Smelling Selena Gomez‘s Rare Eau de Parfum is like throwing your boyfriend’s favourite jumper over a lace bra while red heart emojis shoot up your nose. In other words, it’s comforting, quietly sexy and makes you smile involuntarily.

Most people (including me) won’t remember the star’s first foray into fragrance – the now-discontinued Selena Gomez Eau de Parfum, which launched back in 2012, with the type of fruity-sweet notes (think peach, blackberry, vanilla, chocolate, and coconut) that’s catnip for tweens.

The Rare Eau de Parfum – Rare Beauty’s debut perfume – also contains chocolate and vanilla. But it’s almost like Selena’s baking skills have gone from entry-level to gourmet as she’s hit on just the right amount of sugary sweetness to ensure this juice still feels grown up.

Rare Beauty Rare, 50ml EDP

So what exactly does Rare smell like?

The first thing to note, is that Selina Gomez’s Rare Eau de Parfum is classed as a gourmand or dessert-like scent. There are buzzy perfume ingredients such as pistachio, caramel, cocoa and vanilla for sure, but these notes are almost the backing singers here. What really jumped out at me when I sniffed my wrists was the pink pepper and ginger, which add a nose-twitching, zesty spiciness to the scent.

I also like that Rare lands on a bed of sandalwood and musk, which together mimic the warmth of skin, ensuring you still smell like a human being rather than a patisserie or a bag of Haribo Starmix (a pet hate of mine with a lot of other gourmand perfumes).

Rare Eau de Parfum: My verdict

When a vial of Rare, covered in “Confidential!” and “Top Secret” stickers, landed on my desk last Thursday, I nervously spritzed the juice onto both wrists and waited for an overdose of sugar to hit my nose.