The best body mists are enjoying something of a renaissance right now – and I’m so here for it. Rewind a year or two, and any mention of a body spray would’ve conjured up thoughts of heady clouds of Impulse or Charlie filling high-school sports changing rooms. Body mists were for tweens; the best perfumes were for women.
But there’s a new era of body mists here to change your mind. The airy cousins of colognes and eau de parfums – by cult brands like Glow Hub, Phlur and Sol De Janeiro – are grown up. Formulated to compliment your long-lasting perfume (rather than replace it), and with skin-improving ingredients like hyaluronic acid to serve a long-lasting glow. What’s more, they boast sophisticated and complex scent profiles. Gone are the over-the-top sickly, sweet scents of decades past: the internet went wild comparing Sol de Janeiro’s Cheirosa 68 to Maison Francis Kurkdijan’s beloved Baccarat Rouge 540, while Phlur’s Vanilla Skin packs a pink pepper punch to add warmth to otherwise sweet notes of creamy vanilla.
It’s worth noting that body sprays are a much more affordable way of trying out your favourite brands. A Jo Malone perfume costs upwards of £100 in full size, but you can bag a body mist for under £50. Spritz it all over post-shower without feeling any guilt around wearing too much, then throw it in your bag for top-ups throughout the day.
What’s the difference between perfume and body mist?
Perfumes are usually applied once (or twice, at most) a day and have greater, more pungent lingering power. Body mists, on the other hands, are designed to use as a top-up – for when your perfume has either worn-off, or to experiment with scent-layering to create your own unique signature scent.
Another big difference is the price point. Perfumes range from affordable prices under £50 all the way up to the more premium three-figure numbers (take the £235 MFK Baccarat Rouge 540, for one). Meanwhile, body mists and hair perfumes are a complete different story.
Their main charm is their inexpensive price tags and larger bottles, meaning that when you inevitably run out, the re-purchase won’t hit your bank account as hard as it would with a luxury perfume.
How we tested the best body mists
The GLAMOUR beauty team has trialled hundreds of body mists throughout the years and has quizzed many perfume noses to bring you this ultimate roundup. What’s more, we’re always keeping an ear to the ground to bring you new launches as quickly as we can. Need proof? Glow Hub’s Collectable Body Mists launched today – and here they are: a trio of bold, ultra-wearable hair and body mists which are formulated to match your energy as it changes.
An experienced beauty or shopping editor has put as many of the body mists in this edit to the test as possible; for those that we’re in the process of testing, we’ve noted. We mark each body mist against a set of specific criteria: scent profile (and whether we actually like it), lasting power, packaging and price point. Bonus points for perfumes which are vegan, cruelty-free and packaged sustainably.
Once we’ve got an idea of how each mist performs across these categories, we’ll compare how it stands up to other body sprays on the market. From #PerfumeTok-approved scents to the freshest launches from Phlur, we’ve put together a selection that our editors would reach for instead of – or alongside – their signature perfume scent. So if you’re ready to channel your Y2K body mist era, get scrollin’.
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