Thierry Mugler will launch Womanity Eau Pour Elles in May. The new fragrance for women is a flanker to 2010's Womanity, and is said to be a sparkling, fruity and playful version of the original...

Roca Perfums Núvol di Llimona / Lemon Cloud

The opening is truly good enough to eat, and it should be. Núvol di Llimona (or “Lemon Cloud”) was developed by pastry chef Jordi Roca of the renowned Cellar de Can Roca. It's supposed to be a lemon muffin soaked in milk — or "an all-pervading, ethereal cloud of lemon surrounding a sponge cake treated to milk and sweeties", take your pick — and that's just what it is, a sheer lemon sugar fragrance with subtle cake notes, lightly charred, lightly milky, not overly sweet. It's sort of like a foodier version of Fresh Lemon Sugar, and it's highly enjoyable — if I still worked in an office, it's just the sort of thing I'd want to have in my top right desk drawer for a quick dose of comfort and cheer in the late afternoon. Even though I don't work in an office, I'd still like a bottle, and it would be an excellent (if spendy) choice for a very young girl who wanted her own perfume...

Some floral notes have appeared so often and for so long in perfumery that they feel like building blocks of scent: jasmine, rose, orange blossom. Other florals are known for being showcased in a classic fragrance, but have also been featured in many more recent compositions: the association between tuberose and Fracas, followed by any number of later tuberose-inspired creations, is a famous example. And a few flowers are recreated so infrequently that they remain linked with just one scent in our collective perfume memory. You can guess where I'm going with this: yes, bluebell.

Penhaligon's Bluebell has been the best-known bluebell fragrance since its launch in 1978, as well as a longtime best-seller for this British perfume house. Developed by perfumer Michael Pickthall, and described as "the pure and unadulterated distillation of the scent of bluebell woods," Bluebell includes notes of citrus, hyacinth, lily of the valley, cyclamen, jasmine, rose, galbanum, clove, and cinnamon. It has reportedly been worn by women as varied as Princess Diana, Margaret Thatcher, and Kate Moss.

Bluebell opens with spiky green notes of galbanum; its initial phase is almost androgynous, but it becomes more traditionally feminine as it develops...

Archives 69 takes its name from the address of the Etat Libre d'Orange flagship boutique, located at 69 Rue des Archives in Paris. Since this is Etat Libre d'Orange, you may be guessing that the name has a double meaning, a specifically sexual one, and you are correct; an entry on the Etat Libre d'Orange blog, complete with alternate label art for Archives 69, makes that point clear. Its text explains, "This is a perfume designed to free the senses, to open the heart to all the possibilities. It is an invitation to pleasure, an ode to seduction. It comes without restrictions, rules or regulations. It is yours to do with as you wish. This is the scent of sensual liberation."

The composition of Archives 69, developed by perfumer Christine Nagel, includes notes of tangerine, pink berries CO2, pepper leaf, orchid & prune JE, incense, camphor, benzoin, patchouli, and musk. Its concept was partially inspired by the short story "Drencula" by French writer Boris Vian, a tale of a young man's encounter with a hermaphroditic vampire, from Vian's collection Écrits Pornographiques. Archives 69 was given the tagline "The Illusion of Sex" in preview materials, and its press release (subtitled "The End of Innocence") includes a lengthy meditation on a nameless female character who embodies many dualities: the sacred and the profane, heaven and hell, pleasure and pain, etc. So, how do this theme and this prose translate into scent?

Archives 69 does pair some opposing notes...

Jo Malone will launch Wild Bluebell in September. The new fragrance for women reportedly "heralds a radical change of direction for the brand" under new creative director James Gager...

I've always had a weakness for Lolita Lempicka. I wore the original Lolita Lempicka fragrance, now known as Lolita Lempicka Le Premier Parfum, during a particularly optimistic period of my life (when I moved to a different city, started a new job, and met the man who is now my husband), so it will always hold happy memories for me. I purchased L de Lolita Lempicka "unsniffed," just because I loved the bottle design, and I've enjoyed some of the flankers for both fragrances.

Si Lolita, the latest launch from Lolita Lempicka, continues the brand's tradition of sweetly feminine scents in whimsical packaging. Its composition, developed by perfumers Christine Nagel and Benoist Lapouza, includes pink peppercorns, bergamot, mandarin orange, wallflower, sweet pea, heliotrope, elemi gum, patchouli, tonka bean, and amber. Its bottle resembles a gilt-edged four-leaf clover, accented with a floral-and-polka-dot "scarf" and a lettered "Si Lolita" medallion. The Si Lolita television commercial features a dewy young model posing in a fancifully trimmed studio-apartment overlooking the rooftops of Paris, and some promotional watercolors by Michel Charrier (the bottle's designer) are also ethereally bohemian.

The fragrance itself is classified as a spicy floral...

Most mornings, rooting through my perfume cabinet, I push past the iridescent pink-washed, pyramidal bottle of Mauboussin Eau de Parfum with its wobbly bottom. Mauboussin is a big perfume. Like a hot fudge sundae, the first few bites — or minutes of wear, in this case — are delicious, but before long you might end up holding your stomach and sliding the rest into the garbage. Mauboussin can be almost too much of a good thing.

But this week an unusual cold snap settled in, and I wanted a big, oriental perfume, something that would go well with a broad-shouldered,1940s mouton coat. Mauboussin was just the ticket. Maybe I've developed a stronger appetite for sweets, but until spring arrives, the bottle will stay toward the front of my perfume cabinet.

Christine Nagel developed Mauboussin, the Parisian jeweler's first perfume, in 2000...

The brand ethos over at Jo Malone strikes me as decidedly mainstream and (very) British; they've made a virtue out of simplicity by emphasizing the layering — or fragrance combining, as they prefer to phrase it — possibilities of their relatively linear, usually clean and often sheer scents. Here and there, they've ventured out into the exotic (did anyone try the Cologne Intense collection? I've seen nary a word), but with the new unisex Tea collection, they're back on familiar ground both for them (what could be more British and straightforward than tea?) and for us (tea fragrances not being exactly thin on the ground).

Assam & Grapefruit is my early favorite of the five. I say early because it's the only one I've put on skin more than once, but short of a miracle, nothing is going to topple it from the top of the heap; Sweet Milk would make an agreeable layering agent if you didn't already have something like Demeter Condensed Milk, but the other three (Fresh Mint Leaf, Sweet Lemon, Earl Grey & Cucumber) failed to move me...

Next up from French niche line Etat Libre d'Orange: Archives 69, named for the brand's street address in Paris. The tag line: The Illusion of Sex...

Jo Malone will launch Sakura Cherry Blossom, a new limited edition fragrance for women, in March. Sakura Cherry Blossom was developed by perfumer Christine Nagel...