This unique perfume is my favourite summer scent

Finding the best perfume for your summer of barbecues , beach days and Aperol spritz soirées can be a task and a half. Indeed, between your body sprays, eau de parfums and solid perfumes , there’s a myriad of scents to choose from and even more floral-woody-musky notes to contend with.

Le Labo, with its 20+ celeb-adored (Paul Mescal and Ryan Reynolds are among fans) fragrances, is perhaps best known for its signature Santal 33 scent (£168, Johnlewis.com ), but the brand has been on the market for more than 15 years now and has quite the offering beyond the warm confines of santal’s spicy seduction. Certainly, a mere two-second search on TikTok for Le Labo’s thé matcha 26 (£168, Cultbeauty.co.uk ) will bring you face-to-face with more than 4 million posts.

While the team has tested many of the brand’s scents, I’m confident that thé matcha 26 – a release from 2021 – will be a mainstay in your summer beauty bag. Naturally, a £168 perfume isn’t something you’re likely to impulse purchase so I wanted to test it from top to toe and give you all the intel before you part with your money. Read on to see how it fared.

How I tested

I spent three months testing thé matcha 26, both as a solo spritz and an element in my perfume layering experiments (it pairs wonderfully with the signature Chloe eau de toilette ). When testing, I took note of how long the scent lasted on my skin, whether or not it complemented different temperatures and occasions, and if I’d reach for it on a day-to-day basis. Keep scrolling for my honest thoughts.

Le Labo thé matcha 26

The verdict: Le Labo thé matcha 26