Sol de Janeiro’s Latest Hit Product Is a Scented Body Butter That Can Boost Your Mood

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Sol de Janeiro’s viral fragrance and body products are inspired by and synonymous with humid Rio nights and the beautiful Brazilian spirit. For example, the brand’s gourmand hero scent—available both in the hit Brazilian Bum Bum Cream and as a stand-alone spray—features notes of salted caramel, pistachio, and vanilla. For its newest launch, though, Sol de Janeiro incorporated a less tropical climate: icy mountain peaks and dry, dehydrating frigid winter air, to be exact. Meet Delicia Drench, a happiness-enhancing, intensely moisturizing, and soothing body butter—designed to combat the coldest of seasons, driest of skin, and frostiest of moods.

When legendary perfumer Jérôme Epinette crafted the scent for Delicia Drench and its counterpart Cheirosa 59 perfume mist, he was aiming specifically for something uplifting. “This was about pairing the right gourmand and exquisite woody notes to help deliver a mood-boosting effect,” he tells Bazaar. “The blond woods bring a soothing comfort, while the delicious, caramelized gourmand notes bring an inherent feel-good experience.” The warm, woody notes are inherently enlivening, and a study conducted by the brand found that wearing the Cheirosa 59 can help improve one’s mood: Participants said the scent “transported them to a positive place” and also that it “[made] them feel happy.”

What makes a fragrance “mood-boosting” as opposed to simply great-smelling? A combination of science, instinct, and experience, Epinette says.

“A good scent should always be emotional—whether it is nostalgic or transportive,” he says. “For it to be uplifting means setting the mood for the day—something that brings you joy, happiness, allowing you to feel energized and invigorated.” For Epinette, that means Delicia Drench’s top notes of velvet plum and sugared violet, heart notes of vanilla orchid and warming amber, and base notes of grounding sandalwood and vetiver. “What makes it so exciting for the collection is that it’s the first woody fragrance [for Sol de Janeiro],” says Epinette. “Using sandalwood for the first time offers something different and sets it apart from the existing fragrances.”

The creative collaboration between Sol de Janeiro and Epinette is not only long-term (he has crafted all the brand’s wildly successful perfume mists), but also reflects the French perfumer’s own point of view. “I select key ingredients known to promote these joyful feelings, but I am also drawn to certain notes that inherently make me feel good,” he says. “At the end, though, it all comes down to the combination of ingredients and the deliberate way I combine them to make something special.”

Crafting the formula for the Delicia Drench Body Butter was a tall order. Following in the ginormous footsteps of its all-time bestseller, the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, Sol de Janeiro aimed to create a body treatment that went beyond daily moisture and addressed long-term dehydration (for up to 24 hours, according to a clinical study) and the overall health of the skin barrier. And Delicia Drench does just that, using the brand’s “Brazilian soothing complex” (a mix of copaiba resin and passionflower seed oil) to deliver a calming effect; prebiotic hibiscus to support the skin’s microbiome; and bacury butter, a creamy Brazilian staple known for its emollient powers. The last ingredient is what gives the body butter its rich texture and sets the formula apart from its predecessors.

While whipped body creams aren’t new, the Delicia Drench butter’s texture is in a category all its own. It is dense, yet it doesn’t take an effort to scoop it up. It’s whipped, but not light as air and won’t disappear instantly. It absorbs into the skin, but not too quickly or too slowly—the experience is nothing short of decadent (and reaffirming).

And of course, if you love the uplifting Cheirosa 59 scent, you get it in this deeply hydrating treatment, as well. Scented lotions and body treatments can excite or dissuade users, depending on which side of the coin they prefer. But take it from me, a person with extremely sensitive skin who is usually triggered by fragrances in body creams: The Delicia Drench Body Butter does indeed hydrate, soothe, and nourish the skin, while also providing a lasting hint of enlightening vanilla orchid and sandalwood—without the irritation many other scented creams cause.

Sol de Janeiro has seen unheard-of growth and success in recent years. According to trend-tracking firm Spate, the brand’s hashtags earn an average 117 million weekly views on TikTok, while its average monthly searches have seen an increase of 43.7 percent since last year. In the case of Delicia Drench, Spate says hashtags related to the launch peaked at over 112 million TikTok views in a single week in January. Sol de Janeiro’s perfume mists have become instant hits, too. (The brand sells one perfume mist every seven seconds, on average.)

And according to Caitlin Brydon, director of Amazon global e-commerce for Sol de Janeiro, the Delicia Drench/Cheirosa 59 pairing is the brand’s most successful launch to date. She believes the rapid success is in part because the product is “absolutely delicious,” but says the launch also meets demand for a deeply nourishing body butter, particularly one whose claims are backed by testing. “What is truly special about this new product is its clinically proven ability to boost our customers’ mood,” Brydon says. “Joy is at the heart of everything we do, and Delicia delivers this in the most tangible way yet.”

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