“I always joke that the easiest way to kidnap me is just to smell good,” says beauty writer and fragrance enthusiast Arabelle Sicardi. “I’ve absolutely followed people on the street like, ‘Wait! Tell me everything about what you’re wearing.’”
For Sicardi, every opportunity to talk about scent with a stranger is like a coming-of-age movie moment in a girls’ bathroom at a party, swapping anecdotes, passing around beauty products and connecting over a shared love of fragrance. But it wasn’t always like this.
“I fell in love with perfume through being a professional hater,” she reveals. In an attempt to get her up for high school, her father resorted to a wet towel doused in the nearest perfume he could find. “My earliest memories are being forcibly awoken by Estée Lauder Beautiful Love,” Sicardi says. Fast-forward to today, and with a career spanning beauty and fragrance, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
But what does she want to smell like in 2026? “I never want to smell sexy, cool or hot,” says Sicardi. “I like to smell kind of intimidating.” In fact, her favorite perfume category veers into the wonderfully weird. “One of my favorites is actually based on alien abduction stories,” she says. “I know of one perfumer who interviewed a bunch of people that were allegedly abducted by aliens, and his perfume is based on their interviews and experiences.” When Sicardi smelled the collection, she noticed something peculiar: “It felt oddly familiar.”
Beyond otherworldly experiences, Sicardi uses fragrance as a way to feel grounded, especially in the age of social media. “Fragrance is the exact opposite experience [to doomscrolling]. How do you pay attention to something that you can’t see?” It’s all about the feeling, says Sicardi, who’s particularly drawn to “solar” fragrances right now — sunbaked orange blossom and ripe citrus — for their warmth and brightness. But fall has a special place in her heart. “Think leather jackets, a good scarf, and apple picking.” The scent that embodies that? Pumpkin Chai 24H Moisture Body Lotion & Body Mist, of course. “Perfume is both a science and a magic, and being able to be presented with new versions of it over and over again is literally wonderful,” says Sicardi.
Listen to the full podcast episode, where Sicardi joins Nose Dive host Asia Grant — an NYC-based independent perfumer and creative director — to discuss following your senses, bargaining with the universe, and how to have impeccable taste in perfume.
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