Part of the Ted Baker gift set I received for Christmas was this body spray which, like all the products in the set, is in the "Heavenly" range.

Having tried the bath salts, body wash and scrub, I knew that the fragrance wasn't my favourite, but livable for washing purposes. But as a fragrance? Eh, not so much. Still, in the name of reviewing I thought since I had already washed in the same scent I may as well spray some onto myself.

The scent is a lot stronger and muskier than I would like, yet somehow at the same time sickly and floral. Apparently it is "jasmine, rose, pear and apple with a wood and amber base". I think the reason it doesn't work out so well is that while perfumes often mix completely different things in the top and base notes, they are designed in that way so different scents are released at different times to compliment each other. With a body spray, everything is pretty much thrown in together with the same scent-life, so it smells like the mish-mash that it is. I hate to say it but the phrase "tart's handbag" does spring to mind!

The spray comes in either a 50ml or 150ml bottle, which is made of pink plastic with rather tacky designs printed onto the label. I realise that this is a body spray, not a perfume, and as such there will not be as much care and time taken over designing the bottle, but I think we could all live without the pictures of toe separators and shopping bags. Yes Ted Baker, we know this spray is for women, the pink bottle helped us distinguish that, you don't need to imply that all we know how to do is get dolled up and spend money. (And apparently smell bad too).

In use, the spray is quite forceful even in the mini version I have. It feels like water on the skin and dries quickly. However, I find it difficult to use because it doesn't "spray" as such. The pump is so strong that it squirts one circle onto your skin, and you either have to rub that around before it dries or spray elsewhere, which can lead to a pretty potent scent if you are spraying numerous times. An aerosol would be far more effective at regulating the spray. As an aside, don't plan on wearing any type of perfume with this as you won't be able to smell it!

As for scent-life, I noticed it lasted fairly well, although due to the problems regulating spray I tend to only smell it on certain patches of my skin. I'm afraid I will only use this if I have bathed with the matching products and am not going out anywhere wearing perfume. In fact, I will admit that I resorted to using it as a room spray to get rid of cooking smells the other day. As it's so potent, it did a good job!

The miniature version of this product is £2.25 for a 50ml bottle which should last a fair amount of time. The full-sized 150ml is £4.95. Both pretty reasonably priced, but only if you like the smell. Scents are very personal, and personally I would not choose this had I not been given it as a gift! However, Ted Baker products are often on special offer at Boots, particularly minis, so it's a handy size (and has a cap over the spray nozzle) for a gym bag if you want to try out a new scent.