SJP NYC Eau de Parfum 100ml

Osmanthus is the reason to look at SJP NYC Eau de Parfum 100ml, from Sarah Jessica Parker, because it is not a material this end of the market usually bothers with.

It is an odd and rather lovely thing: a flower that smells of dried apricot and suede at once, sweet and slightly tanned, and here it sits in the opening alongside wild strawberry and italian mandarin. The strawberry is tart and green rather than sugared, the mandarin bright and zesty, and the three together make a first impression that is fruity without being juvenile.

The middle is generous. Gardenia is creamy, honeysuckle thick and nectared, damascus rose deep and faintly jammy, and mimosa powdery, which softens all of it. Four flowers is a lot to hold together, and the scent is at its busiest here, so if you find white florals hard work this is the stretch to test on skin before buying.

Then it turns warm and boozy. Rum is the surprise, sweet and faintly spirituous without smelling like a cocktail, with vanilla rounding it, sandalwood adding a milky smoothness and musk holding everything to the skin. The drydown is the best part of it and lasts the longest: six or seven hours is reasonable, strong in the first, intimate after. It suits evenings, autumn and winter, and reads as feminine. It is a 2016 release.

This is a licensing arrangement and not a perfumery. Sarah Jessica Parker gives it the name and works on the scents; Coty Prestige develops, manufactures and sells them. The relationship began in August 2005 with Lovely, the fragrance everything since has been built on, and it has been extended steadily ever since.