Fire Island was launched in 2006 by Bond No. 9 the American niche perfume house started by French-born Laurice Rahmé.

When Rahmé was casting about for a summer fragrance to add to the Bond No. 9 line, she knew she wanted something reminiscent of the summer days she spent on French beaches as a child. She commissioned Michel Almairac to create a scent that smelled of Ambre Solaire, the famous French suntan lotion. The result was Fire Island.

It opens with a clean ozonic note that smells like a breeze that comes off the sea. A note of cardamom warms it up. As it blooms, a sunscreen accord drifts in. It’s honey-sweet, floral and fresh from neroli, airy and delicate from white musk and dry and woody from skin musk. Then, tuberose rises up and connects with the neroli, extending its floralcy with its creamy opulence. Patchouli is dark and rich, and the yin to the yang of the flowers making sure they don’t dominate Fire Island.

The drydown is light, fresh and intimate. What I love about Fire Island is that it creates the mood of freedom that summer has. That smell of having been at the beach all day – cool sea, bright sun, warm skin – that lasts into the night makes it so much more than a ‘beachy’ scent.

Notes: Cardamom, ozone, neroli, white musk, skin musk, tuberose, and patchouli.