Green Tea Gift Set

A fragrance can be quietly popular for decades without ever once being fashionable, and the Elizabeth Arden Green Tea Gift Set is a straightforward way into one of those.

Start with the opening, because it is the part most people picture when they think of this scent. Bergamot and lemon come first and come fast, zesty and clean, with none of the sugar that usually accompanies citrus in a fragrance sold to women. The green tea accord follows within a minute or two and does not let go, dry and leafy, slightly bitter in the way strong tea is bitter when the bag has been left in.

Jasmine lends a little bloom to the middle, and celery seed sits alongside it, adding a cool green saltiness that is the signature of the whole thing and the detail that keeps it from being ordinary. The finish is soft and unshowy: amber for warmth, oakmoss for a damp earthy base and musk to smooth the join between them.

Buying it as a set rather than as a single bottle makes sense when the person receiving it is new to the scent, because a boxed presentation makes a trial feel generous instead of tentative. It is an unthreatening present for someone you do not know intimately, a sensible one for anyone who dislikes heavy perfume, and an easy choice for a colleague, a neighbour or a godmother. Nobody has ever opened this one and looked disappointed.

The house grew out of a single beauty salon on Fifth Avenue into a full range of skincare, cosmetics and fragrance. Its scents are produced in house rather than licensed to another company, Revlon having completed its acquisition of the business in September 2016.