Tom Ford Soleil de Feu

Soleil de Feu belongs to Tom Ford's Soleil family, the sun-and-skin corner of the catalogue that began with Soleil Blanc. Where Soleil Blanc is coconut and beach, Soleil de Feu is the end of the day. Tom Ford describes it as an amber woody scent evoking strokes of sunset light over the sea, and says it captures a burnished sensuality with tuberose accord, warm ambers and exotic sandalwood.

The published notes are short, listing tuberose, sandalwood and benzoin, and the brevity is honest, because this is not a complicated fragrance. Tuberose here is an accord rather than the raw absolute: creamy, warm, a little fleshy, with the green mentholated sharpness that makes natural tuberose so difficult sanded away. Benzoin does most of the sweetening, a balsamic resin that smells of vanilla and old wood without being quite either. Sandalwood underneath gives a milky, dry finish. The result reads closer to warm skin and sun-heated resin than to a flower shop, and it lands as amber first, floral second.

It is worn by both men and women, though the tuberose gives it a softness some men find more comfortable in the evening than at a desk. Cooler months suit it, or late afternoons. In the full glare of a Highveld summer day the benzoin can feel like a great deal of fragrance. Dinner, a fire and a jersey is closer to its natural setting.

Performance is good without being extreme. Expect six to eight hours with moderate projection, more if you apply to clothing, and a long close drydown that hovers rather than radiates. It is markedly less aggressive than Ombré Leather or Tobacco Vanille, which will read as either a relief or a disappointment depending on what you want from a Tom Ford.

One thing worth saying plainly: this is a comfort fragrance in expensive clothing. It will not surprise anyone who has smelled a modern amber and it does not set out to. What it does well is texture. The specific warmth of a tuberose accord against benzoin is smoother and better balanced here than in most fragrances at any price, and that, rather than originality, is what people actually buy it for.