Scandal Eau de Parfum 50ml

Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal Eau de Parfum 50ml is the bottle people buy when they already know they like the scent but would rather not carry a brick about. Of the sizes it comes in, this is the one that fits a drawer or a weekend bag without taking it over.

The scent is short in material count and long in effect. Honey leads, and it is the unusual kind: dense, waxy, faintly sour at the edges, more comb than spoon. Gardenia softens it with a thick, almost creamy flower note that takes the sharpness off without making it sweeter. Patchouli does the work at the bottom, dry and earthy with a bitter undertow, and that is what stops a honey fragrance from collapsing into syrup. There is no complicated journey to follow here. All three are present from the first minute and simply shift their balance over the hours, which is why it is such an easy scent to recognise on somebody else.

Three perfumers worked on it, Fabrice Pellegrin, Christophe Raynaud and Daphné Bugey, and 2017 is when it arrived. Eau de parfum concentration means it stays put, so the smaller bottle lasts considerably longer than the number on it suggests, and a light hand is the right approach. It is a feminine scent with a deliberate edge to it. Evenings suit it, cool weather suits it better still, and it is at its best when you want to be remembered rather than merely tolerated. For a first bottle, this size is the sensible way in, and for a second it is the one that travels.

The house is Parisian. Womenswear from 1976, a first boutique in 1984, perfume from 1993 onwards, and since 2011 a majority held by Puig, which took over making the scents in 2016.