Femina Alberta Ferretti 1993

The fruits clearly play the leading role in this fragrance. Fruity perfumes in the mainstream sector, women's department, have mostly been sugar bombs since the 90s. But Alberta Ferretti's "Femina" does not belong to this floral-fruity-sweet legion. The fruits - the mix of bitter orange and mandarin is easily identifiable - do not come across as sugary or artificially sweetened here. They contain, in a sense, only the fruit's own natural sweetness. And this is additionally kept in check by a small aquatic kick (which is so subtle that even I, as someone who hates aquatic scents, can tolerate it).

Overall, "Femina" is a very mature version of a fruit scent: clearly a fruit fragrance, but not a sticky-sweet girly scent, rather one that is expressively fruity with restrained sweetness, and can also be worn well by established women - provided they can handle the high fruit content. The floral notes here only serve as a backdrop for the predominant fruit notes, and the base remains very discreetly in the background for a long time: musk, wood, and vetiver are hardly perceptible to me in the heart note; they also appear only subtly in the base.

In my opinion, "Femina" is not a groundbreaking achievement of perfumery, but a well-crafted fragrance with a balanced progression (the somewhat lackluster base fits perfectly with the fruit-forward top and heart notes).

It is stated above that Femina is still in production. I can remember that it was easily available until about the mid/late 90s; however, I haven't seen it anywhere for years now.