Traditionally the season of fresh and citrusy scents, research from perfume purveyors OnBuy.com has revealed that women are veering away from zesty fragrances in favour of something a little sweeter this summer.

Compiling data from 517,778 fragrance lovers on perfume encyclopaedia fragrantica.com, OnBuy.com has explored the 20 favourite perfumes released so far in 2018, to see what trends are emerging. It has found the top 10 to be:

1. Coco Mademoiselle Intense - Chanel
2. Météorites - Guerlain
3. La Nuit Trésor à la Folie – Lancôme
4. Flowerbomb Nectar - Viktor&Rolf
5. Alien Flora Futura - Thierry Mugler
6. Dolce Garden – Dolce & Gabbana
7. Mon Guerlain Florale – Guerlain
8. Gucci Guilty Absolute – Gucci
9. Sorbetto Rosso - Escada
10. Nomade - Chloe

The  top 10 reveal the popularity of French scents, with 60% of the best 2018 releases hailing from France. Another noticeable trend is that the list contains many 'new twists' on already popular perfumes. There are seven entries in the top 10 list that are new editions of classic hits, like Thierry Mugler’s Alien and Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle.

A closer look at the most popular fragrances has shows a penchant for sweet perfumes that contain notes like the vanilla and almond in Dolce Garden by Dolce & Gabbana.

In fact, 70% of this year’s favourite releases contained sweet accords, the most popular type of scent in 2018 compared to woody notes (45%) or the perennial favourite floral (60%). In 2017 sweet notes were only seen in around 50% of fragrances.

The sweet and feminine theme extends to branding too, with a massive 75% of the perfumes explored housed in pink bottles. This is a massive shift from the popularity of genderless, or even masculine, scents of late. In fact, a survey conducted earlier this year by OnBuy revealed that 75% of women wanted to try a unisex perfume at the beginning of 2018, yet so far the market has been bombarded by pink, sweet and feminine fragrances.