Remember those fruit-scented body sprays people were crazy for in fifth grade? Well, I got my paws on Katy Perry's new scent, Purr ($45), and it smells like a fancier, less chemical-laden version of those. It's an "upside-down" fragrance in the sense that most perfumes open with their prettiest notes and then end with a relatively generic bottom accord, usually some variation on musk or Read more

How do you feel about violets? If you love them, let me introduce you to Lush's new perfume, Tuca Tuca ($30), available in in spray or solid form. The scent is very much a sweet green floral, made with violet leaf absolute and vanilla, making it reminiscent of old-fashioned violet pastilles. Both the spray and the solid have a nice, soft drydown, but the spray is a lighter, more powdery Read more

When I try perfume, I'm not usually reminded of Stride gum. But in the case of Fergie's new scent, Outspoken ($28), it's a pretty apropos comparison. No, the fragrance doesn't smell like gum, but it does hold on the same way Stride does, solidly smelling the same all day — and it has a similarly pleasant but artificial note profile. It opens smelling like grape popsicles and then quickly dries Read more

If you're a fan of Benefit's original three Crescent Row Eau de Toilettes ($36 each), you'll probably be excited to hear that the brand has released a trio of new scents to round out the line. While the originals are a bit more traditionally distributed — one's a woody fragrance, one's a floral, and one is an oriental — all three of the latest scents are more experimental florals. The Garden Read more

If, like me, you love the idea of tropical scents but find that many of them smell a little cheap, then there's a nice new fragrance out that's definitely worth a sniff: Christian Dior Escale Aux Marquises ($66). It's a soft, gingery citrus floral that's pretty without being sweet like most tropicals. It opens smelling like ginger and lime, and then a real jasmine essential note comes in to Read more

If you're a musk fan, there are a couple of new scents out right now that are sure to strike your fancy. The first, Bulgari Jasmin Noir ($75), has a deceptively floral name, but 80 percent of the fragrance is a slow-developing musk that gets sweeter and lighter as it ages. It's interesting in that, for me at least, it aged backwards, opening with strong musk and moving on to a lighter, more Read more

Yesterday, Gap launched its latest scent, Stay ($35), and yesterday, I pedaled my way to the nearest store to sample it. As temperatures hovered around the mid-70s with clear blue skies above, I really couldn't have picked a better time to try out this light, refreshing, Summer-inspired fragrance, which, I might add, almost has a laundry detergent essence about it. See what else I thought of Stay Read more

If you're the sort of oenophile who doesn't mind dropping $300 for a bottle of good wine, then Strange Invisible Perfumes' latest scent endeavor is going to make you very happy. The fragrance, which was created in collaboration with California's Colgin Cellars winery, is called Essence of IX ($320), after the vineyard's famed ninth estate. Given its price, it's good that the partnership produced Read more

The other day, I received a mysterious package in the mail. When I opened it, there was a box marked "Aromachology" inside, and a funny, clever note that totally surprised me. It seems that Aromachology is a perfume line, and they decided to blend up a fragrance to "embody the BellaSugar reader" and then send it on over to us for review. Intriguing, no? I didn't want to miss the opportunity to Read more