Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy is the least serious thing in the range and there is no point pretending otherwise. The candyfloss accord is the whole concept, an airy spun-sugar sweetness that sits over everything else from the first spray to the last. Raspberry, orange blossom and apple open around it, the raspberry adding tartness, the apple a crisp fruitiness, and the orange blossom an unexpected floral lift that is the most grown-up thing in the composition. The heart is gardenia, strawberry and peony, a soft pink floral-fruity middle where the strawberry pushes the sweetness further and the gardenia keeps a creamy white floral thread going underneath. Nothing here is subtle, and subtlety is clearly not the brief. The base is vanilla, caramel, musk and blonde woods, and it does what you expect: a warm, sugary, slightly powdery finish with the blonde wood providing just enough dryness to stop it reading as pure confectionery. Performance is limited to three or so hours in the 30 mL format, with soft projection. Autumn and winter suit it best. This is a fragrance for teenagers, for people who want something cheerful with no complications, and for anyone who finds the whole sugar-bomb genre comforting rather than childish. Judged on those terms it is perfectly good, and it is very cheap.