212 Heroes Eau de Toilette

The gentlest way into the house's men's output is Carolina Herrera 212 Heroes Eau de Toilette, and it sits a long way from the darker 212 bottles sharing the same shelf.

Where those lean nocturnal, this one stays in daylight. Ginger arrives first with a dry, prickling warmth, and pear softens it immediately, a pale and slightly crisp fruit rather than a syrupy one. The pair is the signature of the scent and the reason it reads young. Sage and geranium take over without much ceremony, the sage herbal and a touch medicinal, the geranium green and leafy with a peppery edge, and together they pull the sweetness back towards something groomed. The base is light by design. Leather gives a suggestion of a new jacket instead of a saddle, and musk keeps the last couple of hours soft and close.

There are only six materials here and it behaves accordingly. What you smell early is broadly what you get, which makes it an easy wear and a dull one to analyse. The eau de toilette strength suits that honesty. Expect four hours or so of clear presence, a quiet skin scent beyond it, and no risk of overwhelming a small room. Juliette Karagueuzoglou, Carlos Benaïm and Domitille Michalon Bertier are the three perfumers credited, and the fragrance is dated 2021. It is aimed at men, and it is most useful for work, for warm afternoons and for the days when you want to smell cared for rather than noticed.

Two names matter in the brand's history: the Venezuelan born designer who launched it with a New York collection in 1981, and Puig, the Spanish group that has made the perfumes since 1988 and has owned the fashion business since 1995. Between them they turned 212 and Good Girl into the leading franchises on the perfume side.