Life is sweet

The arrival of spring always brings with it a fresh crop of fragrances. This year, designers have focused on floral and fruity blends that highlight everything, from Turkish rose petals to Italian lemon zest to night-blooming jasmine.

Van Cleef & Arpels' take on the season, Féerie Spring Blossom, features a vivid blend of cherry blossom, pink peppercorn and lychee. Middle and lower notes include wild raspberry for sweetness and tonka bean for softness.

Clinique's limited-edition Happy in Bloom - in new spring-inspired packaging - adds notes of yellow plum and frozen fruit to the original Happy blend of muguet, white freesia and mimosa. The result is a crisp, clean scent with a chilled, watery note.

Another limited-edition release, Jo Malone's Sugar & Spice collection, celebrates iconic British desserts with five new scents: Lemon Tart, Redcurrant & Cream, Elderflower & Gooseberry, Ginger Biscuit and Bitter Orange & Chocolate. The styles range from warm (spicy ginger and tonka bean, cocoa and milky coconut) to sweet (redcurrant and strawberries, gooseberries and lychee), and can be blended with other Jo Malone fragrances to create even more unusual scents.

DKNY headed to Turkey's Isparta Valley for its inspiration, a delicate Damask rose that is still harvested using age-old techniques. More than 2,500 tonnes of petals are handpicked each June in cool, pre-dawn hours to create a pure essential oil, now the core ingredient in pureDKNY's A Drop of Rose.

The iconic flower is also the star of Cartier's new Eau de Cartier Goutte de Rose, a light, feminine scent with a touch of freshly cut rose. The pink-hued bottle is the fourth in the Eau de Cartier range, which also includes the original, concentrate and oud-inspired Essence de Bois.

In creating L'Eau d'Issey Absolue, master perfumer Olivier Cresp turned to night-blooming jasmine for its potency and long-lasting presence. The floral note is blended with lotus flower, freesia, tuberose and vanilla to evoke "flowers, sun and honey".