato trend in fragrance has opened up our eyes to scents that may lean more green, fresh, and savory, and just how much of a refreshing delight they can be. Instead of frontloading the scent with a bunch of citrus or woods like many green scents, A Grove By The Sea really commits to the idea of the whole garden, with notes of olive, fennel, rosemary, thyme, salt, and fig. All of the notes push and pull on your skin, peek out individually at times while working together to illustrate a scene of warm summer air floating through a seaside Mediterranean garden. It’s an arrestingly beautiful fragrance and completely reframes the possibility of these vegetal notes—creating something that’s not only wearable, but obsession-worthy.
Top Notes: Adriatic Fig Leaves, Black Olive, Salt Accord, Croatian Clementine
Middle Notes: Extra Virgin Olive Oil Accord, Ripe Fig Fruit, Thyme Essence, Rosemary Essence
Base Notes: Mediterranean Pine Needle, Fir Balsam, Mediterranean Cypress, Red Clay
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Sweet Perfume: Jil Sander Miel
Jil Sander
A lot has been made of gourmands in the last few seasons, with people finally coming around to their instinctual attraction to the magnetism of a sweet fragrance. While a true vanilla may still be too much for some, Jil Sander serves up an acute, minimalist take on honey that’s elevated, radiant, and stunning in its simplicity. The scent marries the sticky, golden, jewel-like honey note with jasmine, which, in this case, reads earthy instead of sweet. Soapy aldehydes, which are the throughline of this collection, add just a touch of airiness to keep it from getting cloying. It’s an almost photorealistic take on honey—one that, even though it’s a quieter take on a sweet scent, continues to wow me time after time.
Top Notes: Aldehydes
Middle Notes: Jasmine
Base Notes: Buckwheat Honey
Type: Eau de Parfum
Best Wildcard Perfume: Kayali Sweet Diamond Pink Pepper | 25
Kayali
This completely floored me the first time I smelled it and it’s still one of the most unique perfumes in my collection. Don’t let the hot pink chrome bottle fool you: Sweet Diamond Pink Pepper balances the most saccharine facets of saffron and florals with the deepest expressions of pepper and rose. It creates a striking duality of sweet and dark, conjuring images of pink rock candy mixed with black leather moto jackets and tire tread. It’s an exercise in precision and balance, and in pushing notes to the fringes of their possibility to create something singular, that smells new. Wearing this is a different journey every time, but one that I am always excited to take.
Top Notes: Pink Pepper, Bergamot
Middle Notes: Saffron, Bulgarian Rose
Base Notes: Vanilla Orchid, Sandalwood
Type: Eau de Parfum
