Eau de Lancaster Eau de Toilette

Eau de Lancaster Eau de Toilette dates from 1977 and it smells like a fragrance from that decade in the best sense, which is to say it is clean, herbal and generous rather than sweet.

The opening is a proper citrus and herb overture. Bergamot gives the bitter lift, mandarin orange the rounder peel, and then coriander, basil and lavender arrive almost at once: coriander dusty and warm, basil green and sharp, lavender soapy and calming in the way that defined men's and unisex scent of the period. Nothing about it is loud, but all five materials are audible for a good twenty minutes, which is unusual now.

The middle is where it shows its age flatteringly. Palisander rosewood gives a dry, slightly rosy warmth, lily is cool and starched, jasmine is the rich element and peach the soft one, and together they make a heart that is floral without being feminine. The base is restrained: oakmoss damp and bitter, amber resinous, vanilla just sweet enough to join the two.

In wear it is moderate and comfortable. Four to five hours is realistic, with the citrus and herbs going first and the moss and amber lasting, and it stays near the skin after the first half hour. That makes it an easy daily scent and a very easy office one. It reads unisex, it works best in warm weather and in daylight, and it suits anyone who finds modern fragrance too sugared or too insistent. It is also the anchor of a small range, with a deodorant and a shower gel carrying the same scent.

Lancaster is a Monaco beauty house, established in the Principality in 1946 and now part of Coty's prestige stable. Its name was made in suncare and skincare rather than in perfumery, and the company still sells itself on repairing and protecting skin, pointing to a history of putting repairing enzymes, oxygen and retinol into cosmetic products.