English Fern
Bronnley

Reviewing EDT.

What I like this stuff! Soapy, smoky, and great for hot and humid weather. It is a pleasant green scent (with some medicine-like notes) that is strangely home-like and comforting. My mood calms down everytime I wear this.

As odysseusm's review opener says, Basenotes has this listed as a feminine fragrance, but I've seen it marketed in many shops here in the UK (including Bronnley merchants) as being for gents. The reality is that it's probably unisex, but it definitely errs more on the feminine than masculine. A very weird frag which at no point really smells of fern - like odysseusm, I also can't detect any fern note at all. What I do get is an unusual smoky sweet and very synthetic woody floral which to me smells "cheap" and doesn't really change. Given that this is a cologne splash designed to be used in quantity, silage and longevity are surprisingly good - a good 4 to 5 hours on me - but whether anyone actually wants to smell like this for that long is open to question. I certainly don't - one of only two frags I've poured down the sink.

This site lists Bronnley's English Fern as a feminine scent, and I agree. I am a big fan of fern or fougere scents. R& G's fern soap, Trumper's Wild Fern and Penhaligon's English Fern have the most marvellous green, mildly “rubbery” scent. I thought I'd try Bronnley and see what they did with it. I am reviewing the Body Splash Cologne. This is an odd scent (to my nose), not anything remotely fern-like about it. Initially it is sweet; like candy, chocolate or almonds. It then settles into a sweet hay scent. It is impossible to get information on the fragrance notes, but I'd guess they are mint, light moss, sweet musk, maybe some patchouli. There is almond oil in the soap and this splash, that also adds a sweet nutty aspect. The soap has a more pleasing, grassy smell than the Cologne. Final verdict – too sweet for me.