Beach and the City – Sea Spray edition (or why Bobbi Brown’s Beach fragrance is wonderful)

Beach in the City – A seasonal feature about bringing the beach to the city even when you can’t take a vacation.

In Washington, right now, it’s summer. In New York, not so much yet. This morning was an April mess of rain and wind getting to work downtown, although DC on Saturday was positively sweltering. (To confused readers: for reasons too long to explain, I spend an inordinate amount of time running back and forth between the two cities).

Summer to me means a new fragrance wardrobe on the weekends. While I still wear very light and conservative scents to work, on the weekends I like my scents to remind me of the beach and of vacation, even though I am generally nowhere near a beach. Sometimes it means beachy scents, sometimes tropical fruity scents, and sometimes coconut.

The heat on Saturday inspired me to pull out Bobbi Brown Beach, one of my favorite scents. It’s not a tropical beach scent at all – in fact, I have read that Bobbi was inspired by the beaches in Nantucket when she created this scent. It has sand jasmine, sea spray and mandarin notes. I find it wonderfully refreshing and love that it is not too marine or sandy, but very delicate.

I started wearing this scent in late spring 2005, and I associate it with many memories, including my first few dates with my now-husband. I wore this scent on the day of our civil marriage ceremony since I associated it with our first few dates. Even if I did not have all those memories associated with the scent, Bobbi’s Beach is truly a lovely light scent.

I only buy the Beach edp, because I don’t find the bath and body line in Beach particularly moisturizing. Furthemore, I can buy some of my favorite etailer bath and body products in this scent. Skindecent is my go-to source of duped Beach items. As I mentioned in this post, Skindecent has great bath bombs, and when I bought mine last year in the Beach scent, the owner, Marliss made them blue. So now, whenever I use one for a Beach bath, the water becomes a lovely blue. I also love Skindecent’s Bermuda Beach Smoother in the Bobbi Beach scent – the Bermuda Beach Smoother feels like wet sand, and combined with the Bobbi Beach fragrance makes for a refreshing and very escapist bath or shower. Plus, Skindecent bath and body products in the Bobbi Beach scent are much cheaper and much more moisturizing than the Bobbi Bath and Body line.

If you like the idea of sea spray but can’t stand the jasmine of Bobbi’s Beach, try Skindecent’s scent called Beach Vacation, which is a basic sea spray scent. I use it on its own or layer it with my Bobbi Beach edp. It looks like Marliss has not put up either of those scents on her scent list for summer yet, but you can always email her to ask her if she has them available yet (I bought mine in May last year, and I remember they were not yet on the scent list either)

Another one of my favorite etailers that carries a Bobbi Brown Beach dupe is Coconut Hut Beauty – I love it in the shea cream, as it is both light and moisturizing.

Enjoy, and may you bring the beach to you if you cannot get to a beach.