Eros Eau de Toilette

Versace Eros Eau de Toilette is the original form of the fragrance, and for a good number of wearers it remains the better one.

Aurélien Guichard built it around a contrast. The opening is cold and green, with mint doing the heavy lifting, sharp enough to read as almost mentholated, while lemon and mandarin orange add juice and apple contributes a crisp, slightly tart sweetness. That first impression is the reason the bottle sells, and it is sharper here than in the heavier versions of the same idea.

Underneath, geranium brings a rosy and faintly metallic quality and clary sage a dry herbal one, and then the base takes it somewhere warmer: vanilla for sweetness, cedarwood and vetiver for a dry, rooty austerity that stops it becoming a dessert, patchouli for earth and sandalwood for a creamy finish that holds everything together.

The eau de toilette strength makes it brighter and more wearable than its siblings. The mint lasts longer before the vanilla swallows it, and the whole thing feels less dense in warm weather, which widens the number of days you can actually use it. Expect six or so hours with decent presence early on, and reapply at lunch if you want it to carry into an evening. It is also the version to start with if you are unsure, since a lighter concentration is a much cheaper mistake to make than a heavy one.

It was launched in 2012 and it is worth remembering how different it sounded then, because mint over vanilla was not yet a formula. It became one largely because of this. Versace is Italian and Milanese, opened by Gianni Versace in 1978 and led creatively by Donatella Versace after his death, and Eros is one of the lines it is best known for.