Note Pyramid
Nina Illusion Gift Set
Giving fragrance works best when the scent is recognisable but not obvious, and the Nina Illusion Gift Set, which carries the Nina Ricci name, manages both: it belongs to a line everybody knows and it smells nothing like the sweet bottles that made the line famous.
The composition runs from sharp to dark. Yuzu opens it with a tart, slightly bitter citrus bite and pink pepper adds a dry crackle beside it. The middle pairs orange blossom with raspberry, the flower clean and faintly honeyed, the fruit tart rather than jammy, and the two of them hold the fragrance in a bright register for a couple of hours. Underneath, patchouli brings earth and a touch of bitterness and vanilla gives the base its warmth, so the whole thing finishes considerably more serious than it begins.
Nicolas Bonneville and Olivier Cresp composed it. Six materials, no part of it wasted, and a structure that actually moves: tart at the start, earthy and warm by the end of an evening.
The set is boxed and ready to give, and it reads as a proper present rather than an afterthought. It is pitched at an adult rather than at a teenager, too, which narrows the guesswork considerably. As an eau de parfum it will see out an evening and leave a trace on a coat, which makes it a better present than any of the toilette strength bottles in the range, and a better one for an adult than the sweeter sets elsewhere on this shelf.
The house that makes it opened a perfume department in 1941 and released Coeur Joie five years later in a bottle of Lalique crystal. It had been founded in Paris in 1932 under the name of the couturiere herself, with her son Robert running the fragrance side of it. Puig bought the house in 1998.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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