Back to Paradise
Boadicea the Victorious (2015)

Blurb: “A scent of sweet delight, Back to Paradise transports you to dreamy far off lands with white sandy shores that brim with romance and beauty. A scent of temptation and passion, a feeling of the intimate worn close to the skin to be enjoyed in rapture. Whatever your vision of paradise, you can be sure it will be reflected in this enrapturing perfume, soft as a warm breeze blowing over powder white tropical sands. Top notes of pineapple, bergamot violet and ylang lap gently against more elusive hints of sambac jasmine, magnolia, sandalwood, vanilla, musk and amber crystals. The romance is instant, the effect enduring. Slip away to an intimate world of your own, a world suffused with passion and ardour where rubies flash as exotic dancers twirl and the cares of a frenetic world seem a million miles away.”

Honestly, does that tell you anything about what this smells like?

The note pyramid ought to tell you more. And yet, it doesn't quite, and I'm not sure I can, either. I had low hopes for this set of notes, expecting some sugary fruity-floral mess atop sandalwood-print melamine veneer. But it's not. Neither is it a hackneyed Polynesian pastiche, as one might suppose. I can pick out some of the notes with enough effort, but that's immaterial, because this blend does what blends ought to do: it creates a whole that transcends the sum of its parts.

Is it amazing? Well, no. But it's nice, and my wife likes it, and that'll do just fine.