Be Delicious Eau de Parfum Gift Set

As an introduction to fragrance, this one is hard to beat, and the Donna Karan Be Delicious Eau de Parfum Gift Set is the way it is usually given for the first time.

The reason it works for a newcomer is that the opening is immediately likeable. Green apple is crisp and tart, cucumber makes it cool and clean, grapefruit gives it bite and magnolia adds a soft floral edge. What follows is gentler than the top suggests, with tuberose, lily of the valley, rose and violet forming a light bouquet rather than a heavy one, and sandalwood, white amber and musk underneath holding it on the skin for the rest of the day. Maurice Roucel composed it.

Eleven materials, arranged so that there is something to notice at each stage without any of it being difficult. At eau de parfum strength it will last six hours or more, and two sprays is a sensible amount for someone still learning how much perfume is too much.

The boxed set is what makes it a present rather than a purchase, and it is a safe choice for a teenager, a first fragrance, or anyone who has said they do not know where to start. It reads as feminine, suits daytime and warm weather, and is unlikely to be anyone's least favourite thing. The apple opening does most of the work in persuading a sceptic, since it smells like something recognisable rather than like perfume in the abstract, and that is usually what puts people off their first bottle.

Donna Karan set up in New York in 1984, after her years at Anne Klein, and the label was known for bodysuits and quietly coloured soft tailoring. The DKNY line came later as a second range, and the fragrances have always been produced under licence rather than by the fashion house itself.