Nantucket Briar

I gave a brief review of this below but wanted to revisit/review it once again after receiving a fresh bottle this weekend. I may have the kindest husband of 25 years on the planet. His birthday & receiving gifts make him very uncomfortable so several years ago, he hit upon the idea of purchasing gifts for those he most treasures for his birthday because it makes him happy & then he feels less awkward. I think it is weird but kind, so have adapted & become okay with this. :) So...for HIS birthday on Sunday, I came home to a box of Nantucket Briar! This is the scent that this sweet man used to purchase for me years and years ago when we would celebrate an anniversary...scraping together money was difficult back then when we were newly married, had toddlers & a fresh new business & mortgage...but the sentimentality of his gesture and the smell all brought a flood of memories to my brain and nose and I took one whiff and my eyes began to pee. Nantucket Briar is (imho) a niche quality type of scent two decades ago & it holds the same today. Bravo Crabtree & Evelyn! (Which is pronounced "EVE-LYNN", not "EV-A-LYNN" (like a ladies name), for those curious &/or needing to know how to pronounce it as I did. I learned this years ago while watching Regis & Kelly! Kelly schooled us all on how to say this according to her producers, so that is my source. 🥰 I smell roses, herbs, stable hay, dank earth, medicinal properties (think Vapo-rub from childhood), seaside grasses, wild flowers, honey, horse sweat, low tide, old but well oiled saddles, and even freshly laundered sheets drying and blowing in salted air. HOW all of this can be included in a liquid is a mystery to me, but my nose will be forever grateful. As another reviewer below me so eloquently tried to explain...in America, the East Coast has it's own eccentricities, uniqueness and as some one who was born there & grew up there but was then transplanted to the West coast can fairly say...it is like living on another planet. This scent embodies all of the things I love about "Team East". It is a wonderful scent & if you can spare $50 bucks, throw it at this. It will be some of the best money you have ever spent. xo Cheers!

Ah, Nantucket Briar. I really rate this perfume highly, it is a lovely, warm, slightly spicy, smoky, musky, powdery delight that makes me feel cozy, safe and happy. I don't get rose in the way I am used to rose. I wonder if Briar rose has a different aroma to "normal" rose, as despite this being a rose perfume it does not actually smell of roses to me! Maybe it is the mix with other ingredients, maybe a different type of rose, I don't know. What I do know is that this is a lovely scent. I find the predominant notes to be powdery, soft spice, amber, musk and a hint of patchouli, most of which are not listed as notes. If I didn't know this had rose, I doubt I would pick rose as a main note at all. This is a perfume that I find cozy, clean and powdery yet also musky, smoky and spicy. There is something in the smoky-spicy-musky dry down that reminds slightly of L'heure bleue - the 2 smells are not actually alike, but there is something that brings it to mind. When I wear this I find myself tucking my nose under my collar every now and then for a good sniff, which makes me look a bit odd, but it is hard to resist! This is very feminine but not at all girly. It is innocent and yet wise. Clean, yet musky. A very beautiful scent suitable I think for pretty much any occasion, season, time of day etc, very versatile and the price is excellent, about £22 for a 60ml bottle. In addition the strength is good - not so potent that it'll knock people out, but a couple of sprays is enough to last you all day, so good value for money! Longevity is fantastic on me, about 12 hours on skin and even longer on clothes. Sillage is moderate, a nice gentle waft as you pass, but nothing overpowering. The accompanying products are also lovely - the shower gel is amazing, the body lotion leaves you with skin like silk, and they all layer together beautifully for long lasting scent. I also have the room spray which I find is spicier than the perfume and works well as a home fragrance. Highly recommended.

I fully and wholeheartedly concur with 'MrsCrypto' and 'Rasputin1963' who posted below! Crabtree & Evelyn is one more victim, one more of the amazing brands that some 'marketing' millennial (add expletive here) helped destroy the same way another is destroying Budweiser (not to mention other iconic brands). Their ideology is apparently more important than the massive loyal following of customers. While not for everyone, but good enough for several million customers worldwide, Crabtree & Evelyn had an incredible following for decades, until they decided to start gutting their most treasured scents, reformulating them into extinction and eventually obliterating them in favor of a new generation who is not buying their new products anyway, so it was all nor naught. BAD MOVE. Gardenia, Sienna (sold like hotcakes), Nomad, Sandalwood, West India Lime, Wisteria, Classic Lavender, Southampton Rose, Damask Rose, Spring Rain, Summer Hill...the list is very long and ends with Nantucket Briar, a gorgeous Amber Floral we all adored. As a perfumer, I was able to recreate it (albeit for personal use), so I thankfully can continue to love this as much as I wish I could share with with all of C&E's customers who got the shaft. Nantucket Briar's strength is in the good volume of Bergamot, Patchouli and Hexyl Cinnamaldehyde with help from Cinnamic Alcohol, Vanillin and woods like Cedryl Acetate, Vertofix and Virginia Cedar. Like all the now gone C&E scents, they are deceptively complex. They seem 'simple' but are far from it. 'Summer Hill' alone was a beautifully created scent and 'Sienna' was an astounding creation. Nantucket Briar is no exception, and it was so well loved.

My goodness, this is lovely. It's a cool, late October morning in the UK, and - whilst Nantucket Briar smells gorgeous now - I suspect it would be even better in summer. I love oriental perfumes, but finding one which isn't overwhelming in our humid summers is a challenge. Within ten minutes of spritzing Nantucket Briar, I ticked both the love and want boxes above and started my quest for a full bottle. There's a slightly bitter, acrid note if I bury my nose in my skin where I sprayed it, which is probably coming from a combination of the green notes and rose, both of which can be problematic for me. Nantucket Briar is best smelled from a distance; it's one of those perfumes which seem to pulse - to come and go in delicious wafts - as I move. Three hours later, I have - reluctantly - decided not to buy it. Crabtree & Evelyn sell 60ml for £23 in the UK, which - superficially at least - is very good value for such a beautiful perfume, as it certainly smells far more expensive. Unfortunately, the longevity is very poor. My skin is dry and routinely sucks up perfume like a sponge, but my beloved Nantucket Briar has also departed my clothing. Alas, my love is unrequited. Farewell, Nantucket Briar... We had a fleeting affair and you leave me brokenhearted! On a more prosaic note, if layered with the body care products, NB may well last a little longer. And if someone were to gift me a bottle, I'd be awfully grateful.

Beautiful smell. I fell in love with the body lotion sample I received from Crabtree and Evelyn a couple of years ago. It was a stressful period where I was preparing for my examinations and this scent brought a sense of calm and cleanliness to me that made me ready to tackle the world of exams. Incense-y on first whiff, but you can smell the hints of wild roses and a mild comforting sweet smell. I didn't detect any hints of vanilla...if I did I'd be running away since I'm not a vanilla fan. Edit: I tried the perfume today and I was rather unimpressed. The lotion smelt better, creamier, and rosier. The eau de toilette is very incensy and dry so it's probably meant to be layered. This brings you to a faraway place, a place beside a beach. The skies are overcast, the weather is cool, and the wind is gently blowing salty breezes in your way. There's only you and the ocean. It's magnificence is a welcoming solitude...good for times when you just want to escape the hustle and bustle of the world. I'm eyeing a bottle for myself this coming Christmas sale. Yes, that's the only time when I find C&E products are reasonably priced. P.S: I'm 19. It's not an "old lady" scent.. It's just unique and traditional, and thus there's a lot of older aged ladies wearing it. OH AND CRABTREE, PLEASE DON'T DISCONTINUE THIS, AS YOU'RE WONT TO DO.

This is one of my absolute favourite perfumes, and, as a millennial, one of the first ones I was ever gifted as a kid, so this holds a very special place in my heart. I'm beyond sad that this company went under. I echo some of the sentiments of others who posted before me — they really shot themselves in the foot by doing such an about-face rebrand that completely and totally cut off their original audience. I can understand the rationale for the move (the original demographic cannot sustain them because they are not going to be around forever and this was likely reflected in their sales), but I feel like the move itself could have been better executed, and the younger target audience could have been more appropriately defined. Of course, I'm saying this with the benefit of hindsight and seeing the boom of shows like Bridgerton, and apps like TikTok where historical cosplay is massive among Gen Z. I'm not 100% sure where they got the idea that making themselves a very limited version of The Body Shop (now with MORE fetishing other cultures!) was the way to go, but... oh boy, as a Millennial, it was NOT the way to go. The level of cringe was up there. Ashley Souza did not read the room right, and neither did the company stakeholders.

A powdery scent with hints of spice and flowers. This is a love it or hate it scent. In fact, I know some who did not like it at first but later developed a fascination with it (me included). Kateridelisle mentioned carnation and someone else cinnamon. I believe that both are right as this perfume contains ingredients found in both, such as Eugenol, Isoeugenol, Benzyl Cinnamate and Cinnamic Alcohol. While the bergamot is there, it blends in very well with everything else so that it is not apparent. Someone said this has no vanilla in it, but I can definitely say it does indeed have it (probably in the form of Vanillin or Ethyl Vanillin). Some of these ingredients are almost a staple in most early C&E scents, some which are now sadly gone. I even detect hints of Patchouli in this, also a staple in early C&E scents, but it is so well blended as to add to the scent without hindrance. This is a perfume you have to try before you buy, but as I said before, you may not like it and later crave it. If you do, C&E also offers an array of products for this scent, like body lotion and bath gel.

Someone recently commented that they hold a grudge against C&E for gutting the original brand. Here, here. It does feel personal, and IS intentional; the mastermind behind the stupid rebranding, Ashley Souza, herself said that the brand was “catering to the same people it had always catered to.” Well, DUH, that’s how you stay in business, isn’t it? She further snickered at the “handwritten in cursive letters from older ladies” she’s received, begging her to not disembowel a beloved luxury brand in favor of a younger mentality. She clearly didn’t listen. Nantucket Briar was available for a while, and now even it is gone...the benchmark fragrance of a once beloved brand. Just rotten, rotten and sad. Ashley...if you see this...my generation (Gen X) and older...we are angry, we were faithful, we were betrayed... and we have money. There are other, better brands out there that haven’t sold out. Crabtree and Evelyn is gone. Please research other brands that “cater to their faithful customers”, and support them instead.

I love this scent so much!! I have a mini body mist, hand soap bar, lotion, and linen spray. No EDP or EDT, so obviously silliage isn’t great. Sadly the best version I ever smelled of it was the mini body mist and it’s almost gone. I’ve tried multiple other body mist formulations but they just don’t hit the spot quite right. One from Amazon was basically a scam because it smelled so sharp and disgusting and was literally pink, and I bought a used vintage glass bottle online but it had separated and smelled much more spicy. Not bad just not what I wanted. My best luck has been with the linen spray from Amazon, which smells a little soapy and sharp upon first spray but becomes that creamy amber vanilla as it drys down. It’s addicting. Very similar to the flavor of those White Rabbit Chinese milk candies. I’ve gotten to newer reformulations of the lotion and a fragrance oil of it from TJ Maxx and they also smell oddly spicy and just not what I had hoped. But a beautiful scent when done right.

This fragrance is special to me. A woman who was my Other Mother was dying. We sat in her room smelling all of her perfumes. Her favorite for special occasions was Evening in Paris. This was her other fave for daily use. A few weeks later, I went to Stratford, Canada for the Stratford Festival. Prior, I had looked on eBay for this to buy but it was expensive (over $80). I found two bottles in the back of a shelf for $30. I bought one, sprayed myself up and wore it all day. I got back to the B&B to a message that she had died. When I want her with me, I spray this on, like today. To my nose, it is bergamot, rose, amber, green; spicy light green floral with some clove. It is not a spicy floriental but rather a lighter, watery green take on a floral oriental leaning more green and freshened with the bergamot. This is not a heavy fragrance and quickly becomes a skin scent. I also smell a bit of lavender in the drydown.

Beautiful scent, hauntingly so. On first application it felt like a nostalgic homecoming... evoked so many memories which was strange because to my mind I had never tried this one before. I've been introduced to Crabtree & Evelyn only recently. And this is the one that had that edge over all the others in terms of sheer beauty and appeal. So I thought about it and it suddenly came to me that I have something similar in my collection - wind song! Wind song is definitely a lot stronger and Nantucket on the other hand, definitely has more floral nuances of briar rose and a beautiful gentle amber note. While Nantucket is undoubtedly a more elegant composition but there it is! Windsong is like the brash teenager compared to Nantucket's ladylike charm! That said, this is a very special find for me and I am delighted to have it in my collection.

Funny story about this product. I found a bag of samples of the EdT, talc, lotion and shower gel at the local thrift store. Having lived in Maine, very near row upon row of beach roses next to the ocean, I was intrigued. I tried it later that week and made another visit to the thrift store. As I browsed through the craft items I noriced I was drawing a small crowd of men - unusual for me, in my late 60s. One brave soul stepped forward to apologize for being so bold but he has to be near because I smelled so good. Each, in turn, wrote down the name of the product for his special lady. What a fun day! On more recent wear, it reminds me of the lovely potpourri scent specialty shops smelled like in the 60s, not patchouli, but something warm and seductive. I have horribly dry skin but it lasts well on me.

This is one of my favorite fragrances of all time. I miss the Crabtree and Evelyn stores. They were so lovely, had the most fabulous fragrances, and had so many wonderful products - perfumes, soaps, lotions, teas, etc. This particular fragrance is a warm - yet fresh - powdery, green, rosy floral, with touches of incense and spice. I believe the original descriptive notes included ambergris, and to me, it does have a touch of musky sweetness and aquatic freshness. There's definitely an amber warmth to it, as well. It has always reminded me of a walk along a New England beach at dawn in late summer/early autumn...it has a nostalgic quality to it. I bought two bottles before C& E stopped making it, but I miss the soap, lotion, powder, and home fragrance oil and room spray.

I used to buy this in lotion and bubble bath years ago. I never sprung for the perfume. I wish I had. Even the bubble bath is no longer available which is sad. I bought this one, the Violet, and Rainwater Rose in a local shop all the time years ago. They only carried a few of their scents and products. They didn't carry as much as I would have liked and when I asked if they could carry more, they said they couldn't sense I was practically the only person who purchased any of the products. I wish I had some of these now in perfumes. They really made some pretty scents, and I didn't get to smell as many of them as I would have liked.

This is my second favourite fragrance from C&E. Unfortunately the company closed its stores and as far as I can tell, now only makes amenities for Hilton Hotels. This means it's incredibly hard to find this fragrance. However, I have been able to get a body spray, body lotion and body wash from TK Maxx and snap it up whenever I see it. I'm eking them out though as once this is gone, it's gone. It's a warming floral spicy woody fragrance that I enjoy wearing. It came out long before oud was a thing, so I don't get any oud in this fragrance. If you spot the body products in the discounters, do give this a sniff.

The only thing I can wear consistently despite mood, health conditions, season, or time of day. In fact I often use the body mist after my bed time shower. When I have stomach aches one whiff (just like orange peel) gets rid of the belly pain! This is not just a fragrance. It’s a comfort blanket. It reminds me of home, my mother, winters, and being taken care of. The accord is magical. The notes blend perfectly. I can smell some citrus, bergamot, lots of powder but it’s difficult to pick them apart as they are well blended and anchored nicely by the amber. It’s not a love like dislike for me. It just is.

There is something ethereal about this scent. I cannot quite place what it is. I almost feel like I am in church or in some spiritual realm. It could be the green tones. I get this feeling every time I wear it. I feel fresh and powdery and I do sense the amber, but I don't sense the rose. I like it, but wore it on and off for about 20 years and I tired of it, but it is a very beautiful scent. I can easily see it as a signature perfume for someone.

I was in TJ Maxx today and picked up Nantucket Briar bubble bath lotion and body mist. All new packaging. It appears that the co brought this back. I found out they have a toilette as well. It smells the same as I remember but I'm sure the body mist will not have the lasting power but I am happy to have this beauty back again. I will have to seek out the toilette as well. Hopefully they will bring back more of the classics.

I get vanilla, incense, and rose, but not tea rose, like briar rose, which has a "dustier" smell. It's a wonderful smell that is something I would wear on an overcast day at the beach while sitting out with a warm beverage. One of my favorite "kind of smells" those that evoke strong mental imagery. I also had the environmental oil in this scent as well as Rosewater and Summer Hill. They scent my home beautifully.

Have not worn this for several years. I thought I would go back to this old favorite of mine which was my signature scent for years. It is exactly the same as I recall. Soft, very feminine, a hint of lime over the soft powdery rose. Nice addition to my collection. Not shy at all and very memorable. I prefer wearing this in the evening and in the colder months, but it is gentle enough for anytime of day or year.