Pour Homme Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Lavender is the material that decides whether you will like the Michael Kors Pour Homme Eau de Parfum Gift Set, because it is in charge from the first spray.

It is used dry here, closer to the herb than to soap, and bergamot sits over it to keep the opening bright while pink pepper adds a brief dry fizz. The middle stays in the same family rather than changing direction. Geranium is the green one, leafy and faintly metallic, and sage is the dusty one, bitter at the edges, and between them they keep the fragrance crisp when a sweeter house would have reached for something comforting instead.

The base is where it gains its weight. Ambergris reads mineral and faintly salty, the kind of material that makes skin smell like better skin, patchouli adds earth and a little ink, and vetiver closes it dry. The composition is credited to Jordi Fernández.

Eight materials, cleanly arranged, with no attempt at a surprise. In wear you get a long afternoon and evening out of it, strong for the first hour and then settled close. It is a men's fragrance by intent and a straightforward one to wear, in an office, at daytime events and in mild weather especially. The set is the way to buy it if you want the bottle to arrive looking like an occasion rather than a restock, and it saves the recipient from having to guess at a size. Presented boxed, it is a present that needs no wrapping skill.

Behind the name is an American ready to wear and accessories label that Michael Kors started in 1981 and that Capri Holdings now owns. Its perfume has never been made in house: the line opened in 2000 under licence, and that licence has changed hands more than once.