I use a chauffeur-driven car and want a consistent fragrance without the driver constantly adjusting it. What should I choose?

The cheaper product is the better answer to this particular question, and I would rather say so than sell you ₹3,999 of hardware that somebody has to press.

The answer, in full

The 12ml hanging bottle, and I am telling you that knowing it is the cheaper product. Eight of the nine car scents come in it, from Jasmine ₹459 up to Sea Breeze ₹519, and the published figure is 4 to 6 weeks, that is 28 to 42 days, of continuous diffusion from a refillable glass bottle. The one control it has is a stopper that loosens for stronger and tightens for subtler. You set that once, on the day you hang it, and from then on the bottle diffuses whether anyone touches it or not. A stopper the owner sets once asks nothing of the person at the wheel. Safar is ₹3,999 and a different proposition: a run on it begins when somebody presses the switch, because SOSA publishes no auto-start and no scheduling, and it also needs a Type-C charge and a 20ml refill. Those are facts about the published specification and not a view about anybody's driver. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

The two formats, and who has to touch what

I have written this as two lists of actions and nothing else. I do not know your driver, I am not going to characterise one, and SOSA publishes nothing about how anybody behaves in a car.

Set once: the 12ml hanging bottle and its stopper

Take the cap off, hang it from the mirror stalk, and set the stopper where you want it: looser for stronger, tighter for subtler. That is the whole operation and you do it yourself, once. The published figure from there is 4 to 6 weeks, that is 28 to 42 days, of continuous diffusion. Continuous means it is diffusing between journeys as well as during them, so nobody has to begin anything when the car is brought round. 15ml refills are ₹399 to ₹449 across eight scents.

One adjustment, made by you, on day one.

Switched on each time: Safar, and the hand it needs

Safar is ₹3,999, or ₹4,499 for the hotel-inspired variant, and its published controls are three speed settings and a 1, 2 or 3 hour auto-off timer. A run starts when somebody presses the switch. SOSA publishes no auto-start, no sensor, no app, no scheduling and no memory of a previous setting, so there is no published way for a run to begin or a speed to be restored without a hand. It also takes a Type-C charge and a 20ml refill, and no charge duration and no oil-consumption rate are published.

The thing you are really asking: what consistency is published as

What the record gives you for the hanging bottle is a window, 4 to 6 weeks of continuous diffusion, and a stopper position you choose. It does not publish an intensity curve, a scent-throw figure or any account of how the smell behaves from day one to day forty-two, and it would be easy and wrong for me to supply one. If consistency matters to you in that stricter sense, the only honest route is to set the stopper, note the date, and use your own nose over a fortnight.

A published window is not an intensity curve.

Which scent to hang, and why I will not pick for you

Eight of the nine come as a 12ml hanging at the same price as the 10ml spray: Jasmine ₹459, Lavender and Sandalwood ₹499, Sandalwood ₹509, Icy Mint ₹499, Lemon ₹509, Oud ₹519, Vetiver ₹519 and Sea Breeze ₹519. Mysore Orange Blossom ₹559 is a spray only. SOSA publishes no strength ranking of the nine car scents, so there is no strongest one to reach for and no ladder to climb.

The 15ml hanging refills are ₹399 to ₹449 across eight scents, so once you have settled on a scent and a stopper position you are re-ordering a refill rather than a bottle. See the 15ml refills →

Who touches what, on the published actions alone

I should be plain about what I have just done. I have recommended a product at ₹459 to ₹519 over one at ₹3,999, because the question was about who has to operate the thing, and on the published actions the glass bottle asks for nobody after day one. If what you actually want is to change the strength on a given afternoon, that is Safar's case and it is a real one. SOSA publishes no ranking of the formats by how much work they feel like, so that part of the decision is yours.

“A stopper set once stays set. A switch has to be pressed. Both of those are on the published record, and neither is a judgement about any person.”

Four steps for a car you are driven in

1. Hang the 12ml bottle yourself and set the stopper where you want it that day.
2. Write the date somewhere. The published window is 4 to 6 weeks of diffusion.
3. Leave the stopper alone until you want a change. There is nothing else on it.
4. Order a 15ml refill at Rs 399 to Rs 449 when the bottle is empty.

Questions, answered