Scents of Place: Destination Scents for Home and Body

April 11, 2014— -- What's the next best thing to going on vacation?

Reading about exotic locales? Nope. Watching videos of exotic locales? Nope. Eating the food of exotic locales? Wrong again.

It's smelling your very favorite places in the comfort of your own home. Or on your body. At least, this seems to be the thinking behind an apparent trend in scents. A candle company, an air-freshener manufacture and a deodorant maker (yes, deodorant) have all come up with scents that reflect places rather than things. So, think Marrakesh instead of maple.

The latest in on the trend is Secret deodorant, which recently introduced three destination scents: Hawaii (citrus breeze), Brazil (rainforest mist) and Paris (romantic rose).

I've been to Hawaii a few times, and I don't necessarily associate the islands with citrus fruit. The other two are reasonable, especially if you consider roses are romantic and so is Paris.

All three are available in invisible solid, clear gel and body spray and prices range from $3 to $6.

Air Wick also brings the scents of top vacation destinations closer to home with its National Parks collection. The National Parks Foundation is a charitable partnership of the company. It too, has a Hawaii scent, as well as the Gulf Islands, Denali, the Grand Canyon, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa -- interesting, because American Samoa isn't so popular with tourists, but apparently it smells like coconut. The company noted "scents inspired by the national parks only. No actual park items were removed for creation of scents," on its website. Price: $5.99.

Candle company Colonial Candle has a Destinations Collection, several scents of which I use in my own home. The Charleston candle is lovely and my favorite, but I don't think of Charleston when I use it. I also have Barcelona. The company makes several other scents inspired by places such as St. Barths, Cape Cod and Marrakesh. Candles cost between $3 and $25, much cheaper than actually going to any of those places.

But taking selfies in front of a candle isn't quite the same as taking them at a Moroccan bazaar.