This isn’t quite a scrubber, but it outstays its welcome very quickly and adds fuel to the argument made by several critics that Penhaligon’s scents aren’t nearly weighty and meaningful enough to justify their high price tags.
The opening is far more fresh than it needs to be: a simple, linear citrus that’s so clean, you’re bored within seconds. Then the spices start bobbing their heads up and down with a giggly bashfulness that makes you want to slap them across the face and yell at them to stop being so silly. And then things get a little bit floral, a little bit woody, a little bit oriental… and everything cancels out everything else and you’re left with the worst sort of English pleasantness: cheap, spineless and yawn-inducing, it tries to please everyone and fails in irritatingly underwhelming fashion.
[Review based on a sample of eau de parfum obtained in 2010; fragrance tested on skin.]
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