Balenciaga Florabotanica

Balenciaga Florabotanica - £40 for 30ml, £53 for 50ml, £75 for 100ml.

My dressing table is always full of a variety of fragrances, all which of course I like, but never one that I love. I'm picky when it comes to perfumes, I dislike the sting-your-nostrils overly floral scents, the young, sickly sweet scents, or the ones that smell of pure chemicals with not much else. So I'm tough to please. That however, was until I was flicking through Elle magazine a few months ago and spotted the Florabotanica advertisement. I was instantly put off by Kristen Stewart's ever-miserable face and awkwardness (I can't tell you how much that woman annoys me) and was about to carry on flicking when I caught a whiff of the perfume sample on the page. A spritz on my wrist in Selfridges a few days later confirmed it, it was love.

"Flowers can be cruel, carnivorous or venomous, contain poisons.

What would a perfume that contained the charm and mystery of flowers be like?

This is the story we wanted to tell with Florabotanica." - Nicolas Ghesquiere, Florabotanica designer.

Balenciaga Florabotanica is worlds away from the normal flower-infused perfume; Think floral with a kick. The scent is composed of accords such as mint, carnation, hybrid rose, caladium leaves, amber and vetiver. The packaging is a show stopper alone, steering away from your typical 'pretty' bottle, definitely worthy of pride of place on your dresser. The outer packaging is also beautiful, the floral pattern derived from Balenciaga's SS'08 and FW'11 collections.

Florabotanica is unlike anything I've smelt before, it's one of those fragrances where you pick up different notes each time it's worn. It's not a subtle scent, while wearing it I'm usually greeted with a 'Ooooh...you smell nice!' instead of the usual hello, but I'm not complaining! Upon application it has a very fresh, crisp fragrance, which softens down in to a more warm, musky scent. Definitely one to take me through spring, this will be my go-to fragrance for months to come.

Have you tried Balenciaga Florabotanica? What is your go-to perfume?