Imagine freshly bathed skin, doused with a coating of premium Euro-sunscreen, then warmed up by a midday siesta on the beach—andthe sensual stirrings of a body in heat.  That’s the premise behind Fire Island, the latest eau de parfum by Bond No. 9, purveyor of New York-centric neighborhood scents.

            Fire Island is an experiential scent—the beach equivalent of Proust’s madeleine dunked in tea.  In this case, the memories conjured up are the sights, the touch, the smell of soaking up the sun the old-fashioned way—lying naked, or close to it, on the beach.  We know, we know:  Those UV rays aren’t safe.  So we thought, why not approximate the smell of skin in the sun, and recapture the bronzing sensation within the safety of a scent?  To make Fire Island authentic, we took a risk and summoned forth the distinctive spicy-sweet aroma of the most sought-after of vintage Euro-bronzing oils—whose iconic smell has wafted all across the Mediterranean,summer after summer, for decades, defining the body on display, with its daydream hints of sex on the beach. Even when savored at a respectable distance, Fire Island is a reminder of skin sniffed up close. 

            This scent’s barrier-island namesake, 90 minutes from Manhattan by train and ferry, is the hideaway where New Yorkers come in drovesto let their hair down and uncover their skin.  Fire Island may be made of sand dunes, but it’s got distinctive New York-esque neighborhoods (Kismet … Saltaire … Atlantique), a heavy-duty night-life, shopping (natch), and a history, in the 1920s, as a Bohemian retreat.  In other words, it’s home not too far away from home.  So it’s a legitimate part of our scent repertory.

    For its flacon, we colored our superstar bottle a sunburst golden-yellow, adding a contrastingdeep ocean-blueat the center of our signature token.  The rest?  Pure sunshine.