Dolce & Gabbana The One Review

Dolce and Gabbana The One is like Monet's Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond. All the notes and colors seem to blend together effortlessly in order to douse your senses in softness and comfort. There's light paired with depth in a way that makes the final product glow.

Dolce and Gabbana's The One for women is considered a floral-oriental, but it seems like it's trying to be everything at once--warm and inviting, light and inspiring, fruity, floral, sweet, woody...How can something so complex seem so effortless and elegant? And how can it have such an effect on my husband? His reaction is what led me to purchase it. I was trying to talk myself out of buying yet another bottle of perfume.

The Dolce & Gabbana fragrance, The One, includes notes of mandarin, bergamot, vanilla, amber, vetiver, lychee, peach, madonna lily, plum, jasmine, musk, and muguet, and though it sounds like a mishmash that could result in a complete wreck of a scent (at least it does to me), no one note stands out; there's a fluidity to it, and all the notes flow together seamlessly from the first spray to the dry down.

Right after you spray it, it smells sweet but with a slightly tart, almost peppery scent (but not quite!), probably a result of the peach and mandarin mingling with the vanilla and amber. Normally, peach turns me off (okay, it usually punches me in the face), but this is not a pronounced fruity scent. Again, everything melds together so well, you can't tell if it's fruity, spicy, sweet, or floral. Not long after that first spritz, there's a lingering spiced caramel scent that's at once comforting and invigorating. It's sweet, but not candy-sweet like Aquolina's Pink Sugar. This is a scent that can make you feel grounded and cozy, yet optimistic and confident.

I feel glamorous when I wear this, but not like a diva. I feel like a woman who's on the brink of something great, with the optimism of a girl but the wisdom of an adult. It's not the typical fruity-floral that's so popular, but it's not a smack-you-in-the-face-from-10-feet-away spicy oriental, either. It's somewhere in between, with a flirtatious warmth and charm. It stays close to the skin and unfortunately doesn't last as long as those heavier oriental scents. That's my one problem with Dolce & Gabbana The One: I want my perfume to stay on until I shower it off. I want my perfume to linger on my clothes until I wash them. This does neither.

Armani Code is a similar scent, but heavier, a little more mysterious, and with stronger sillage and staying power. Though it smells just as warm, luxurious, and feminine, it's best suited to cooler months (in my experience) and doesn't have the same underlying brightness that The One has. I think The One will be light enough to trail into the spring and summer months.

Though women of all ages and personalities will probably enjoy the Dolce & Gabbana fragrance The One, I feel that it's best suited to women in their late 20's and 30's who are more than willing to leave the one-dimensional fruity-florals behind in favor of a more complex scent. Fruity-florals are great, don't get me wrong, but I always feel like an impostor when I'm wearing one, like I'm trying to pass for someone younger than I am. Those scents feel incomplete on me and I have to fight the urge to layer different ones. I think The One is for the woman who is still young at heart but sometimes feels kind of frazzled trying to balance family, career, hobbies, romance, etc.