Usually at Xmas I request a bottle of perfume from my partner as I tend to run out every 6 months, once on my birthday in June and again in December. For years now I've worn Hugo Boss Femme and for some reason this year my partner managed to pick up the wrong bottle. Note to perfume companies, if it looks very similar and the name is very similar men will not check! Anyway, so on Xmas day I opened what I expected to be Hugo Boss Femme and found instead Hugo Boss Femme L'eau Fraiche. I'd never heard of this one before and apparently it's a new one in the Hugo Boss range. I guessed from the name it was supposed to be a lighter, fresher scent than the original Femme and hoped I'd like it.

The bottle is identical to Femme with a round glass spray bottle and a chunky glass lid. The colour of the box is a light pink but otherwise it looks exactly the same as Femme which is clearly how my partner picked up the wrong one by mistake. The writing on the box has Femme in large letters and L'eau Fraiche in small letters so again pretty confusing for someone who isn't going to spend time reading the box. Price wise this costs anywhere from £27 for 75ml up to £40. I had to check that as it was a gift. It's also available in 50ml and 30ml sizes.

The top notes to Femme L'eau Fraiche are mandarin orange and fruity which had me worried as I don't like fruity smells. To be honest though it doesn't smell very fruity when first sprayed and I can only just detect the faint scent of oranges. The middle notes or heart notes are something called Stephanotis. I'd never heard of this before and had to look it up and found it's a flowering plant. What it smells like I couldn't tell you but the perfume smells slightly floral after an hour or so but not as floral as the original Femme. The base notes are just amber and this is the fragrance we're left with once it has completely settled down and reacted with our skin. I find this smells very similar to the original Femme and it also reminds me alot of Ralph Lauren's Romance but it's a bit more feminine than Romance. While it lacks the very floral scent of original Femme it has a crisper fragrance to it and isn't so musky after it's been on my skin for a while.

I've been wearing Femme L'eau Fraiche since I got it and I actually rather like it. I still prefer the original Femme by Hugo Boss but this one is lighter and fresher and not as floral so people who don't like floral scents would like this one. It manages to just avoid smelling unisex with the slightly musky scent of the base notes but when first sprayed does have a masculine smell to it. As for lasting power, it doesn't last anywhere near as well as Femme which I can still smell on my wrists the following day as long as I haven't made a point of scrubbing them with soap and water. Femme L'eau Fraiche lasts a few hours but as it's lighter it needs reapplying at least once during the day if you want to continue to smell of it.

I actually think it is also a fragrance that suits all ages, a woman in her twenties could easily wear this just as a woman in her fifties could carry it off too. It's very versatile and light and probably better suited to daytime wear rather than evening wear but it's not so light and subtle that you couldn't wear this for a night out and get way with it as long as you took a small bottle with you to top up the scent.

Overall it's light and fresh and only slightly floral but with a pleasant musky scent that lingers on the skin. It doesn't have fantastic staying power but a few hours for a light fragrance doesn't seem unusual to me. I do like it but I prefer the original Femme. I would recommend Femme L'eau Fraiche to women who don't like heavy fragrances or floral fragrances and the only downside for me is having to reapply during the day.

4 stars for this new fragrance in the Hugo Boss range, one is lost for the level of staying power but I still like this fragrance and recommend you have a sniff of a tester if you get a chance.