Penhaligon's samples arrived!

**Dennis** · 05-12-2006, 07:00 AM

Woot - nice acquistion day yesterday! Not only did Scotto's cream samples arrive but so did some Penhaligon's samples. I still am waiting on samples from Floris, T&H, and Trumpers to show up. I am quite new at this cologne thing. I have the usuals (Polo, Obsession, Colors whatnot) that must be 20+ years old by now but I haven't worn them since college or before. I am looking for something subtle, pleasant and gentlemanly (if that is a word) and I want my wife to like it as well (obviously...). I had not even thought about wearing cologne until I started wetshaving - whouda thunk it.

Penhaligon's gives nice size samples too - about 1.5 ml.

English Fern - This is the first one I tried - outstanding stuff! I shaved with Taylor's Avocado this morning and followed up with this and it just seems like a natural pair. Although labeled as gender neutral, it seems quite masculine. I like the scent out of the bottle - it is just a touch floral and green and a bit strong, but after having it on for a couple hours, this has settled into a nice, warm and pleasant scent that is clean smelling and not at all overpowering. This one is a definite winner and feels perfect for today - rainy and in the 50s F.

The rest of the impressions are from sniffing off the tube...

Douro - Not bad. Smells strikingly to me like Old Spice with a hint of lemon.

Hammam Bouquet - Wow - nice. It was a toss up between this and the English Fern this morning but it seemed like this is more of a warm weather scent. Light rose smell with maybe something a little spicy but not overly strong and still masculine. Definitely will try this one when the sun comes out next week.

Endymion - Strong, nice. This seemed a bit "heavy" to me. I can definitely see this is a fall or winter scent. Reminded me of Obsession a little bit. I have some Santal on the way and think it will be similar to this.

Quercus - When I did the initial sniffs, this one impressed me the least. On second and third sniffs though, the scent is clean and light and maybe a bit citrusy. I'll see how it goes.

Like I said, these are my first colognes in must be 20 years and my only experience prior is with the type of stuff mentioned above.

Dennis

**Scotto** · 05-12-2006, 08:05 AM

Good stuff! The Fern is my favorite cologne. In fact, I am wearing it today!

I'll also plug the decant club which allowed me to pick up a decant inexpensively.

I have the Endymion and love it also. It is a close smell-alike to Floris Santal.

**Dennis** · 05-12-2006, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by Scotto

Good stuff! The Fern is my favorite cologne. In fact, I am wearing it today!

I'll also plug the decant club which allowed me to pick up a decant inexpensively.

I have the Endymion and love it also. It is a close smell-alike to Floris Santal.

The Decant Club is where the Santal is coming from...

I forgot to mention I also ordered some Floris JF site unsmelled. I could not pass up the 50% off sale. I used to use a Clinique Happy aftershave balm and that has a really nice orange/citrus smell that I was going for. Hopefully the JF will be nice.

Dennis

**Scotto** · 05-12-2006, 10:16 AM

I have the JF, and it is nice. Neroli (orange blossom) with a base of amber. Classy scent. I find in warm weather it doesn't do well for me, though.

**SSLStudio** · 05-13-2006, 03:05 AM

Would Penhaligon ship samples to the Netherlands ?

I'd be for sure interested in samples. on ebay the samples cost too much they are not samples more like Decanted stuff per 10ml.
where to order the samples?

**KUJO** · 05-13-2006, 09:19 AM

Rene,

try this: http://www.penhaligons.co.uk/ishop/1/shopscr822.html

**Dennis** · 05-15-2006, 08:02 AM

OK, further experimentation with the Penhaligon's samples...

My wife is not so hot on these samples so far. I was grooving on the Fern and she said, "You smell like an old man." Nice. So I went with the Endymion this weekend and the smell was nice - at least not "old man" to her. The weather has been downright nasty in the Great Lakes lately so this felt like a good choice. The problem for me was zero staying power. It was gone after about 3 hours. I wore the same thing on Sunday and applied a bit more (using the sample tube against the chest and rubbing method) and same thing - gone in 3 hours or less. And I mean gone too - not a whiff to be found even on the t-shirt.

Trying the Douro today. I did not really like it when it went on and SWMBO said it smelled pretty vile to her. Lovely... This cologne has some staying power much like the Fern which lasted all day and into the late evening. The Douro has settled into a citrusy and light powdery kind of smell but it just does not seem to be going well with my body chemistry for some reason. I am not really digging it. Oh well, Hamman Bouquet and Quercus to go (and I haven't given up on the Fern yet...) and hopefully more samples arrive soon.

Dennis

**Austin** · 05-15-2006, 08:11 AM

Dennis, I would give your samples a few more tries before you make final judgement. You would surprised that after a few tries some colognes really grow on you.

**zaphf** · 05-15-2006, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by Mike02

"You smell like an old man."

Bah, just counter "Yes, I smell distinguished all right!"

Remember, scents are for you :)

**Dennis** · 05-15-2006, 10:18 AM

Quick question... I see Charles at QED sells the small atomizers. Is it worth picking up some of these to pour samples into for using?

Dennis

**Scotto** · 05-15-2006, 11:49 AM

Once one of those sample vials is emptied into an atomizer, I am not sure the tube will be able to suck it up to use it correctly. You need either a much larger sample or a very small atomizer.

**Dennis** · 05-18-2006, 10:51 AM

Alright, following up here...

The only sample I have not tried from the Penhaligon's line is the Hammam Bouquet. I am waiting for a nice sunny, warm spring day (and I have been waiting a while...). I posted in another thread on the Quercus which I thought had not much staying power. Well, I was wrong on that. When I thought it was fading it just kicked into the base notes and lasted all day and into the late evening. The Quercus was OK. To my inexperienced nose, I felt that so far the Penhaligon's samples I tried are drying down into a somewhat similar smelling cologne. The English Fern was not that far off from the Quercus and the Douro was a bit similar but with a little more citrus or powder. Is there a "house flavor" to cologne lines with these traditional styles?

My wife really did not like any of them much - she emphatically insisted they smelled like an old man on all the Penhaligon's line (we are in our mid 30s btw). I personally liked the English Fern the best of the group so far (and not trying the Hammam Bouquet). I will be giving all of them a few more tries, but it is going to take some time to get through all these samples (Floris, T&H, Trumpers....). That is the fun part I guess.

**soulshine** · 05-18-2006, 06:51 PM

samples are on the way in.

where do you gent's purchase Penhaligon's from? do you order online directly from them or do they have US retail outlets?

thanks!

s~s

**letterk** · 05-19-2006, 08:28 AM

There are US retail stores. I don't know how many, but there's on in a mall close to me. I may stop by today (on my way to C&E) to see what they have.

**Dennis** · 05-22-2006, 07:52 AM

The Hammam Bouquet wraps up my Penhaligon's samples. Wow - what a cologne! Absolutely outstanding. It starts off as a light rose floral scent that is still masucline at the same time but dries down to a sandalwood-ish with a cinnamon and other delightful things that lasts all day. This is just an intoxicating fragrance - a definite keeper for me.

So, after all the Penhaligon's testing, I ended up liking the English Fern and Hammam Bouquet. The Quercus and Douro were OK but not overwhelming and the Endymion is just too similar to the Santal which I have already ordered. There are still 5 other fragrances in their line (Blenheim Bouquet, Castile, LP No 9, Racquets Formula and Opus 1870) that I would like to sniff. I may get lucky with a sample request again, but your thoughts on which the good ones are compared to seeing what I already like would be appreciated. I just need to keep my wallet in check now...

**roughrider** · 05-22-2006, 09:21 AM

I loved Endymion and LP No. 9. I didn't get Racquets Formula, Opus 1870, and Hammam Bouquet in my sampler. I really wanted to try the Hammam Bouquet.

The Endymion smells a lot like Floris Santal. I was going to snag a bottle or two of Santal Extreme but Floris didn't put it on sale like last time.

**woodbane** · 05-25-2006, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by Mike02

The Hammam Bouquet wraps up my Penhaligon's samples. Wow - what a cologne! Absolutely outstanding. It starts off as a light rose floral scent that is still masucline at the same time but dries down to a sandalwood-ish with a cinnamon and other delightful things that lasts all day. This is just an intoxicating fragrance - a definite keeper for me.

So, after all the Penhaligon's testing, I ended up liking the English Fern and Hammam Bouquet. The Quercus and Douro were OK but not overwhelming and the Endymion is just too similar to the Santal which I have already ordered. There are still 5 other fragrances in their line (Blenheim Bouquet, Castile, LP No 9, Racquets Formula and Opus 1870) that I would like to sniff. I may get lucky with a sample request again, but your thoughts on which the good ones are compared to seeing what I already like would be appreciated. I just need to keep my wallet in check now...

Funny, Hammam Bouquet did absolutely NOTHING for me, I really didn't like it at all. Ah well.....

Now Blenheim Bouquet on the other hand, now there's a fine fragrance. I am still squeezing the very last drops out of my sample some 3 weeks later and will definitely be purchasing this one (or at least trying to get the decant club to have some again).

Same goes for Opus 1870, my wife loves that one....I mean really loves it.

Castile - I got this from the decant club and then sold it on to another member. It was quite floral to my nose but there is something about it that makes you want to keep trying it. I couldn't get past the floral notes however and it seemed to be setting off my allergies.

Racquets - meh! Very 'department store-ish' to my nose, wasn't impressed at all.

Mike, when I requested my Penhaligons samples I requested 3 specific scents (that I knew I really wanteed to try) and that is what they sent me with a few others. I'd e-mail another request saying you were so impressed with their line of colognes that you simply have to try all the others!

I bet that'll get them to send you some more!

**Dennis** · 06-13-2006, 06:59 AM

Penhaligon's has been awesome to me. They followed through on my request and I have received samples of their remaining men's fragrances. In the package was LP #9, Castille, Blenheim Bouquet, Racquets Formula, and Opus 1870. All of these smelled excellent in the sampler with the LP#9 maybe being a bit "much." I was really looking forward to trying the Blenheim Bouquet as I have heard very good things about it. Have it on this morning and man does it smell vile on me - ugh. Followups posted later after I get through them. I WILL be purchasing some Fern and some Hammam from them for their genorosity and we will see on the rest of these. Glad they came though, I was out of new fragrances to try! -- Dennis

**Dennis** · 06-14-2006, 08:23 AM

Blenheim Bouquet = Vile. Nasty stuff on me, like I was wearing PineSol cleaning agent. No, no, no. Ugh.

Castile is on today and it had been about 5 hours. Not bad, not bad at all. It was really strong in the orange/citrus when it went on but has now evolved to something fresh and maybe lightly floral. It is a very pleasant fragrance but doesn't strike me as terribly different from some of the other colognes in their line like that I like better (like Hammam Bouquet). This is goes in the keep pile to retry later. -- Dennis