When fragrance brand Voluspa launched its California Summers collection in 2024, it was expected to be a limited-edition scent. The sea salt and vanilla scent quickly became its best seller, and now Voluspa is expanding the fragrance to another summer format: sunscreen. On Friday, Voluspa teamed up with SPF brand Coola to launch a scented sunscreen.
“When I heard of this Coola opportunity, I was like, ‘Well, this is the final layer, and this luxury fragrance experience would be spraying your SPF on under the sun as you’re enjoying your California beach day,” said Brittany Bell, director of fragrance and education at Voluspa.
The Coola x Voluspa’s Scent of Summer joins other scented SPF sprays from Coola, which offers clear sunscreens in scents like tropical coconut and guava mango. Coola’s CMO, Lauren Grazier, said sensorial storytelling has been a part of the 20-year-old brand for years.
“Some of our items that have been around for almost a decade were always scented,” said Grazier. “It’s one of the things that consumers play back to us a lot, that they love about the brand.”
Sunscreen is no longer a purely functional product. Four-year-old SPF brand Vacation, Inc. has made scent a large part of its strategy, including its launch of body sprays in May. Sol de Janeiro, known for its body mists, expanded to sun care in 2024 with SPF products infused with its Cheirosa 87 scent, while SPF brand Supergoop added new limited-edition scents to its SPF body oils in May. Brands like U Beauty and Augustinus Bader have upped the ante with high-priced luxury sunscreen launches that combine skin-care benefits with sun protection.
“We’ve always stood for innovation, whether that was skin-care meets SPF, whether that’s beauty meets SPF, whether that’s through fragrance,” she said. “So this is a very natural extension of how we continue to innovate in areas of strength for the brand.”
Voluspa has been expanding its own fragrance lineup in 2025, as well. Though primarily known for home scents like candles and diffusers, Voluspa relaunched its eau de parfum line in June with seven new scents. The Irvine, California-based brand has reportedly seen a 60% increase in revenue in the past five years. It expanded its brick-and-mortar presence with a new store in Orange County’s Brea Mall in June.
“You’ve seen the market shifting [away] from having your one signature fragrance,” said Bell. “Fragrance is empowering to create your own identity or enhance your mood and atmosphere. There’s this fun freedom of self-expression.”
Neither brand is a stranger to collaborations. Voluspa launched a “Wicked” collaboration in October with pink and green candles and reed diffusers. Coola celebrated its 21st anniversary in June with a party with tequila brand Casamigos and scent-inspired cocktails. Bell said Voluspa will welcome Coola at its Fashion Island flagship store to promote the launch and collaborate on influencer events. Grazier declined to share the number of units of the limited-edition collaboration that will be available, but she hopes to see positive social engagement around the launch from both new and old customers.
“[Success] looks like engagement. It looks like positive sentiment, brand love and people who are already fans falling in love with the fragrance in our SPF,” she said. “It also looks like [those] new to the brand falling in love with California Summers for the first time.”
