Graine de Joie
Eau d'Italie (2014)

Fizzy fruity floral times a thousand. The opening is extremely heavy and almost overboard and reminds me a bit of Baby Doll by YSL. Over time it does settle but sadly I get strange notes of cherry tomatoes on the dry down and then it's almost gone. Less than two hours on my skin.

There's no escaping fruit goop when confronted with fruity florals, particularly of the ‘red berries' variety, and Graine de Joie can't completely avoid the usual pitfalls of fruit gums and rubberiness. But it also has a few saving graces, there's a pleasing mouth-puckering tartness ringing it and a surprising impression of bursting juice, like pomegranate arils popping between teeth. It comes airbrushed with freshening lemony-floral notes, usually a no-no, but here just an extra layer of good cheer. Fortunately the praline mentioned in the listed notes is held well in check; it could have sunk this bouncy composition. For an hour or more, this is a fun and fizzy frivolité; it gladdens my heart and is executed with a deftness of touch usually conspicuously absent from this genre. But it flops completely in the drydown, turning into dried glue with a strange off-note of thyme.

Genre: Fruity Floral

Here's what I imagine: after failing to make enough money on a fragrance line that includes original, if bizarre, scents like Bois d'Ombrie and Sienne l'Hiver (alongside the superb Paestum Rose), the brains behind Eau d'Italie fire Bertrand Duchaufour and yank on the tiller as hard as they can. In 2012 they release a humdrum aquatic (Un Bateau pour Capri); in 2013, an ultra-conservative eau de Cologne (Acqua Decima); and in 2014, having come about completely, (drum roll, please,) a fruity floral.

Yup, Graine de Joie is the kind of gumball fruity floral beloved of twelve year-olds everywhere. The pyramid alone is depressing reading, with such notes as “red berries,” red currant, freesia, and (heaven help us!) praline. Would it surprise you if I told you Graine de Joie smells like a red Lifesaver candy that someone sprayed with freesia air freshener? Well, it does. For all our sakes, I hope it bombs miserably. Then maybe Eau d'Italie will go crawling back to Duchaufour and start making interesting fragrances again.