Verbena Summer Secret 2010

Like Green Tea and Cool Water Fizz, this perfume is one of my staples on long, hot summer days (and boy, do we have a lot of them!). It is so fresh that the head note is nearly harsh and makes your taste buds curl like licking lemon juice - you think: it can't be true, I can't wear it, that's too much, there is no sugar in it! But after a while, the fragrance develops into a lovely cool veil that makes me feel fresh and clean. It doesn't linger as long as Green Tea, and I have to refresh it after a while, but this is the case with most fresh scents. I love the bottle, btw. It is gorgeous and has haptic appeal. This fragrance has more presence than most fresh scents, but it fades away faster.

Beautiful and unusual, I cannot help but smile when wearing this fragrance and am disappointed it didn't become part of the core range. I struggle to categorise the fragrances I like and tend to either like or dislike something on first sniff though I can be converted. It is the freshness that draws me to it without having the watery tropical notes. I think it is the mint added that makes it unique for me. I have recently stocked up from QVC UK which is the only place I could find it but when checking today it appears to be no longer available. I loved the shower jelly too and the gel/lotion is the perfect remedy to moisturising when holidaying in a hot climate

I prefer this over the regular Verbena EDT. By adding mint and basil and removing the geranium, this becomes an extremely smooth, refreshing, gourmand scent. I work for L'Occitane and when we were running the Summer Secret campaign I would choose to spray it outside of the store. Every day without fail, at least one person would be drawn in by how "tasty" it smelled. Flavor and Fragrance!

Wow, what a lovely fragrance! Barely citrusy, what I get the most is rose in the middle stage. I know rose is not in the official pyramid, but on my skin this perfume gets very "rosy", sweet and floral. I'd say it even has some vanilla in the drydown. It doesn't burns my skin nor itches, like the original Verveine. And it lasts more than four hours on my skin.

I have half of the bottle left and I hope they still produce it, I have to check. I am a big fan of verbena, so I am biased. Basil and mint compliment it so nicely - it's like a glass of a natural hand-made sugar-free lemonade with a slice of an apple instead of sugar. Love it, 10 out of 10, even though it's a relatively simple scent.