Homme Eau de Toilette Gift Set

This Lolita Lempicka Homme Eau de Toilette Gift Set is the 58.30 option, the one to pick when the sweet, dark end of men's fragrance is already known territory and you simply want more of it to hand. The scent runs in two halves. The first is bitter and leafy, ivy with absinthe and anise behind it, a cool, bittersweet sharpness that announces itself for ten or fifteen minutes and then steps aside. The second half is the reason people keep buying it. Violet, rum, sugar and almond build a soft sweetness that is boozy rather than sugary, the violet lending a powdery quality and the almond reading as something baked, while cedarwood, labdanum, vanilla and musk hold it down underneath. Labdanum in particular gives the base a dark resinous weight, so the sweetness sits on something solid instead of floating.

It dates from 2018 and at eau de toilette strength it is meant to be worn generously; three sprays and a top up later in the evening will not be too much. Autumn and winter are its season, nights rather than mornings, and it is a confident thing to wear rather than a quiet one, so judge the room. Choosing this over the smaller set makes sense for a regular wearer who gets through a bottle and would rather buy once.

The house is a French one, originally ready to wear and now better known for its perfumes, with a fairy tale sensibility running through the bottles and the advertising alike. The first fragrance came out in 1997, built around sweetness, and it remains the signature of the brand almost thirty years on. Alongside it the range holds Le Parfum, Fleurs, Mon Premier Parfum, Elixir Sublime and Lolitaland, plus the men's Au Masculin and Green Lover.