Invictus Victory Elixir Parfum Intense Eau de Parfum 100ml

Cold nights and long evenings are the setting Rabanne Invictus Victory Elixir Parfum Intense Eau de Parfum 100ml was built for, and it is wasted on a warm afternoon.

The opening is dry and aromatic. Lavender leads, more herbal than floral, with cardamom giving it an aromatic lift and black pepper a dusty crackle at the edges. There is no citrus to brighten things, which is deliberate: this is a scent that starts serious and gets more so. Incense is the turn, a smoke that smells of resin and cold air, and patchouli supports it from below with an earthy, slightly damp bitterness.

Vanilla and tonka bean finish it. The vanilla is smooth and dark rather than milky, and the tonka bean brings a powdery sweetness with a bitter almond skin edge to it, so the base warms the smoke without ever turning it into pudding. That balance is the reason this wears well for hours instead of becoming sickly after two.

The parfum intense concentration is the whole argument for choosing this bottle. More oil means less evaporation, so it keeps a low, steady presence rather than a loud one, and a hundred millilitres of it at two sprays a time will outlast the winter comfortably. It is marketed to men. Think restaurants, theatres, late trains home and the kind of evening where you have your coat on more than you have it off.

Rabanne is the fashion house that the designer Paco Rabanne started showing in 1966, its fragrances built by the Spanish group Puig from 1968 onwards and the whole brand in Puig's hands since 1987. Invictus has been the company's most dependable men's name for years, and the Victory Elixir sits at the heavy end of it.