The First Reaction (5 x 7ml)

The five fragrances people are actually talking about, in a size you can live with before you commit.

For the person who keeps reading about the same names and wants to know whether the reputation is real.

Inside: 5 decants, 7ml each — 35ml in total.

• Santal 33 — Le Labo
• Gucci Bloom — Gucci
• Stronger With You Sandalwood — Giorgio Armani
• By the Fireplace — Maison Martin Margiela
• Anatolia — Alfred Ritchy

These are the ones that come up again and again — the modern reference points, across designer and niche. This set exists so you can form your own opinion on all five instead of buying one full bottle on someone else's review.

Give each one a full day. These are distinctive fragrances and a two-minute test on paper will actively mislead you.

That works out at 0.854 OMR per ml, across 5 separate fragrances rather than one. The reason to buy a set instead of a full bottle is not the price — it is that you find out what you actually wear before you commit to 100ml of anything.

The same set is also sold at 10ml per decant for 40.9 OMR, which is 0.818 OMR per ml — 4% less than this one. If you already know you like this style, that is the better buy; if you are still finding out, start here.

A strong gift for someone already deep in fragrance. They will know these names, and they will not already own all five.

Mixed — that is the point. Some of these are daytime, some are not, and finding out which is which for you is the exercise.

Every fragrance here is decanted by hand from a bottle we bought ourselves. If one of them turns out to be yours, the full size is on the site — and if none of them are, you have lost the price of a set instead of the price of a bottle.