DKNY Red Delicious & Nina Ricci Nina

The best thing about DKNY Red Delicious is the bottle: sleek, modern, you could almost mistake it for an upmarket room deodorizer (or Myla sex toy). The worst thing about DKNY Red Delicious is the fragrance itself, which isn't good news when you're spending a pile of cash on a perfume - no matter how big that pile is. (In this case, it's not a small one.) No scent that costs this much should smell so cheap. Kathleen Baird-Murray is being charitable to give it three stars and describe it as "disappointingly a bit teenage".

I much prefer Nina Ricci Nina, which comes in a prettier bottle and smells like a dream. (I've had a thing for Nina Ricci bottles since the TV commercials for L'Air du Temps captured my imagination as a fifth grader, though.) The top notes are quite citrus, with red toffee apple and vanilla infusion in the middle, but the base notes of apple tree wood, white cedar, and cotton musk stop it from getting anywhere near cloying.