Le Beau Gift Set

For a present that has to work in July as well as in December, the Jean Paul Gaultier Le Beau Gift Set is one of the few men's boxes in this range that genuinely does.

The box holds the 125ml Eau de Toilette, a 75ml shower gel and a 10ml spray. The scent rests on three materials and the middle one is the talking point. Coconut wood has nothing to do with beaches: it is a dry, pale, husky material with the faintest milky quality, and it reads as smooth rather than sweet. Bergamot lifts the opening with a bitter, bright peel sharpness that lasts a few minutes and then hands over. Tonka bean takes up the base and holds it, softly sweet in a dusty, almost floury way, and it is what gives the scent its skin close warmth.

Short compositions like this one are easy to read. There is no fourth material waiting to change the picture, so what you smell early is what you get, a little quieter each hour. Some people want a fragrance that keeps revealing things; this is not that, and it does not pretend to be. What it offers instead is something comfortable that nobody in the room will object to, and that counts for a good deal in a present.

It is a forgiving scent to give. It is not loud, it does not date itself, it suits men who dislike anything spiky, and heat does not spoil it, which is more than most warm fragrances can claim. The box is the point: it turns a bottle into a gift without any effort on your part, and it looks like you thought about it a week beforehand rather than that morning.

The house came out of Paris fashion. A womenswear collection in 1976, a boutique of his own in 1984, then perfume from 1993. Puig acquired majority control in 2011 and moved the fragrance business in house during 2016.