Summer for me always smells like citrus, storms, and salad. I’m so not kidding. Well, it also smells like brisket, beer, and small explosive devices, but that’s just really 4th of July at my family’s house…anyyyywayyy…there are just certain smells that hit me and really make me inhale deeply and say “God. THAT. That is what summer smells like to me.”

Marc Jacobs Summer Splash 2009 collection was designed with summer in mind…to capture the casually vibrant lazy hazy days that we all love so much. This year Marc Jacobs has introduced the Lemon Splash, and brought back the perennially popular Cucumber and Rain splashes.

Lemon Splash immediately captured my heart. Anything that smells like lemons with a touch of sweetness is going to give me pause…simply because that’s what I love so much. I like the initial tang and the sweet follow up…it makes me think of lemonade, but for my nose. Initially, I smell lemon and mint…which is perfectly fine because I love lemon and mint…but then once it’s dried down and ‘set’ I get the sweet smell of honeysuckle and cotton musk. My skin loves to make perfumes smell MUCH sweeter than they actually are, but this never becomes cloying.

Cucumber Splash is fresh…very fresh…with cucumber and cactus flower top notes. As soon as I spray this on, I want to run outside in the sprinklers and then eat a red rocket pop. The freesia really goes well with my chemistry and this splash, just like the Lemon, sweetens up on me. Of the three Splash scents, this is probably the most crisp and watery fresh.

Rain Splash reminds me of living in lowcountry Georgia. Every afternoon, we would get showers. They’d only last an hour or two, lots of times even less, but they left the air smelling sweet and wet. Rain’s mix of wet cut grass, strawberry, and clementine zest give way to a very warm tree musk and beech amber. Rain doesn’t sweeten on me quite the way Lemon and Cucumber do, but it’s still a very feminine scent upon drydown.

All three splashes come in huge square 10 oz bottles.