When I heard that Summer Fridays was stepping into fragrance, it didn’t exactly come as a shock — but it certainly made my day. You see, the brand has a track record of perfectly judged scents. Its most recognizable bestseller, Lip Butter Balm, already comes in a lineup of flavors that rivals an ice cream shop, while body products like the Summer Silk Nourishing Body Lotion — with its vanilla-floral notes — hint at a love for gourmand, dessert-inspired scents.
So when I say I could immediately picture (or maybe smell?) what a Summer Fridays perfume might be like, I mean it as a compliment. When I think of Summer Fridays, words like “dreamy,” “cozy,” and “soft” come to mind, thanks to products like Cloud Dew Moisturizer and Dream Lip Oil — it’s the kind of mood that practically begs to be translated into scent.
The only question was whether it would live up to that vision.
As the name suggests, Summer Fridays’ Sunlit Vanilla Eau de Parfum combines solar notes (“summer” is one half of the brand’s name, after all) of tropical coconut and citrus with gourmand caramelized crème brûlée and warm vanilla. Top notes of citrus bergamot and heart notes of heady coconut add dimension and complexity in a sea of trendy vanilla scents.
For Lauren Gores Ireland and Marianna Hewitt, cofounders of Summer Fridays, Sunlit Vanilla was a long time in the making: “As founders, we’ve always loved vanilla,” they tell me, adding, “It’s why we chose it as the original Lip Butter Balm flavor and scent. Six years later, it’s still one of our best sellers, and that nostalgia and love from our community felt like the natural place to begin.”
The best way I can describe Sunlit Vanilla is cookie-dough-meets-vanilla extract mixed with expensive sunscreen — in other words, utterly delicious and addictive in the best way. On my skin, vanilla shines as the primary note, but as it dries down, the coconut and citrus linger for a result that has a nostalgic, comforting quality of childhood beach days. (It reminds me of what a vanilla version of Vacation’s namesake eau de toilette, a fine fragrance interpretation of the brand’s beloved sunscreen lotions, would smell like.)
If you ask me, it’s something of a masterpiece, but according to the brand, it’s tough to get vanilla fragrances just right: “Vanilla is having a huge moment, but a lot of interpretations lean very heavy where you’d only want to wear it during fall or winter or in the evening [because] they go very sweet,” says Ireland and Hewitt. “We wanted ours to feel like sunlight on skin: warm, radiant, a little golden.”
And that’s exactly how it feels, except it isn’t as fleeting as sunny weather; I found that Sunlit Vanilla lasted impressively long after applying — almost like how your skin and hair still smell softly of sunscreen and salt water after a beach day. I also love how beautiful the bottle is, with the vintage-inspired gold cap and fluted glass detailing. Given the initial hype from Summer Friday stans, all signs point to early bestseller status, right up there with the Lip Butter Balms.
Summer Fridays’ debut fragrance is launching exclusively on the Sephora app on March 16 and at Sephora and the Summer Fridays website on March 17, but early reviews have already begun trickling in. One Redditor received a sneaky Sephora sample of the fragrance in an online order, which prompted eager comments from people clamoring to know more. “I’ve been searching for a perfect vanilla scent that isn’t too sweet or heavy, and this is absolutely perfect,” shares another lucky commenter. “The smell reminds me of lying on a towel by the water and staring up into the sun,” describes a third.
I’ve already been wearing Sunlit Vanilla nonstop since receiving an early bottle, and I have a feeling it’ll be my new signature scent through the summer. And to think that this is just the beginning of Summer Fridays’ fragrance journey…
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