Eau d'Orange Verte Eau de Cologne Gift Set

Hot weather is where Hermès Eau d'Orange Verte Eau de Cologne 100ml earns its keep, and anyone who has worn it through a July will know the particular relief of it.

Orange opens it, and the handling is green and bitter throughout. This is peel, pith and leaf, sharp and slightly sappy, with none of the sugar that the word orange usually implies. Mint arrives almost at once, cold and clean, and the two together produce the chilled effect the fragrance is known for. Oakmoss sits underneath and gives it the one serious note in the composition, earthy and damp, like the floor of a wood after rain, with a bitter green edge that keeps the whole thing from being merely refreshing.

It dates from 1979 and has outlasted most of what was launched alongside it. Three materials, no complications, and a structure that reveals itself in the first minute. Cologne strength means it is light on the skin and fairly short lived by design. Two or three hours of real presence is normal, after which it leaves a clean trace. That is not a fault. Fragrances of this type are bought in large bottles and used without restraint, and the 100ml size is a reasonable starting point for that habit.

It suits mornings, offices, travel and summer, and it reads as unisex in a way very few scents genuinely do. Applied to the chest and the back of the neck it lasts noticeably better than it does on the wrists, where in real heat it burns off within the hour.

Thierry Hermes began making harness in Paris in 1837. The firm relocated to the Faubourg Saint-Honore in 1880 and entered perfumery in 1951, and it has stayed with his descendants through six generations.