What are skin scents? The understated perfumes our beauty editors swear by

“Skin scents are sensual and unique in that they smell different on everyone,” declares Narciso Rodriguez, the man who arguably put musk – surely the most intimate of skin scents – back on the map with the launch of his first fragrance Narciso Rodriguez For Her.

Indeed, skin scents are the perfume equivalent of ‘no makeup’ makeup or a slick of blush-coloured lip gloss. Rather than a larger-than-life flower bomb of heady gardenia, they can only be smelt by the wearer and someone who is so close, their eyelashes skim your neck when you embrace.

To amplify the humid nature of a skin scent, they typically have a shadowy note of musk in the background. For Narciso, it has become a signature and a constant feature of all of his fragrances, including the new eau de parfum All Of Me.

“I've always loved musk – how three people can sit in a room, put on the same oil and it smells completely different on each skin," he notes. "There's an individual beauty to that, which has always been fascinating to me and why musk is the foundation of all of the scents.”

Olivier Cresp, perfumer and co-founder of Akro concurs: “Musk gives a clean aspect to your skin, which is both reassuring and relaxing.” In other words, they're the viral vanilla girl aesthetic bottled and they'll never be offensive in a crowded lift.

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By Fiona Embleton

What is a skin scent?

Interest in sensual perfumes certainly isn't new but skin scents typically fall into two camps. In one corner, perfumes that mimic the smell of naked skin with powdery iris, creamy musks, velvety woods and vanilla.

Some of them smell powdery and soapy; others conjure up flushed, damp bodies thanks to just the merest hint of something animalic or spicy. And then there's those scents that conjure up the tactile feel of silk against bare skin or cotton without the anaemic smell of freshly laundered sheets.

Chanel Jersey, for example, billows in soft and milky with lavender, musk and vanilla while Byredo Blanche skews towards warm clean skin with a soapy aldehyde and Glossier You adds a damp, salty note to the mix. Narciso's All Of Me is the equivalent of putting rose and geranium petals in a milk bath.

In the other corner are perfumes laced with Iso E Super, a molecule designed to intensify your unique natural skin scent. It's almost invisible on your pulse points, although you may catch a whiff of wood or musk, but Iso E Super is essentially ‘eau de slept-in sheets’.

“Speaking scientifically, pheromones are the only olfactory way that we can appear sexy towards another human," says Ulrike Hager, founder of Feminista, which uses a high percentage of Iso E Super as a means of amplifying your pheromones.

These airborne aphrodisiacs, secreted via sweat, leave a barely detectable vapour trail but are thought to signal our readiness to mate. “Pheromones are actively involved in sexual attraction and, upon release, they can stimulate arousal, desire and lust.”

Which perhaps explains why #pheromoneperfume and #skinscents have garnered more than 135 million combined views on TikTok.

What are the benefits of a skin scent?

And added benefit of skin scents is that they are quietly reassuring on days when you need something soothing to cut through the noise. “The smell of musk and vanilla are warm on your skin and make you feel like you are in a cocoon,” says Olivier, who namechecks Night by Akro as a comforting fragrance.

But ultimately, Narciso sums it up best by saying that skin scents, and musk in particular, “is very personal and sensual; something that is a second skin that is very easy to wear, makes you feel good and gives you confidence.”

For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR's Acting Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.

15 best skin scents so you can smell like you - just better.