Women Eau de Parfum

Trussardi Women Eau de Parfum is a tart floral rather than a sweet one, and gooseberry is the reason it reads that way from the first spray.

Gooseberry is an unusual choice and a good one. It is sharp, green and only faintly sugary, closer to the smell of the fruit still on the bush than to anything stewed, and it gives the opening a bite that most feminine eaux de parfum sand away. Pink grapefruit sits beside it, rounder and less piercing than the yellow fruit but still bitter at the edge, while lotus adds a cool, watery clarity that keeps the fruit from reading as a snack. The middle narrows to two materials and is better for it. White magnolia is creamy and faintly sharp, a big flower handled lightly here, and white pepper runs through it with a dry crackle that stops the creaminess turning soapy.

The base is simply musk and amber, which is to say warmth and skin. Musk smooths the joins and gives the dry down that clean, faintly powdered quality that makes a scent feel like it belongs to the wearer. Amber underneath it is resinous and softly sweet, and it is what keeps the composition on skin once the fruit has gone. At eau de parfum strength it lasts a working day without shouting, which makes it usable at a desk, at lunch and in the evening without a change of plan. Two sprays is the sensible dose. It is pitched at women and reads as a spring and autumn scent more than a high summer one, since the musk and amber want a little coolness around them.

The house behind it did not begin in perfume at all. Dante Trussardi opened a glove making workshop in Bergamo in 1911, the business grew into clothing and accessories under Nicola Trussardi, and scent came much later, licensed now to Angelini Beauty.