Fame Intense Refillable Eau de Parfum 80ml

Incense and sandalwood are where Rabanne Fame Intense Refillable Eau de Parfum 80ml ends up, and they are the reason it is worth considering over a lighter reading of the same idea.

The incense is dry, smoky and resinous, and the sandalwood beneath it is creamy and soft, so the last hours of the wear are warm and quiet rather than sweet. Getting there is more interesting than you would expect from four materials. Jasmine opens it alongside pine, which is a strange pairing and a good one: the pine resinous, green and cold, the jasmine broad and heady, pulling in opposite directions for the first few minutes. Jasmine then carries on into the heart with the incense. That is the whole composition, and it does not develop so much as deepen as the sharp green at the top burns off.

An eau de parfum described as intense behaves accordingly on skin: slower, denser and longer lasting than a lighter concentration would be, with one or two sprays doing the work of three. Cold weather suits it, and so do evenings, while in warmth the pine can read as sharp.

Eighty millilitres is a serious quantity and the bottle is refillable, which together make this a purchase for somebody who has already decided they want to wear it rather than somebody testing the water. Refilling also means the bottle itself outlasts the first fill of it. Alberto Morillas, Dora Baghriche, Fabrice Pellegrin and Marie Salamagne are the four perfumers credited.

Rabanne is a French house that came out of the fashion world, the founding designer's first collection dating from 1966. The perfume side was created in 1968 by Puig of Spain, which has owned the whole brand since 1987.