Dolce & Gabbana L’eau The One

L’eau The One and The One is a very good example of why you shouldn’t put so much weight into the popular notion that Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette smells the same, with EDP lasting longer and smelling stronger. True, that may sometimes be the case but as we’re going to see where with The One and its lighter friend, L’eau The One, that is not always true.

L'eau The One

In Bottle: Fruitier than The One to me, but the mandrin is still there. Despite this being fruitier, it is less sweet than the original making this a much nicer opening ride.

Applied: Fruity opening with a more present note of mandarin but a stronger presence of lychee. The peach is less noticeable and falls off rather quickly. There is less cloying sweetness overall. The fragrance is still very feminine and very sweet but the sweetness has been toned down and the fragrance is doing better for it. The mid-stage is largely the same with less sweetness added in and a warm amber that’s more evident earlier on in the fragrance. The florals are still sweet but there’s a more tolerable cleanness to the scent now that helps L’eau The One be even more wearable than The One. The plum is a bit more tame in this fragrance, giving the fragrance a nice dry floral and fruity smell and without the heavy sweetness. The dry down sees a less prominent vanilla note while giving a green vetiver and woody note in the dry down some more showtime. The result is a woodsy green dry down after a semi-sweet creamy, fruity floral show.

Extra: L’eau The One doesn’t seem to have an official set of notes so it shares the notes list for The One. Some people have noted the presence of an oak moss-like note in the dry down. To me, the dry down smells more like a mixture of vetiver and woods.

Design: L’eau The One is designed in a very similar way to The One. The only discernible differences are the colors and the name of the fragrance. Where The One had a gold cap, L’eau rocks a silver cap. Where The One had black lettering, L’eau uses white. And where The One had a golden-yellow liquid, L’eau is more clear.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Mandarin, bergamot, lychee, peach, jasmine, lily of the valley, white lily, plum, vetiver root, amber, musk, vanilla.

L’eau The One was supposed to be a lighter, fruitier interpretation to The One. But tweak a few notes, dial down a couple, dial up a couple and you get something that smells decently different from the original. There is still enough in this fragrance to connect it to The One, but it is definitely a lighter, less sweet version. To me, the toned down sweetness makes this more wearable and I would pick L’eau over The One if I had a choice between the two.

On an unrelated note, last year on this day in 2010, That Smell saw its first post. Hooray, we’re one year old!

Reviewed in This Post: L’eau The One, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Dolce & Gabbana The One

Dolce & Gabbana The One is one of those familiar fruity floral fragrances that tends to be smelled everywhere. It doesn’t help that it’s rather popular, relatively affordable, and is highly benign either. In fact, it’s so benign that I would really rather people wore this than Light Blue.

The One

In Bottle: Lychee and peach are the first things I smell along with a bit of mandarin in the top. It’s a classic feminine fruity floral that’s marked right away by that lychee note that seems rather popular in these sorts of formulations.

Applied: The One gets its genre very right from the get go. After the initial sweet mandarin, you’re treated to a fairly standard mix of lychee that tells you right away you’re in fruity floral territory. But The One takes that message one step closer by introducing another favorite of the fruity floral genre; peach. This is a lovely, sweet, lychee and peach opener. It’s not interesting or unique but it’s not trying to lie to you about what it is either. The top notes are a nice introduction to the mid-stage where jasmine and lily head up to the forefront dragging a pleasant sweet plummy scent with them. The mid-stage is one of those sweet floral type deals that remind me of shampoo. As the end stage approaches, I get a slight warming of the fragrance followed by a creamy vanilla note. You’ll note one major predominant theme with this fragrance is its sweetness. There’s a lot of sugar present here but it’s not as oppressive as other sugar-based scents like Miss Dior Cherie or DKNY Delicious Night. This stuff is sweet for sure, but it doesn’t reach critical levels of sweetness.

Extra: Say what you will about Dolce & Gabbana’s fashion, but they do know how to do wearable, easy fragrances. Light Blue for women is one of their most popular offerings and a fragrance I tend to smell almost everywhere and on everyone. Which may have contributed to my desire to smell something else instead.

Design: Very nice bottle. Familiar with many classic fragrance bottles. Most immediate estimate would be Chanel No.5, but The One pulls off its look rather well too. it’s a squat rectangular thing, with an inner vessel that isn’t as well sculpted as a Chanel No.5 bottle, still, the shape is pleasing, the weight is fairly decent, and the hold and feel is comfortable.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Mandarin, bergamot, lychee, peach, jasmine, lily of the valley, white lily, plum, vetiver root, amber, musk, vanilla.

Not my favorite thing in the world, and certainly not the most interesting thing in the world. The closest fragrance I can think of at the moment as an alternative to this one is Gucci’s Flora. A similarly sweet floral. Though I do prefer Flora over this simply because Flora prefers to lean more on a clean concept than a fruity one. Still, The One is an excellent, non-offensive, easy to wear fragrance. You won’t be disappointed if you need something good and easy to wear with this one.

Reviewed in This Post: The One, 2009, Eau de Parfum.