Today, Guerlain launch their new fragrance La Petite Robe Noire into Selfridges. It’s a bit of a departure from the norm for Guerlain, because this is quite a fun and “young” little fragrance, whereas most people associate Guerlain with seriously good, but very grown-up, perfumes.

I don’t know what it is about a perfume that makes me feel that it’s “grown-up” – there must be a certain group of notes that trigger something in my brain, but so far I haven’t been able to identify what they are. Anyway, whatever they are, there’s one of them in La Petite Robe Noire! Not to say that the “grown-up” note is the most dominant – if you were to ask me to sum up this fragrance in one (two) word(s), I’d say Black Cherry. Fruity, shiny, plump-to-bursting black cherry. Very unusual and distinctive and definitely appealing to a younger market. But then there’s this musky, mysterious depth – there’s patchouli in there somewhere, and something a bit spicy – and that “grown-up” note that’s so powerful and intoxicating.

I’m still trying to decide whether this is something I’d wear – it’s so different to anything that I’d usually go for – but I can see it being a very popular fragrance. The styling and marketing is really clever – taking such a luxurious and serious brand as Guerlain and making it just accessible enough, but without compromising its integrity….  Developing a fragrance that’s complex and unusual but still relatively easy to wear… Wise.

Anyway, enough musing from me – has anybody managed to get to a counter and smell it? Please do let me know your thoughts. I’m interested. Do you have the same thing about “grown-up” notes in fragrances? What do you think they could be?

La Petite Robe Noire is £42 from Selfridges.com