Original Eau de Cologne Gift Set

Buying for somebody who already wears it is usually harder than buying for somebody who does not, which is the argument for 4711 Original Eau de Cologne Gift Set: a scent they have used for years, presented as a gift rather than as a refill.

Habitual wearers tend to buy the plain bottle and nothing else, so the set is the one form of this they are unlikely to have picked up for themselves. It also solves the perennial problem of the person who says they want nothing. The fragrance needs no introduction to them, but it is worth setting down what they are getting. Three citruses lead, lemon sour and bright, bergamot rounder with a perfumed bitter edge, orange sweet and soft. Lavender is the material that carries the middle, soapy and herbal and quietly old fashioned in the best sense. Rosemary runs green and camphorous alongside it. Neroli and petitgrain take it out, blossom and leaf from the same bitter orange tree, honeyed sweetness set against a dry bitter green, and the finish is the reason the scent has outlived almost all its contemporaries.

Cologne strength means it is light, close and relatively short lived, two hours or so of clear wear before it drops back, and that is exactly how a long standing user will expect it to behave. They will use it generously and think nothing of reapplying it at lunchtime. Give it to a father, a grandmother, a colleague retiring, or anybody whose bathroom shelf has carried the same bottle for a decade.

The company behind it once traded under the Farina name to borrow an older house's standing, and was barred from doing so in 1873. The number it had taken from its Cologne address became its registered trademark two years later.