The cult brand of ballerina shoes the world over is without doubt the French Repetto, they’re prized for being as comfortable as wearing nothing on your feet without sacrificing style.

“My goal was to create a handmade effect and bring together luxurious and authentic bases, such as powdery musky rose, which is the spirit of femininity. The result is a purified formula with essence of rose and vanilla”, elaborates Olivier Polge. The fragrance also includes pear, cherry tree flowers and orange blossom notes, underscored by vanilla and amber woods.

Whereas Michel Almariac chose to instill an inedible element into the scheme of the powdery musky floral in See by Chloe, opting for the bitter sheen of soap, even though the brand could do with sweetness, Polge, armed with his recent experience in La Vie Este Belle, looked into cupcakes. In fact cupcakes are part of the promotion of the fragrance (I kid you not!) In that regard, it sounds like sacrilege but Guerlain presented a better “contemporary taste” perfume with La Petite Robe Noire.

Powdery woody florals are a direction that is ripe for the picking, judging by recent releases such as Love, Chloe, See by Chloe, Esprit d’Oscar, Burberry Body perfume and the like, but in Repetto the direction is tilting the scales into gourmand  fragrance nuances

It opens up with the tart pears and mandarin juice before falling onto a bed of pale pink rose petals and soft suede. There is a candy-like hint of orange blossom, but the main sweetness comes from creamy vanilla and gourmand patchouli lacing the drydown. It has good presence and the sweet finale goes on for hours. The effect is powdery with the characteristic almond “fluffiness” of heliotrope and macaroons (if I were blindfolded and hadn’t received info of the launch I would have pegged it as a Ladurée fragrance more than Repetto), soft, sweet with Frambinone, maybe rather heavy if you’re sensitive to sweet notes; heavy like an overweight ballerina in the unfair, politically incorrect world of classical dance where teachers are routinely drawing their nails along tender backs to make you stand straight. Could the Repetto-scented ballerina personification survive in that environment? Not if she shed her Dawrinian advantage, she would not…  But the crux of the matter is that Repetto isn’t but a ghost of ballet. It is a brand divested of its reality, it’s fantasy.

The bottle itself is rather beautiful a satin ribbon with the repetto charm delicately wraps the bottle like a ballet shoe around the ankle. To me it appears to be a very feminine yet playful scent. The EDT and EDP are pretty much the same just that the EDP uses more expensive ingredients making it stronger scented whereas the EDT is a bit more light.

You find a bottle at Dis-chem and Truworths at the following prices: EDT for R595 (30ml), R795(60ml) and R995(80ml) or the EDP for R695(30ml), R895(50ml) and R1195(80ml)