Nº11 Evasión Polar Eau de Toilette 150ml

There is a chill written into the name, and Victorio and Lucchino Nº11 Evasión Polar Eau de Toilette 150ml does deliver one, mostly through the way its melon and violet leaf are handled.

Bergamot and lemon open, bright and astringent, gone within ten minutes but useful while they last. What follows is cooler than the citrus suggests. Melon is watery and softly sweet, the smell of cut fruit on a plate rather than of anything candied, and violet leaf cuts across it green and slightly metallic, like a snapped stem. Between them they create the cool, damp effect the name is selling.

Ginger is the heat against that cold. It is dry and sparkling rather than fiery, and it keeps the whole middle from turning limp. Lavender sits alongside, herbal and a little camphorous, adding the clean barbershop quality that makes this easy to wear anywhere.

The close is restrained. Cedarwood is dry and pencil sharp, amberwood brings a smooth mineral warmth, and musk softens the edges into skin. It is a light base by design and it does not try to drag the scent into the evening.

This is a hot weather bottle. It works in heat where richer compositions become hard work, it suits men who want something clean rather than loud, and at 150ml there is enough of it to use properly through a summer. The eau de toilette concentration means a few hours of presence and a close trace afterwards, so apply generously and again in the afternoon if you want it noticed.

Victorio and Lucchino design from Seville, with a reputation built on bridal wear and flamenco influenced clothes. Puig funded their move into perfume in 1992, and forty years of their output went on show at a museum in Palma del Rio from 2022.