Note Pyramid
Bay Leaf
Invictus Gift Set
Guaiac wood is the material that gives the Rabanne Invictus Gift Set its reputation, and it is doing something fairly unusual for a fragrance this popular.
Inside are the 100ml Eau de Toilette, a 150ml deodorant spray and a 10ml spray. It is the source of the smoke in the base: resinous, dry, and carrying a faint tarry quality that reads as expensive rather than as rough. Ambergris sits with it adding a warm, saline, skin close quality, and patchouli lays damp earth underneath the two of them. Over the top of all that, grapefruit opens bitter and pithy and bay leaf gives it a dry green herbal twist. Five materials in all, and the distance between the sharp top and the smoky base is what makes it recognisable from across a room. There is almost nothing in the middle to join them up.
In wear it is forceful early and then close and steady for the rest of the day, which is a combination that suits a fragrance worn to work and to the gym rather than one kept back for occasions. It handles heat and it handles cold equally well, so it will be used all year instead of sitting out two seasons.
As a present the set needs no assembly and no wrapping, and it suits a remarkably wide range of recipients, from a teenager buying his first bottle to a father in law who has worn the same thing since the nineties and might be shifted. Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion, Olivier Polge and Véronique Nyberg are the four names credited with the composition itself.
The house itself is French and began in fashion, the designer's first collection appearing in 1966. Its perfume arm was created in 1968 by the Spanish group Puig, which has owned the entire brand since 1987 and trades it now under the surname alone.
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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