"Something fresh" is the most common request in perfume and the least specific. It can mean sea air, cut grapefruit, clean laundry or a cold mineral sharpness — four quite different things. This is a comparison of the fresh end of our range so you can tell which one you actually want.
The salty, marine end
Empire is the reference point here. It is a hybrid, taking direction from both Creed's Virgin Island Water and Louis Vuitton's Afternoon Swim, which lands it between coconut-tinged tropical brightness and a cleaner citrus. It is our best-selling fragrance by a wide margin.
Nautilus goes further toward blue and mineral, following Ex Nihilo's Blue Talisman. It is a summer fragrance with more weight than its colour suggests — citrus and fruit over a structure that holds.
California Club takes after Creed's Silver Mountain Water: cooler, more metallic, less sweet. If Empire reads as a beach, this reads as meltwater.
The sharp citrus end
Sorrento, inspired by Sospiro's Vibrato, is the most straightforwardly citrus of the group and tagged for summer specifically.
Slow Living follows Maison Francis Kurkdjian's Petit Matin — bright, airy and deliberately understated. It is also one of the few in our range made as an eau de parfum rather than an extrait, which suits it: this is a fragrance meant to feel light rather than to dominate a room.
Reflection and Reflection Elixir both take from Louis Vuitton's Symphony. The Elixir is the fuller of the two and is tagged for all four seasons, making it the more versatile pick if you want one bottle rather than two.
The fresh-but-warmer end
Inception, after Louis Vuitton's Imagination, sits between citrus and something softer — our second best seller, and the one people tend to reach for when "fresh" needs to work in an office rather than on a beach.
California Blue takes direction from Paco Rabanne's Invictus, which puts it in more overtly sporty territory. California follows Bond no.9's Lafayette Street and is the most urban of the three California compositions.
Choosing between them
| If you want | Try |
|---|---|
| Beach, coconut, holiday | Empire |
| Cold, mineral, clean | California Club |
| Blue and substantial | Nautilus |
| Pure citrus for heat | Sorrento |
| Light and unobtrusive | Slow Living |
| One bottle for all year | Reflection Elixir |
| Office-appropriate fresh | Inception |
One expectation to set
Fresh fragrances are the shortest-lived in any range. Citrus molecules are small and volatile — that is precisely what makes them smell bright. If you need a fresh scent to survive a full day, apply to moisturised skin and spray clothing as well; these tips help. Expecting a citrus to last like a vanilla is expecting the wrong thing.
Browse the full Citrus collection or our Summer Picks. For how we group the rest of the range, see fragrance families explained, and for what the gold inspiration line means, see what "inspired by" means.