Beach Walk is part of fashion designer Martin Maison Margiela’s collection of fragrances called Replica. The other two in the original launch include Flower Market and Funfair Evening. Each fragrance was designed to trigger a characteristic memory of a specific place and time.

Beach Walk is meant to embody Calvi, a town in Corsica, circa 1972. While I’ve never visited Calvi, I’ve heard it’s quite picturesque and possesses a lofty citadel, a pristine five mile beach and a year-long backdrop of snowy mountains. 

The fragrance description on the bottle’s label: Sunkissed, salty skin.

Obviously it’s impossible to connect a scent to specific place and time that you’ve never been. What Beach Walk smells like to me is Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara, CA, a place I visited often while growing up there. I still love to go walking there but no longer slather on the tanning lotion and lie out on a beach towel to perfect my tan. It reminds me of the 1970s era of Bain de Soleil at this beach.

The perfume notes are listed on Fragrantica as bergamot, pink pepper and lemon as top notes, heliotrope and ylang-ylang as top notes and musk and cedar as base notes.

What I get is lime rather than lemon and the smell of salty skin and sunscreen, along with a sea breeze. The ylang -ylang makes me think of nearby flowering shrubs. A heliotrope note lends a slightly sweet vanilla-like note which I really think adds to the overall effect. The lime note gives it slight kick and the musk odor in the base makes for a delightful lingering scent.

This is a great scent to pack on a beach vacation or as a pick-me-up when you want to smell the aura of summer.  You can read about more of my favorite beach scents here.