Society Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Daffodil is almost never used in men's fragrance, and finding it in Givenchy Society Eau de Parfum 100ml is the single most interesting thing about the bottle.

The opening is dry and herbal. Sage comes first, grey green and slightly bitter, with a clean savoury edge that stops the scent reading as sweet at any point, and cardamom sits with it, cool and faintly soapy and a little camphorous. The middle is where the unusual part happens. Daffodil is green and hay like, with something waxy about it, nothing like the big white flowers most houses reach for in a men's composition, and vetiver is placed right alongside it, cool and rooty and dry, so the flower never gets the chance to turn pretty. Underneath, cedarwood is sharp and pencil like, sandalwood smooth and creamy, and vanilla rounds the pair off without tipping the base into pudding.

This is a quiet, composed fragrance rather than a loud one, and it is better for it. At eau de parfum strength it gives about eight hours, with projection that stays close from the second hour onwards, which makes it a good office choice and a quiet one rather than something to be noticed from the other end of a bar. Two sprays in the morning will see out a full day at a desk.

It is aimed at men, works across spring and autumn in particular, and suits somebody who dresses with a bit of care. It is also one of the few men's fragrances in which a flower is the headline rather than an apology. The year on it is 2023. The maker is Givenchy Parfums, which sits inside LVMH as the scent arm of the couture house Hubert de Givenchy opened in 1952, and which counts Gentleman Society and Irresistible among its mainstays.