Do the Dew: Delta of Venus by Eris Parfums
Remember Surge? It was soda the color of Nickelodeon slime that tasted like green apple Jolly Ranchers steeped in Mountain Dew. Summer in the suburbs meant sweaty bike rides to 7-11 over asphalt that looked like water for 30 ounces of Surge cut with chlorine-scented crushed ice. Chugged alongside orange otter pops, strawberry shortcake bars, and Neapolitan ice cream sandwiches, summer vacation meant a fruit-flavored sugar rush and the perpetual search for a napkin. With the August heatwave comes the desire for something cold and sweet to enjoy under open blue skies along sprinkler-flooded lawns. Enter: Delta of Venus by Eris Parfums.
Delta of Venus doesn’t smell the way Surge tastes, it smells the way Surge feels— exhilarating, refreshing, transparent, and electric green. When we think summer fragrances, creamy coconut or tiaré flower may come to mind, but Delta of Venus goes full-tilt OZONIC, meaning it smells airy and wide-open, with something faintly chlorinated in the background. People say that ozonic frags remind them of old electronics in that they are sparkly and borderline metallic: smelling Floralozone can feel like biting into aluminum foil with a metal filling. Here, the buzzy ozone note is drenched in ripe guava, candied grapefruit, a Hawaiian punch accord, and green galbanum that smells like wet grass.
Delta of Venus is named after a collection of naughty little short stories, and the tropical fruit recalls the sleazy frags of my youth designed to make middle school girls smell “edible.” I’m grown now, so during the heatwave I exercise my right to be a human popsicle and coat myself in an iridescent film of sweet almond oil and spray this head-to-toe. Is it random to say this smells good in air conditioning? Citrus notes tend to burn off quickly but I live for the messy glamour of pulling a huge bottle of perfume out of my purse and reapplying all day. Remember: It’s 90 degrees, Leo season, and the sun sets at 8:30, you have permission to be psycho! This is a great perfume for when you’re running an hour late and don’t want to apologize: spray it on before you leave the house and show up smelling fizzy, juicy, wet, ‘n wild.