Eclaire

Sweet is an understatement. Eclaire opens on caramel, milk and sugar in more or less that order, and the first impression is of warm condensed milk poured over toffee. There is no citrus, no green note, no attempt at contrast; it commits fully from the first spray. The heart adds honey, which deepens the sugar into something slightly richer and more resinous, and a vague white floral accord that mostly serves to keep the gourmand from smelling flat. The dry-down is the best part: vanilla and praline settle into a soft, nutty, powdery cream, and musk stretches it out into something that smells like clean skin and dessert at the same time. If you have ever smelled a milk-based Italian sweet, you will recognise the territory immediately.

This is a feminine, comforting, cold-weather fragrance, though plenty of people wear it year round. It suits casual daily wear, cosy evenings and winter far more than a hot afternoon, where the caramel can become heavy and slightly sickly. Anyone who dislikes sweet fragrances should stay well away, because there is nothing here for them.

Longevity is solid at seven to nine hours with good projection in the first two, then a close, warm bubble. It performs better on fabric than on skin.

Eclaire is one of the clearest clone cases in Lattafa's catalogue: it is very widely recognised as an interpretation of Giardini di Toscana Bianco Latte, and reviewers who own both consistently place them in the same room. The differences are worth knowing. Bianco Latte has a distinct almond-milk creaminess and a smoother, more rounded sugar; Eclaire pushes harder on caramel and comes across as sweeter and slightly more synthetic in the top ten minutes. It is a close relative rather than an identical twin, but at the price gap involved, most buyers will find the compromise easy.

With over 9,000 Fragrantica ratings, Eclaire is one of the most reviewed fragrances Lattafa has ever released, which alone tells you how comprehensively it found its audience.