The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Strawberry Pool arrived in 2024 from Sofia Bardelli and Salum Parfums, a fragrance house with a clear focus: capturing the feeling of coastal escape. The name is literal and immediate, evoking a pool setting with red strawberries waiting nearby. This is sensory translation, not metaphor. Bardelli built the fragrance around cool water and warm sun, two forces that define any afternoon by a pool. The composition keeps the aquatic and fruity elements moving together throughout wear, so the experience shifts from opening to drydown without losing either thread. The result is a scent that doesn't whisper about vacation, it practically hands you a towel.
What sets Strawberry Pool apart is the aquatic note doing actual work. The chlorine note threads through the strawberry and suntan lotion, creating a layered experience where cool mineral qualities interact with fruit sweetness and warm sunscreen depth. It's a conversation between different temperature experiences, and the composition keeps all three voices audible throughout the wear. The ambrette seed in the base adds a quiet musky seediness that stops the drydown from going full sunscreen. It's a small detail that keeps the whole thing from reading like a body product.
The evolution
The opening hits bright, wild strawberry and woodland strawberry together, more tart than sweet, with ginger and pink pepper arriving almost as a seasoning. The pink pepper is quick and clean, a brief spark that fades before you can name it. Then the water arrives. Not a generic aquatic accord, something with real mineral presence, the kind that smells like you just broke the surface. The chlorine note doesn't fully disappear, either. It's still there in the drydown, humming underneath the suntan lotion warmth like a reminder. Suntan lotion takes over the mid to late stages, but it's the sun-warm version, the kind that sinks into skin rather than sitting on top. Ambergris adds a subtle salt-amber depth, marine without being dirty.
Cultural impact
Strawberry Pool landed in 2024 with a distinctive point of view on summer fragrance. The chlorine note sets it apart from typical warm-weather options, offering something more realistic and specific rather than another generic tropical iteration. The choice creates a fragrance that rewards attention to detail, pulling in elements that feel personal rather than broadly applied. Wearers either find it refreshingly specific or are caught off guard by how much it smells like a pool. The suntan lotion in the base provides the warmth that grounds everything, a detail that many find makes the fragrance feel more intimate and considered.
