Light Blue

On paper, Light Blue is one of the last fragrances I would expect to like.  With a taste for dark, spicy orientals and an affinity for niche brands, a bright, sunny citrusy blockbuster from Dolce and Gabbana is something I would typically brush off as ‘not my thing’.

Consequently, I am shocked and delighted to admit that I absolutely love this fragrance.  Nothing pleases me more than being surprised by my own taste, and expanding my palate to this new dimension feels like an exotic vacation from all of the ambers, spices, resins and rich woods to which I am magnetically attracted.

Light Blue sparkles, or better yet, glistens with the effervescent edge of Sicilian lemon and green apple notes.  The brilliance of the fragrance though, and what captures my attention, is the perfect balance of the wetness of these notes with the drying facet of amber and musk.  The scent glides seamlessly, fearlessly, across this tightrope – the horizon where the sun hits the water.  Warm, dry, and encompassing, yet dewy, splashy, and vibrant.  And just as the sun collides with the water’s surface refracting light in infinite pixels, the molecules in Light Blue’s formula – in some beautiful, magical chemical harmony – do just the same thing: produce light, create energy.

There is something super nostalgic about the sweet and tart green apple notes here.  Growing up in the 90s, this was an extremely popular smell for young girls, present in lip glosses, shower gels, body splashes and sparkly lotions from the likes of The Limited Too, Bath and Body Works, Bonne Belle and Delia*s.  I even had a green apple scented nail polish – which at the time was an olfactory revelation – imagine: scented nail polish!  So, at least to me, the smell of green apple instantly springs me back to those summers when I was 11 or 12.  It’s an impossibly young, joyful, carefree scent association – one that Light Blue carries gracefully into a sophisticated young adulthood with the sexy, but still naive bouquet of white rose, jasmine, cedar and bamboo.

Light Blue was created by perfumer Olivier Cresp in 2001.  Mario Testino shot the ad campaign, resulting in one of those rare occasions where the olfactory impression of the fragrance is transposed with a precision that is nearly synaesthetic.  In wearing it, I am transported – almost wistfully – to years ago in Capri… salt water drying on my skin, soaking in all the charm and spirit of an Italian summer.