Best Body Sprays for Summer

Summer does not have to mean citrus. Cheirosa 62 goes the other direction — pistachio, salted caramel and vanilla — and still manages to read as a beach rather than a dessert cart, which is a harder trick than it sounds.

It is sold as a hair and body mist, and hair is where we like it best: the scent settles into the strands and comes back whenever you turn your head. On skin it opens sweeter and lands on the vanilla, so a spray at the wrist and another through the ends covers both without much thought.

Sizes run from a full 8.1 ounces down to a 3.0-ounce bottle that fits a liquids bag. On skin it is a short-lived pleasure — a rich body cream underneath does more for staying power than a second spritz will — and the lid takes a firm pull to get off, which is a small thing until you are holding it one-handed.

This is the pick for anyone who wants their summer scent to carry some sweetness and does not mind wearing it in their hair more than on their skin. It is the most fun bottle in the group, and the one people ask about.

Coconut, ginger and pineapple in a bottle that has barely changed in decades: this is the closest thing here to a beach towel and a cold drink, and the least complicated spray we recommend. It never announces you from across the room, which is exactly the point.

The pineapple and peach at the top keep it summery rather than suntan-lotion heavy, and the ginger stops the coconut turning creamy and flat. Eight ounces means you can spray it after a shower, again before you leave the house, and again at lunch without thinking about what each spritz costs. The mist itself is fine and even, which matters more than it sounds when you are spraying near your own face.

This is the one to try when most fragrance feels like too much. It sits in the same register as a good hotel shampoo — clean, tropical, easy to like — and it is the kind of bottle that gets used up rather than saved for occasions, which is what a summer spray should be.

Cool water and bright daisies, and almost nothing else. Aqua Kiss is the cleanest scent in this group, closer to the feeling of a cold shower than to anything in a perfume bottle, and on a sticky afternoon that is a genuinely useful thing for a spray to be.

That narrowness is the appeal. When everything else feels like too much, this reads as freshly washed rather than fragranced, and it layers under a heavier scent without fighting it. It is also the largest bottle here at 8.4 ounces, which suits something you will reach for daily rather than save.

Of the fresh picks, this is the one we reach for when we want to smell like we just showered and nothing more. Pair it with the matching lotion if you want it to hold through an evening, and treat it as a scent for close quarters rather than for making an entrance.

Grapefruit, mandarin and bergamot up top, Hawaiian wedding flower and orchid in the middle, mimosa and soft woods at the base: the spritz version of a scent plenty of people already know by heart. It is the most polished citrus in this group, sharper and more grown-up than the drugstore mists, closer to a well-made gin and tonic than a fruit cup.

What you are paying for is the finish and the name. The bottle is 4.2 ounces, noticeably smaller than the eight-ounce mists around it, so buy this because you love the scent, not because you want volume. We keep it in mind as a gift for someone who already wears the perfume, and as a desk-drawer spray for days when a full spritz feels like too much.

The citrus burns off first and the mimosa hangs around, so it sits closer to the skin than the tropical mists here. Spray it on a moisturized arm and it holds noticeably longer, and the smaller bottle makes it the easiest one in this group to carry.

Hyaluronic acid, glycerin and aloe are not the ingredients you expect to find listed above the fragrance notes on a body mist. Here they are the reason to choose it: this is the only spray in the group doing something for your skin while it scents it.

The scent is creamy coconut with pineapple sorbet and hibiscus, finishing on solar musk and driftwood, and it is meant to go on body, hair, clothes and linens. Six ounces is smaller than the big mists here, but a little goes a long way, and the hydrating base makes it feel less like raw alcohol on hot skin.

This earns its place as the spray that lives in a gym bag or by the back door: something for after a shower, after a hot walk, or layered over the matching lotion when you want the scent to hold. It is the most thoughtful formula here, and the one we point to for skin that tightens after a standard mist.

It is the least expensive bottle in this guide, and it is also the least fussy: a soft floral-fruity mist that smells pleasant on contact and never turns sharp. That combination alone earns it a place, and it is the spray to keep in a gym bag, a desk drawer or the car.

We noticed it reads closer to soap than perfume once it settles, mixing with your own skin instead of sitting on top of it. That is either the point or the dealbreaker, depending on whether you want a scent people can name or one they just register as clean. Eight ounces at this end of the price range means you can be generous, and it is cruelty free, which is a decent bonus on a cheap spray.

Where it earns its keep is repetition. This is a spray you can leave in three places and use without ceremony, and the softness means it never clashes with the perfume you save for evenings. It will not become your signature scent, and it is not trying to.

Lavender blossom, juicy pear and bergamot on top, crème de coconut and praline in the middle, musk and creamy blonde woods at the base. Cloud is a gourmand with a bright opening, and that opening is what separates it from the heavier sweet sprays in this group.

It is the cheaper of the two warm gourmands here, which makes it the low-risk way to find out whether you like wearing coconut and vanilla all day. We were struck by how much the lavender and pear do at the top — they keep the praline from going syrupy in the first hour, so it never smells like a candle.

If the notes sound like you, it is a generous eight-ounce bottle at the low end of this group's prices, and one of the easiest ways to try a warm gourmand without committing to a department-store bottle.