Original Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Giving fragrance is a gamble, and the Lacoste Original Eau de Parfum Gift Set lowers the odds, because the scent in it is one of the least objectionable men's fragrances on the shelf.

Clean is the word for it. The opening is brisk, with bergamot bright and bitter and pink pepper adding a dry sparkle. Lavender then establishes the middle with a cool herbal clarity, and clary sage sits alongside it, greener and more bitter, giving the fragrance a slightly dusty, grown up quality. Underneath, sandalwood is creamy and dry and tonka bean adds a low, soft sweetness, the two of them keeping the finish warm without turning it sugary. Clary sage is the one material that gives it an edge, greener and more bitter than the lavender beside it.

It is a composition of six materials, credited to Anne Flipo and Tanguy Guesnet, and it is notable for how much it does with how little. There is nothing in it to argue with. Fragrances built on this few materials tend to be either dull or very clean, and this is firmly the second. Fruit does not appear anywhere on the list, which is rarer than it should be in men's fragrance.

Handed over as a set it works for a birthday, Christmas or father's day, and it suits a man who is not especially interested in fragrance but will happily wear something clean. It arrives presented and needs no further wrapping. It is an easy present to get right for a colleague or a brother in law, where something heavier would be a risk.

The company dates from 1933 and was built by a tennis champion, Rene Lacoste, with a manufacturer, Andre Gillier, behind him, and its crocodile marked polo shirt remains its signature. Lacoste puts its own first fragrance at 1968. The company has sold fragrance alongside its clothes for more than fifty years.