Note Pyramid
Bay Leaf
Invictus
Salt is the unexpected part of the Rabanne Invictus Eau de Toilette Gift Set, and it comes from the ambergris sitting in the base.
Ambergris is the material that gives a fragrance that warm, mineral, almost skin like quality, and here it is what keeps the composition from being a simple citrus and smoke exercise. The citrus is grapefruit, bitter and full of pith rather than juice. The smoke is guaiac wood, resinous and faintly tarry. Between them sits bay leaf, dry and green and slightly savoury, and patchouli puts earth beneath the whole arrangement. Five materials, and the salt is what makes the other four hang together.
As an eau de toilette it opens loud and then becomes a close, steady scent for the rest of the day. It is good in heat, perfectly serviceable in cold, and it has become one of those fragrances a great many men own without ever having chosen it deliberately. Three sprays is the most anyone needs and two is usually better, because the base builds on skin as the day goes on.
Sets like this are bought when a present needs to look finished at the point of handing over, and they remove the two awkward decisions in fragrance gifting, which are size and wrapping. It is also an easy present to give a man who is difficult to buy for, which usually means a man who buys everything he wants himself. Four perfumers are named on the composition: Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion, Olivier Polge and Véronique Nyberg.
Rabanne is a French house out of the fashion trade, its first collection dating to 1966. The perfume side was founded in 1968 by Puig of Spain, which acquired the brand in full in 1987 and shortened the name to the surname some years later.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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