Clive Christian is a house with an unusually layered story. Clive Christian first made his name designing luxury kitchens, with Clive Christian Furniture founded in 1978. In 1999 he bought the Crown Perfumery Company, which was established in London in 1872 and had been granted the use of Queen Victoria's crown on its bottles, and that is how Clive Christian Perfume began. The crown-topped bottle is still the signature, and the perfumes are 100% pure perfume oil. The most famous bottle is No.1 Imperial Majesty from 2005, a 10-bottle edition in Baccarat crystal with an 18-carat gold collar and a five-carat diamond, which holds a Guinness World Record. Christian received an OBE in 2012 for services to the luxury goods industry. This first group is the best way into the range. The 1872 Feminine Perfume nods to the founding year, while Original Collection X Feminine, Town and Country and Cashmere Musk are the straightforward pieces. The Noble Collection XXI Art Deco Blonde Amber and VIII Immortelle are the bolder ones, with Crown Collection Crab Apple Blossom beside them. Addictive Arts Jump Up & Kiss Me Ecstatic, Strange Heavens Out of the Blue and Cosmos Flower have playful names. The Blonde Amber and JUKM Hedonistic candles carry the scents into a room. How to shop perfume by scent family instead of by note helps if you are choosing.

The second group is for people who want to try more than one scent. Original Collection Feminine Perfumes Gift Set, the Crown Collection Traveller Set and the 3 x 0.3 oz Original Collection Travelers Set in Feminine let you test a few directions before settling on a full bottle. The Crown Collection Matsukita, the Private Collection I Woody Floral Feminine and the Original Collection No. 1 Masculine, Private Collection C Woody Leather Masculine and Noble Collection XX Art Nouveau Papyrus Masculine fill out the rest. What I would skip is choosing one of the masculine bottles by name alone; the Woody Leather and the Papyrus are worth smelling, since the fragrance is not defined by who the label says it is for. For more on pure perfume oils, perfume and fragrance oils is a good companion, and perfume and home fragrance covers the candles.

My Clive Christian approach would be to begin with the travelers set, find the one scent that stays with me and then buy the bottle with the crown. For colder evenings, fall fragrance shows what else sits nearby, and a dessert-scented shelf you are meant to layer is the lighter counterpoint. What I like about this house is that it is unapologetically a perfumer's story, with a history, a crown and a kitchen designer who took a very English perfume house and made it his own.

For more in the same spirit, take a look at Frédéric Malle Fragrance and Perfume and OUAI Hair Care and Fragrance.