Sol de Janeiro
Sol de Janeiro launched in 2015 as a Brazilian-inspired body care brand, and its rise had almost nothing to do with traditional perfumery. The famous scent started as the smell of a body cream — Brazilian Bum Bum Cream — and customers asked for it so persistently that the brand bottled it. The Brazilian Crush Cheirosa ’62 Hair & Body Fragrance Mist followed in 2018, and a proper eau de parfum version arrived in 2020. “Cheirosa” is Brazilian Portuguese slang for smelling deliciously good, and the ’62 points back to Ipanema in 1962 — bossa nova, sun-warmed skin, and the beach culture the whole brand is built on.
Signature Style
Warm, edible and skin-close rather than perfume-loud. The house works in gourmand territory — pistachio, toasted almond, salted caramel, vanilla and sandalwood — delivered mostly as mists, creams and hair fragrance rather than concentrated parfums. That makes the scents easy to over-spray and easy to layer, which is exactly how the brand’s fans use them: cream first, mist on top. The formulas are vegan, cruelty-free and paraben-free.
Iconic Fragrances
Did You Know?
The scent existed as a body cream before it was ever a fragrance — fans asked Sol de Janeiro to bottle the Bum Bum Cream smell on its own.
| “Cheirosa” is Brazilian Portuguese slang for smelling deliciously good, the compliment Brazilians pay each other after a beach day.
| The mist and the eau de parfum are two different products, launched two years apart, and are frequently confused with one another online.
| Its salted caramel and pistachio signature spawned a whole shelf of budget copies, from Boots and Superdrug mists to Aldi’s Lacura Tropical Essence 32.
Where to Buy in South Africa
Available in South Africa through Woolworths from about R610 for the 90ml mist, Takealot, Arc at around R915 and the Clicks online Sol de Janeiro range. Watch the size — the 240ml bottle sells for roughly R1,599, so a high price is often a bigger bottle rather than a bad deal.
