Sample Sluts prefer blondes 🍋🥂🧈💛

What iconic blondes smell like

Jun 23, 2026

While we’re both currently brunettes, Crissy and I never let anyone forget that we were both blonde children, i.e. we are natural fucking blondes, honey. We both have the utmost respect for blondes—the color, the culture, the lifestyle, etc. Our friendship has seen both of us sporting various shades of golden at different points, and we spend a lot of time discussing various celebrities’ flaxen hues at length. Pairing perfumes with iconic blondes therefore felt like a no-brainer Sample Sluts prompt. Let’s do it.

—Anna

Kurt Cobain // Nemat Amber

A few years ago, everyone was going “Cobain Blonde,” but even before they had a name for it, ever since Kurt burst onto the grunge scene in the fall of 1991, his no fucks breed of yellow-blonde has been popular among the alt youth and downtown fashion hoes alike. I’m not even the world’s biggest Nirvana fan—obvi I fuck with the hits—but I just love the man’s fucking hair (as well as the way he wore a striped T-shirt). Launched the same year as Nevermind (1991), the iconic Nemat Amber has a similarly effortless, low-maintenance appeal to Kurt’s legendary locks. Amber was one of the first perfumes that wrapped its claws around me—I wore it almost every day, exclusively, for years. Despite its name, it’s not really an amber, more a soft, musky skin scent, the sort of perfume that smells a little different on everyone and sexy on most of them, like pheromones and skin and something slightly feral. Like Cobain Blonde, it seems deceptively simple until you realize half the people at the party are chasing it around the room.

Hot or cold? Warm like your green room just before you go on.
Who wears it? People who “don’t wear perfume.”
Place? The back of your lover’s neck.
Animal? Stray kitten.
Song? “Come As You Are” by Nirvana.
Texture? Skin on skin.
Signature drink? Vodka Sprite in a solo cup.
Favorite word? “Nevermind.”
Vampire or angel? Angel who can shred.

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy // Parisian Musc by Matiere Premiere

Okay, so ironically Anna assigned Kurt Cobain a Nemat scent, and Nemat’s Egyptian Musk is the scent that probably gets closest to what CBK actually smelled like. That’s the magic of blondeness, baby! Everyone knows—especially after the release of Love Story and subsequent Carolyn Bessette Kennedy style necromancing of 2025—that CBK wore Abdul Kareem Egyptian Musk Oil, which you can find decent dupes of now (including the aforementioned Nemat). But her blonde is so legendary, it certainly doesn’t deserve to be confined to one scent. First, I must circle back to our Luca Turin post where I included Korrigan: it’s a musky, woody, vanilla-y scent that gives CBK on its best days. Next, I want to correct the record on my birthday post where I paired Parisian Musc with Stassi Schroeder—I had the wrong blonde. Parisian Musc pairs much better with the buttery, sunkissed color for which Carolyn put in hours at the salon. Yes, it’s musky and woody, but there’s also a strong green note that gives fig and blue skies. It’s Carolyn sulking in the sunshine at the Kennedy compound, her hair a blanket shielding her from the stares of evil great aunts. It’s eternal.

Hot or cold? Sun-soaked on your boyfriend’s boat.
Who wears it? Women in tiny expensive sunglasses.
Place? Central Park evading paparazzi.
Animal? Purebred Canaan.
Song? “No Ordinary Love” by Sade.
Texture? Expensive ivory silk.
Signature drink? Dirty vodka martini.
Favorite word? “Tailored.”
Vampire or angel? Vampire who’s kind of over it.

Kirsten Dunst // En Passant by Frederic Malle

Ugh is there anything chicer than a cool-toned blonde? Learning about color seasons lowkey destroyed me because I learned I am warm-toned and, worse, an autumn, meaning I’m supposed to wear my least favorite colors—army green, brown, orange. Yuck. But Kiki Dunst does not have this problem, because she is a perfect light summer, meaning she is cool not just in affect but also in season, and therefore looks best in cool blues, lilac, soft pinks. Lucky bitch! Jk, I can’t hate Kiki (we’re on a nickname basis, in my head) because she is truly my favorite actress of all time. She stars in pretty much all of my favorite films—Virgin Suicides, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Bring It On, Dick, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Melancholia. It’s insane how many good movies she’s in. I’ve heard through the grapevine that she wears L’Artisan’s Passage D’Enfer, but I’ve written about said legendary Olivia Giacobetti creation like 500 times already on Sample Sluts so I have to pick a different perfume. I landed on another legendary Olivia Giacobetti creation, a fragrance I recently fell in love with and have been wanting to feature here, one that evokes the Lisbon sisters sprawled out on the dewy grass in Virgin Suicides—En Passant by Frederic Malle (launched one year after Virgin Suicides, in the year 2000). With watery lilac, cucumber, and rainwater, it’s cool and dreamy, pale and elegiac, as hauntingly beautiful as Kiki herself.

Hot or cold? Cool like your shade of blonde.
Who wears it? Light summers (lucky bitches).
Place? Meadow at dusk.
Animal? The latest addition to the endangered species list.
Song? “Playground Love” by Air.
Texture? Flower petals in the rain.
Signature drink? Lilac tea.
Favorite word? [Wistful sigh.]
Vampire or angel? Suicidal angel.

Cate Blanchett // Animalique by Byredo

Yes, I am on a ‘my favorite musks’ tour, but what of it? You cannot tell me that this gasoline-laden grail wasn’t made for a blonde like Cate. She’s worked her way through multiple shades: ‘90s strawberry blonde, icy platinum, and her more usual champagne. She’s undeniably cool and gorgeous in any shade. It’s infuriating. When I think of Cate Blanchett, I really think of her overall style, which is always classic and edgy at the same time. She’s like if the whole concept of ‘blonde’ wore a leather jacket and smoked cigs, which is pretty much Animalique in a nutshell. Named by Sable Yong as one of her five scents she’d wear for the rest of her life, Animalique is the platonic ideal of a musk with a little something extra. It’s warm, ambery, and familiar, but to me it smells like if you dumped kerosene all over that—delicious. Its suede note gives it a gasoline-laden opening that I find sticks around subtly for the entire wear. Whenever I put it on, I can’t stop smelling myself. It’s like a blonde who you can’t look away from: magnetic and a little unnatural in the best way possible.

Hot or cold? On ice.
Who wears it? Women who can do any hair color.
Place? Rural farm with a vintage motorcycle in the driveway.
Animal? A chameleon named Lydia (Tár).
Song? “Incinerate” by Sonic Youth.
Texture? Worn in leather jacket.
Signature drink? Stoli Martini with a twist of lemon ;)
Favorite word? (I’m Petra’s) “Father.”
Vampire or angel? Vampire who you want to ruin your life.