DRUMROLL; BODYSPRAYS WORTH GETTING:
Victoria's Secret Strawberries & Champagne
This is one of those fragrances that proves fruity doesn't automatically mean juvenile. Victoria's Secret describes it around wild strawberry and sparkling champagne, and that's exactly why the combination works. The strawberry gives you sweetness. The champagne gives it sparkle and keeps the whole thing from smelling like strawberry candy.
It's feminine, fruity and flirtatious without requiring a $150 bottle sitting dramatically on your dresser.
Calgon Hawaiian Ginger
Yes, Calgon made the list! Hawaiian Ginger combines tropical fruit with coconut and ginger. Walmart currently describes pineapple, peach and melon among its fruity notes, with coconut and ginger contributing to the overall tropical profile. But don't let the "Hawaiian" part automatically translate to cheap suntan lotion in your head. The ginger gives the fruit its bite, which is exactly what keeps a tropical fragrance interesting.
It's an old-school drugstore fragrance that deserves considerably more respect than its humble bottle receives.
Body Fantasies Twilight Mist
Here is where the budget gets almost ridiculous. At the time I checked, Walmart had the full 8-ounce bottle around $6, with notes of coconut, mandarin orange and plum. (Walmart.com) That combination is considerably more sophisticated than "six-dollar body spray" would suggest. Plum brings darkness, mandarin gives it brightness and coconut softens everything underneath.
For the woman who likes something darker and sexier rather than cupcake-sweet, this is one I'd spritz all over.
EOS Pistachio
Thee only exception to the bakery sweet scent rule! Why? Ahem, this spray will have people ready to eat you up. Hello! With base notes of blonde wood layered beneath vanilla toffee and rice milk, this formula is both unisex and longevity approved. A muted yet enthralling aroma that will warm the coldest heart and keep it engaged.
Body Fantasies Fresh White Musk
White musk is one of the easiest ways to smell clean, polished and quietly feminine without smelling like you emptied the perfume counter onto yourself. Aaaand this is where inexpensive body sprays really shine: Walmart currently carries some of the small Body Fantasies sprays around the $3 range, depending on fragrance and availability. (Walmart.com)
Three dollars. You have probably lost more money than that underneath a car seat.
Bodycology Jasmine Glow
Don't automatically walk past Bodycology because it's sitting in Walmart rather than beneath flattering department-store lighting. The brand describes Jasmine Glow as golden pear, white gardenia and soft sandalwood. (Bodycology) That is exactly the kind of fragrance structure I'm talking about. Fruit on top, floral through the middle and sandalwood underneath. The sandalwood is doing important work here. It gives an otherwise straightforward pear-and-flower fragrance some warmth and maturity.
Bodycology Cozy Fireside S'more
Now we're getting into gourmand territory. At the time I checked, Walmart had the 8-ounce mist listed at $4.97. (Walmart.com) If you're a woman who likes warm, edible, cozy fragrances that probably-might-maybe-could lead to closer encounters, Bodycology is worth investigating before spending substantially more on trendy gourmand sprays. And at five bucks, you don't need to conduct a congressional hearing before deciding whether you can afford another spritz.
If You Still Want Expensive Perfumes:
There are two particularly strong options here.
Bath & Body Works Into the Night is positioned much more like an evening perfume than the fruity body sprays many people associate with the brand. The full-size mist is currently around $18 before the company's frequent promotions. (Bath & Body Works)
Then there's In the Stars, which is one of the better examples of why fragrance notes matter more than the words "body mist" on the bottle. It combines starflower, sandalwood musk, sugared tangelo, white agarwood and radiant amber. (Bath & Body Works) Read that again. Sandalwood. Musk. Agarwood. Amber. That is precisely the fragrance vocabulary you'll find wandering around considerably more expensive perfume counters.
And Then There's Fine'ry
This is where the boundary between "body spray" and "affordable perfume wardrobe" gets especially interesting.
Fine'ry Not Another Cherry is built around a darker, boozier interpretation of cherry rather than cherry candy. IMO, this is a much better route than other cherry-based designer scents like Tom Ford and even beauty editors have singled the fragrance out as being an inexpensive alternative to dramatically pricier cherry fragrances. (InStyle) The redundancy here means to stress an important distinction if your goal is to smell like money rather than merely "just smell good." For this one, you can gather different combos on different people; to me, this one is definitely a chameleon.
Further proof that: You don't need pricey perfume. You need an interesting composition and the confidence to wear it.
Why I Wouldn't Build My Fragrance Wardrobe Around a Subscription
Fragrance subscriptions make sense for someone who specifically wants to sample designer perfume before buying a bottle. That's a perfectly legitimate use for them. But they're solving a different problem than we're solving here. We're trying to smell fabulous cheaply and generously. I would rather have several large bottles that I genuinely enjoy and switch among them: something clean for daytime, something fruity for summer, something warm for winter and something darker for going out.
And when I'm wearing a $5, $10 or $18 mist? I spray it. Wrists. Neck. Chest. Inner elbows. Maybe another spritz later. No guilt. No staring through the little bottle trying to determine whether I've already used $1.73 worth of fragrance today.
The Trick That Makes Cheap Body Spray Last Longer
This is where extra tips come in hhandy. Now, who doesn't have petroleum jelly in their medicine cabinet? Dab a bit of that behind your ears and inner wrists. Rub it in like lotion. Spray. Boom, you just added hours to your scent. Same goes with your kitchen. Your kitchen can unexpectedly become part of your fragrance routine too. Body sprays tend to disappear faster from dry skin. Applying them over lightly moisturized skin can help the fragrance linger. If you're improvising with something already in the house, a tiny amount of a relatively neutral oil can work. The operative words are tiny amount. Oils and Vaseline are comedogenic.
But, then again, you're moisturizing your pulse points, not seasoning yourself. A little refined coconut, grapeseed, sunflower, safflower or refined avocado oil can provide an emollient base. Rub a drop or two completely into the wrists, inner elbows or other pulse points and then apply your fragrance. Coconut can work particularly well with vanilla, tropical and gourmand fragrances, provided you like its natural scent.
Olive oil is usable in a pinch, but extra-virgin olive oil has enough aroma of its own that I wouldn't choose it beneath a delicate floral fragrance. And keep kitchen oils away from clothing until they're fully absorbed. Oil stains on satin are decidedly not giving "Diva status."
The Real Luxury Is Having Options
For the same general purpose, you can build a small fragrance wardrobe: musk when you want clean and polished, champagne and berries when you want feminine and playful, amber and woods when you want sexy, tropical fruit when you want something bright, and vanilla or gourmand when you want warm and delicious.
Even the current market supports the argument. Bath & Body Works has full-size mists around $17 to $19 before promotions, Body Fantasies can fall into the single digits, and Bodycology currently has options around $5. (Bath & Body Works) That's the corner we're cutting, not the smelling good part. Because, let me tell you something: "expensive" is ultimately an impression. And nobody standing next to you knows what the bottle on your dresser cost.
They just know you smell like money, honey; and that's intoxicating.
