As a busy teenager, you would want a versatile perfume that you can use for class, extracurriculars, dating, or hanging out with your friends. Whether you want something subtle, eye-catching, expensive, or budget-friendly, we have reviewed the best perfume for teens appropriate for different ages, needs, and activities.
Teenage life is a great opportunity to explore, and this includes finding a lifestyle-appropriate yet all-around perfume. Whether you want light, playful, or borderline grown-up fragrances, these are the best perfumes for both teenage boys and girls.
The Top Perfume for Teens Reviews
Best Overall Perfume for Teens: Fresh Sugar Lychee Eau de Parfum
Teenage years make the body’s chemistry react differently to perfume, making it frustrating to find a staple fragrance to smell captivating without feeling ‘too adult’. The tropical and exotic scent of Sugar Lychee Eau de Parfum by Fresh delivers the mild touch you’ll want to match your vibrant teenage life.
This perfume uses sparkling notes of lemon, lime blossom, and grapefruit to produce a juicy blend with a dash of sugar. As a result, it feels like inhaling aromatherapy oils to calm the mind and get a good night’s rest after stressful exam days.
Freesia, lotus, and litchi tone down the citrusy notes, so it isn’t as sweet as many Victoria’s Secret fragrances. Since the scent ends with a musky touch of amber, sandalwood, and tonka bean, the perfume balances the teenage vibe and a subtle introduction to an adult aroma.
Because of a zesty sillage, it’s better to wear this perfume during warm weather. Even if you have to spend a lot of time outdoors for summer jobs, sports training, or a beach trip, the aroma can withstand body heat and sun exposure for up to 6 hours.
Surprisingly, the scent also works well during the winter months because the musky and oriental notes add warmth to the mixture. With that said, Fresh’s Sugar Lychee is the best perfume for teenagers who favor an all-year-round type of fragrance.
What We Like
- Unisex citrus fragrance for teenagers
- Ideal for both daytime and nighttime wear
- Great for spring and summer
What We Don’t Like
- Comes with a separate sprayer
- Some teenagers may not want a leather-like scent
- Sillage is too close to the skin
Best Teens Perfume for the Money: Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Love is Love
- A fruity floral fragrance for modern women
- Fresh, sweet, succulent, scrumptious & delightful
- Top notes of lemon, Granny Smith apple & red berries
- Heart notes of jasmine petals & raspberry gelato accord
Blasting floral and fruity notes, the Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Love is Love Eau de Toilette matches every laidback teen who prefers a sharp yet refreshing scent to help relax the nerves for a day of school and other activities.
This can be the signature scent for teenagers who like a fresh opening, fruity transition, and earthy finish. It starts with scents from Italian lemon and Granny Smith apple. As raspberry gelato and jasmine fade, you get a sensual aroma from cedarwood, amber accord, and musk.
Even if it’s a sweeter take on the original Light Blue perfume, this balances the musky and earthy aroma. With this kind of mixture, the scent is like a toned-down version of robust masculine perfumes, making sure you don’t turn off people close to you.
Since it doesn’t have an offensive sillage, it works great if you want to smell amazing, yet don’t want to grab too much attention during class, formal events, or even a simple dine out with friends.
Unlike the first perfume, this one only lasts for up to 4 hours. Still, Light Blue Love is Love is a good choice for teenagers who prefer a delightful and aphrodisiac scent to reflect their energetic and adventurous lives.
What We Like
- Daytime fragrance for spring and summer
- Fresh yet alluring notes
- A couple of sprays can last a day
What We Don’t Like
- May smell too feminine for some people
- Moderate longevity
- Not good for teenagers who don’t like mild scents
Best Cheap Perfume for Teens: Yves Saint Laurent L’homme Ultime Eau de Parfum Spray for Men
- L'Homme Ultime Yves Saint Laurent for Men 3.3 oz Eau de Parfum Spray
- L'Homme Ultime Yves Saint Laurent for Men
- 3.3 oz Eau de Parfum Spray
- Yves Saint Laurent
Do you want a more potent perfume oil concentration to make a striking impression during school activities, work, or even social gatherings? The Yves Saint Laurent L'homme Ultime Eau de Parfum Spray uses various perfume oils to boost confidence and uplift mood on days when there’s too much stuff happening.
Despite being a flanker of the original Yves Saint Laurent L’homme, this perfume produces a mass-appealing sillage from ginger, grapefruit, bergamot, and cardamom in the opening notes. The scent intensifies as the middle notes of rose, apple, sage, and geranium take over.
As your body heat mixes with the perfume oils, you radiate a romantic aroma suitable for date nights. Aside from that, the base notes of cashmere wood, vetiver, and cedar create an elegant finish, perfect for teenagers who want to try a more mature scent.
Like the first two perfumes, this one works great for both casual and formal events. If you like drawing attention without speaking, the dry down of the rose and wood leaves a spicy trail everywhere you go.
However, the fragrance’s project isn’t as strong for the colder months. Nevertheless, This Ultime Eau de Parfum from Yves Saint Laurent lets you get a designer perfume without using up most of your school allowance savings.
What We Like
- Attention-grabbing sillage
- Budget-friendly price
- Excellent initial notes
What We Don’t Like
- The intense opening scent may not be suitable for those who like mild aromas.
- The low projection may be weak for colder months
- May require 6 or more sprays
Features to Consider in Perfume for Teens
As a teenager, choosing a fragrance can be challenging when most perfumes cater to older people. However, understanding these essential features can help you find the perfect perfume for teens.
Scent Family
How do you want to smell for the whole day? What scents do you think best fits your taste? These things rely on how the ingredients work together and dry down on the skin.
A perfume’s top notes commonly have about 15 minutes before the raw materials mix with the main ingredients from the middle notes and your body chemistry. The base notes are the scents that will last the longest and the ones you would remember the most. These three layers may include these fragrance notes categories:
- Fresh notes: If you would like to smell like baby colognes, check for light and citrusy ingredients such as lemon, orange, and bergamot.
- Floral notes: Floral notes add a striking opening for perfumes, matching your eye-catching outfits and hairstyles. Popular floral notes include jasmine, ylang-ylang, and rose.
- Wood notes: Do you want something to help you calm? You would enjoy the opulent scent of wood notes coming from patchouli, cedarwood, and sandalwood.
- Musky notes: So you’re hitting the late teens, and you want to graduate from baby scents. This is the best time to try perfumes with musky notes that radiate animalistic and intoxicating smell. If you’re off to the prom or a date, this unique fragrance will make you a head-turner.
- Fruity: Fruity notes easily blend with other raw materials, giving more depth to fragrances. If you don’t want to smell too musky or floral, adding some fruity notes balances the mixture. See if a perfume has fruity ingredients like strawberry, blackberry, or apple.
- Spice Notes: Do you love candles that smell like herbs or oriental flavors? Perfumes with cinnamon, nutmeg, basil, or rosemary can give you that sweet yet spicy scent.
All of the perfumes in this list have a touch of sweetness because of the floral and fruity accords. The perfumes from Fresh and Dolce & Gabbana offer musky and woody scents, while the Yves Saint Laurent fragrance is the only one with spicy notes.
Perfume Concentration
Perfume concentration is one of the most essential things to pay attention to when choosing the right perfume. More concentrated aromas tend to have a longer sillage compared to diluted ones.
With adolescence ranging between the ages of 10 to 19, the body’s transitional growth varies. A perfume’s concentration levels may also react differently depending on the body, so it’s important that you choose the most appropriate concentration for your case.
Eau de Cologne
Eau de Cologne has a higher concentration of alcohol than perfume oils, making it the cheapest among the concentration levels. It typically contains citrus notes, making it ideal for those who don’t want something ‘too strong’ for summer or after-school activities.
While Eau de Cologne generally lasts for up to 2 hours, this makes it easier to wear perfume whenever you want. Additionally, this is a low-key way to introduce yourself to more potent aromas.
Eau de Toilette
Eau de Toilette contains more diverse raw materials, producing better projection than Eau de Colognes. Like the D&G Love is Love spray, an Eau de Toilette’s light concentration is more appropriate for the daytime, so this is a great choice if you spend most of your day at school.
Despite containing 5 to 15% perfume oils, it remains to be a cheaper option for most perfumes. You won’t end up splurging your school allowance as the sillage lets you spray sparingly.
Eau de Parfum
Even if Eau de Parfum can last for up to 6 hours, its raw materials remain rich in scent. This is why the perfumes from Fresh and Yves Saint Laurent are better options if you typically have a jam-packed day, and you don’t have a lot of time for freshening up.
If you have club activities before school, then a part-time job in the afternoon, an Eau de Parfum can stick to your skin for most of the day. It doesn’t have a high alcohol content level, so you may want to opt for this if your skin is sensitive to cosmetics.
Your Lifestyle and Preferences
Teenage years are among the most active and youthful phases of our lives. Consider these things before making the final decision.
- Choose mild and fresh-scented fragrances, such as the D&G perfume, if you prefer something that resembles body wash scents.
- Avoid floral-scented fragrances if you usually find yourself feeling sleepy at school or work. To help you stay awake, opt for stimulating aromas, like the Yves Saint Laurent perfume, to get spicy or musky notes.
- If you want a high perfume oil content yet something with a subtle aroma, it would be better to pick vanilla-based perfumes or something that smells sweet, like Fresh Sugar Lychee.
Conclusion
The best perfume for teenage boys and girls is something that balances a youthful scent and value. Whatever scent you choose, make sure that this works well with your activities so that you can smell great and fresh whatever teenage life throws your way.