Fame Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Jasmine is the material holding the Rabanne Fame Eau de Parfum Gift Set together, and it is doing more work than the fruit that gets all the attention.

It sits in the heart, broad and heady and a little indolic, and it is the hinge between the two halves of the fragrance. Above it, mango arrives ripe and juicy with bergamot cutting a bitter line through the middle of it, so the opening is sweet but never cloying. Below it, incense is dry and smoky, sandalwood is creamy and soft, and vanilla rounds the finish out. Six materials, and the jasmine is what stops the fruit at the top and the smoke at the bottom from feeling like two separate fragrances stacked on one another, which is exactly what they would be without it.

An eau de parfum at this level of sweetness needs to be worn with some care. It projects strongly for the first hour or two and then lingers on skin and fabric for a long while after, so one or two sprays is the sensible approach and a heavy hand will be remembered by everybody in the room.

It belongs to evenings and to the colder half of the year, and it has the kind of presence that suits an occasion rather than a commute. As a boxed set it is a gift for a woman who likes a fragrance to be noticed rather than for somebody who prefers to go unnoticed. The composition is credited to four perfumers, Dora Baghriche, Marie Salamagne, Alberto Morillas and Fabrice Pellegrin.

The house is French and began in couture, its founding designer showing a first collection in 1966. Perfume arrived in 1968 by way of Puig, the Spanish group that bought the business outright in 1987 and runs it today under the surname alone.