Noces de Nerola Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Sea salt in the middle of a white floral is an unusual decision, and it is what makes Brecourt Noces de Nerola Eau de Parfum Gift Set worth giving to somebody who thinks they have smelled everything.

Tuberose and neroli open it, which is itself unconventional, since both are usually kept back for the heart of a composition. Tuberose is heavy, creamy and almost waxy, neroli bright, clean and slightly bitter, and lychee sits with them adding a sweet, watery fruit note that keeps the pair from becoming too serious too soon. The opening is full from the first second rather than building towards anything.

The middle is where the salt arrives. Against orange blossom, magnolia, lily and peony, all of them soft and white and pretty, sea salt adds a mineral, slightly bracing quality that cuts the sweetness and gives the flowers somewhere to stand. It smells like a garden close to a coast, and it is the detail that stops this being another pleasant white floral among hundreds.

Ambroxan, musk, sandalwood and patchouli finish underneath, warm and dry, with ambroxan lending the modern radiance that carries the composition through several hours without it ever turning heavy. The perfumer is Emilie Bouge, and the restraint she shows in that base is deliberate, since anything richer would have smothered the salt.

It makes a good present for warm weather and for someone who likes florals but finds most of them cloying by the afternoon. It reads feminine, with enough salt in it to work on anybody, and it belongs to late spring and summer, to daylight and to long evenings outdoors. Brecourt is a niche perfume house of modest size in France, and every fragrance sold under the name is composed by Emilie Bouge, who was born a short way from Grasse.