To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
ALSur777 – :
I got a sample of this from Luckyscent. I really like Penhaligan’s Sartorial and wanted to try other fragrances. English Fern has a noticeable licorice smell at first. After a few minutes it has a smell similar to, but inferior to Sartorial under the licorice. I’m glad I only got a sample.
Меченый_Стрелок – :
A wonderful history lesson, great lavender and geranium, clover brings a slight hay note, but the base is lacking in the oakmoss and patchouli department for me. In fact, I detect no oakmoss in my bottle whatsoever. This could have been just a stroke of bad luck in getting a transitional formula from the gray market. Luckily, I have oakmoss absolute to layer it with and excited to try. Otherwise, it’s a fine morning refresher and pick me up throughout the day. Polite, light, and agreeable. Also, this is quite a natural smelling fragrance. So, that’s also a plus. The limited to no oakmoss just doesn’t sit well with me. If you buy this from a discounter, be wary.
dedrelizer – :
Cardamon,anyone?
I’m holding a bottle of cooking cardamon powder on one hand and spraying English Fern on my other hand. Unless I mixed two bottles (you never know what could happen when you inhale so much alcohol from perfume), there is an unmistakably cardamon at top. Then it drops to a rubbery base.
antoha27 – :
My husband just started wearing this and it’s somewhat surprising since he has a major distaste for typical men’s scents along the lines of Brut and Polo. But as mentioned by others, even though English Fern is a classic fougere, it’s resemblence to modern lavender/oakmoss combos is very vague. The simplicity of this formula really let’s the medicinal character of the lavender, patchouli, and oakmoss create an overall feel of an early 20th century barbershop tonic rather than a generic 70’s aftershave. In fact, before I looked it up on this site, I wasn’t even certain it was a fougere. The scent opens vivid and green with depth and distinguishable notes in flight. The drydown, in contrast, is fuzzy, clean and two dimensional. The oakmoss accord is so strong and dusty that you must love the smell of antique shops and old furniture to be open to loving English Fern. On his skin, I am taken back to a bedroom filled with antiques that I used to occupy when visiting my great grandparents as a kid. It smells of a combination of aging wood and remnants of cosmetics and soaps used long ago. Very comforting but definitely not for everyone. Eventually the lavender pops back up dried and familiar and English Fern, at it’s most classic fougere-like, stays close to the skin…dapper but laid-back. “Throwaway Chic” as Cary Grant called it. Great choice for an everyday, goes-with-everything, polite men’s fragrance and a surprise to anyone who thought they hated fougeres.
nfnmzyf – :
Recently got a set of samples from Trumper and Penhaligon. This is almost identical to Trumper’s Wild Fern, with perhaps a couple of small differences. The Trumper is a bit softer, with less sillage and projection. On the other hand, Wild Fern is probably a little more nuanced, since it seems like there is a just bit more going on in terms of the notes involved. But these are both very similar, mainly lavender and oakmoss, and I doubt someone could tell the difference unless they were applied side by side, if then.
Neither lasts very long on my skin but both are pleasant. They might both, and particularly the Trumper, be better viewed as great after shaves than all day colognes.
Aside from what it smells like, English Fern (and Wild Fern) are interesting from an historical standpoint. Houbigant’s Fougere Royale began the fougere fragrance family, now one of the largest. Modern representations are Brut, Clubman, Polo Green and the list goes on. Curious to know whether the current offering by Houbigant was faithful to the original, I learned in going through the reviews of that fragrance that the answer is ‘no’. But at least one of the reviewers, who apparently had some experience with the original, suggested that the closest modern representation might be English Fern.
Very interesting and probably true since Fougere Royale came out in 1882 and Trumper’s Wild Fern came out in 1887. No doubt Trumper modeled his offering after the French one. And, as I say, English Fern, which itself came out in 1911, has almost the same profile as the Trumper cologne. Fun to connect the dots.
Also fun to see just how much fougeres have changed; there is a big difference between English Fern and, say, Brut (or any other modern fougere for that matter, including the current Fougere Royale; I have a sample and indeed it smells nothing like either the Trumper or Penhaligon). How to summarize the difference between these original fougeres and the modern ones? At the risk of dumbing it down too much, the originals were much lighter and simpler.
But enough history. Getting back to the fragrance, English Fern is a solid like for me but not a love given the longevity shortcomings.
sizov.i.ko – :
for me, fougeres more often than not remind me of my dad’s aftershave all through my childhood. this scent, along with basically all fougeres, smell like my dad’s aftershave, and as such, i canNOT fully appreciate them as it smells generic. not that it’s generic, just that that lavender/oakmoss accord reminds me of trying to shave at age 14 and soaking my raw skin in aftershave. it’s nice and pleasant, but it’s totally not for me…
rebys85 – :
It’s soapy, spicy, masculine and I adore it. English Fern is also one of the strongest perfumes I’ve ever used.
A single spray is enough for a cloud of English Fern to form around you. This isn’t a subtle fragrance. I think for some it may be too much. I don’t find I ever get sick of it though.
Although a few other comments have mentioned it fades, I haven’t found this. Every time I get at least 6 hours out of it.
Penhaligon’s have annoyingly discontinued the soap version. Shame as it was the best of their other products.
voviksk – :
Fragrance Review For English Fern
By Penhaligon
Top Notes
Lavender Geranium
Middle Notes
Cloves
Base Notes
Oak Moss Sandalwood Patchouli
English Fern is a lovely little fougere. I adore fougeres and wish they could make more of them. The last fougere that I experienced was Chanel Boy. This is something like that. However, in defense of this perfume, it’s from the Victorian Era and precedes modern perfume when lavender based fougeres were still very common. It’s a bit like Royal Fougere by Houbigant.
It’s a delicate floral with oak moss and patchouli, cloves, and floral touches of lavender and geranium. Following the traditional make-up of a fougere, it has a lavender top note. You can really smell that lavender too. It’s spicy, herbal, pastoral, like smelling lavender fields in the country. The cloves are also there from the start because their own earthy spiciness matches up with lavender. It smells minty and green just like putting your nose to actual green fern. It is outstanding how they recreated the scent of fern without using a fern note.
The cloves dominate the scent at one point. It’s like having slept in a little English garden with lavender and fern. The cloves are pretty powerful here and they welcome the unisex portion of the fragrance. Patchouli has long been considered a “masculine” aroma despite it’s necessity in base notes for any perfume designed for men or women. The patchouli here is traditional patchouli and it’s rather herbal and green, aromatic, spicy. It’s not an incense based patchouli. It’s very realistic to patchouli.
The sandalwood is heady and even a bit sweet. It’s also very true to the scent of actual sandalwood. This fragrance was made using real extracts and oils so you don’t get to smell the chemical carnivals of today’s perfumes. There might be a degree of chemistry going on in this perfume but to me it smells like they did their best to honor the original which would have been pure lavender and patchouli oil.
Absolutely beautiful. It’s a fragrance of green hues and smells like leprechauns, the hills of Ireland and English gardens. This could pass for one of the English Lavender by Yardley type of scents. This is no nonsense, floral and green. This fragrance seems suitable to be worn by herbalists, botanists, and florists, but it can be worn by mature ladies who enjoy lavender scents, or by men who like fougeres or floral guy scents (i.e. Green Irish Tweed).
Gorgeous and green.
wizor – :
For a moment you’re like… this is quite nice, then… No… just no.
fel913intitytek – :
Sharp and soapy “old-school” lavender with almost moderate longevity and sillage. Not bad but way too “vintage”. This is stuck too much in the Victorian Era… 6,75/10
GekaGGG – :
It’s clean, green(ish) and very wearable, but I don’t find it outstanding, especially for the price. I’ll certainly finish my sample, but unless further testing reveals something I’ve so far missed I won’t be purchasing a FB. In my opinion there are other fragrances out there that give you the same thing at much lower prices.
lorGooretebus – :
It’s pleasant but ultimately smells like slightly nicer Mennen Skin Bracer the same way Sung Homme smells like slightly nicer Irish Spring.
trol667 – :
one of my all time favs! day or night. i had a bottle some years ago and after finishing it, i never quite forgot English fern, though i went on to get other green scents (my favourite fragrance type). just got me a bottle today, after 3 years! i’m never going to let you go baby…
Blagedral – :
In about 1990, newly arrived in London (I moved back North again years later), a friend took me into the Penhaligons shop and offered to buy me any fragrance I liked. I didn’t try any of them (duh…) but went for this one as I’ve always been attracted to green, mossy, herby scents (I wore Grey Flannel at the time and still do now). All I can say is that I found this really unpleasant, harsh and bitter. The review down below by Dick Turpin made me laugh out loud, because that sums up how I remember it. The memory has lasted 25 years, and not in a good way.
I felt obliged to edit this after writing just now, just to say that I am very much an amateur, and not very experienced in fragrances. My opinion still stands though. Sorry….
panchel – :
Pretty pleasant green scent. It always gets compared to Wild Fern, which I have a bottle of and I have to say after trying English Fern, they are similar but English Fern seems to have a little more projection and a lot more longevity. It’s going on 9 hours and I still can detect it on my wrist. Looks like I bought the wrong Fern! Oh well, can’t win them all. My rating 7.0
sokol112 – :
Clean, fresh, versatility .. .. English !! 🙂
A good perfume suitable for spring, fresh atmosphere, English, aromatic … is not among my favorites of Penhaligon’s but not bad .. if you are looking for a very clean scent, reminiscent of the English countryside, the grass , the earth .. then you can play it safe with this. The Sillage is moderate, and longevity lasts about 8 hours on my skin. When I tried it on paper did not give me a very good impression .. but now that I’ve tried on the skin is a really good clean, fresh scent. Council for spring!
Sillage: 6.5 / 10
Longevity: 7.5/10
Scent: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
ehnonono – :
English fern by Penhaligons is a classic Gentleman’s scent. Smells just like a traditional barbershop shave soap. Very soapy and extremely pleasant and relaxing smell. There seems to be a strong underlying scent of aniseed. I don’t really get any other ingredients on my nose. I could certainly imagine John Steed of the Avengers wearing this fragrance. Bronnley English fern cologne certainly has a very similar smell for a fraction of the price of the Penhaligons. Longevity is not more than 2 hours on me unlike Penhaligon’s Hamman which is relentless. Would I buy again? At £85 a pop for 100 ml I would definitely plump for the Bronnley 240ml cologne at £12.00. Mrs Peel would never know the difference!!!
ThehT – :
I must say, I was surprised by this fragrance. I picked up all the notes that are listed, but I also get a good dose of anise (which might be part of the [now synthetic] oakmoss). I was not expecting this to call to mind YSL Rive Gauche PH, or Azzaro PH, but it does for me. English Fern is much brighter, and better suited to warmer weather than those two, but they haunt my mind when I take this in. This is a great gentleman’s scent, and I would highly reccomend this to anyone who enjoys Azzaro PH or Rive Gauche. All around good stuff!
vyd362elipseskism – :
On my skin and to my nose, I pick up mostly clover, lavender, geranium and oakmoss. It gives the impression of freshly washed warm skin and it’s really a skin scent that wears close to the skin. Longevity is moderate on my skin. All in all, it’s green, fresh and soapy, perfect for a day out in the sun. IMO, I would say it’s a better alternative to aquatics.
DeAdmau5s – :
A very cool, crisp opening with lots of wintergreen (or whatever stuff always smells like WG to me), perhaps eucalyptus, and a bit of lemon. It’s bigger, badder, and louder than Trumper’s Wild Fern, for those who find their take on this theme to be too weak or mild-mannered. A stale pissy aura (to me at least) deep in the base makes me wary, though. This genre always reminds me of the flavor ingredients in cola, or something like anise or licorice, so I would never buy it, but if you like this scent family, the Penhaligon’s is decent and it’s got some major balls.
ezan4ik – :
Manly, distinctive, it smells of class and good taste.
Natalia_fromAD – :
To start, English Fern is a wild boy…or maybe girl(which im still tryna figure out). Crack open your sample vial or bottle, dab or spray on skin, count to 15…..say bye bye lavender. That’s how long that note lasts. I’ll be Captain Hindsight for today and give you the “real” lowdown to what this really smells like. This smells like 2 things: Some sort of organic hair grease and/or female aftershave(if ever invented). In closing, the lavender is squeaky clean but lasts seconds. Oakmoss, Patchouli, mixed with cloves gives the woody/organic hair grease smell. Later down the line it goes back to fresh and bright. Not bad, not great…it’s alright.
denisshved76 – :
strepsils menthol flavour
kraglor – :
Like it’s mentioned below, first impressions are of bushes/leaves and it’s exactly what I was expecting with a name like English Fern. It’s fresh and outdoorsy, very green and soapy. Not a lot of difference in the dry down, its very linear. It’s quite nice, but I have to say I find it a but much. I mean, I wore it to work yesterday and on the train I was a bit self conscious of the fact that I stank of bushes.
It’s very accurate in what it advertises with the name, and the scent does remind me of playing in the woods when I was younger, which is nice. But, I couldn’t help but get an overall impression of air freshener when I wore it.
Projection seemed pretty good and longevity was average for penhaligon’s, a few hours. Like I said, I was hoping it would dry down to something more mellow, but that initial burst of sharp, soapy greens doesn’t go away for ages and, for me, it became a bit overpowering. Maybe I just wore too much….?
HOWEVER, I wore terre d’hermes today and the smell of English Fern was still lingering on my blazer….I have to say I think these work great together and I would definitely consider buying a small bottle of English Fern, applying a small amount, and them teaming it up with a spray of terre d’hermes! Lovely!
I think the trick is not to overdo the sprays/splashes!
buw172speagoessenda – :
Im going throuhg my samples from Penhaligon’s. This to my nose, at first sniff I said “Wow, the name English Fern is sooo appropriate”. Green (not grass but fresh bushes/leaves), earthy, clean and soapy. This definately brings to mind an old world English gentleman’s smelling scent . . . unisex scent often work on my skin but I can’t see this being unisex . . . maybe aftershave??
kostyafriend – :
This scent is a softer, gentler, blander version of Old Spice on me.
ursik68 – :
Got the new bottle today. It starts fresh and stays that way comparing with my older bottle which is stronger and with medicine smell. The new one is watered down more unisex. I prefer the old one.
Lea88 – :
I don’t know if something happened to English Fern but, the 2012 sample I’m smelling is awful. Maybe, recent severe restrictions on ingredients have strongly affected this composition but, as a matter of fact English Fern smells incredibly wrong and unbalanced. A classic fougere with lavender, oakmoss and the usual coumarin note that’s so badly executed to result way too sharp and definitely unpleasant.
Fougere is quite a crowded territory in which you can have plenty of better options at any price. Avoid.
Rating: 4/10
joh_ru – :
I am very surprised by the ingredient listing “Cloves” rather than “Clover” as English Fern’s Middle Note! Although “Cloves” sounds like it might be an interesting addition to a Fougere, clover, hay or coumarin notes are what you would normally expect from this scent category and “Clover” is indeed what Penhaligon’s lists as it’s Middle or Heart notes in their “English Fern” cologne! Either way, it’s a favorite of mine and my very first Penhaligon’s purchase from the Covent Garden store!
LeXuSmS – :
2 hours and phhhht! all gone. Lovely while it lasted, especially because of the sharp contrast between the expectation of ferns and the surprise of cloves suddenly slapped onto a lavender bouquet.
Historically interesting (men wore this in 1911?), perfectly “nice”, but utterly, utterly ordinary. And at this price point there are so many to choose from it’s hard to imagine anyone choosing this over, say, Eau Sauvage, if it’s the green lightness of ferns you’re looking for.
комплекс – :
English Fern is not what I expected at all…it is green, very green and clean. It is not soft and fern-y, but it does have the English gentleman thing going on for sure. This could have been called English Lavender and Fern…
Considering this was created in 1911 (before household electricity was en vogue) it is pretty impressive! This scent begins with a lot of lavender and geraniums…very manly yet floral at the same time. Geraniums are dry and kinda spicy, and the lavender is powdery and woody green, very aromatic-very English. The heart smooths and warms with the addition of the cloves’ dry sweetness. The body of this does get a little less soapy, as the cloves surpass the flowers, but then it is a spicy green-still not really ferny. The ultimate finish is very dry woody and earthy. Moss mostly, some sweet dry sandal and just an whisper of patchouli. This has the “greenness” of fern leaves, the warmth of fern and an earthy finish, like where a fern would grow, but really isn’t all that much like the smell of an actual fern plant; but I still love it! Penhaligon’s has described the fern with every possible imaginable note; except, ironically ferns themselves, interesting…
Sillage: great
Longevity: very good
Overall: 3.5/5
This smells to me of a walk in the English countryside, perhaps even a horseback ride; then a shower outside in one of those old wooden showers with a natural homemade soap and then dried off with a linen towel and splash on some vintage eau de cologne and sit down to a dinner of bangers and mash and, perhaps a bit of plum pudding for dessert. ENGLAND, through and through…This is most likely what Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights smelled like (and Catherine most likely Bluebell OR Lily and Spice…)-very masculine and simple, yet fine and clean in a very outdoorsy natural way. Over the wily, windy moors…
jona20 – :
I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey. Dr Jekyll was performing his usual morally apathetic and anatomically risky science experiments, mixing headache inducing quantities of Geranium with overbearing Victorian Clove mouthwash he had stolen from the vile dental training hospital.
He fortifed the noxious elixir with some old Tar kitchen soap cream called “swarfega” (made in Derbyshire England), which is a dark green, gelatinous, thixotropic substance used to clean grease, oil, printer’s ink, or hydrophobic dirt off the skin when he’d been working on his new fangled motor car (which none the less, always left his fingernails disconcertingly filthy).
He inhaled this brutish crude concoction and proceeded to smear it on his jowls. The diabolical change was immediate; animalistic hair growth on his cheeks, his voice rasping as if for clean air, eye’s burning with toxicity and his whole persona transformed into the peculiar case of Mr Hyde. Too much Geranium his brain screamed! Oakmoss is too Obvious! Why did I add Patchouli and not ANY FERN! These Cloves are Killing my brain cells! Snarling and in a fury at the suffocating green reek on his cheeks and jowls, he fled into the night seeking to spread violence and vice, in a haze of English Fern induced psychosis.
I myself have since tried Dr Jekyll formulation which he evidently bestowed on Mr Penhaligon, as even the smallest vial of this substance, was so distressing to me that I felt only steel wool would remove the odour, such is its primitive formulation, poor balance and jarring notes.
Should you really want to smell as if you were a Victorian gentleman and felt that your fragrance choices were limited to either, lemons, sandalwood, horse manure or English fern, I would recommend Trumper’s which actually does justice to the fougere.
hsu873elipseskism – :
The first time I smelled Penhaligon’s English Fern, I thought some wizzard had transported me in a forest, just after the rain. It smells of the earth, of wet grass, of crushed lavender and clover flowers…irresistible!
Shriilaks – :
Hahaha ppl open your eyes and look at it, it is an Aftershave..haha lol…by mistake they gave this pic here and every one started commentigs..haha lol
Sanchis – :
Most of these notes are favourites of mine – I just wasnt expecting them to come together in a bottle called “English Fern”. A slightly bitter note; geranium, keeps the lavender and clove fresh and safe from getting sharp or too sweet. Refreshing, light with an upcoming powdery whiff from sandal, and a grounding body from the lovely moss. This works well with my chemistry and makes an ideal scent after a hot day – be it from outer or inner high pressure. Id like to have this scent, the showerceam, the bodycream and a coctail to drink of it!
895138883 – :
I will be repeating the previous reviews, but I’ll say that it’s soapy. For me it’s more man’s, but I feel comfortable in it too. Not too bitter, not too grassy, a bit sour and citrusy. As noble as the other Penhaligon’s scents.
травыч – :
I really agree with DawnLady3 about the expectation about English Fern, which should be green. However, it is definitely SOAPY, which comes from the lavender. And I don’t usually like lavender. As time goes by, it smells very soapy and white flowery. The base note, which I always love, is not quiet but a little out due to the pachouli in it. Overall, it is not bad, and I do like it. Though I expected to be a green one, so a little bit disappointed.
kto-to_05 – :
This one surprised me a little. With a name like English Fern, I was expecting it to be very green and possibly a bit dull, but it opens bright and sharp, with the lavender dominant. It also smells a little of citrus to me, though no citrus notes are listed. With time the sharpness subsides, and it becomes softer, slightly powdery and soapy, and much more feminine than I expected, with the lavender present throughout. This lasted much longer on me than most Penhaligon’s do. I don’t usually like sharp or green or lavender-based fragrances, but overall I liked this one much more than I expected to.
bonoonello7521 – :
Oakmoss (for me) is a tricky, tricky, note. At times it can give a perfume a smoothness, and other times it is overbearing and entirely too masculine for my tastes. This is one of those instances…unfortunately this smells stuffy and obtrusive, screaming with its scent. Too heavy and overtly masculine for me…i’m not even sure i’d like this on a man.
runasha – :
For me this is redolent of the scents from a lost childhood in the English countryside, along with Quercus and Bluebell. sadly with all of them after a big opening they fade quickly. I do love them but they just don’t last on my skin, 4 hrs at most.
88Ser – :
Soapy! I like it! It doesn’t seem unisex at first, but after about an hour, I feel more comfortable in it, because it’s just so-PAY! I’m guessing it’s the lavender making it soapy. LONG-lasting. Lasted all day, with just one spray. All-day, one-spray, soapy!