The new-gen perfumes that double as skincare

Times

21-04-2025

These days, we demand everything but the kitchen sink from our purchases: just blame smartphones. In beauty, this means products that go above and beyond their original function and cater to multiple needs. We have hair conditioners that double as growth-boosting scalp serums, body lotions that promise to help with crepey arms and blotchy chests, and a dose of elusive 'wellness' promised with just about every potion you buy.
The latter is offered in the shape of 'happy' colours, tactile packaging, 'neuro-active' regenerative ingredients and, most of all, fragrance. Long known for having a direct impact on the psyche, it was only a matter of time before perfume itself took centre-stage as the latest 'smart' cosmetic, marrying its mood-altering abilities with actual skincare benefits.
'Gen Z has driven the trend for fragrance as a tool for self-care, choosing scents for specific benefits including emotional wellness,' says Michelle Feeney, the founder of Floral Street fragrances. 'So we set out to create a body mist that wasn't just a watered-down eau de toilette but a functional fragrance with healing and hydrating properties.'
Unique as that may be, the idea of a 'skincare fragrance' raises the issue of fragrance being a known skin irritant. Even if you're not sensitive to scent and with perfumed products strictly regulated for safety, dermatologists will still tell you that habitually dousing patches of skin in strong perfume can eventually sensitise those areas, causing rashes and dermatitis.
So is it truly possible to straddle today's twin requirements for gentle skincare and aromatic emotional rescue? These products, it seems, already have.
The fragrance and flavour manufacturer, Robertet, are the pioneers of Actiscents, made of natural aromatic raw materials (often essential oils) with olfactive as well as cosmetic benefits. Their portfolio includes extracts that protect from pollution and combat pigmentation. Floral Street chose a blend that inhibits an inflammation-causing enzyme in the skin.
The soothing cocktail, which reduces potential irritation from products by 50 per cent, is in all three of the brand's new body mists, including the tangy-fresh Floral Street Wonderland Peony Perfume Mist, £24. Upcycled rosewater (a byproduct of the rose oil production that would otherwise go to waste, fermented to enhance its skin benefits) provides hydration. The result is an enveloping perfume that mitigates skin reactivity without becoming evanescent.
Biodynamically produced rosewater, good for its antioxidant vitamin E content, hydration and soothing aromatherapy properties, also stars in Wildsmith Skin Super Moisturising Treatment Mist, £40, alongside plumping and quenching ingredients hyaluronic acid and betaine.
Elsewhere, Salt & Stone Santal & Vetiver body mist, £45, produced by a functional fragrance brand which is focused on skin and planet-friendly formulas, features moisture-trapping glycerin and nutrient-rich, antioxidant red algae. The scent is warm, grounding and subtle so as not to upset skin.
Spicy-sweet Moroccanoil Brumes du Maroc hair and body fragrance mist, £24, has argan oil and vitamin E to nourish and protect skin with essential fatty acids and antioxidants, plus 'UV absorber technology' to help protect and preserve hair fibres.
According to Farida Irani, the founder of Subtle Energies ayurvedic skincare, it's a matter of formulation as to whether fragrant essential oils cause skin reactions or not. 'Aside from the highest-quality, unadulterated oils being less prone to irritate,' she says, 'the right synergy of the chemical components and trace elements in a therapeutic face or body oil is paramount for side-stepping adverse reactions.'
Her Subtle Energies The Facial Blend, £240, has a base of regenerative, pigmentation-fading ashwagandha and mogra oils with an aromatic blend of jasmine, rose and sandalwood — three essential oils recognised for their soothing and anti-anxiety properties. This formulation has no adverse effect, says Irani, on '99 per cent of users' skins'.
Neurae Harmonie The Oil, £125, pulls off a triple psycho-dermatological feat. Essential fatty acids nourish, resurrection plant can neutralise the impact of the stress hormone cortisol in the skin and a gentle but lingering aroma of Palo Santo wood — credited in traditional medicine with reducing pain, inflammation and stress — gives an overall sense of calm and wellbeing.
Possibly inspired by the sell-out success of Byredo and Susanne Kaufmann's Bregenzerwald Body and Fragrance Oil collaboration, which team Alpine forest fragrance with nourishing meadowfoam seed and peach kernel oils, Jo Malone has ventured into world of aromatherapeutic bodycare. Jo Malone Restore body oil, £64, replenishes with primrose and almond oils while the jasmine, neroli and rosehip aroma has a tranquilising effect on the mind.