1902 The Vert Parfums Berdoues for women and men

I am very, very picky about green tea fragrances. This is not a matter of snobbishness but of physiology, even of survival, as hyperbolic as that may sound. I had a couple of very traumatic experiences with green tea scents early on in my olfactory journeys, and not wanting to find myself in the position of affirming the rationality of suicide, I have steered clear of green tea--and green fragrances more generally--ever since.

Yes, they were vat juices produced by companies whose line-ups include a number of fragrances unwearable by me, but still the experience was negative enough that even when deciding which of the Berdoues 1902 all-natural colognes to buy, I hestitated when I got to the green tea selection. Even after receiving the bottle and examining the ingredients and carefully reading the blurb on the box to confirm that this composition is indeed made with essential oils, not the stuff of science fiction, I took quite some time to get around to testing. I still worried that it might be the tea, not the chemicals used to mimic tea which had been so unnerving to me.

How unreasonable that was in my case is evidenced by the fact that I am in fact an avid green tea drinker. I drink Japanese green tea (sencha with matcha or bancha or genmaicha, etc.) nearly every single day, yet still I had concerns about whether this cologne would work for me.

It turns out that my worries were naught. 1902 THE VERT is a beautiful, peaceful, pleasant green tea cologne perfect for hot-weather wear. It's very smooth, not very citric (compared to some of the other members of this collection), and not at all aquatic. There is nothing here to induce anxiety and strife. On the contrary, this fragrance induces in me a desire to wear only all natural perfumes!

I highly recommend this gentle green cologne for people who like the idea of green tea scents but who have found that some of the others are simply too synthetic and scary to wear. The sillage is medium and the longevity is more like that of an eau de toilette than a cologne. Completely unisex, this is a big "yes" in my perfume book.