Vanilla & Passion Body Mist

Vanilla & Passion sits in Coup de Coeur's Brume Parfumee range, the 200 mL fragranced mists that make up roughly half the French brand's catalogue and are sold in the UK at six pounds. The brand publishes no tiered pyramid for the mists, and this one is exactly what the name says: vanilla and passion fruit, with the brand's own ingredient photograph showing nothing beyond vanilla pods, vanilla orchid flowers and a halved passion fruit. In wear it is the passion fruit that gives the first minute its character, tart and slightly green in the way real passion fruit is, and it keeps the vanilla from settling straight into the warm bakery register that most of the line lives in. The vanilla underneath is the creamy, milky kind rather than anything boozy or smoky, and it is what remains after the fruit burns off. The brand's copy leans on the tropical reading, describing an exotic island and a warm caress to the skin, and that is a fair summary of where it lands. Judge it as a body mist and not as a fragrance: it is formulated to be light, it goes on generously from a 200 mL spray, and it will be gone inside a couple of hours. That is the format, not a fault. It is a summer product, best layered over moisturised skin or under one of the brand's 30 mL eau de parfum minis, and it is vegan, not tested on animals and made in France.