Hermès 24 Faubourg Eau de Toilette

Hermès named this perfume after its own front door. Number 24, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré has been the house's Paris address since 1880, and in 1995 the scent that borrowed the address became one of the last great sunlit florals of its century. It predates the era of the Hermès in-house perfumer entirely, since Jean-Claude Ellena would not take that post until 2004, and the composition is commonly attributed to Maurice Roucel, a perfumer whose signature has always been abundance rather than whisper. That abundance is the whole argument here. Later Hermès fragrances are admired for how little they say; 24 Faubourg says everything at once, and says it in gold.

The opening is bright and faintly waxy, hyacinth and bergamot cut with orange and a soft peach, ylang-ylang already pushing warmth up from underneath. The heart is where it earns its reputation: orange blossom, gardenia and jasmine banked together into a white floral that reads sunlit rather than heavy, with iris lending a powdery, well-mannered edge and black elder keeping the sweetness honest. Beneath that, amber, sandalwood, patchouli and vanilla give the whole thing a resinous floor that stops the flowers floating off. In eau de toilette form the balance tilts a little more towards citrus and air; the eau de parfum is the denser reading of the same idea, and Hermès still lists both alongside an Eau Délicate.

It suits someone who dresses deliberately. This is not a background perfume and it is not especially young. It sits best on people who are comfortable being noticed and have no interest in smelling like everyone else in the lift. Wear it to a winter lunch in the Cape, when the light is low and white flowers need something to push against; in full Highveld midsummer it can feel like a great deal before eleven in the morning, so a lighter hand pays off.

Performance is good rather than enormous. On skin the eau de toilette runs six to eight hours and considerably longer on a scarf or a wool collar, with a sillage that announces you on arrival before settling closer and warmer after the opening hour. Two sprays is a statement. Four is a decision.