Narciso Rodriguez Eau de Toilette Duo

Two bottles in one box: Narciso Rodriguez Eau de Toilette Duo is the practical way to buy this scent, one to keep at home and one for a bag or a desk drawer, and it is the obvious present for somebody who already wears it.

The fragrance is the house's own namesake composition. Gardenia and white rose do the opening, the gardenia creamy with a green edge, the white rose cool and almost transparent. Musk makes the entire middle on its own, warm, soft and skin like, which is the quality everything this label makes is built around. Underneath, white cedar and cedarwood give a pale, dry sharpness and vetiver adds a rooty bitterness that keeps the base from turning comfortable. Aurélien Guichard composed it.

In eau de toilette form the whole thing is lighter and more immediate than the parfum concentration. The gardenia is crisper, the musk less dense, and it fades faster, which makes it the better choice in heat and the easier one to over apply without regret. A working day is realistic; a long evening is not. The duo format suits travel, since two small bottles clear security rules that one large one does not, and it suits anyone who keeps losing fragrance between a handbag and a bathroom shelf. It is also the cheapest honest way to try the eau de toilette if you have only ever smelled the parfum, and two 30ml sprays go further between them than one bottle of the same volume ever does.

The house opened in 1997, the same year its founder took charge of womenswear at Loewe, and his own New York atelier followed in 2001. Beaute Prestige International produces the fragrances under licence, and the line now covers For Her, For Him, Essence, the Narciso bottles and the Musc Collection.