Hee hee hee! Actually, I was paraphrasing my grandma, who would have said wear your *** out!
Penhaligon's Colognes
- Thread starter Mulligan
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Hee hee hee! Actually, I was paraphrasing my grandma, who would have said wear your *** out!
Your grandmother, maybe. Mine smelled like Four Roses and turnips.
...I am speechless. Perfect.
<My rare brushes with British nobility suggest that they are just as likely to smell like gin, mothballs and wet dog.>
All accords found in various expensive English scents, right? <g>
<If you do like fragrances like Blenheim Bouquet and English Fern, you might want to investigate Trumper's Wellington and Wild Fern. In fact, I think that Pino Silvestre is also a fine sub for BB. Likewise, if you like Duoro/Lords, you might be just as happy with 4711's Eau de Portugal (which you can find in both EdC and EdT).>
I have not tried Trumper's Wild Fern. I have tried or own all the others. It is hard for me to remember Wellington, but it really did not strike me as all that close to BB--I had samples of both from the respective companies at exactly the same time--although I know that it has been said many times in various places that it is. I really like Pen's English Fern, but there is no doubt that it is a fougere--a very good one, at least to me, but there are many in the world and many that are very good and many that are very similar to Pen's version.
I do not see 4711's Eau de Portugal as very close to Douro at all. I would consider Pinaud's Eau de Portugal, which I really like and is oddly sold only as a hair tonic, when its overall ingredients and their proportions do not seem to be any different than any Pinaud scent, right in the same ball park with 4711, and, as I think about EdPs (and I am not certain I know enough to be thinking this is a principle!) right in the ballpark of the traditional EdPs, which I think--again I have no idea on what basis I think this--were regular barber shop staples. The Pinauds is very cheap and I am not adverse at all to inexpensive scents!
Douro to me does not resemble any other EdP I have ever sampled. I do not think it is truly an EdP at all. I am not sure why Pen's calls it an EdP at all. Of course, Pen's cannot seem to make up its mind as to lots of things about Douro--its packaging, its name, whether to feature it among its line up.
I got some Pino Silvestre in late December. I like it fine, and it is nice and piney, but I would not consider it much like BB on any dimension.
Douro and BB are in, say, my top 5 all time favorite scents, and who knows there may be other elements at play that just what they smell like.
I guess this is a long darn way of saying that while Pen's is expensive, to me it pretty much delivers, at least as to many of thier scents. And is not all that expensive compared to other scents, including many that do not get talked about much around here, including, say, the Tom Ford and Bond No. 9 scents. And if one is careful one can land some pretty good deals on Pen's. In the scheme of things a 100 ml of edt lasts a long time and even at, say $110, does not cost all that much for the amount of use one gets out of it. I do not have my shirts custom made, for instance, but $110 is probably not that much for one. But how many times am I going to wear that shirt.
But TNH is certainly correct that there are lots and lots of excellent scents out there at all price ranges. No one should feel like they have to buy Pens in order to get a particular effect!
All accords found in various expensive English scents, right? <g>
<If you do like fragrances like Blenheim Bouquet and English Fern, you might want to investigate Trumper's Wellington and Wild Fern. In fact, I think that Pino Silvestre is also a fine sub for BB. Likewise, if you like Duoro/Lords, you might be just as happy with 4711's Eau de Portugal (which you can find in both EdC and EdT).>
I have not tried Trumper's Wild Fern. I have tried or own all the others. It is hard for me to remember Wellington, but it really did not strike me as all that close to BB--I had samples of both from the respective companies at exactly the same time--although I know that it has been said many times in various places that it is. I really like Pen's English Fern, but there is no doubt that it is a fougere--a very good one, at least to me, but there are many in the world and many that are very good and many that are very similar to Pen's version.
I do not see 4711's Eau de Portugal as very close to Douro at all. I would consider Pinaud's Eau de Portugal, which I really like and is oddly sold only as a hair tonic, when its overall ingredients and their proportions do not seem to be any different than any Pinaud scent, right in the same ball park with 4711, and, as I think about EdPs (and I am not certain I know enough to be thinking this is a principle!) right in the ballpark of the traditional EdPs, which I think--again I have no idea on what basis I think this--were regular barber shop staples. The Pinauds is very cheap and I am not adverse at all to inexpensive scents!
Douro to me does not resemble any other EdP I have ever sampled. I do not think it is truly an EdP at all. I am not sure why Pen's calls it an EdP at all. Of course, Pen's cannot seem to make up its mind as to lots of things about Douro--its packaging, its name, whether to feature it among its line up.
I got some Pino Silvestre in late December. I like it fine, and it is nice and piney, but I would not consider it much like BB on any dimension.
Douro and BB are in, say, my top 5 all time favorite scents, and who knows there may be other elements at play that just what they smell like.
I guess this is a long darn way of saying that while Pen's is expensive, to me it pretty much delivers, at least as to many of thier scents. And is not all that expensive compared to other scents, including many that do not get talked about much around here, including, say, the Tom Ford and Bond No. 9 scents. And if one is careful one can land some pretty good deals on Pen's. In the scheme of things a 100 ml of edt lasts a long time and even at, say $110, does not cost all that much for the amount of use one gets out of it. I do not have my shirts custom made, for instance, but $110 is probably not that much for one. But how many times am I going to wear that shirt.
But TNH is certainly correct that there are lots and lots of excellent scents out there at all price ranges. No one should feel like they have to buy Pens in order to get a particular effect!
- Thread starter
- #24
I got ordered the Penhaligon's scent library today. Thanks for the tipoff on that! Incidentally, I recently tried a small sample of English Fern and really enjoyed it. I had heard that it smelled too old, that it was an old man scent. Based on all that talk, I was prepared for an overpowering smell. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the subtlety of the cologne. Very fresh, not stodgy or enclosed in any way. So, I am wondering if that is a common characteristic among Penhaligon's colognes?
Well-articultated and thought provoking post. And deserving of a better answer than I can dash off right now. I would say that in my opinion, every Pen's frag has lots of subtlety. In fact, EF is one of the most straight forward, "least subtle," most linear of them. Some would probably say that something like Hammam Bouquet is dusty and/or dirty, and thus not fresh. It does smell to me like something from a much earlier time--which might be considered an old man indication--and is dirty in a way that I like. In a way it is so old fashioned that there is nothing around like it anymore so at least I would not associate it with an old man. I do not know that most Pen's frags would be considered fresh, but I think you can count on the notes in the scents being distinct and clean. I would say that no Pen's frag is overpowering.
Racquets is pretty much a barberhop scent. I think many associate barbershop scents with older men, because it may be that older men are more likely to wear something that smells similarly to Racquets than a younger man.
I think you will have fun with that sampler set.
- Thread starter
- #26
Another question:
What's with the variability of staying power of cologne on different men? Is it a matter of skin-type, or what?
What's with the variability of staying power of cologne on different men? Is it a matter of skin-type, or what?
Hard to pin it very easily. My skin seems to suck up a lot of stuff that is long lasting on other people. I think it kind of varies with each and every scent.
Part of our whole sampling mantra based on the fact that a scent that lasts forever on you may not last an hour on me. Blenheim Bouquet is one of the scents with a rep for fading away on a lot of people.
Part of our whole sampling mantra based on the fact that a scent that lasts forever on you may not last an hour on me. Blenheim Bouquet is one of the scents with a rep for fading away on a lot of people.
Were you able to get them to customize it for you?
- Thread starter
- #29
Not really, but there was no need because they said it contained all the men's cologne scents.
It fades away on me but I like it anyway.I think my skin is too dry,and I live in a very dry climate.
scratch what I said about 4711 edp below. I have not had it. Really want to now, though!
Your original post made me pull out my 4711 Portugal and the sample of Douro that I had left. Unfortunately, all I have now is the 4711 Portugal aftershave. Still, trying them seemed to uncork a fragrance memory somewhere, so I'll give you what I think are the differences.
The first thing I notice in the 4711 is the orange note. Bright, slightly bitter. This is a real contrast with the Douro (for me anyway), where I get what seems to me to be dominated to be neroli. And that scent that, if you like it, identifies the fragrance as being Penhaligon's. However, in the drydown, they are very similar. Now this isn't an ideal comparison because the drydown of the 4711 Portugal is pretty quick. A good comparison would be that the 4711 is a powerfully intense (in the EdP) transformation of the Pinaud Portugal. To my nose, 4711 makes a dramatic Portugal--one that could stand as an example of a perfect Portugal scent. On the other hand, Penhaligon's Douro is a Pen's fragrance more than it is a Portugal.
In Japan, 4711 markets Eau de Portugal in aftershave, aftershave milk or balm, EdC and EdP. Plus I think that there are hair tonics, lotions and things like that. I don't know why they don't sell it in the US. For a while there was an internet vendor who would ship from Japan, but I don't see his site anymore. The range is available on Amazon Japan, but I don't think that they ship to the US. That makes it hard to find, although it isn't too expensive when you can get it.
Sorry for the thread hijack--I now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion.
