Lemon No. 1999
Eau de Parfum, C.O. Bigelow Apothecary (2009)

C.O Bigelow is the oldest continually-operating apothecary/pharmacy in the US. that unlike the technically-older Caswell-Massey, didn't change names nor shift into perfumery and cosmetics as apothecaries became modern pharmacies. Instead, good old C.O. made the transition into a modern pharmacy with it's old 19th century legacy intact, but due to the popularity of shops like Keihl's, Lush, and L'Occitane en Provence, was prime picking for The Limited Inc. to scoop up and make into an "old world apothecary" brand of cosmetics and fragrance. Much of the C.O. Bigelow story ends there, as a fleet of stores were opened that just sold the cosmetics but all eventually closed when they didn't succeed, with the products they carried rolled into the Bath and Body Works shopss that The Limited also owned, and the original Greenwich Village shop owned independently. Lemon No. 1999 is not one of C.O.'s original creations, but rather a product launched by perfumers working for The Limited to emulate the simple single-note style of 19th century scents that Bigelow once made themselves. I know that sounds confusing but that's the degree of madness corporate cosmetics will take for brand diversity these days. As a newly-developed old-world-style perfume, Lemon No. 1999 does exactly as it promises, and delivers a very lemon-focused experience, but that's not all.

The scent opens with lemon, which if you didn't see coming you should probably ask yourself why you bother reading labels, and then adds lemon leaf for a bit of herbal dryness before ending in warm white musk. This simple 3-note combination starts off like fresh lemon juice, but doesn't actually end there, and reminds me of what one would get if they made Caswell-Massey Number Six (1789), but with all the sophistication stripped out. The notes here are all found in Number Six, and for the life of me this exact combination of notes provides the main oomph of Number Six anyway, so what The Limited via C.O. Bigelow really created in effect was a skeletal Number Six. Lemon oil, a bit of green muddling, then musk.. Bam! I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a good scent but it's just so incredibly simple and fleeting that I still ended up disappointed. Let's be honest here: once this dries down to musk, all the lemon is gone. Lemon is only used as a top note among many in a pyramid for a reason, and that reason is it just doesn't have any sustain without a fixative, so no matter how "lemony" you want a lemon scent, you have to enhance it with complimentary notes to carry that "implied lemon" atmosphere further. There's a reason why many lemon-based aromatic chypres contain so many other things, and it's because combinations of other notes cam mimic or prolong the main accord, so if you're after a lemon-scented perfume, you ironically have to put much more than lemon and musk in it for it to work.

Lemon No. 1999 isn't bad, but as a perfume borne of a desire to make a stand-alone fragrance from a popular skin cream the apothecary makes, it just comes across like one of those movies adapted from a video game: too narrow in focus and missing the entire point of it's own adaptation. If you really love single-note stuff this is for you, or if you want to drop some concentrated Real Lemon squeeze into your Alyssa Ashley Musk (1968) then this might be a more expensive but more convenient option for you. If you're a nut for old US apothecary-type scents, I'd recommend trying Caswell-Massey and avoiding this, plus probably most of what is passed as fragrance from the house, since outside of the bay rum, it's all just swill made by The Limited abusing their license of the actual apothecary's brand. There's a reason all these cosmetic shops bearing the C.O Bigelow name failed within a few years time, and it's the exploitative nature of the products themselves, with this being one of the lesser offenders. Still, you could do worse, simply by entering a Bath and Body Works shop and buying -their- fragrances instead of going into the C.O. Bigelow corner and buying this. A pleasant, if flaccid perfume that fails to channel the nostalgia it banks on making it sell.

The fragrance notes are lemon leaf, lemon and musk. When you first spray it, it smells like fresh lemons. The lemon fades rather quickly, and the soft musk comes out. I think it depends on your body chemistry, but on me the lemon barely lasts a minute, the musk comes out almost right away. I actually
consider this a musk scent.

It's worth noting all of the products in this line smell slightly different. The lotion has a woody/ aftershave under smell rather than musk. The creamy body wash smells sour. The hand wash is the one that's most "lemon" of this line.

Greetings...

When Bigelow gives you lemons.... I couldn't resist.

But this is adorable. Wear it by itself OR... Spray it over something else to add a nice lemony citrus touch.

... and who couldn't use a little more lemony/citrus... I ask you?

Decent performer for a Lemon ;)

7/10

Ciao

Lemon. Zest.

About as straightforward as a scent can get. It exudes that wonderful lemon zest scent previously known only in the kitchen or the grove. Fresh and citrusy and clean as can be. A simple scent, but remarkably nice.

Lemon, lemon, lemon and more lemon.
If you like lemons, this is your perfume.
Good sillage and projection too.