For Christmas last year, I was delighted to receive a couple of boxes of miniature perfumes, one of which was Anais Anais. I'd seen plenty of advertising for this scent over the years, so it was one of the few bottles that looked familiar, and I was eager to try it out.

The mini bottle I have is simply a scaled down version of the standard bottle. Unlike most perfume bottles, it's made from opaque white glass- it actually looks more like a little bottle of body lotion than a perfume. While it's not the kind of bottle I'd choose my perfume to come in, it's certainly distinctive and instantly recognisable, and in some ways looks more accessible than the fancy glass bottles you usually get. The lily design on the front does look dated and a bit mumsy, but it certainly couldn't be accused of being pretentious, and at least it makes it clear that this product is going to be unashamedly floral.

The silver cap on my miniature bottle acts as a stopper, and can be pulled off to get to the perfume inside. When I opened this perfume set on Christmas day, the first thing I did was to pull off all the lids in turn and get first impressions of the different scents. On sniffing this, I was immediately struck by how different it was to all the other scents, and not really in a good way! I probably should have guessed from the pink lilies on the front of the bottle, but I just wasn't expecting it to be quite so sweetly floral

The notes of this perfume are listed online as follows:

Top Notes: Orange Blossom

Middle Notes : Lily, Hyacinth, Carnation

Base Notes : Sandalwood, Incense

As a perfume novice, these really don't mean a lot to me, and I'd never imagine this combination of notes to add up to the scent of Anais Anais! For me, smelling this really was like burying my face in a huge bunch of lilies, and although I generally like this smell, it just wasn't something that I wanted to smell of myself. The strongly floral scent was far too overtly feminine for my liking- it reminded me of something a very sweet natured, fifty-something housewife in a pink cardigan would wear!

On the plus side, once on, the floral elements of this fragrance lose some of their potency, and the scent becomes a bit more subtle and rounded, with new notes coming through. For me, it's still a scent that would be much more suited to someone in their fifties, which seems strange because it has an undeniable warmth and optimism to it which you'd usually associate with a more youthful scent. Perhaps the sweetness captures an old-fashioned ideal of youth, which is why it makes me think of someone from a different generation.

I'd say that the staying power of the perfume is pretty good, and I can still smell a hint of it on my skin after a good few hours. It's just a shame that I don't like smelling it! This is definitely not a perfume that suits me, although I can see how it could suit other (older) people, and maybe I'll be coming back to it in a few decades' time! But from my perspective now, I can only give it 2 out of 5 stars.

If you do like the sound of Anais Anais, by Cacharel, it's widely available, and at very reasonable prices- around £20 for a 30ml bottle of EDT.