Olympéa Eau de Parfum

Salted vanilla was an unusual idea when Rabanne Olympéa Eau de Parfum arrived in 2015, and it has been copied so widely since that it is easy to forget where it started.

That material is the whole heart of the scent, and it is a single stroke: vanilla, sweet and smooth, with a saline edge running through it that makes the sweetness taste of skin rather than of pudding. It is the reason the fragrance reads as sensual instead of childish, and it is why so many people who dislike sweet perfume make an exception for this one.

The opening is cooler than what follows. Green mandarin is bright and a little bitter, ginger flower brings a crisp spiced quality, and jasmine adds a white floral warmth that smooths the join into the middle. Underneath, cashmeran lends a dry, warm, slightly musky weight and ambergris gives the base its mineral saltiness, so that saline quality runs from top to bottom rather than appearing once and vanishing.

It performs well. Strong in the first hour, close and warm for hours after, and still legible on a jumper the next day. Two sprays on the neck is the whole dose, and a third does nothing except shorten the bottle. It suits evenings and cool weather, works in warm weather better than most sweet scents, and is aimed at women. Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion and Loc Dong composed it.

The designer showed his first collection in Paris in 1966. Perfume arrived in 1968 through Puig, whose first release under the name was Calandre the following year, and the Spanish group has owned the whole business since 1987. Olympéa and Lady Million are the two women's names it is known by.