Note Pyramid
Lady Million
Few fragrances have been copied as often as Rabanne Lady Million Eau de Parfum, and it has been a fixture on dressing tables since 2010 for reasons that have nothing at all to do with the packaging it arrives in. It opens tart and bright. Neroli is the first thing up, clean and slightly bitter, with bitter orange beside it supplying peel rather than juice, and then raspberry arrives and the character of the scent is settled. That raspberry is handled as jam rather than as fruit off the bush, sweet and a bit syrupy, and it is the single most recognisable thing about the composition.
The middle is white flowers. Orange blossom is soapy and sweet and bridges neatly from the citrus above, while jasmine widens everything out with a fuller, faintly animal richness that keeps the fruit company rather than fighting it. Then honey takes over and the scent changes gear. Honey is the material that makes this divisive: thick, sticky, with a waxy edge that some people read as warmth and others find heavy. Patchouli grounds it with earth and a dry bitterness, and amber adds resin, so the base is sweet but not simply sugary. It performs. Strong projection for the first couple of hours, then a close warmth that survives a full day and turns up on a scarf a week later. Cold weather flatters it and summer heat can push the honey too far. It is a women's fragrance, it suits evenings, parties and the sort of occasion where being noticed is the idea, and it was composed by Anne Flipo, Béatrice Piquet and Dominique Ropion.
Paco Rabanne showed his first collection in Paris in 1966 and the perfume side followed two years later under the Spanish group Puig, which released Calandre in 1969. Puig has owned the entire business since 1987, and this is one of the two women's ranges on which the modern company is built.
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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