English Fern Penhaligon's 1910 Eau de Toilette

English Fern opens with a balmy wintergreen geranium accord that meshes with a fern undertone that at this stage is rather muted with the geranium dominating the scent. As the scent transitions to its early heart the green fern takes the fore, but the wintergreen geranium from the open remains in the background in support with patchouli rising from the base giving the balmy green scent a rugged earthy nature. English Fern pretty much remains linear through its dry-down, with what you smell during the early heart phase being what you smell through the end. Projection is excellent and longevity is average.

English Fern is very odd smelling composition. It is extremely green as you might expect, but the fern is less dominant than the balmy wintergreen geranium medicinal aspect of the scent for most of the development and it is quite unpolished and unbalanced in a very bad way. Obviously for the fragrance to survive since 1910 it must be appealing to someone, but I have to wonder if this is the same formula that Penhaligon's released earlier on, as what I am smelling is very amateurish and not the kind of scent I would expect to be a classic. Regardless of what it used to smell like, it smells pretty bad now and this 2 to 2.5 star out of 5 below average composition is not recommended.