Dylan Blue Pour Femme Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Buying perfume for a woman who already owns plenty of it is difficult, which is where the Versace Dylan Blue Pour Femme Eau de Parfum Gift Set helps, because it is familiar without being obvious.

The opening is tart and leafy. Blackcurrant brings a dark sour fruit depth, green apple snaps over it, clover adds a grassy texture, and forget me not thins the mix with something cool and almost absent. That last pair is the unusual part and the reason the fruit does not read as juice. Then it warms. Rose arrives clean rather than heavy, jasmine brings its rich white floral weight, and peach rounds the two with a downy softness. It is a generous heart and it is where most of the wear happens. The base is built to last: styrax is resinous and faintly smoky, patchouli adds earth, and musk holds the whole thing against the skin. Calice Becker and Natalie Gracia-Cetto composed it, and across ten materials the shape is clear from start to finish. It is a complete piece of work rather than a sketch, and it wears like one.

At eau de parfum strength it stays put for a full day and reaches further in the first hour than you might expect from such a green opening. It is better in autumn and winter than in high heat, and it suits evenings particularly well, which makes it a different proposition from the lighter things in the women's range. Two sprays is the right dose, and the styrax and patchouli will still be faintly there the following morning. In set form it is a present that looks like it took thought, and it will not sit unopened on a shelf. The name is recognisable enough to reassure whoever is unwrapping it.

The company was opened in 1978 by Gianni Versace and has worked from Milan ever since. His sister Donatella has led it from his death onwards, and clothing, furnishings, hotels and perfume all carry the name.