3 Perfumes with a Blood Orange Note for Spring

Take a cue from nature and select your next scent based on the seasons. In the United States, blood oranges come into season in March and April. These oranges aren’t just gorgeous to look at with their vibrant orange peel juxtaposed with their rich, blackish-violet pulp, they’re delicious and smell incredible. Just as we start to need a pick-me-up at the end of winter, these fruits come onto the scene to brighten our moods with a reminder that long days of sunshine are not far away. In the meantime, the simultaneously sweet and tart scent can act almost as a mild anti-depressant (citrus scents are notorious for lifting the spirits).

If you’re looking for a scent that could potentially pick you up out of a mild case of SAD, make you feel warm again even though it’s still 30 degrees outside, or give you a boost of energy, check these out:

• Pacifica Tuscan Blood Orange: Men and women can wear this blend of blood orange, mandarin orange, sweet orange, strawberry, and raspberry. The scent was created for women, but part of the beauty of citrus scents is their ability to work on either gender. Of course, the additional notes may skew a scent more in one direction than the other, but this particular fragrance is mostly a variety of oranges.
• CKIN2U Heat for Her: This deliciously sexy blood orange scent for women also has notes of ginger, frangipani, orchid, musk, sandalwood, and cedar. It’s fresh, happy, and youthful, perfect for reminding yourself of warmer days and for wearing out on humid summer nights.
• Stella by Tocca: Who doesn’t love one Tocca fragrance or another? In the perfume world, they’re the elegant whispers of a message you’d love to subliminally convey. They never shout, but they’re there. In this case, the blood orange teams up with bitter orange and other springtime scent favorites, like freesia, lily, and orchid. If that seems too innocent, take comfort in the fact that there’s a hint of musk and something aquatic floating around in the background.

Once you have your blood orange scent picked out for the upcoming spring, you may feel inspired to take yourself one step further in pretending it’s already warm outside. Take a fluffy powder brush (dense brushes are best, in most cases, for when you already have a little color on your cheeks) and dip it into your favorite bronzer. Sweep it across your forehead, cheekbones, bridge of your nose, and tip of your chin. A glistening sheer warm pink shadow (try Expensive Pink from MAC) and deep brown liner will warm up your eye area while a neutral-toned blush and reddish-orange (think citrus again—tangerine!) lipstick like Revlon's Moon Drops Orange Flip will finish the look.