Thé Vert Wellbeing Fragrant Water 100ml

Ten materials is a lot for a light fragrant water, and Roger & Gallet Thé Vert Wellbeing Fragrant Water 100ml uses them to build something considerably more detailed than the format usually allows.

The opening is a three way citrus. Yuzu is sharp and floral with a bitter edge, grapefruit is sour with a faint tang to it, and mandarin orange is the soft, sweet one that holds the other two together. It is bright without being simple.

Green tea runs through the middle and the base alike, which is why it dominates the impression the fragrance leaves. It is dry and slightly astringent, closer to leaves steeping in hot water than to anything sweetened, and it is the thread that ties the whole composition together. Around it in the middle sit lily of the valley, dewy and green white, freesia, clean and bright, and jasmine, warmer and fuller than either, filling out what the tea leaves thin.

The base is more substantial than a water of this kind normally carries. Cedarwood is dry and sharp, guaiac wood is smoky with a tarry depth, and amber adds a resinous warmth that keeps the green materials from turning cold. Those three are the reason it holds on longer than you expect. Even so, this is a low concentration and should be used as one, which means often and without restraint. The 100ml bottle is sized for exactly that. It reads as unisex, it suits warm weather, daylight and offices, and it is a sensible choice for anyone who finds conventional perfume too sweet or too loud.

The company goes back to 1862 and to two brothers in law working in Paris, and it has made perfumery and soap ever since, taking its rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore address in 1932.