Classic Eau de Toilette 100ml

For a sweet men's fragrance with smoke in it, Jaguar Classic Eau de Toilette 100ml is better value than most of what sits near it, and the 100ml bottle is the reason to buy it rather than sample it.

The opening pairs two things that usually stay apart. Incense brings a dry, resinous, faintly church like smoke, while green apple is tart and crisp and mandarin orange sweet and round, so the first minutes are fruity and burnt at the same time. It should not work and it does, and it is the reason this bottle gets recommended more often than its price suggests.

Cedarwood and patchouli make up the middle, the first dry and pencil sharp, the second earthy and slightly damp, and they act as a hinge between the fruit above and the sweetness below rather than as a floral heart. Then it turns comfortable. Tonka bean brings a soft powdery sweetness, praline a toasted sugary warmth, and ambroxan runs under both, clean and mineral, giving the drydown that polished modern quality which makes an inexpensive fragrance smell a good deal more expensive than it is. Eight materials, dated 2017, and a clear three stage shape that is easy to follow on skin.

At eau de toilette strength expect moderate projection for an hour or two and five or six hours of close wear, which is respectable for the concentration. It reads masculine, suits autumn and winter, and works for evenings out and casual dress rather than for formal occasions. The Jaguar name on a bottle is a licence: the perfumes are developed and sold by specialist fragrance companies, the line having begun in 1989, and it belongs today to the Lalique Group's beauty arm.