Launched in 2005 by French jewelery house Lalique, Flora Bella is what I wear when I want to smell the fragrance of flowers rising from my skin – rose, violet, freesia, mimosa, tuberose, carnation orchid, tiare – all of them filling my lungs, swimming around in my brain, making my aura glow.

It opens with bitter bergamot, slightly sweetened with mandarin, and then it wastes no time getting to the flowers – lush rose, its fresh greenness enhanced by geraniol, and velvety violet. As it blooms, mimosa, smelling clean, and fresh is the first to show up, joined by freesia and frangipani, but I smell carnation here too, its soft spicy/peppery warmth giving the flowers depth and complexity. A subdued note of pink pepper, along with cassia flower, extends the gentle warmth and spiciness of the carnation. Tuberose and tiare flowers come next, lush, tropical and enticing. Somewhere out of the mix comes a metallic tang that really…belongs. It’s what makes Flora Bella unique and a standout in the crowded ‘floral’ category. At the base, vanilla, spices, and amber combine to give it a creamy, milky sweetness, while white musk gives it a clean, skin note.

Flora Bella is the fragrance of a sunny, tropical, floral bouquet, with a whiff of salty skin, deftly subdued and balanced so that the drydown is sophisticated rather than casual, urban rather than ‘beachy’. It’s not the smell of topless sunbathing on the beaches of St. Tropez; rather, it’s the elegant floral scent of a sunny tropical day on your skin. Bliss!

Notes: mandarin, bergamot, rose, violet, pink pepper, frangipani, freesia, cassia flower, mimosa, tuberose, carnation, orchid, Tiare flower, vanilla, spices and amber, white musk.