VODKA, a Hollywood actress and a mix-your-own-scent kit are just some of the gimmicks attached to the latest perfumes in a bid to capture a slice of the lucrative festive fragrance market this year.

Last year, customers were bombarded with wacky and way-out packaging and design. Remember Jean Paul Gaultier's Fragile - a snow-storm paperweight with gold glitter and an hourglass figure of a woman inside? Or Gucci's Rush, in a rectangle red box? Or Paco Rabanne's Ultra Violet which came in a purple and silver sphere with the spray coming from a hole in its 'belly'?

As for the perfumes themselves, they were full-bodied fragrances: heavy and sensual.

On the whole, new launches for Christmas 2000 are much more simple. It's back to basics in smell and design.

Simple packaging and plain glass bottles have returned a sense of elegance to the women's fragrance market.

The scents are also lighter, fresher, more fruity and sweet.

But it would be wrong to think fragrance had returned to an age of innocence for the new Millennium.

Marketing remains as large a part of the industry as ever and creating the right image for a new scent remains vital.

Again, big names are behind some of the key launches.

Designers Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and Paul Smith each have a new fragrance out - DKNY, Truth and Paul Smith for Women respectively - as do some of the leading fragrance houses: Este Lauder (Intuition), Lancome (Miracle) and Guerlain (Mahora).

Hollywood actress Isabella Rossellini has also stepped into the market, with her own signature fragrance, Manifesto.

Hip New York designer Donna Karan has added vodka - the trendiest drink around at the moment - as a note to her new fragrance, together with blood oranges and the leaves of tomatoes - a talking point if there ever was one: "Can you guess what my new perfume smells of?"

Even more fun can be had with Calvin Klein's new fragrance, Truth. Accompanying the perfume is a package containing vials with the five key notes of the fragrance: lilac, vanilla, bamboo, citrus and sapling, for £21. The idea is you can add these notes to your pulse points after you've used the scent, to create your own customised Calvin Klein fragrance.

As ever, picking a new perfume can be tricky and mistakes can cost you dear.

Carol Lumley-Holmes, fine fragrance manager at Fenwick, Coppergate, York, spends her life helping women choose a new perfume.

And she has this advice: "If you are coming to choose something for yourself, don't wear any fragrance. Try only three at one time, as your nose cannot take any more than that.

"Once you've tried three, do some shopping or go for coffee, because it takes ten minutes for the alcohol to subside and for the true fragrance and notes to come through."

And Carol has this advice for men, buying for women.

"Find out what perfumes they like, what they wear, what they have had before - and ask us for advice."

If you are still not sure what perfume might be for you, we have carried out a consumer test on what Fenwick expect to be the leading eight new fragrances out for Christmas.

Our panel of eight judges tested each perfume 'blind'. Without knowing the brand, the name, or seeing the packaging or bottle, their comments are based on what really matters - the smell.

We've also asked them to tell you what fragrance they normally wear, to help you assess their judgements.

u Please note, the evening with fragrance expert Roja Dove, Professeur Des Parfums for Guerlain, planned for tonight at Fenwick has been postponed because of the floods crisis. A new date is yet to be confirmed.

u If you spend £30 or more on fragrance at Fenwick before November 26, you will receive a £5 voucher to spend on cosmetics before Christmas.

As the perfume market hots up for Christmas, we put the latest launches to the test