Perfume Review: Potter & Moore Fragrances

I have not heard about Potter & Moore until BeautyHabit began carrying their line of fragrances, candles and bath and body products, and yet the company has supposedly been in business since 1749! John Potter and William Moore started as "physic gardeners" cultivating herbs and flowers, with lavender as their speciality. The recently launched new English Classics range was meant to celebrate Potter and Moore's "tradition of natural fragrance blending" and to represent "the romance and charm of British cottage industry". The company invites the wearer to establish his or her own "daily signature scent ritual": Light a Potter and Moore Candle ($36.00/200g) in your favourite scent and indulge yourself with a softly scented bath with Potter and Moore Bathing Milk ($36.00/175ml) with aloe vera to smooth your skin. Gently whisk away dry skin with the Cane Sugar Body Exfoliator ($45.00/150g) with shea butter and cocoa butter to nourish your body, then wash with a Fine Triple Milled Soap ($27.00/2x100g) which contains 25 per cent moisturising cream to prevent dryness. Follow with the Luxury Body Creme ($45.00/150ml) with pure honey and cocoa and shea butters to leave your skin perfectly smooth and softly scented. Finally spritz on your signature Eau De Toilette ($63.00/100ml) and leave the house knowing that the scent of true elegance will follow your every move. Today I am reviewing the Eaux de Toilette. Bergamot & Green Ginger. "A fragrance to give you confidence and poise." Bergamot & Green Ginger is a fragrance that appears to be refreshingly simple, a harmonious, straightforward, smooth composition with bergamot in the leading role. It starts with the lively, bright bergamot note spiced up by ginger, and that core accord will last troughout the scent's development, however, at various stages of the fragrance's progress on my skin, I smell flowers: a little bit of lilac in the beginning, quite a lot of jasmine in the middle and plenty of delicate roses. The rose note is particularly strong, a gently-sweet, juicy rose that should make this scent very atractive to the fans of such perfumes are Rosine Une Zest de Rose, Flowerbelle Rouse and Parfums 06130 Yuzu Rouge. Pretty, fresh, very summery, Bergamot & Green Ginger should be delightful in hot weather. Lavender & Italian Lemon. "A fragrance to add to the charm of life." Lavender & Italian Lemon seems to me to be a take on a traditional Eau de Cologne theme, with a spiky, herbal twist of lavender. Lavender greets the wearer in the beginning of the scent, it is a cool, airy note, bracing but not harsh. After a while, lemon and neroli become apparent, and lavender not so much disappears - no, it stays perceptible till the very end- as loses some of its bright edge and becomes softer. The three notes are more or less all I smell in the fragrance. Lavender & Italian Lemon is very pleasant, soothing and refreshing. Because of the abundance of citrus and citrus-floral notes, it would perhaps be more attractive for the lovers of eau de cologne genre rather than the connoisseurs of lavender. Orange Flower & Amber. "A fragrance to heighten your natural radiance." Not the most exciting orange blossom scent I have ever encountered, Orange Flower & Amber is an understated, soft, gauzy fragrance, in which the amber note, though vaguely present, doesn't seem to contribute much to the blend, not adding to the orange blossom either warmth, or depth, or complexity. The perfume is perfectly wearable and very pleasant but rather dull. Spiced Tuberose & Orchid. "A fragrance to captivate your natural bloom." The strongest and the most complex of the five scents, Spiced Tuberose & Orchid is my favorite in the collection. It smells like a less sweet, spicier version of Shiseido's Message from Orchids, and at the same time something about its creamy, vaguely fruity, slightly earthy blossoms reminds me of Ford's Black Orchid. It is much less interesting than either of those two scents, but it has an attractive exotic vibe and floral richness, which I find very attractive. It is velvety, honeyed, languid and overall quite appealing. Tea Rose & Sage. "A fragrance to enhance your enduring loveliness." Tea Rose & sage is a green take on rose, herbal, minty, even a little earthy. Sage and other grassy, leafy notes are very prominent in the beginning. At that point, the fragrance makes me think of smelling not roses themselves but the damp soil, grass and fallen leaves and petals under the rose bushes. Unfortunately, about ten minutes into the development, a bothersome watery, cucumber-like note appears on my skin. After it disappears, the greenness in general starts to subside leaving behind a sweet rose fragrance with a soapy and at the same time strangely waxy undertone. I will pass. All five scents and the accompanying products are available at BeautyHabit, $63.00 for 100ml.