Un Amour

Un Amour is the 100 mL expression of the brand's almond gourmand idea, and it is the better buy of the two versions simply because the format lets it perform. Almond opens the fragrance on its own, marzipan-sweet and slightly cherry-tinged in the way almond materials often read. There is no citrus or green top note to clear the way, which makes the first impression immediate and slightly old-fashioned in a pleasant way. The heart is a creamy white floral trio. Tuberose leads with a fleshy, buttery quality, iris adds a cool powderiness that keeps it from going heady, and jasmine sits behind filling the gaps. It is a soft and slightly blurred middle section, which is where the low price makes itself known, but the shape is right. The base is the strongest part: sandalwood, vanilla, coffee and tonka bean. Coffee is the detail that lifts the whole composition, adding a roasted bitterness that keeps the vanilla and tonka from settling into flat sugar, and the brand's own copy calls out cocoa in the drydown too. In the 100 mL bottle it manages around five hours with soft projection, considerably better than the travel-size version of the same juice. Autumn and winter, evenings, and cold weather generally. Comforting, sweet, unpretentious and very cheap.