Bella Gift Set

If you are buying for somebody with a sweet tooth, Aire de Sevilla Bella Gift Set is a straightforward decision, and the packaging does the work of making it look like more than the money spent.

Bella itself is a sugared fragrance with just enough grit to stop it being childish. The opening pairs cool juicy pear with blackcurrant, which brings a green and faintly sour snap, and jasmine arrives unusually early, creamy and full right from the start.

The middle is where the sweetness lands properly. Vanilla and praline together give caramelised sugar and toasted nuts, the kind of smell that makes people ask what you are wearing, and iris cuts across them with a cool powdery earthiness that keeps the whole thing from collapsing into syrup. Patchouli and tonka bean close it, the patchouli dark and damp, the tonka soft and faintly bitter, more powder than syrup.

As a present it suits a birthday or Christmas rather than a formal occasion, and it is an easy one for a partner, a daughter or a friend who already wears sweet fragrance and is likely to use it rather than shelf it. Cold weather is when it shows best. What comes in the box is whatever the brand has packed, so read the listing for the contents before deciding whether it stands alone as a gift or wants something next to it. Given what it costs, most people buy it as the former.

The maker is Instituto Espanol, a Spanish company that has been producing perfumery and cosmetics since 1903. It remains in the founding family's hands, now in a third generation, and manufactures everything it sells in Andalusia, at Hinojos in Huelva province.