The Fragrance My Boyfriend Couldn’t Put Down This Year

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Retailer

If you had no idea what to get for your boyfriend during the holidays, let me help you because Valentine’s Day is right around the corner (yes, already): Get him Pharrell Williams’s first fragrance for Louis Vuitton, LV Lovers (LVRS), which debuted in June. The fragrance launched with the help of the brand’s longtime master perfumer, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud.

LV Lovers was created to metaphorically smell like the shining rays of sunshine, inspired by Williams’ debut Louis Vuitton show at Pont Neuf in Paris (who could forget those million dollar Speedy bags), the oldest standing bridge in the city. But what many people didn’t know was that one of the most important details of the show was the time. Guests set off at 8:40 p.m. for a show that began at precisely 9:30 p.m., when the sunset. This made Williams and Belletrud come together to want to “convey photosynthesis in scent.”

Louis Vuitton really likes to make their scents smell like actual things. Last year, the brand launched a Pacific Chill scent, the scent of Los Angeles’ wellness lifestyle bottled up into notes. So it’s no surprise that he and Pharrell wanted this fragrance connected to something as specific as sunlight.

What does sunlight even smell like? The notes of LV Lovers include bergamot, ginger, galbanum, an earthy note that evokes a lot of greenery, balanced out with warm and woody notes, cedarwood and sandalwood. It’s an earthy and refreshing scent with a hint of spice that makes it vibrant. The bottle is an extension of the sunlight it’s inspired by; it’s in the signature LV fragrance bottle but in the form of prism-like finish with a yellow, gold glass tint and hints of the rainbow on it as if the sun’s rays are shining directly on it.

While I wanted to wear it myself because I don’t mind men’s fragrances, I wanted it to be able to pass the ultimate test: my boyfriend. So I passed it off to him. It was his “soothing” scent, he said. When I asked my boyfriend if he layers it (because he’s learned from me how to maximize scent with layering, thanks to moi), he said it’s good all on its own. Because the notes blend so well together throughout the day, the aroma changes. So no layering needed. Refreshing.