Eau Fraîche Extreme Eau de Parfum

Versace Eau Fraîche Extreme Eau de Parfum takes a clean citrus idea and gives it more weight, which is what the name is promising.

Lemon is the first thing you meet, sour and bright and entirely unsweetened. Geranium comes in almost immediately with its green, slightly metallic crispness, and orange blossom softens both with a white flower sweetness that keeps the opening from being austere. That combination is unusual in men's fragrance, where citrus tends to be left to work alone.

The middle is drier. Pink pepper gives a dry crackle with a hint of fruit behind it, clary sage adds a sharp herbal saltiness, and lavender supplies the familiar clean, faintly soapy calm that makes a composition read as groomed. Nothing here is heavy, but the three together have a density the opening does not. Cedarwood and musk make a short, firm base. Cedarwood is dry, clean and sharply cut, musk is soft and skin like, and together they hold the whole thing down without smothering it. Eight materials in all, and a shape that moves from bright to dry rather than from light to heavy. The eau de parfum concentration is the point of the Extreme name. It lasts longer and sits more firmly on the skin than a lighter treatment of the same idea would, while keeping the character clean rather than loud. It suits men, it works year round, and it is particularly good in spring and autumn when a heavier fragrance would be too much and a lighter one not enough.

Versace has been Italian, Milanese and in business since 1978. Its founder was Gianni Versace; its direction since his death has been his sister Donatella's. Clothing, interiors, hospitality and fragrance are all on its books.