Scents and Sensibility

Fans of Peattie and Taylor's 'Alex' comic strip will recall Vince the wide-boy city trader Christmas shopping in the perfume department- "a bottle of 'Brut' for Dad, some 'Tramp' for my sister and I'm looking for some 'Silly Old Bat' for my gran".

The perfume counter this season may not have exactly that, but it offers some pretty bizarre alternatives; from the insufferably twee ('Be delicious') to the downright peculiar ('RWD PLAY FFWD'), there has never been such choice of over-packaged celebrity-endorsed pongs with peculiar, not to say off-putting titles.

While honourable mention goes to 'Notorious' and 'Unforgivable' (which conjures up the spectacle of a furtive-looking pet and a suspicious dark patch on the carpet) the prize for all-out weirdness this year goes to Thierry Mugler for 'Alien' - I've seen the movie and I really don't want to smell like that!

Still, full marks to Mugler for pioneering the refillable bottle - you may smell like something slimy from the outer galaxy, but at least it'll be green.