Blu Mediterraneo Mandorlo di Sicilia Eau de Toilette

Within the Blu Mediterraneo range, Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Mandorlo di Sicilia Eau de Toilette is the odd one out, because almost all of its siblings are citrus and this one is a nut and a flower. Star anise opens it, which is a bold decision, giving a sweet liquorice edge straight away. Bergamot and orange come in behind to keep it from going confectionery, and the first few minutes are genuinely unusual, sweet and bitter at once.

The heart is the point of the thing. Green almond is not marzipan; it is the unripe nut, slightly milky, a bit bitter, with a dusty quality closer to the shell than the kernel. Ylang ylang sits with it, creamy and faintly banana like, and the two together make something soft without being girlish. The base then goes properly warm, with vanilla, tolu balsam and musk for sweetness and depth and cedarwood cutting across them so the sweetness never turns cloying. Tolu balsam is the material doing the quiet work there, resinous, faintly sweet and a little medicinal.

The composition is from 1999 and it has aged well, in the sense that it still does not smell like anything else in the shop. It is an eau de toilette, so the oil load is modest and the behaviour is comfortable rather than imposing, giving four or five hours before it turns into a soft, sweet trace on the skin.

It is better in cool weather than hot, better in the evening than the morning, and it reads as unisex though it leans gently soft. Anyone who finds pure citrus boring and heavy sweetness too much should try it.

As for the house, it began in Parma in 1916 when Baron Carlo Magnani decided perfume could be lighter than the fashion of the time allowed, and Colonia was his answer. The business is LVMH owned, makes candles and home fragrance as well as scent, and packs almost everything in the hat boxes that have become its calling card.