English Fern Penhaligon`s for women and men

I am very surprised by the ingredient listing "Cloves" rather than "Clover" as English Fern's Middle Note! Although "Cloves" sounds like it might be an interesting addition to a Fougere, clover, hay or coumarin notes are what you would normally expect from this scent category and "Clover" is indeed what Penhaligon's lists as it's Middle or Heart notes in their "English Fern" cologne! Either way, it's a favorite of mine and my very first Penhaligon's purchase from the Covent Garden store!

2 hours and phhhht! all gone. Lovely while it lasted, especially because of the sharp contrast between the expectation of ferns and the surprise of cloves suddenly slapped onto a lavender bouquet.

Historically interesting (men wore this in 1911?), perfectly "nice", but utterly, utterly ordinary. And at this price point there are so many to choose from it's hard to imagine anyone choosing this over, say, Eau Sauvage, if it's the green lightness of ferns you're looking for.

English Fern is not what I expected at all...it is green, very green and clean. It is not soft and fern-y, but it does have the English gentleman thing going on for sure. This could have been called English Lavender and Fern...

Considering this was created in 1911 (before household electricity was en vogue) it is pretty impressive! This scent begins with a lot of lavender and geraniums...very manly yet floral at the same time. Geraniums are dry and kinda spicy, and the lavender is powdery and woody green, very aromatic-very English. The heart smooths and warms with the addition of the cloves' dry sweetness. The body of this does get a little less soapy, as the cloves surpass the flowers, but then it is a spicy green-still not really ferny. The ultimate finish is very dry woody and earthy. Moss mostly, some sweet dry sandal and just an whisper of patchouli. This has the "greenness" of fern leaves, the warmth of fern and an earthy finish, like where a fern would grow, but really isn't all that much like the smell of an actual fern plant; but I still love it! Penhaligon's has described the fern with every possible imaginable note; except, ironically ferns themselves, interesting...

Sillage: great
Longevity: very good
Overall: 3.5/5

This smells to me of a walk in the English countryside, perhaps even a horseback ride; then a shower outside in one of those old wooden showers with a natural homemade soap and then dried off with a linen towel and splash on some vintage eau de cologne and sit down to a dinner of bangers and mash and, perhaps a bit of plum pudding for dessert. ENGLAND, through and through...This is most likely what Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights smelled like (and Catherine most likely Bluebell OR Lily and Spice...)-very masculine and simple, yet fine and clean in a very outdoorsy natural way. Over the wily, windy moors...

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey. Dr Jekyll was performing his usual morally apathetic and anatomically risky science experiments, mixing headache inducing quantities of Geranium with overbearing Victorian Clove mouthwash he had stolen from the vile dental training hospital.

He fortifed the noxious elixir with some old Tar kitchen soap cream called “swarfega” (made in Derbyshire England), which is a dark green, gelatinous, thixotropic substance used to clean grease, oil, printer's ink, or hydrophobic dirt off the skin when he’d been working on his new fangled motor car (which none the less, always left his fingernails disconcertingly filthy).

He inhaled this brutish crude concoction and proceeded to smear it on his jowls. The diabolical change was immediate; animalistic hair growth on his cheeks, his voice rasping as if for clean air, eye’s burning with toxicity and his whole persona transformed into the peculiar case of Mr Hyde. Too much Geranium his brain screamed! Oakmoss is too Obvious! Why did I add Patchouli and not ANY FERN! These Cloves are Killing my brain cells! Snarling and in a fury at the suffocating green reek on his cheeks and jowls, he fled into the night seeking to spread violence and vice, in a haze of English Fern induced psychosis.

I myself have since tried Dr Jekyll formulation which he evidently bestowed on Mr Penhaligon, as even the smallest vial of this substance, was so distressing to me that I felt only steel wool would remove the odour, such is its primitive formulation, poor balance and jarring notes.

Should you really want to smell as if you were a Victorian gentleman and felt that your fragrance choices were limited to either, lemons, sandalwood, horse manure or English fern, I would recommend Trumper’s which actually does justice to the fougere.

The first time I smelled Penhaligon's English Fern, I thought some wizzard had transported me in a forest, just after the rain. It smells of the earth, of wet grass, of crushed lavender and clover flowers...irresistible!

Hahaha ppl open your eyes and look at it, it is an Aftershave..haha lol...by mistake they gave this pic here and every one started commentigs..haha lol

Most of these notes are favourites of mine - I just wasnt expecting them to come together in a bottle called "English Fern". A slightly bitter note; geranium, keeps the lavender and clove fresh and safe from getting sharp or too sweet. Refreshing, light with an upcoming powdery whiff from sandal, and a grounding body from the lovely moss. This works well with my chemistry and makes an ideal scent after a hot day - be it from outer or inner high pressure. Id like to have this scent, the showerceam, the bodycream and a coctail to drink of it!

Soapy yes, but I am smelling lots of green stuff a bit "piquant" to my nose. I like it but not to buy it.


8/10

I will be repeating the previous reviews, but I'll say that it's soapy. For me it's more man's, but I feel comfortable in it too. Not too bitter, not too grassy, a bit sour and citrusy. As noble as the other Penhaligon's scents.

I really agree with DawnLady3 about the expectation about English Fern, which should be green. However, it is definitely SOAPY, which comes from the lavender. And I don't usually like lavender. As time goes by, it smells very soapy and white flowery. The base note, which I always love, is not quiet but a little out due to the pachouli in it. Overall, it is not bad, and I do like it. Though I expected to be a green one, so a little bit disappointed.

This one surprised me a little. With a name like English Fern, I was expecting it to be very green and possibly a bit dull, but it opens bright and sharp, with the lavender dominant. It also smells a little of citrus to me, though no citrus notes are listed. With time the sharpness subsides, and it becomes softer, slightly powdery and soapy, and much more feminine than I expected, with the lavender present throughout. This lasted much longer on me than most Penhaligon's do. I don't usually like sharp or green or lavender-based fragrances, but overall I liked this one much more than I expected to.

Oakmoss (for me) is a tricky, tricky, note. At times it can give a perfume a smoothness, and other times it is overbearing and entirely too masculine for my tastes. This is one of those instances...unfortunately this smells stuffy and obtrusive, screaming with its scent. Too heavy and overtly masculine for me...i'm not even sure i'd like this on a man.

For me this is redolent of the scents from a lost childhood in the English countryside, along with Quercus and Bluebell. sadly with all of them after a big opening they fade quickly. I do love them but they just don't last on my skin, 4 hrs at most.

Soapy! I like it! It doesn't seem unisex at first, but after about an hour, I feel more comfortable in it, because it's just so-PAY! I'm guessing it's the lavender making it soapy. LONG-lasting. Lasted all day, with just one spray. All-day, one-spray, soapy!