Solo Ella
Loewe Solo Ella Eau de Toilette is worth examining for its tea, which is doing something quite different from the fruit and flowers around it.
Apple comes first, crisp and green rather than cooked or sweet, and it gives the fragrance an immediate freshness that fades within the first half hour. Neroli follows, the white flower with a citrus brightness running through it, clean and slightly bitter at the edges and far less heavy than most white florals.
Then tea takes over, and it is the reason the scent holds together. In fragrance, tea is dry and slightly astringent, closer to leaves in hot water than to anything sweetened, and it has a papery, faintly smoky quality that stops the apple and neroli above it from being merely pretty. It is what gives this a grown up character, and it is also what keeps it from smelling like a shampoo, which apple and neroli alone would risk.
Three materials in total, so there is no long development. The fragrance establishes itself quickly, settles against the skin and remains there, and at eau de toilette strength it needs renewing after three or four hours. That suits the composition: this is not a scent with any interest in filling a room.
It is a daytime fragrance, good in spring and summer and entirely at home in an office. It reads feminine but lightly so, and it is easy to wear on a day when you would rather not be noticed. It is a sensible first fragrance for somebody who finds most of them too much. It was composed by Núria Cruelles Borrull. Loewe has been Madrid based since 1846, made its first fragrance in 1972, and keeps its perfume business within LVMH.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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