ADN Sándalo Sacro Eau de Parfum Gift Set

ADN Sándalo Sacro Eau de Parfum Gift Set is the quietest and driest corner of the ADN range, and it is sold here as a set. Cardamom opens it with a cool, slightly soapy spice, and fig is the unusual touch beside it, green and milky at the same time, while eucalyptus adds a clean camphorous lift and black tea brings a dry, tannic bitterness that keeps the fruit in check. The middle is drier still: iris cool and a little chalky, cedarwood sharp, vetiver earthy underneath. Then sandalwood arrives properly and gives the thing its name, creamy and smooth, with tonka bean adding a soft warmth, ambroxan supplying a clean mineral glow and musk pressing all of it close to the skin. It smells calm and considered, the sort of fragrance people ask about rather than notice immediately.

The eau de parfum concentration gives it the staying power this kind of scent needs, since the quieter materials would disappear at anything weaker; two sprays will last a working day and still be detectable on a shirt collar in the evening. It is unisex in practice, good in autumn and winter and equally wearable in a warm room, and it suits someone who likes wood and dry spice more than sweetness. It is sold as a set, which makes it a sensible present for a person whose taste runs to the understated.

Adolfo Domínguez is a Spanish fashion house founded in 1976, grown out of a family tailoring business started in Ourense in 1950. In 1990 it put out a fragrance under the founder's name, the first Spanish designer to do so, and the company says Agua Fresca left a permanent mark on the way Spain remembers scent. The perfumes are sold under licence through Puig, and the Agua Fresca family, including the Rosas and Vetiver versions, plus Unica from 2017, are the best known.