Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue

Few fragrances have been copied as thoroughly as this one. Light Blue arrived in 2001 and is commonly attributed to Olivier Cresp; the structure it settled on, a sharp Sicilian lemon and green apple opening over cedar, became the template for an entire generation of fresh citrus-woody scents. Two decades on it is still one of the best-selling women's fragrances in the world, and the reason is not complexity. It is that the accord is instantly legible and almost impossible to dislike.

Dolce and Gabbana's own site could not be reached for this write-up, so the pyramid below is drawn from independent databases instead of a house document. Sicilian lemon, Granny Smith apple, cedar and bellflower open it; bamboo, jasmine and white rose sit in the middle; cedar, musk and amber close. In practice the apple and lemon dominate the first half hour and are the part everyone recognises. The floral heart is thin by design, more texture than statement, and what actually carries the fragrance is the cedar, which turns slightly powdery and soft over three or four hours. There is no heaviness anywhere in it.

This is a hot-weather fragrance and always has been. It was built for a Mediterranean summer and it does exactly the same work on a humid Durban afternoon, where richer scents turn cloying within minutes. It reads clean rather than sexy, works in an office, and is one of the few designer bestsellers that genuinely suits someone who does not want to be noticed for their perfume.

On honesty: Light Blue is an eau de toilette and performs like one, four to six hours with modest projection, and long-time wearers widely report that it is lighter now than in the early 2000s, a change usually put down to reformulation and ingredient restrictions rather than anything the house has announced. If longevity matters, the Eau Intense version is the denser option and Light Blue Forever is a separate, more floral reworking rather than a stronger original. The men's counterpart, Light Blue Pour Homme, arrived in 2007 and shares the citrus idea without the apple.