Terre d'Hermès Eau de Toilette Gift Set

Few men's fragrances are as widely recognised as Terre d'Hermès Eau de Toilette 100ml, and it has held that position for a long time without ever being loud about it. The note row we hold for it is short: grapefruit and cedarwood, and the relationship between those two is the whole fragrance. Grapefruit is handled dry and bitter, all rind and pith rather than juice, with the slightly sulphurous snap that real grapefruit has and that keeps it from smelling like a soft drink. Cedarwood answers it from below, clean and splintery, the smell of freshly cut timber and a carpenter's bench, dry without being harsh.

That contrast of bitter citrus over dry timber is unusually austere for something this popular, and it is exactly why it works. There is nothing sugared in it and nothing that dates it to a particular decade, which is why men who bought it years ago are still buying it. As an eau de toilette it is lighter on the skin than the parfum version of the same name, which makes it easier to wear in daylight and in warm rooms, and it rewards a slightly heavier hand as a result. Expect good presence for the first hours and a dry, clean trace through the rest of the day.

It suits work, weekends and almost any weather, which is rarer than it sounds in a men's fragrance. The 100ml bottle is the size most people settle on once they know they will keep wearing it, and it is the one to buy if the smaller bottles have a habit of emptying faster than expected.

French, founded 1837, and still family held: the house began when Thierry Hermes opened as a harness maker in Paris and has passed through six generations since, adding perfumery to its work in 1951.