My Summer (And Year-Round) Fragrance

For anyone who loves vanilla notes in her fragrance, La Vanila will be a wonderful sensory overload. This is an organic fragrance free of any harsh chemicals and infused with 30 vitamins and minerals.

A longtime fan of vanilla fragrance, I've noticed it's easy to mess up: Buy cheap and you often get a syrupy sweet fragrance that smells like it's trying to imitate vanilla.

La Vanila smells like true vanilla: It's a comforting, warm and creamy scent that lasts all day. Despite the richness and strength, it's not overpowering. It won't enter a room before you do. It won't clear the sinuses of anyone around you.

The co-founders, two women with a background in everything from beauty to law, believe that synthetic fragrances are absorbed into the blood stream and can create irritation. They set out to create an all-natural perfume line.

My summer favorite is La Vanila Coconut, a fusion of two of my favorite scents that's perfect for this time of year. Besides a pure vanilla scent, the brand also carries Vanilla Grapefruit, Vanilla Lavender, Vanilla Passion Fruit, and Vanilla Blossom. Each well marry the two notes so that they complement, rather than compete, with each other.

La Vanila is sold at Sephora, QVC, Beauty.com, and Nordstrom. It retails for $39/ounce. The line has branched out to include lotions, SPF, and deodorant. It's a brand I keep going back to for its quality, not to mention its relative affordability. On average now, a high-end fragrance typically retails for about $80.