Homme Eau de Toilette Gift Set

Composed by Olivier Cresp and released in 2000, Armand Basi Homme Eau de Toilette 125ml is a spiced men's fragrance from a period when houses were still happy to put cinnamon at the front of one.

That cinnamon is the first thing you smell, hot and dry and barky, with cardamom beside it adding a cool aromatic snap and lavender running underneath to keep the opening clean rather than edible. It is a confident start, it does not last long, and anyone who dislikes cinnamon should know that this is the loudest it ever gets.

The heart is softer and more old fashioned in the best way. Nutmeg continues the spice, warm and slightly dusty; tonka bean brings the first real sweetness, powdery and faintly like the inside of a biscuit tin; labdanum adds a dark resinous weight; and lilac and lily of the valley lift the whole middle with two clean, cool, slightly soapy flowers that most men's fragrances of the last decade would not dare include. The base is dry and warm at once. Vanilla smooths it, cedarwood and sandalwood give structure and cream, guaiac wood brings a tarry smokiness that is the most distinctive thing in the drydown, and musk keeps it close. Thirteen materials, properly arranged in three stages, with a finish that holds for hours on skin and longer on wool.

It suits cool weather, evenings and a man who prefers spice to citrus. The 125ml bottle is the generous size and the sensible one if this is your signature. Armand Basi is a Barcelona house that emerged from the Basi family's knitwear business, with the label itself appearing in the second half of the 1980s; its perfumes have been made under licence since 1999.