Lighten up! New spring fragrances are based on airy florals

NEW YORK -- With spring breezes blowing in full force, one might catch a whiff of a sweet, airy smell.

Sure, it could be an early blooming flower, but, more likely, the scent is coming from someone's perfume.

"Floral fragrances never go out of style. They're the classic among fragrance trends, but this season's new scents are not the florals of past seasons," says Rochelle Bloom, president of the Fragrance Foundation.

"They are fruitier this time, there's a lot of use of orange, and grapefruit remains important."

The Fragrance Foundation is the nonprofit, educational arm of the fragrance industry. It recently published its trend report for spring and summer.

The foundation found that while many of the new perfumes are florals, as opposed to the Oriental scents that dominated fragrances in the late 1990s, the biggest "new" thing in the industry is retooling classics.

"It's good business to slightly alter a successful formula," Bloom explains.

It's a compromise in an industry in which the demand for new, high-profile launches is strong, but perfumes actually take a long time to catch on with consumers.

Creating lighter versions of these scents for summer and richer versions for winter, perfumers are able to court customers year-round while also appealing to their emotions.