GFF F
Gianfranco Ferré (1997)

A great, old oddball. This one blasted me at first with lavender, sage, and bergamot. Very strong wall of fragrance. The intensity fades away to softness. Dainty notes of violet, freesia, ylang ylang, rose, and a touch of cardamom. The base is light for me. I get some patchouli and vanilla but, not much else. At times, I think I get some honey, sandalwood, and Tonka but, they are very hard to pick out without inhaling deeply. Underrated perfume, in my opinion.

I ordered this one without trying it, because I thought the description sounded interesting. My first impression was that it was heavy and kind of "obnoxious". However, I have come to really like it. Somehow the original smell on my skin has changed and now I think it is very feminine and sexy and quite unusual. Better as an evening smell in my opinion. Great price, too!

GFF Donna (also known as GFF F) is a recent favorite. This smells so fabulously delicious, it's hard to believe that no one knows about it, and even harder to understand why Gianfranco Ferre goes to all the trouble to develop some wonderful fragrances, yet doesn't seem to do much to market them. Maybe he really does in Europe, but in the States, his frags seem to be relative unknowns. GFF Donna opens with a crisp rush of Hesperides, and, my, are they marvelous. Balanced with a green note, the lemon, bergamot, lavender, and clary sage give way to the heart notes of jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, freesia, cardamom and cinnamon while patchouli, sandalwood, honey, hawthorn, vanilla, tonka bean and cedar anchor the whole composition. I detect honeysuckle as well, and in fact, GFF Donna makes me feel like a honeybee who has happily buzzed into a citrus orchard in full bloom, surrounded by copious honeysuckle vines. GFF Donna is similar to Arpege but with the citrus (orange) and honeysuckle notes revved up. Wear it to play tennis in the morning, and in the evening spritz again before dinner at the Ritz ---it's that divinely versatile. Elegance with a smile.