Since 2000, the colour-trend makers and shapers, Pantone, have announced their ‘colour of the year’ – thereby triggering an explosion of that tone across fashion, art and design initiatives in all categories. And, of course, that includes fragrance trends, too. For 2024 the colour has been announced as ‘Peach Fuzz‘ – so yes, indeed, this marries perfectly with some of the scent trends we’ve already seen emerging for the year ahead.
Here, we explore why peach is THE colour we’ll all be seeing – and matching it with the most perfectly peachy scents we know so far (with, we suspect, many more peachy perfumes to arrive in the coming months!)
Pantone Says: ‘Subtly sensual, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz is a heartfelt peach hue bringing a feeling of kindness and tenderness, communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration. A warm and cozy shade highlighting our desire for togetherness with others or for enjoying a moment of stillness and the feeling of sanctuary this creates, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz presents a fresh approach to a new softness…’
Why was Peach Fuzz chosen for 2024?
And what does this colour say about how we’re feeling – what we need, right now? Pantone explains: ‘At a time of turmoil in many aspects of our lives, our need for nurturing, empathy and compassion grows ever stronger as does our imaginings of a more peaceful future. We are reminded that a vital part of living a full life is having the good health, stamina, and strength to enjoy it. That in a world which often emphasises productivity and external achievements, it is critical we recognise the importance of fostering our inner selves and find moments of respite, creativity, and human connection amid the hustle and bustle of modern life. As we navigate the present and build toward a new world, we are reevaluating what is important. Reframing how we want to live, we are expressing ourselves with greater intentionality and consideration. Recalibrating our priorities to align with our internal values, we are focusing on health and wellbeing, both mental and physical, and cherishing what’s special — the warmth and comfort of spending time with friends and family, or simply taking a moment of time to ourselves.
With that in mind, we wanted to turn to a colour that could focus on the importance of community and coming together with others. The colour we selected to be our Pantone Colour of the Year 2024 needed to express our desire to want to be close to those we love and the joy we get when allowing ourselves to tune into who we are and just savour a moment of quiet time alone. It needed to be a colour whose warm and welcoming embrace conveyed a message of compassion and empathy. One that was nurturing and whose cosy sensibility brought people together and elicited a feeling of tactility. One that reflected our feeling for days that seemed simpler but at the same time has been rephrased to display a more contemporary ambiance. One whose gentle lightness and airy presence lifts us into the future.’
How is peach used within perfumery?
It’s such a soft, fuzzy, sensual note. No wonder perfumers love it: peach almost gives the same velvety texture to a fragrance that you get from stroking the ripe fruit itself. Since the time of the early Arab perfumers, the flesh of peach and the kernels were used in scents and ointments. Originally a native of China, peaches made their way to Europe after Alexander the Great conquered the Persians and brought back a botanical trophy, Prunus persica, then known as the ‘Persian apple’. The nectar-like aroma you smell in a ‘peach-y’ fragrance, though, may actually be a synthetic: aldehyde C14 (a.k.a. undecalactone) smells delectably peach-like and edible, and we defy most untrained noses to tell the difference.
Peachy Perfect Perfume Picks…
Lancôme Trésor – Currently from £52 for 30ml eau de parfum
A timeless classic, and a lusciously peachy scent that just seem to sing on the skin, Trésor is a love letter to seemingly effortless sophistication. The signature Lancôme rose shimmers with effervescent light, dancing across the fuzzy velvet of nuzzle-me-closer peach skins and apricot blossoms to a luminous heart of white flowers dusted with powder and a smooth, long-lasting trail of creamy musk. Simply divine, one you must seek out to try (for the first time, perhaps?) now!
SHAY & BLUE White Peaches – From £25 for 10ml eau de parfum
Forget the variety you might find in your fruit bowl – here, a floral delicacy exudes from the flesh of white peaches, swirled through with an elderflower granita for a freshness that feels like brightness and happy times, bottled. Shay & Blue excel at unique combinations, this one unusually grounded with a soft wintery wisp of silver birch for the woody base. It’s a refreshing sorbet of a scent to quench your thirst for something delightful to wear, no matter the weather.
Ulrich Lang Suncrest – $185 for 100ml eau de parfum
The particular variety of peach here inspires the name, and is ultra-realistically evoked, literally like burying your nose in a bowl of perfectly ripe peaches fresh from the market, then tenderly stroking your face with the fuzzy, sun-warmed skin before sinking your teeth in and letting the juice trickle down your chin. Lucent jasmine and piquant blackcurrant slice the velvet and the creamy woodiness of the base feels like the giddy exhilaration just after laughing joyously. A triumph!
Memoize London Curatio – £177 for 100ml eau de parfum
Fizzingly fresh orange and the exotic (almost banana-like) ylang ylang are cooly spiced with cardamom before the sweetness of the peach juice kicks in, like nectar for the soul. Love the scent as self-care message from Memoize, who say: ‘Sometimes, it is inherently clear what is needed: a comforting sweet embrace of oneself.’ The vanilla-rich dry down does, indeed, feel like a hug, being further buoyed aloft by rosy-tinged geranium and jasmine for added joie de vivre.
L’Artisan Parfumeur À Fleur de Pêche – £170 for 100ml eau de parfum
Peach is beautifully embodied here by L’Artisan Parfumeur via a triptych of peach facets: the fuzziness of the skin, the lusciousness of peach flesh, and the almost almond-y stone within, which sits in the base alongside patchouli and tonka bean. Sweet, juicy, you’ll also encounter a twist of pepper, a dash of saltiness, from a note of Calone. A modern gourmand, if you like, it’s certainly very more-ish and you’ll be lusting for peaches whenever you wear it.
Tom Ford Bitter Peach – From £180 for 30ml eau de partum
Don’t be put off by the name. (When did Mr. Ford ever let us down?) This is a welcome reminder of summer’s joys, luscious with Sicilian blood orange, the signature pêche de vigne (peaches on the vine) accord and a dash of cardamom in the opening, beckoning us towards a boozy afternoon with rum, cognac, davana oil and jasmine absolute, in time to enjoy a golden sunset moment with sandalwood, benzoin, vanilla, tonka and patchouli. *Happy sigh.*
Adscenture Secret Garden – £60 for 30ml eau de parfum
Cascading sunlights tenderly caresses succulent peach swirled with coconut for an unashamedly happy-making scent that’s akin to diving nose-first through the pages of beautifully illustrated story book. Touches of sweetly delicious frangipani and vanilla-swirled sandalwood offer a warming path through amber-laden woods in the dry down. It’s as though the pastel colours of a peach’s portrait swish around you, inviting further exploration as they linger and lull.
Maison Margiela Replica Flower Market – £57.91 for 30ml eau de toilette
Evoking the sensation of walking through a flower-market early in the morning, just after it’s rained; perhaps we purchase a dew-dappled peach from a stall as we pass through, marvelling at the silver pails of wondrous blooms surrounding us. A sense of snapped stalks and crumpled leaves amidst the floral notes, the ripe peach scent seeming to echo the warm blush spreading across the sky as daylight wins out and we suddenly remember warmer days ahead, and smile.
Guerlain Mitsouko – £102 for 75ml eau de toilette
Of course I couldn’t go without mentioning THE reference peach-infused rapture that is Mitsouko. Inspired by the eponymous Japanese heroine of Claude Farrčre’s novel ‘La bataille’, and the passionate love triangle therein, this complex unfurling of cinnamon infused, milk-lapped plump peach skin nuzzles into a warm embrace of oakmoss that beguiles for hours. A classic that deserves to be in everyone’s collection, it’s a truly enduring romance with peach.
Written by Suzy Nightingale
