Three new perfumes by master perfumer Jérôme Epinette prove that affordability and quality can, in rare cases, share the same bottle.
There’s something quietly impressive about Zara’s latest fragrance release. It doesn’t come with fanfare or storytelling. There’s no gilded cap, no cryptic backstory about the perfumer’s childhood garden. Just three cleanly packaged perfumes, Lush Vanilla, Captivating Vanilla, and Radiant Vanilla, and the name Jérôme Epinette.
If you know fragrance, you know Epinette. One of the most respected contemporary perfumers, he’s the nose behind several of Byredo’s greatest hits (Bal d’Afrique, Gypsy Water, Oud Immortel), as well as standouts from Atelier Cologne and Olfactive Studio. He’s known for his precision, an ability to structure notes like architecture. When he makes something, it doesn’t feel assembled; it feels composed.
Which is exactly what makes these three Zara vanillas so remarkable. They don’t smell like $30 perfumes trying to be cute. They smell like perfumes, full stop.
Lush Vanilla
This one opens warm and plush, with caramel and cinnamon laid over soft fruit. There’s a peach note in here that never turns sticky, and a thread of patchouli that keeps the composition from collapsing into sugar. On skin, it dries down to something quietly intimate, a vanilla scent for those who don’t normally wear vanilla.
Captivating Vanilla
Captivating is perhaps the most abstract of the three. It leans woody, with a creamy, lactonic texture that feels more like skin than syrup. There’s fruit here too, but blurred, more nuance than brightness. It layers beautifully under sharper white florals or smoky musks, offering just enough sweetness to soften without overtaking.
Radiant Vanilla
Radiant is the unexpected one. It opens with sandalwood, an unusual top note, and a peculiar, almost almond-like fuzziness before melting into a soft, airy vanilla milk. There’s a whisper of pear, maybe freesia, and something in the drydown that feels like sunlight on clean skin. It’s sheer but persistent. Feminine in the most modern, non-performative sense.
Why We Care
We talk often about transparency in perfumery, about which brands name their perfumers, own their production, or mislead their customers with inflated origin stories and licensing smoke screens.
Zara doesn’t pretend to be niche. It doesn’t romanticize. It sometimes puts real perfumers to work and gives them room to create, then prices the result fairly. That, in today’s market, is a radical act.
Are these perfumes groundbreaking? No. But they are clean, wearable, and surprisingly refined. They serve a purpose. They make layering fun. And they offer an accessible way into the world of thoughtful scent without compromising on composition.
What do you think of Zara perfumes? Particularly their collaboration collections.
Classification
Primary Category: Accessible High‑Street Beauty
Secondary Tags: Fast‑Fashion Beauty Extension, Designer Scent Influences, Collaborates with Puig & Top Perfumers, Dupe‑Driven Portfolio, Budget‑Luxury Positioning, Trend‑Responsive, Wide Global Reach
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