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These Fancy Cleaning Products Are the Celebrity Perfumes of Our Age
Fragrant and fancy cleaning products are the new perfume. Get the lowdown on the high-end dish soaps and countertop cleaners (many of them celebrity-adjacent) you need to keep your home clean and fancy.
Fresh Horizons
In the olden times celebs like Elizabeth Taylor and Jennifer Lopez hawked bespoke perfume whose luster was enhanced by the fragrance being fame-adjacent.
But in our present post-COVID and Marie Kondo-obsessed age, when cleanliness and neatness are synonymous with our psychological health, delicious smelling luxury cleaning products are the new perfume.
Celebrities including Drew Barrymore, Courtney Cox, Kris Jenner and Jessica Alba have launched lines of cleaning products, many of them with the added cachet of plant-based and eco-friendly ingredients.
Most of these products are meant to go well together and look pretty (and organized) when grouped under the sink or (lucky you) in the pantry — with their complementary design. Here we round up some of our favorites whose delicious scents may have you dotting a little all-purpose cleaner on your pulse points. At the very least these high-end scents will make any cleaning routine a more purposeful and pleasant experience.
Chores normally considered drudgery become elevated — even special — when you can bask in a lovely scent and feel like your clean house doesn't come at the expense of the world's health.
Editor's note: all these cleaning lines offer subscription options and/or refill packages that bring down the cost of the products.
Diptyque's La Droguerie
French luxury brand Diptyque, perhaps best known for its high-end, intensely perfumed candles, got into the cleaning business in summer 2022 with a line of cleaners under the name "droguerie" (French for drugstore). Fragrances were developed by French perfumer Olivier Pescheux, and for that reason, these products have the layered, complex scents you would expect from a perfume, but not from a cleaner.
This all-purpose leather and wood care lotion with beeswax has a slightly musky, nutty, spicy scent — "rich hippie" is the scent profile that comes to mind — that makes it especially lovely after the intense chemical odor of most wood polishes. You can use this lotion to polish wooden furniture: A wood tray became instantly brighter and richer in patina after just one application. And the water marks on my dining room table? Avoir! But the uses are myriad. You can use the lotion for leather goods including shoes and handbags. I anticipate using this small bottle to keep my leather shoes shined up and clean since the smell of most shoe polish makes me gag. Diptyque recommends using the lotion two to four times a year and notes that it is especially useful for rejuvenating wooden garden tools and furniture once spring comes. Like all the Droguerie products, the lotion comes in a pretty amber-colored glass bottle that evokes vintage tinctures and tonics. Should you end up with any of the scent lingering on your hands, you won't want to wash it off.
Diptyque’s dish washing liquid is subtley scented with orange blossom, mandarin and basil that also cleans your dishes without chemicals. Another luxe approach to cleaning in a gorgeous glass bottle. Would love to see what Diptyque could do with a dishwasher pod.
Though it is made with the cleaning power of vinegar, Diptyque’s multi-surface cleaner is not too vinegar forward but instead has the herbacious, bespoke scent of cedar and figs, which makes it a lovely respite from harsh chemical scents.
These are undeniably the most glamorous, gorgeously scented cleaning products you've ever experienced. In addition, all the Droguerie products are ECOCERT-certified. (A global certification for sustainable practices, ECOCERT is an organic certification organization, founded in France in 1991.) and most feature refillable packaging for lessened environmental impact. The glass bottles that house the all-purpose cleaner, dishwashing liquid and leather/wood cleaner are extra posh and beautiful.
HomeCourt
I'll get this off my chest: I am not the type to buy a $60 candle. And yet. Would I buy this $60 candle again? Probably. Because it smells like heaven and fills my home with a gorgeous, luxurious scent that brightens my day and lifts my mood. Pricey yes. I am a big fan of the luscious Cece fragrance in this "bougie" candle. Each soy-wax blend candle is hand-poured and features a chic ceramic vessel and a 60-hour burn time. Inspired by Courtney Cox's signature scent, this blend of cardamon, patchouli, vetiver, cinnamon and cedarwood is seductive and exotic and reminiscent of a high-end homeware shop or boutique hotel.
This effective plant-based cleaner uses coconut to degrease and cypress oil to purify. Truly multipurpose, this cleaner can be used on sealed stone, wood, granite, stainless steel and tile.
With the seductive tagline "Cleaning is maintenance. Homecare is transformation," actress Courtney Cox launched HomeCourt, her line of "beauty products for the home" in January 2022. The products lean heavily into rich, custom scents, and the signature scent "Cece" is nothing short of exquisite. It feels like I am spraying liquid gold onto my kitchen countertops when I use it. Rose is a close second, and while I see why people might like Neroil Leaf, it is not my vibe. All HomeCourt products are non-toxic, skincare-grade safe (so I guess you could dot the all-purpose cleaner behind your ears), vegan and cruelty free and made from post-consumer recycled materials.
L'Avant Collective
This beautifully designed duo features L'Avant's hand soap and dishwashing soap. The signature Fresh Linen fragrance is just the kind of bright, fresh scent you want in your kitchen. The plant-based formulas strike the right eco-aware note, but it's the gorgeous glass bottles that really make this a luxury product. L'Avant also sells affordably priced refill pouches that make less waste even more enticing.
Though not housed in glass, alas, this multipurpose cleaner has a bottle made from recycled plastic. And refills are affordably priced to further cut down on waste.
Deliciously fragrant in a way that makes you want to clean, these biodegradable wipes use plant-based ingredients. They are a great option to stash in bathrooms and in your car to bring a lovely whiff of Fresh Linen to your day.
This woman-founded company was created by Seattle entrepreneurs Lindsay Droz and Kristi Lord who gave up their corporate jobs to start their business. Their glamorous L'Avant Collective cleaning line — beloved by celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow — much of it featured in solid glass bottles, focuses on delicious scents and plant-based ingredients. Their signature fragrance "Fresh Linen" is the smell of clean in a bottle — not the blue goo clean of chemicals but the clean of spring, fresh laundry and baby skin.
Safely
Yoshihiro Makino
Safely co-founders Emma Grede (left) and Kris Jenner (right).
The plug-in is not a scent genre I have explored yet, maybe because I've only smelled the bad ones that evoke gas station rest rooms. I recognize that plug-ins may have turned a corner, and now don't come with that powerful chemical scent but instead feature essential oils and more sophisticated fragrance. That is certainly the case with the Safely line of plugins, which I would definitely buy again. Each scent in the Safely line — Calm, Bright, Rise — is a winner, but Calm is probably my favorite for the soothing scents of lavender, coconut milk, rose and woodsy notes. A nice feature: You can adjust the scent strength to make sure it is not too intense (or is extra intense for problematic spaces).
Enriched with Vitamin-E, this hand lotion with coconut, almond oil and willow bark extract feels luxurious and smells divine. The Calm fragrance is especially lovely.
Yes that brand name neon-blue cleaner that smells like a chemical factory has become almost synonymous with glass cleaning. But this particular cleaning realm is especially ready for a reboot. This all-natural Safely glass cleaner is gently fragrant (since most people can figure out a cleaner works by looking at the results and don't need an olfactory slap in the face to prove it) and uses the power of plants to get the job done.
Super concentrated, this detergent uses plant-based enzymes to tackle food and human-made smells and stains. It also takes up a shockingly tiny amount of space in your laundry closet, room or wherever. That makes it perfect for small-space living or for people who are just tired of hauling enormous bottles of detergent around.
Citric acid, lemongrass leaf oil and corn-derived alcohol work in this all-purpose cleaner to wipe bacteria and grime away, leaving a lovely scent in your wake.
This collaboration between British entrepreneur and fashion designer Emma Grede and mompreneur Kris Jenner focuses on cleaning products free of harsh chemicals and featuring ingredients that are safer for the environment. Affordably priced, Safely has nailed the scent part of the equation with a really distinctive and complex line of scents including Calm, Rise and Bright.
The Honest Company
This set of three tall recycled plastic bottles come with packs of cool, dissolving cleaning tablets to turn each one into a glass, bathroom or all-purpose cleaner with the addition of water. Made without synthetic fragrances, the Pomelo Spritz scent of these cleaning products is fresh and lemony, though nothing close to the high-end, bespoke scents found in other celeb cleaning lines. The clear bottles and clear formulas definitely send a message of "clean," and the price point of this line is affordable, especially if you sign up for the subscription option. The kit comes with a sustainable bamboo cleaning cloth and a stick of the South American wood palo santo (aka "holy wood") to light and spread its earthy fragrance through the air, a nice global touch.
These nicely fragrant antibacterial wipes made with aloe come in a variety of scents: Lavender Field, Grapefruit Grove and for sensitive types, Free & Clear, something that makes this entire product line beloved by parents and those who have to steer clear of fragrance.
Founded by actress Jessica Alba in 2012, the Honest Company was one of the earliest celebrity-run companies to focus on "clean" products that are chemical-free and sustainable. (The cleaning bottles are meant to be refilled with disposable cleaning pods mixed with water.) The Honest Company launched with chemical-free baby products, but the brand has since moved into beauty and skincare and, in 2021 cleaning products. Alba's Conscious Cleaning Collection includes a glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner and bathroom cleaner in reuseable recycled plastic bottles featuring naturally derived ingredients.
Fresh Horizons
Affordably priced, this collaboration between actress Drew Barrymore and sustainable homecare company Grove comes in two slightly herbacious, sweet scents: Palm Leaf Mist and Island Orchid.
These clever jars of cleaning product are mixed with water to create cleansers that tend to cut down on waste and smell a cut above the usual supermarket cleaners.
Sustainably minded companies are onto something when they invest in pretty glass containers for eco-friendly cleaning products. This glass bottle with a stainless steel pump from the Drew Barrymore Fresh Horizons line is a pretty way to display hand soap.
A nifty way to transport clean with you, this portable soap is great to tuck in a purse for occasions when soap isn't available and would be especially useful for travel.
This collaboration between the effervescent celebrity Drew Barrymore and Grove Collaborative is a limited edition chance to get a little of Drew's sparkly personality in product form. The product design is cheerful (sunshine yellow is a big part of the design scheme), and the products have a scent that registers as bright and citrusy. Like other Grove products, these are sustainable in the sense that refills and reusable bottles cut down on waste.
