The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Ajwa Date & Honey arrived in 2026 as part of The Body Shop's catalogue, and the name does the work for you. The bottle pairs Ajwa dates, a specific variety of date fruit, with one of perfumery's oldest comfort notes, honey, then dresses the whole thing in a freesia and grape opening that keeps it from collapsing into straight sweetness. That fruit-floral top gives the composition a lift before the heavier notes settle in, almost like setting a light tablecloth over a rich meal. You get a whiff of something candied and bright on the first spray, and then the warmer base starts pulling you downward into the sticky, golden territory where the honey lives. Limited release, 50 ml bottle, no pretense about being anything other than what it is.
What's interesting here is the restraint. The composition threads freesia through the opening to keep things bright, then lets vanilla and sandalwood build the drydown instead of piling on more sweetness. There's a clear hand on the tiller, deciding when to add and when to hold back, and that kind of editing separates a composed fragrance from a syrupy one. The grapes in the top notes are doing quiet work, too, lending a subtle fruity lift that reads more like a whisper of dessert than a fruit basket. You'd expect the honey to bulldoze everything in its path, but it doesn't.
The evolution
First ten minutes and the freesia is already softening, grapes adding a faint wine-glass sweetness before the honey arrives and takes command. Not shy honey. Thick, almost edible, the kind that sits on the spoon rather than running off it. The heart holds for a generous stretch on well-moisturized skin, warming into something that reads more like spiced amber than actual honey by the second hour. The vanilla arrives late in the wear, and sandalwood follows it like a closing door, settling into the base with that creamy, slightly milky quality the wood is known for. Musk underneath keeps everything skin-adjacent rather than floating away, anchoring the composition close to the pulse points where you actually sprayed it. By the next morning, what's left is a quiet sandalwood-vanilla hum on the inside of your wrist, the honey long since absorbed into whatever you touched.
Cultural impact
Ajwa Date & Honey arrives in 2026 drawing on a long thread of date-and-honey pairings that show up across regional cuisines and traditional perfumery. The combination of a date fruit with honey reads as familiar in a wide range of dessert traditions, and translating that pairing into a wearable scent opens the door for people who already know the flavor combination to experience it as fragrance. The Body Shop's choice to anchor a gourmand composition in this pairing, and to name it after a specific variety of date, gives the release a concrete hook rather than a vague sweet category.
