Velvet Tuberose by Bath and Body Works, 2007

This is the scent that pushed me into perfume-chasing, so I have to give it a thumbs up. After decades of drugstore fragrances (I've never even smelled Amarige!), I popped into BBW during a sale to stock up on my favorite mood-booster, the Aromatherapy Orange-Ginger, and buy my sister's fave Aromatherapy Lavender & Vanilla for her birthday. Out of curiosity, I picked up every new fragrance to sniff. The Velvet Tuberose grabbed me by the front of my blouse and propelled me to the counter. (I had to circle back to get the Aromatherapy stuff.)

I get plenty of tuberose -- albeit a very well-behaved one, no Fracas here ** -- and orchid, with a deep underpinning of amber and cashmeran "wood" tones. On me it seems somewhat linear, in that I get tuberose-and-orchid-and-amber-and-wood all at once, with no discernible phases. I love this. It's a comfort scent for me, in cold weather, and I enjoy the way it lasts on me. Friends who hug me comment that I smell nice, and my daughter, who despises the way it smells in the bottle, says that it's far nicer on my skin.

** I LIKE Fracas. It's a classic, and I'm not putting this on the same level -- but I didn't know about Fracas last fall when I bought my 50 ml bottle of VT for about $19.