I Can't Stop Wearing This Nostalgic Summer Perfume That Smells Like Sunscreen and Pool Water

I don’t know about you, but I love smelling like summer. It’s one of the most nostalgic seasons with the most alluring and happy smells — pool water, sandy beaches, wet swimsuits, sunscreen, coconut oil, the list goes on. If you love being transported to some of your best beach and pool days, I have a secret: I’ve discovered a perfume that is basically summer in a bottle, and it’ll bring back your best sun-filled memories. 

The Vacation perfume — which is incredibly aptly named — is a genderless fragrance that I can’t help but douse myself with every single day of the year. The scent mimics the brand’s best-selling sunscreen scent, which is made to “smell like you’ve been to paradise and back.” And it does just that. The fragrance notes include the aforementioned sunscreen, as well as coconut, banana, and pineapple, with “poolside” notes of pool water, swimsuit lycra (yes, seriously), and sea salt. It sounds like a strange concoction, but it’s the best thing I’ve smelled since I was a kid; it’s basically the closest thing you’ll get to spending summer in the 1990s or early aughts, without an actual time machine. 

Prior to discovering the scent, I spent an entire summer spraying and slathering Vacation’s sunscreen products on my skin. Then while visiting in-laws in Minnesota, I ended up at the Mall of America, and found the perfume bottle at a checkout counter. As soon as my finger hit the trigger, I was magically transported from the midwestern mega-mall in the dead of winter back to the beaches and pools of my past, from the Hawaiian beach vacay I took with my father when I was ten to poolside with my pals circa 1997. 

Shoppers are just as “smitten” with the scent. “It reminds me of when I go on vacation, and I walk into the shops at the resorts,” one person wrote. “The doors are open, and you catch a breeze that picks up the ocean air, mixes it with the flowers and foliage outside, and hits the product scents in the shop, all mixed together.” Another self-declared “fraghead” said the Vacation perfume took them back to highschool, “lounging at my public pool with my bestie as we scoped the lifeguards for cuties while walking to the snack bar.” A final shopper said it best: “It’s like wearing a memory.” 

And unlike the Malibu Musk you may have worn in your youth, Vacation’s perfume is not sickeningly sweet, and is actually one of the least offensive fragrances I’ve tried — even for those who identify as sensitive smellers. The biggest complaint I’ve seen in the reviews section is that the bottle is on the smaller side (it’s only one ounce) and, because it smells so ridiculously perfect, it might be empty by Labor Day. 

The Vacation fragrance has quite the following; it’s sold out twice according to the brand, leaving behind a waitlist of hopeful time travelers. Lucky for you, it is currently in stock at Nordstrom and Amazon, but I’d add it to your cart, fast — it’ll likely sell out again before you know it.