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British Tales

Endymion Penhaligon's 2003

7.3 / 10 441 Ratings

A perfume by Penhaligon's for men, released in 2003. The scent is spicy-fresh. It is being marketed by Puig.
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Main accords

Spicy

Fresh

Sweet

Woody

Floral

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Lavender

Bergamot

Sage

Mandarin orange

Heart Notes

Coffee absolute

Geranium

Base Notes

Sandalwood

Black pepper

Cardamom

Leather

Musk

Myrrh

Frankincense Nutmeg

Nutmeg

Vetiver

Perfumer

Fragrance Resources

Ratings

Scent

7.3441 Ratings

Longevity

6.4326 Ratings

Sillage

5.8315 Ratings

Bottle

7.8317 Ratings

Value for money

6.1100 Ratings

Submitted by Chemist, last update on 10/14/2025.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the British Tales collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Endymion Concentré

Meidum

masculin Pluriel

Infusion d'Homme Eau de Toilette

Santal Eau de Toilette

Signature Man Eau de Toilette

Reviews

24 in-depth fragrance descriptions

12/27/2012

5Scent 2.5Longevity 0Sillage

Drseid
828 Reviews

Drseid

Helpful Review 4

Boring Powder...

Nothing wrong with this one, but it just is so mild and safe that it bores me to death. Powder mixed with a bit of fruit on an amber base... Kind of a mild powdery cloud. Inoffensive, but unimpressive. 2.5 stars out of 5.

04/19/2021

9.5Scent 6Longevity 6Sillage

Elysium
896 Reviews

Elysium

Helpful Review 7

Young Man Of Exceptional Beauty

I bet British house Penhaligon's named this perfume after the myth of the Greeks, rather than the futuristic character Raoul Endymion of Dan Simmons saga "The Hyperion Cantos." Endymion in Greek mythology is a young man of exceptional beauty. According to legend, Endymion was king of Elis, hunter or shepherd: he was the first king of Elis in Greek Peloponnese and founded the kingdom with Thessaly colonists. When Zeus offered him to choose his fate, Endymion chose immortality and youth in eternal sleep. The history of Endymion varies from one legend to another. However, the most famous is that of his love for Selene, the goddess of the Moon. They say that Selene became the lover of this shepherd from Mount Latmos in Caria and visited him every night during her sleep.
Back to our era. What is Penhaligon's Endymion all about? If you're anything like me, the aroma of espresso coffee, especially that of the early morning, stimulates you as you need to wake up. So I like the note of coffee, even in the fragrances. And I have some colognes that incorporate this note in their pyramid. However, notes like rose, leather, or coumarin pair with coffee, but the dyad of lavender and coffee is almost a novelty for me. In Endymion, the dyad creates such a subtle and distinctive nuance on par with that of the lavender and vanilla found in Caron's Pour Un Homme, so excellent and disruptive to me. Endymion is my second blindly purchased Penhaligon scent, after Agarbathi, and I'm not disappointed at all. Anything pleasant and unfamiliar to the nose makes me enthusiastic.

As soon as I took a hit of Endymion, I couldn't think of anything else. The opening blast with its brilliant citrus accord made of sweet and sour mandarin and powdery bergamot stays on its own for a minute or so, soon followed by a delicate sage, mainly with whiffs of grass, adding a subtle green edge. There are hints of black pepper that add to the richness of the scent. Shortly after that, a refined lavender arrives that adds an aromatic undertone reasonably subtly. It is neither a floral nor medicinal lavender, instead of a hay-like lavender note straight from the leaf needles rather than the flower buds.
Let the initial burst tone down, and a greener and gourmand heart unfold. The green darkness comes from geranium leaves, while toasted coffee beans blend with a lavender thing for offering a light gourmand touch. It doesn't enter gourmand territory or become foody. That beautiful accord gets better and better, and I can't get enough. I like how the coffee note intertwines with the lavender in this.

The scent stays deceptively subtle despite its heavier components. The dry-down adds some spiciness, mainly from creamy nutmeg, a delicate resinous aroma, while the citrus aroma of the opening is retreating. Light vetiver with no earthy character signals a shift to a musky and woody phase. A soft, thin suede, everything but rude, with touch amber, leads into the base, and the resins gradually dominate the rest of the development. There's just a kiss of musk on a broad base of talc, nothing like a lipstick but something like talcum powder, roundish and sweetish kind of leathery powder associated with Fabergé's Brut, and overall it's a pretty different juice indeed. It becomes warmer, cuddly, introverted, and homey.

With its excellent barber notes in the opening, Endymion will most likely turn many people off at first because the best part doesn't come until half an hour later when the juice unfolds with body heat. I get moderate sillage, good projection, and seven hours of longevity on my skin. It is an intriguing scent for the hottest spring days and evenings. Endymion is a perfume recommended for men and women, and it is a very sensual aroma. It's deep but not too overwhelming. It lasts all day, and I got a lot of compliments while wearing it. I don't know why this sequence of notes should be like this, but it's extraordinarily sensual. The composition falls between clean laundry and barbershop. Maybe nothing completely innovative, but still modern and elegant.

I based this review on a 100ml bottle I have owned since April 2021.

-Elysium

01/12/2016

ColinM
516 Reviews

ColinM

Very helpful Review 3

Brilliant!

One of the most (or should I say, “few”) intriguing fragrances by Penhaligon’s together with Sartorial, both sharing the same peculiar feature – showing a sort of deceptive designer-oriented nature, but creatively elaborating it with what I’d personally consider an interesting and very compelling “artistic” twist (sorry for that, I hate the concept of “artistry” applied to fragrances; don’t take it too literally, it’s just meant to refer to the creativity involved in this). Endymion is basically a very gentle, impeccable, sophisticated and truly British in spirit sort of plushy powdery-gourmand Oriental scent with a fantastic smooth bergamot opening and a coffee-infused, musky-woody and slightly honeyed-resinous foundation, that overall undoubtedly contains echoes of many designers – from YSL La Nuit de l’Homme to Zegna Intenso to the drydown of Rochas Man, but it wouldn’t really be fair to compare them. There’s echoes, they may share a similar sort of inspiration, but that is really not enough to make a proper of comparison in my opinion, as their “substance” differs enormously. Endymion has a whole different quality and texture, which briefly put, is better – or well, surely more fascinating. It smells at once more substantial than them (except for Rochas Man maybe, that was a masterpiece already), more crisp, more quality, and most of all delightfully more ethereal, impalpable, boundless and sophisticated. “Emptier yet fuller”, if that makes sense. And it’s not simply a matter of lightness, I think it’s just a whole different approach and construction, and that’s what marks the difference.

As Diamondflame brilliantly explained on Basenotes in fact, Endymion belongs to that small family of “airy”, weightless (yet more than substantial and rich in character) scents together with Hermès Cuir d’Ange or Prada Infusion d’Iris: stuff which doesn’t smell like a “normal” blend of notes, just rather a unique heavenly whiff of “pure scent”, which you’ve to take and enjoy for, well, just what it is – in which the materials are so good and blended so effortlessly well and out of any formal pattern, that you only get “it”, as a whole. And that’s truly a delightfully poetic effect on skin, as you almost feel you aren’t wearing a fragrance – you rather feel surrounded by an impalpable, almost nondescript yet perfectly detectable and enjoyable scented aura of distinguished lavendery-gourmand British class, tightly blended and masterfully balancing a sort of “double cleanness” – clean zesty top notes of bergamot, clean “laundry-talc” musk and soapy sandalwood on the base notes, wrapped around a warm, velvety heart of lavendery-gourmand-herbal elegance with a perfectly mannered shade of woody smoke (which will arise more prominently on the drydown). It’s warm, sunny, cozy like an English sunset. It feels familiar, but unique. Truly irresistible. I’m probably over-romanticizing this and I am not sure if I made some sense with my description, but just I enjoy immensely the way Endymion disguises its evocative uniqueness under a deceptive, easy-to-dismiss designer-oriented look. And regardless of that it just smells fantastic, surely more on the discreet side of the spectrum projection-wise (albeit quite persistent), but it fits the scent and the inspiration perfectly. A lovely uplifting gem.

8,5/10

03/04/2015

Platinum1
59 Reviews

Platinum1

5

~ English Gentleman ~

~ I thought I had smelled, tested, worn all the quintessential Gentleman scents up until I shook hands with this top hat, leather glove, lavender lapel wearing proper English Gentleman! This is perhaps the first serious contender to potentially dethrone my Signature Chanel? I am completely enamored with the perfection of Endymion's soft, sweet, confident personality. The lavender is so smooth so romantic this will surely please anyone who would accompany you on a Sunday drive or a fall walk in the park! This is warm and welcoming in it's leather and musk base the perfect companion. I give this Penhaligon's an endorsement for any man who wants to bring his style to the next level and please many noses along the way!
Kind Regards, Plat ~
Scent - 10/10

06/09/2023

Rosymel
122 Reviews

Rosymel

2

Lovely opening and drydown

I like this one, but only in the first and last stages. The opening is fine, with some soft citrus and floral, but then It goes through a funny middle stage on me where it’s just baby powder. Thankfully, this is a pretty short lived stage, and the ending is really worth it, very beautiful, with a lovely golden amber, sweet but not cloying.

I wish I got the coffee note at some point, but so far I haven’t!

This reminds me so much of Gallivant’s Brooklyn, down to having a middle stage I have to kind of grit my teeth through before I get to the reward of the gorgeous drydown.

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