Clean Fragrance Collection

At a glance

Clean is the American fragrance brand Randi Shinder founded in the early 2000s around one idea: perfume that smells like soap, fresh laundry and just-showered skin. Its first scent, also called Clean, was a bright citrus floral over white musk.

The line has since grown to more than a hundred fragrances, from Warm Cotton to the Clean Reserve collection.

Creation and context

Fragrantica states that Clean was founded in 2003 in the USA by Randi Shinder, and the brand itself uses the line “Since 2003.” Parfumo lists the brand as “USA since 2003” but also says it was born in 2002, the year both databases give for the first fragrance. A 2017 press release on GlobeNewswire likewise describes Shinder as the creator of CLEAN Perfume, alongside Lip Fusion, Fusion Beauty and Dessert Beauty.

According to Fragrantica, the original Clean was inspired by the simple beauty of a bar of fragrant soap and was the first of a series of unpretentious scents built on freshly showered skin, fresh laundry and crisp cotton. Parfumo reports that it won the brand a “Newcomer of the Year” title in 2003.

Fresh Laundry followed in 2005 and Warm Cotton in 2007, dates on which Fragrantica and Parfumo agree. Parfumo now lists the brand as marketed by Clean Beauty Collective Inc. / Fusion Brands Inc., the company name the brand uses today.

The composition

The original Clean sets the template for the whole line. Fragrantica and Parfumo agree on its core notes.

Fragrantica’s longer list adds bergamot, orange blossom, lavender, violet, jasmine and heliotrope. Warm Cotton (2007) follows the same logic, with citrus and vervain over marine notes, cotton, orange blossom, musk and amber on Parfumo. The brand describes its Classic fragrances as linear, changing little over the day, which it says makes them suited to layering. Credited perfumers across the line include Patricia Choux, Harry Frémont, Céline Barel and Richard Herpin, names that appear on both Fragrantica and Parfumo.

Why it matters

Clean made the smell of cleanliness the whole subject of a fragrance line, and sold it under a name that said so. Its long run of cotton, laundry, soap and skin scents, from Fresh Laundry and Warm Cotton to Pure Soap and Skin, shows how far one idea could carry a brand.

The brand also claims an early place in clean beauty: it says it has been setting a “clean” standard “since before it was trendy,” and it now stresses vegan formulas and transparent ingredient lists. On this site it appears in several celebrity favourites, including Alicia Silverstone and Cameron Diaz, and it can be compared with Lavanila, another early “healthy fragrance” brand.

Reformulation and editions

The original Clean is still in production according to Parfumo. The brand now groups its core scents, including Warm Cotton, as Clean Classic, and Parfumo also lists a separate Clean Reserve line. Parfumo knows more than 120 Clean fragrances in all. No reformulation history of the original has been published.

Wearing it today

Clean scents are built to smell like fresh skin and laundry, so they suit offices, warm weather and anyone who prefers a quiet fragrance. Because the brand designs the Classic line to be linear, try layering two of them rather than expecting one to change over the day.

Sample before you buy a full bottle; reviewers on Parfumo find some of the laundry scents sharp or synthetic.

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