Penhaligon's Question

Hello All...my mom just came home from London with a Penhaligon's gift certificate for me.

I am not sure what to select because I have been allergy prone to cologne and usually do not wear one.

Any advice on which of their scents is the lightest? I prefer to stay away from woody scents. I was thinking about Anthology Extract of Limes. I don't want to smell girly!

To use the gift I have to call their Regent Street location and don't want to sound like a complete idiot.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may offer.

It will definitely be worth your while to just pony up a few bucks for the sampler from London's or Penhaligon's directly. I made a mistake of buying Castile and found out that it really bothered my allergies. Good luck, and you sir are definitely lucky.

Tricky said:

It will definitely be worth your while to just pony up a few bucks for the sampler from London's or Penhaligon's directly. I made a mistake of buying Castile and found out that it really bothered my allergies. Good luck, and you sir are definitely lucky.

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Try to find or buy a sampler pack. We can't tell you what you'll like and the allergy thing is a real issue.

Tricky - Thanks for the advice on the sampler pack. I had not seen that on their website, but I will definitely ask about that. STylinLA - I understand you guys can't tell what I like. Just wanting to know who had experience with Penhaligon's and which ones they find to be somewhat muted.

With regard to the sample pack, I'd suggest calling their customer service number rather than ordering it online. THe standard set contains half women's fragrances, but if you call them they'll customize it for you so you can try more of the men's scents.

I have the Opus 1870 which has a nice spice smell.

Obsessed said:

With regard to the sample pack, I'd suggest calling their customer service number rather than ordering it online. THe standard set contains half women's fragrances, but if you call them they'll customize it for you so you can try more of the men's scents.

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Really excellent advice, C Atlas! I mean Obsessed! Love your latest avatar, A! Just too, too hip!

bran said:

Tricky - Thanks for the advice on the sampler pack. I had not seen that on their website, but I will definitely ask about that. STylinLA - I understand you guys can't tell what I like. Just wanting to know who had experience with Penhaligon's and which ones they find to be somewhat muted.

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"Muted" I know this house pretty well, but I am not sure how to anwwer that question. As far as Brit scent houses go, I would characterize Floris as overall reserved and GF Triumper less reserved, but still, for want of a better word, weakish, so perhaps "muted." T&H perhaps an increment further from muted than GFT. I do not know D H Harris all that well, but my impression and limted experiience might say around the T&H muteness level, maybe a bit more muted. Anyone feel free to correct me! I would say that Penhaligon's as generally less "muted" still than T&H, and C&S definitely not muted.

So I guess this is a long way around of saying that most Pens are not exactly "muted." But they are still Brit frags so they have some "restraint" built into their DNA.

I am guessing that English Fern may seem relatively "muted," because it is acessible and will seem familiar.

Opus may fit in this category, too, although it is peppery.

As I recall, Racquets is pretty barbershop and thus not genre bending and ight be considered kind of muted.

I would say that Quercus is relatively middle of the road, and thus might be considered toward muted.

Endymion seems to have a lot of vanilla and to seem pretty sweet overall, so perhaps it is relatively muted, but I think with it we are starting to get into love-hate territory, so maybe not very muted.

I would consider LP No. 9 to be pretty unusual, so not muted.

Elixir is exotic so not muted.

HB nobody's idea of muted. Too unique, too old.

BB--aloof is not muted.

Douro, nothing muted about it

Castile, bursting with floral and neroli, definitely not muted and perhaps inherently allergy triggering!

Did I miss any? I guess I would say that Racquets and Quercus seem most muted of the Pen's line up.

EDIT: I meant to say that I have not sampled any of the anthology series. Your impression as to which are muted is as good as mine!

bran said:

Tricky - Thanks for the advice on the sampler pack. I had not seen that on their website, but I will definitely ask about that. STylinLA - I understand you guys can't tell what I like. Just wanting to know who had experience with Penhaligon's and which ones they find to be somewhat muted.

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Yeah Bran, I'm sorry if that came off too flippant. As to the muted, I find that a bit hard to judge. In my experience, they're all pretty strong scents.

My favorite is Racquets. Sort of floral and soapy. A bit barbershoppy to me. But I find it to be one of my more tenacious scents. I think it projects a fair amount and lasts quite awhile.

The "muted" may come in your application. I use about three sprays of Racquets and it lasts me a 10 hour workday.

They're all pretty "manly" scents, but in a very staid British way. More precisely, they are usually a bit floral and powdery, but you'll smell like a gentleman, not a girl.

It's an excellent dilemma you're in with that gift certificate.

Blenheim Bouquet generally wears pretty lightly or muted I think. Citrus and pine. It's a highly regarded scent here. I can't endorse it because I've tried it twice and find it has very limited longevity on me. But, YMMV, and if you're sensitive to scents, you may find it lasts just fine for you.

As Obsessed noted, when you narrow the field to the ones you want to try, call them to have it tinkered the way you want. As he said, their standard sampler pack is half mens; half womens. If I'm not mistaken, it's 8 vials.

If I remember correctly...they also do what they call "Fragrance Profiling" online (I am sure they will have something in the store as well). You answer a few questions and they recommend a few scents/fragrances that fit YOU. I haven;t tried it, but heard that it's pretty good.

Give it a shot...can't hurt

Robert

Wow Rob what a summary and are we to assume that you have all of these on your counter or in the cabinet? Forget that website that evaluates fragarances I will PM you from now on. Bought the GFT Marlborough Cologne several weeks ago and couldn't get any advise in my Thread. Your reply is very succinct.

I am allergic to lots of fragrances, too. I have a bit of a reaction to Endymion, but not much. Ditto for Castile.

The Extract of Limes is one the best colognes I have ever smelled, but I'm a sucker for lime scents. Didn't bother my allergies one bit. Can't say whether it will bother yours or not. It will not be included in a typical sampler.

I ordered a decant of the stuff from The Perfumed Court. It wasn't cheap.

Thanks guys! Knize and others, thanks for the rundown. StylinLA, no you didn't come across too flip. I am sorry if my response sounded rash. I didn't want my post to come across as one of those "tell me what I should buy" posts. I just wanted to know some of your thoughts.

I tried the "Fragrance Profiler" but my browser will not let me submit anything. It ma be because I am using a Mac and they aren't overly Flash friendly. I have contacted the their US sales office (last night around 12:30 PM) about a mens specific sampler and my allergies and scent preferences. I had a response at 7:40 AM this morning requesting my address so they could send some samplers to me.

Thanks again guys!

bran said:

Any advice on which of their scents is the lightest? I prefer to stay away from woody scents. I was thinking about Anthology Extract of Limes. I don't want to smell girly!

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As someone who has tried all the Penhaligon scents, I would say most of them are unisex to some degree, so if you're after a unambiguously manly scent, you might want to invest in their shaving creams and other non-cologne products to avoid that trap. Elixir is definitely masculine, but it's a TEHO (to each his own) scent and you might hate it. You might feel tempted to buy another masculine scent, English Fern, because it's gotten so much press on B&B, but I loathed it so much that I took a shower to get that synthetic stench off me. (Think of dousing yourself with Pine Sol bathroom cleaner instead...it's far cheaper. ) One you might try is Racquets. I quite liked this one...it's very under-publicized yet is delightful right through the dry-down. Most of the rest, I feel, have some unisex floral thing going on, so as some suggested, you might try a sampler. Don't feel confused if you don't like any of them...Penahigon's (like Creed) gets way too much hype on B&B and I have yet to figure out why.

Racquets is nice.

I gave my sample to my 16-year-old son.

dougr said:

Wow Rob what a summary and are we to assume that you have all of these on your counter or in the cabinet? Forget that website that evaluates fragarances I will PM you from now on. Bought the GFT Marlborough Cologne several weeks ago and couldn't get any advise in my Thread. Your reply is very succinct.

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Thanks! On my shelves, I have at least a bit of all the Pen's listed, except Racquets. I have tried none of the anthology scents. I have the least of Quercus, LP No. 9, Endymion, and I guess unfortunately at this point, Elixir. I suppose a have at least a working amount of each of the others, at least three of which are among my favorite scents ever.

You could say that I have made somthing of a study of Pens regular scents. Be careful! It all started for me with a set of samples from Pens!

EDIT: I am not sure what to say about Pens and unisex. EF is actually said by Pens to be unisex, but I cannot imagine it being worn by a woman and i love it as a scent. I do not think that Pens thinks BB or Douro are unisex and i cannot imagine it either. Endymion and Castile sure, but what is wrong with unisex? HB is floral, I guess, but so dirty it seems hard to see it somethng a woman would want to wear, although I guess I like the idea. Unique very ancient seeing stuff! Quercus is probably innocous enough to be unisex but I do not recall it being floral. Racquets as barbershop not unisex. I think Pens sees Ellixir as unisex and I definitely do! I like it on me and I think it would be amazing on a woman. Not floral though. Very exotic. LP No. 9 has masculine and feminine versions. I have not tired the latter. I guess i could see the male version as unisex. It does have a sweetness to it.

I do not know GFT scents very well.

The unisex thing can scare a lot of men, especially if new to scents.

Frankly, I think it's just Pens way of trying to sell more scents.
Many of the niche perfumers do that. Creed's MI is considered "unisex" by Creed, but I don't imagine they sell much to women.

I haven't tried the whole Pens range, but everything I've tried, unisex or not comes off as masculine to me.

Go with Blenheim Bouquet. It is not overpowering in the least. I'm sensitive to most fragrances, and find BB very appealing.

Stubblefield said:

Go with Blenheim Bouquet. It is not overpowering in the least. I'm sensitive to most fragrances, and find BB very appealing.

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BB is among my top 5 ever scents, but it is rather controversial. I would not have thought of it from my own impressions of it as a polarizing frag, but it seems to be. I do think of it as "aloof."

The Knize said:

I think Pens sees Ellixir as unisex and I definitely do! I like it on me and I think it would be amazing on a woman. Not floral though. Very exotic. ...
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You think Elixir is not floral? Smells VERY floral to me. Smells a lot like a white peony, although I don't think it lists that note specifically. The neroli on top of the fragrance is floral.

By the way, I LOVE Elixir. I think it's the best of the regular Penhaligon's line.

Interestingly, when I wear it my wife says it smells feminine. So I told her she should try wearing it, since it's "unisex." She put it on one day. She tells me on her it smells "masculine." Bizarre, right? On a man, it smells feminine, and on a woman, it smells masculine. That's her story and she's sticking with it. Maybe that's one of the problem with the whole concept of "unisex." Ultimately, I told her that I'm going to wear it now and then, whether she likes it or not, because I like it too much to let it go to waste.

Here's what Pen's says:

Head Notes
Eucalyptus, Cardamom, Orange Blossom Absolute and White Cedar

Heart Notes
Red Turkish Rose Absolute, Egyptian Jasmine Absolute, Cinnamon Leaves, Mace and Rosewood

Base Notes
Benzoin, Tonka beans, Vanilla, Incense, Red Sandalwood and Guaicum Wood

So no doubt you are right that it has floral. Nothing as flroral as Castile. I love Elixir, too. Just an outstanding, original, creative frag. High scentmaking! It seems masculine on me. But I would be happy if my wife wore it. I am not much much overall on dividing scents between masculine and feminine, but Pen's E Rose seems very flroal and veryu feminine.