I love the smell of perfume in the morning!

OH, I LOVE perfume, eau de cologne, whatever you want to call it.

I love things that make me smell nice. I've been trying the perfumes in this category for several weeks now, and I must say, even if I haven't been totally in love with the scent, there is something about all of them that appeals and sets them apart from many of the fragrances I have tried in the past few years. These are all light and summery, but they will also ease you through the autumn.

LANCOME O De L'Orangerie, €35 HHHHI Well, the name gives it away: this is a citrus-y happening, and evokes the lightness and sunniness of summertime ... Wherever one finds a sunny summer these days. You'll be tempted to spray this all over yourself, much less your pulse points, and you can get away with it, as it is so airy and flowery. This translates somewhat to its staying power, however, and it won't get you through a long summer's day, although it will waft you through a pleasant evening.

AVON Outspoken Intense by Fergie, €19.50 HHHII The bottle is adorable and looks like it should be gracing an old-fashioned vanity table. The scent itself made me feel nostalgic -- it smells like something I may have spritzed myself with liberally when I was younger. Much younger. Like, teenage young. Which is grand, for a hit of sentiment, but I didn't feel it suited me at this age. Too bad, as it has excellent staying power. If you've got daughters or nieces of a certain (young) age, this will make a lovely pressie.

SWAROVSKI Aura Eau de Parfum, €52 HHHHI There's a whole world of vocabulary that you enter into when dealing with fragrance, such as 'top note' and 'base note' and it feels a bit like wine-tasting, which I am not good at (wine drinking, of course, is not a problem).

Anyway, this smells like all kinds of good things, some that I felt like I knew what they were, and when I looked them up was like, uh, no. I got the rose undertones and there are other elements, such as musk and amber.

Whatever: this just smells pretty, as pretty as the bottle, which has a Swarovski crystal on the top. However, it wasn't much in the longevity stakes, which is too bad.

LUSH Dirty, €11 HHHHH Okay, the dispenser of Dirty was considerably smaller than the others that I tried, but imagine my dismay when I realised that I had used it up entirely! I so rarely do that with scent, as I am generally something of a perfume-magpie.

This offering is unisex and whilst I usually approach such claims with caution, I would totally be into a dude smelling like this. It's got a minty overtone that comes across more 'refreshing and clean' than 'chewing gum', and it lasts and lasts and lasts. I'm so enamoured of this that I even used the body spray (€15.75), which under any other circumstances, I would have considered naff. I just love this fragrance.