H 24 Herbes Vives / Hermès — a nice summer day to wear a garden fresh fragrance. Smells like the fresh herb section at your local farmers market …

I personally despise summer. It's hot, heat makes people angry, and you can only wear so little to cool down. Especially facing days of 105-115F in the mostly arid climate of the NorCal valley. I'll take arid over humid any day (I did spend 10+ years in Florida for comparison). However, what I struggled with the most after dealing with Spring allergy season, was finding a summer-friendly fragrance. My tastes have always leaned toward cold weather. Gourmands, heavy delicious food, coats, scarves, boots, newsboy hats... but sadly, fragrance-wise, the dreaded description of "cloying" must be considered. It was challenging to find something appropriate that I also liked. However, that's where I'm grateful to be exploring the middle-eastern market. I initially tried Lataffa Ramz Silver because of its affordability and fruity notes... only to find a little too late that it's a less mature-smelling version of JPG's Ultra Male (and I'm already much happier with the superior clone of Rayhaan's Lion EDP). I still like it and plan to use it, but I needed something... more tropical. Several videos, search engine AI questions, and countless time scrolling around Fragrantica, I finally settled on Hawas Tropical. Only $40 on Amazon. Top: Coconut water, fig leaf, ginger. Middle: Coconut, fig, and mint. Base: Sandalwood, tonka bean, musk. Essentially a near-superior clone of JPG's Le Beau Paradise Garden. Even right out of the bottle (after 10 sprays to get the initial often synthetic smell out), I really liked the creamy coconut, slight fruit, and comfortably musky smell. I like that it's fresh-smelling without being marine. Personally, most marine or blue fragrances remind me too much of cheap stuff like Axe, or too commonly used.