I’m not sure how and when so many perfumes sailed blithely past the £100-a-bottle threshold, but the rising cost of ingredients is, I believe, more excuse than explanation. Only last week, some fragrance-writer friends and I were moaning about a decidedly average perfume that had landed on our desks with a particularly audacious price tag of £230. Conversely, I’ve rarely had so many enthusiastic messages from Saturday readers as when I recently wrote a column on more affordable fragrances – and I’m told my recommendations sold out. So here we are again, this time with an eye on spring scents.
If you haven’t sniffed out Marks & Spencer’s own-brand fragrances, remedy this at once. Its current offering is way better than it could get away with. There’s been much fuss on TikTok about its (admittedly good) Discover collection of designer doppelganger fragrances, but to focus on the dupes (I’m unkeen on principle) is to miss out on its much more imaginative Provenance and Apothecary lines.
From Apothecary, I love Ease eau de parfum. This is a fresh, herbal, posh-sauna sort of a smell that lingers interestingly and sexily thanks to the inclusion of patchouli. It’s the sort of fragrance that would appeal equally to those who think they hate perfume (there are no floral notes, no sweetness) and those who’d never leave the house without it. At just £9.50 for 50ml, Ease massively overdelivers.
Much pricier but positively bargainous since it is made by Jean-Claude Ellena (our greatest living perfumer, in my view) is Le Couvent Parfums’ Aqua Majestae Cologne Intense (£45 for 50ml). This one is floral, fruity and, like M&S’s Ease, both vegan and gender neutral. Think juicy apricots, white flowers and delicate, milky wood sap. It’s gentle, refined and comforting, and manages to keep going for hours without being at all screechy. Its Le Couvent stablemates are all very wearable and fairly priced, too.
Finally, I recommend Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana. Yes, it is a designer rather than high-street fragrance, with an RRP of £49, but I make no apologies for that, because it is literally always on offer somewhere (I bought some for £30-something only recently). And Light Blue is almost impossible to dislike. It is, to me, the combined smell of freshly laundered bedding, frozen lemon wedges and a slightly salty breeze. Grab it now before a marketeer decides it’s too cheap.
