In Love Again

The choice of tomato as a base note is what separates this from other fruity-florals of its era. Most fragrances in 1998 would have leaned into musks and woods to close out. Ellena chose green, specifically the smell of tomato leaves, that slightly bitter, intensely herbal quality that reads as garden rather than perfume. It's a perfumer's inside joke: the thing that makes a tomato smell like a tomato isn't the fruit, it's the leaves. By grounding the sweetness in green, Ellena gave the fragrance a tension that keeps it interesting on skin. The water lily in the heart reinforces this, it's not a typical rose-water-lily combination, it's a water element, something that breathes rather than softens.

The evolution

The opening hits sharp and cold, the vodka cutting through like a clear spirit on a warm tongue. For the first five minutes, this smells like a cocktail, gin and tonic, not perfume. Then the berries arrive, blackcurrant first, then blueberry, then apple pulling everything toward sweetness without tipping into candy. The cassia adds a slight cinnamon warmth, a flicker of spice beneath the fruit. By minute fifteen, the heart takes over: water lily opens, translucent and slightly aquatic, then rose arrives, not a romantic rose, a fresh one, the kind that smells like the first day of spring. The grapefruit keeps things tart, prevents the floral from getting soft. This is where most fragrances plateau, but In Love Again has another act. The drydown brings tomato leaf forward, green, slightly bitter, the smell of stems rather than flowers. Blackberry and musk settle underneath, sweet and warm, but the tomato keeps them honest. On skin, this lasts six to eight hours. On fabric, longer.