New Brand Choulie Is Turning Skin Scents Into Full-Body Fragrance

Skin scents have been having a moment, and new brand Choulie is leaning all the way in, with fragrance that envelops every inch of your body. Founded by entrepreneur Alison Cayne, it has launched with five fine fragrances in oil format. With colder nights drawing in and the central heating on full blast, the brand’s launch couldn’t be more perfectly timed.

Each fragrance oil is designed to be smoothed all over your body, warming with your skin throughout the day and staying close. Think less scent trail, more second skin.

Although Choulie is very much fine fragrance for the skin, you can consider these oils bodycare, too. Formulas blend marula, rosehip, jojoba, moringa, rice bran, and grapeseed oils with 15% squalane, and are designed to sink into a dry, satin finish, rather than leaving you greasy. There is also the brand’s own Biocomplex, which promises to help strengthen the barrier and keep skin soft and hydrated. It mixes 0.5% ectoin (a protective molecule often found in barrier creams) with marine algae extract and bakuchiol, a gentler alternative to retinol.

Choulie is for skin that “has lived, changed, and evolved”, and for shoppers who would rather buy less and buy better. Refreshingly, it’s less about transformation and more about nourishment and self-care.

Now let’s talk scent. Every fragrance is built around patchouli, the ultimate wildcard of perfumery because you either love it or loathe it. Cayne is firmly in the love camp. “I’ve loved patchouli for forty years, and I’ve always felt it deserved a better reputation,” she said.

Choulie spent close to a year working with master perfumers on the five scents, each drawing on a different fragrance family, from chypre to fougère.

Noble is the cosiest, with citron and orris, chestnut, and a soft base of sandalwood and musk. Rooted smells like sun-warmed wood after the rain, thanks to pink peppercorn, rosewood, and vetiver. Loam is the earthiest of the lot, mixing coriander, sage, and juniper with cedarwood and oakmoss.

If you’re struggling with the patchouli of it all, the last two scents are the freshest. Delphine pairs mandarin and a hint of mineral salt with neroli and violet leaf, while Grove is bright and green, with shiso, hinoki, and clementine settling into soft amber.

Choulie Nourishing Body Oils are now available exclusively in the US at choulie.com for $185 (210ml) each. You can try all five in The Discovery Set, which contains 13ml of each fragrance for $135.