When I first sniffed Penhaligon’s Quercus, I had flashbacks to the mid-90’s. This stuff smells really familiar.
Quercus opens as ozonic to me but not “sea-fresh”. It reminds me of a gin and tonic. There’s a slight effervescence mixed with a cool spicy cardamom and tons of citrus. It wears as clean musks, ozone notes, citrus and shampoo-like florals over a warm, squeaky clean amber.
My “issue” with Quercus is that it is very similar to CK One…or at least how I remember CK One being. CK One was super popular, launched in 1994 and really helped put a fragrance to the image of the 1990’s hipster. Quercus was launched 2 years later and was also marketed as unisex.
Notes listed include lemon, lime, mandarin, bergamot, jasmine, lily of the valley, cardamom, oakmoss, sandalwood, galbanum, musk, and amber. PERFUMER – Christian Provenzano
Give Quercus a try if you like fresh, clean perfumes or perfumes like CK One, Demeter Gin & Tonic, Inis Cologne, Joya Composition No. 6, any of the CLEAN fragrances, and/or The Body Shop White Musk Sport. Quercus is unisex.
Quercus is a cologne and I assume meant to be sprayed liberally. It has above average projection and average longevity for a cologne.
Quercus retails for $80 for the 1.7 oz bottle at Beautyhabit. Samples are also available for purchase.
*This perfume was featured in my June 2012 Matching Game.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – I hate to say it…CK One. This is a very “90’s” unisex fragrance. If I did want to smell like this (for some crazy reason), I’ll save some money and wear the one by Calvin Klein. I can get 6.7 oz of CK One for $65.
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I may be the only person who grew up in the 90s and does not remember smelling CK One. I do have a co-worker much older who has raved about Quercus and I admit because she is older I assumed in my head especially because it is from Penhaligons that it would be more chypre based with a prominent oaky note. This reminds that I need to go out and smell CK One to understand the hoopla that fragrance garnered at one time. Although I do remember when Tommy Girl was the rage.
Jennifer recently posted..The Idle of Fiona Apple
CK One was super popular and for me defined an era. They did such a great job with selling it as “shared”.
Now Tommy Girl, I still remember that one. It took me years to go back and evaluate it as a perfume and not as something that junior highs smelled like.
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