Néroli y Orchidée Eau de Toilette 50ml

At 50ml, L'Occitane En Provence Néroli y Orchidée Eau de Toilette 50ml is the handbag size of a fragrance that genuinely benefits from being reapplied.

Neroli is the reason to buy it. It is the blossom of the bitter orange tree, and distilled it smells clean and white and slightly green, with a honeyed warmth underneath and a soapiness that stops it tipping into sweetness. Orange and mandarin orange sit above it at the opening, rounding and sweetening the citrus rather than sharpening it, so nothing here ever bites.

Underneath the blossom the composition softens. Peach is velvety rather than juicy, lily of the valley brings a cool dewy greenness, and fig nectar is the curious one, a sticky green milkiness that gives the middle of the wear a texture most light florals do not have. The close is quiet and well judged. Orchid is used as a gentle powdery flower, iris deepens the powder with its cool rooty character, and musk holds the lot against the skin for as long as a toilette strength will allow. Karine Dubreuil-Sereni is credited as the perfumer, and the fragrance dates from 2014.

Expect four hours or so and a soft, close trail. That is not a criticism of this kind of scent, it is the design: something you can wear in an office, in heat, or around people who dislike perfume, and top up when you want to. It reads feminine and daytime. The smaller bottle makes rather more sense than the larger one if you intend to carry it with you.

The company behind it was founded in Provence in 1976 by Olivier Baussan, then in his early twenties, who started out distilling plants from the countryside around him and selling essential oils at local markets. Manosque is where it manufactures and carries out its research, its formulations lean on plants from the region, and its best known scents are usually built around one Provencal material.