Scandal Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Value is a reasonable way to look at the Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal Eau de Parfum Gift Set, because buying a fragrance as a boxed set is usually the cheaper route to the same scent and it arrives ready to give.

The scent is worth the attention. Honey is the dominant material and it is used in a thick, waxy, faintly sour way that has almost nothing in common with the sugary sweetness of most things marketed to the same buyer. Gardenia gives it a creamy, full petalled roundness that softens the honey without diluting it. Patchouli anchors both, earthy and slightly bitter, and it is what makes the fragrance last and keeps it from being cloying. Between them the three cover the whole of the scent, with nothing at all filling in behind them.

Only three materials are involved, which is why it is so legible on skin. There is no complicated structure here and no surprises at hour three, just the same idea getting quieter and warmer as the evening goes on. Work on it was shared between Daphné Bugey, Christophe Raynaud and Fabrice Pellegrin, and it has been in production since 2017. Eau de parfum strength gives it genuine staying power, so a light application goes a long way and the bottle outlasts the expectation.

Evenings and cooler weather suit it best, and it reads as feminine and quite bold. If you are buying for somebody who likes to be asked what she is wearing, this is the right shelf to be standing at, and a set is the tidiest way to leave it.

The house is a Paris clothing label first and a perfume house second: womenswear from 1976, a boutique from 1984, scent from 1993, and Puig as majority owner since 2011.