Man Gift Set

Halloween Man Gift Set holds a men's fragrance built on four materials, and anyone expecting a long list will be disappointed and probably pleased.

The set is the Eau de Toilette at 125ml with a 50ml bottle alongside. Violet leaf is the opening and the defining note. It is green and cool, with that slightly metallic, cucumber skin bitterness which has nothing to do with the flower itself, and it gives the first minutes a clean, almost severe quality. Orange blossom follows, white and faintly soapy, a flower that reads smart rather than sweet and softens the green edge without removing it. Underneath, ambergris supplies the warmth. It is the salty, mineral, faintly animal material that makes a fragrance smell as though it belongs to the person wearing it, and here it does most of the work in the later hours. Vanilla sits beside it, smoothing and sweetening without turning the thing into a dessert, and the pair of them take a sharp beginning and end it comfortably.

Four materials, a plain two part structure, and no surprises waiting for you in hour three. That is the honest description, and for a lot of men it is precisely the appeal: a fragrance that can be summarised in a single sentence and then worn without another thought. As a gift it suits a man who wants something clean but not sporty, and it works through spring and autumn and into a mild summer evening without ever feeling out of place. The Halloween name belongs to a line built for Jesus del Pozo, a couturier whose first Madrid shop opened in 1974 and who died in 2011, and the fragrances themselves are produced by Perfumes y Diseno, the company that has made his scents since 1992 and later took over the fashion house as well.