Fame Gift Set

Sweetness with something burning underneath it is the simplest description of the Rabanne Fame Gift Set, and it is accurate enough to buy on.

The sweetness comes from two places. Mango opens the fragrance, ripe and thick with a faint resinous quality rather than the sharp tang of unripe fruit, and vanilla closes it, soft and plainly sweet. In between, bergamot gives the top a bitter citrus edge and jasmine fills the heart with a broad, heady floral that has a slight indolic weight to it. The burning is incense, dry and smoky and set directly against the flower, and sandalwood adds a creamy softness beneath. Six materials, and the fruit and the smoke together are what distinguish it from everything else built on sweet materials.

As it wears, the fragrance is noticeable early and then settles onto skin and clothing for a long stretch afterwards. It does not need to be reapplied and it does not need much in the first place, so one or two sprays is the sensible approach and anything beyond that will be noticed by people who did not ask to be.

Cold weather and evenings are where it belongs, and it suits somebody who wears perfume with intent rather than out of routine. As a boxed set it arrives finished and needs no wrapping, which is exactly why this format gets bought for birthdays and at Christmas rather than the bottle alone. It is a present that looks like a decision was made.

Rabanne is a French house that came out of fashion, the founding designer having shown his first collection in 1966. Perfume under the name began in 1968, when the Spanish group Puig created the fragrance division, and Puig has owned the brand outright since 1987.