Blenheim Bouquet (Eau de Toilette) by Penhaligon's

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Blenheim Bouquet Penhaligon's 1902 Eau de Toilette

7.3 / 10 500 Ratings

A perfume by Penhaligon's for men, released in 1902. The scent is citrusy-fresh. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Citrus

Fresh

Spicy

Green

Woody

Fragrance Notes

Lime

Pine

Amalfi lemon

Black pepper

Lavender

Musk

Perfumer

Walter Penhaligon

Ratings

Scent

7.3500 Ratings

Longevity

6.3368 Ratings

Sillage

5.8351 Ratings

Bottle

8.0331 Ratings

Value for money

5.9119 Ratings

Submitted by Seglein, last update on 10/01/2025.

Interesting Facts

Blenheim Palace is the best known building of the baroque period architect and dramatist Sir John Valbrugh. Being the ancestral seat of the Duke of Marlborough it is one of England's most popular castles and the largest non-royal ancestral seat. The perfume was said to be designed personally for the Duke of Marlborough in 1902. The scent doesn't have a heartnote.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Wellington Cologne

Blenheim Bouquet Aftershave

Granville

Interdit Absente

Town & Country

Oud 3007

Reviews

29 in-depth fragrance descriptions

04/14/2012

8Scent 5Longevity 5Sillage

Apicius
1328 Reviews

Apicius

Very helpful Review 3

English Style and Humour

Blenheim Palace is a well known house in Oxfordshire – nothing petite but a respectable country estate which evaporates a certain grandezza. It is the ancestral seat of the 11th Count of Marlborough who belongs to the higher aristocracy within the English hierarchy. As a fan of the folding bike, of course, Blenheim Palace is known to me, since the annual “Brompton Foldingbike World Championship” takes place there – an event that can really count as typically English. It is a cross county race on tiny Brompton folding bikes that have only 18'' wheels. The participants are asked to dress themselves according to the noble event – cycling shorts and jacket, shirt and tie or bow tie are a must!

But Penhaligon's, rightly or not, adorns itself with borrowed plumes by using the name Blenheim.

Years ago I noticed the mostly positive reviews on Basenotes. Blenheim Bouquet seems to be something like the fragrance reference of this brand. Anything else they do is likely to get compared with Blenheim Bouquet.

Blenheim Bouquet is basically citric. It is a straightforward lemon with only some green and herbal echoes. I suppose, before the aquatics were invented, it was those green citric scents that men would go for instead. By regarding this style as conservative and outdated you would not do justice to Blenheim Bouquet. This style is robust and gripping. It is the sports fragrance for the modern and athletic gentleman of 1902!

The more the lemon fades away and the green notes come forward, the better I like Blenheim Bouquet. But I am not convinced about the fragrance note “pine”. I do not see dark coniferous woods here – like i.e. Acqua di Selva. Musky notes and also some vetiver rather give you the impression of the amiable English landscape park that surrounds Blenheim Palace. I do not understand that vetiver is not part of the known pyramid. After about two hours, I get lots of it.

Blenheim Bouquet may be a fragrance of the past, but also today it would make a good company on a stylish outing in Oxfordshire. Who knows – one or the other participant of the Brompton Foldingbike World Championship may complete his appearance with a few spritzes of Blenheim Bouquet!

06/07/2023

Rosymel
122 Reviews

Rosymel

Helpful Review 3

Expensive hot scented towels (I mean this in a good way)

This is a lovely cologne—sweet citrus (the lime adds the sweetness) plus ginger is what I smell, even though there’s no ginger listed. I know some people find it astringent or harsh but I definitely don’t. It’s a soft sweet fragrance on my skin. I totally agree with the people who said it smells like those nice hot scented towels you get on the plane or in a restaurant! But like really expensive ones, and in a good way. Longevity is very short and projection weak, however.

06/25/2025

6.5Scent 3Longevity 3Sillage

Ursaw
160 Reviews

Ursaw

Helpful Review 3

A billiards room of a gentleman's club

Prickly, but in a good way. Lemon rind – the puffy white part of it. Candied young pinecones. Dry wood dust. Ground pepper. Feels weirdly warm on my skin. I'd enjoy it way more if it was just a little bit colder, but it is what it is.

I don't necessarily love it, but I do quite like it. A very elegant flavor profile – fresh, subdued, with something almost smoky in it. I haven't smoked in ages, but something about it makes me crave a cig. Delightfully neutral – a rarity in the modern teeth-rottingly sweet landscape. Settles on skin pretty much immediately and throughout the next ~3 hours slowly fades away, becoming a softer and softer version of itself until there's nothing left but a faint musky aftertaste.

In a weird and roundabout way, but it immediately reminded me of Eau de Citron Noir. Not in a "smells similar" way. More so in a "oh, that's what Citron was trying and failing to be". So this is the Gentlemen's Club that Citron saw once in a historical drama and has been trying to recreate while drunk off cheap booze at a local pub ever since.

When I see the concept of a respectable men's club performed by Blenheim Bouquet, I finally understand it. It's neat! Not exactly my style, but if I had to keep just one decant out of my Discovery Set – it would be this one. I would probably even use it all up. But that would be it.

08/30/2025

8Scent 5Longevity 4Sillage

itscoraline
154 Reviews

itscoraline

1

Best of British Citrus

Immediately hits you with a super fresh and zesty citrus blast that's strangely reminiscent of pickled ginger.

After about 10 min this eases into a refined composition of politely musky lavender and bitter lemon, and that’s where it sits for the next few hours.

It's very traditional, Extremely British, and to be honest I’m surprised by just how much I like it. All of the notes are smooth and proportional, and it’s refreshing without being astringent.

Projection is mild after that initial zesty burst, and longevity is on the lower end of moderate (which is to be expected for a citrusy EDT and isn’t a negative in my book). Penhaligon’s markets this as a masculine fragrance, but it’s completely unisex to my nose.

09/21/2016

9Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

Meggi
1018 Reviews

Translated · Show original

Meggi

Top Review 40

Commissioner Olfattke Follows the Scent Trail

Fourth Chapter - Shadows of the Past

The apartment. The aquarium. The church. What came next? The first murder had certainly not been committed by chance in Olfattke's district. Even if he had not immediately appeared at the crime scene, sooner or later he would have dealt with it and stumbled upon the matter of the lavishly sprayed perfume. This scent trail had been laid out for him alone, for who else could have followed it? But why was he himself at the center of the murderer’s attention?

Although it had been difficult for him, today he had gone into hiding. He had left the active investigative work to others and retreated to the archive to study the files. Since early morning, he had been sitting in the basement of Police Directorate 4 on Eiswaldstraße, carefully reading through increasingly older investigation files and racking his brain. He had overlooked some detail; something about the events of the last few days pointed specifically to his past as a police officer, he sensed that clearly.

The hand of the wall clock had just moved to eight o'clock in the evening when Olfattke pulled the file of a case from about fifteen years ago from the shelf. When his gaze fell on the yellowed label, he was electrified. That was it! But why? He began to flip through the pages in a frenzy. A senior teacher named Georg Bliesheimer had killed a colleague at the time because he had harassed his wife.

The man had tried to appear serious during the trial. The honorable senior teacher who had made a big mistake in a moment of passion. But that had done him no good. Olfattke had discovered the crucial evidence of premeditation in Bliesheimer's house - a copy of the victim's personal schedule. Suddenly it had been murder. The defendant had taken this turn in the trial strangely impassively. Most of the time, he had remained distant, only occasionally responding calmly and correctly to questions and even adding details about the course of events. Uninvolved and emotionless like a psychopath, while his wife had sobbed in the audience.

And finally, the penny dropped. Olfattke had been annoyed back then that the man had worn a scent that was, like hardly any other, the epitome of seriousness, so to speak, olfactory decency: Blenheim Bouquet, a perfume that the commissioner greatly appreciated. Moreover, it was the only scent he knew that explicitly stated it had no heart notes. “Blenheim Bouquet has no heart notes,” wrote Penhaligon’s about it.

A fresh, not overly sour lemon, accompanied by an ethereal, anticipatory aura, quickly transitioned into the base. Within half an hour, the scent reached distinguished coniferous wood, flanked by a hint of sweetness and initially a touch of residual acidity, perhaps a sherbet candy. Olfattke found this extraordinarily British. The warm-spicy-coniferous impression might have been typical for perfumes from long ago, as a similar scent feeling was also spread by Elite from Floris, which, although a child of the 1970s, likely referred not only nominally to an aftershave from 1851.

Over time, the ethereal, sweetly softened coniferous note became slightly sugary, but never slipped into cheap sugar-cedar. Vetiver formed a fresh-sour-green backbone, increasingly noticeable. The combination with the coniferous-spicy freshness was magnificent. Completely unpretentious yet still present. A gentleman with down-to-earth qualities.

And that from this guy who played the citizen with a misstep. Outwardly serious, behind the scenes a cowboy who let his own right speak. During a break in the trial, he had hissed at the man that Blenheim Bouquet would not save him from a ‘life sentence’. And so it had come to pass.

“Don’t forget that I have no heart!” had been written on the card that the unfortunate boy had delivered to him. That was a hint at the judicial processing of this very murder case.

Bliesheimer was serving time in Moabit; at least that was the last status according to the file. But no one had touched the case in years. Olfattke had already picked up the phone when he remembered how late it was. He had to clarify this tomorrow morning. No, that wasn’t enough; he needed to know now, call the duty officer, or if necessary, go there if the person on the phone wouldn’t give anything away.

He was lucky; an old acquaintance was on the line at the correctional facility, someone who had worked with him at the criminal police until he had looked for something less nerve-wracking for family reasons.

“Georg Bliesheimer was released the day before yesterday. He was picked up here at exactly 11 o'clock.”

Olfattke’s thoughts raced - with years of practiced precision, the commissioner quickly drew his conclusions. He now knew the ‘who’. From that followed the ‘why’. And he had also become clear about the last ‘where’.

------------------------

The remaining chapters:
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2. Serge Lutens, Datura Noir
3. Guerlain, Philtre d'Amour
5. Papillon Artisan Perfumes, Anubis

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