Fire Island – spicy and floral and a day at the beach

When it's hotter outside than a French crepe on a griddle, it's time to put the SPF 60 on ice put the Fire Island in the fridge and go with the flow.  Why Fire Island? Because this juice was made for summer.

Fire Island was launched in 2006 by Bond No. 9 the American niche perfume house started by French-born Laurice Rahmé that tends to name its fragrances after neighborhoods in NYC – like Chinatown and Andy Warhol's Silver Factory. Fire Island isn’t exactly in NYC. It lies just off the south shore of Long Island and its beaches are a favorite weekend getaway for New Yorkers in the summertime. And Fire Island isn’t strictly an ‘American’ fragrance. Let me explain.

When Rahmé was casting about for a summer frag to add to the Bond No. 9 line she knew she wanted something reminiscent of summer days spent on French beaches, so she commissioned nose Michel Almairac of Robertet with the task of creating a scent that smelled of Ambre Solaire.  Ambre Solaire, in case you didn’t know, is the75 year-old French suntan lotion produced by L’Oreal (which is also the parent company of Lancôme where Rahmé worked in her 20’s). The result of Almairac’s work was Fire Island.

Now, I didn’t grow up on the beaches of France and I’ve never been to Fire island, but I can tell you that Bond No. 9’s Fire Island is so evocative of summer days at the beach, that no matter how old you are, or where you sunbathed, swam or hung out, you will relate to this fragrance. It is the reference smell of sunny days at the beach and the quintessential smell of summer. Here’s how it goes….

It opens with a clean ozonic note that smells of the sea with a note of cardamom  to warm it up. As it blooms, a sunscreen accord - honey-sweet from aromatic neroli spicy and woodsy from white musk – is so evocative of people in the hot summer sun at the beach, I thought I heard a seagull. Seriously. Then at the base tuberose rises up, floral, creamy and lazy, along with sweet, earthy, woody patchouli and a note of salty skin.

 Fire Island is the smell of a summer’s day spent at the beach – the sea, the sunscreen and the sun warmed skin on your skin, yet its strong floral presence and refined drydown make it a gorgeous fragrance and much more than a just a ‘beachy’ scent.

Fire Island has enough presence to stand up to summer heat while still staying close to the skin so I like to wear it on hot days and smell of the beach, but then again, I also like to wear it on cool days and smell of the beach. It’s a win/win fragrance.

Check out Fire Island in our Shop.