Winter 24

This is my first Ffern fragrance, and am utterly convinced: the scent captures the experience of cutting a pale rose in a frosted glass greenhouse, carrying it across the icy lawn (with rosemary, eucalyptus, and other blue-green medicinals) to let it bloom inside by the fire. Once the top notes melt away to reveal the base notes, three or four hours later, we’re left with a pile of crushed oxidizing rose petals on an antique and slightly musty wooden table, cedar and clove. The various citrus top notes hit hard and sharp with an almost citronella, lemongrass note—this could easily be the palmarosa. The whole thing during the first hour frankly leans a little "cleaning-solution". It does feel cold in the nose, and bright, but it veers from the romantic and powdery snow they describe. Rather, the opening feels sterile and arctic, like opening the cooler case in a flower shop. The sharp cleaning-solution opening is due, in part, to the strong alcoholic beginning—a material requirement of their small batch natural scent process, which they acknowledge in the notes, along with instructions not to smell too close to the skin right away—but it is not entirely due to that. Once you get past the wintry citrus blast, the evolution of this scent is wonderful. I get eucalyptus and rosemary and waxy juniper coming through strong, and I love what it does to the rose. White florals (a little jasmine) and all the thorns cut off with pruning shears leaving pale, clean stems: green plants in vases. This isn’t a particularly edgy or challenging rose (though it is inescapably rose) and it isn’t a particularly sexy scent, but one that I would reach for when I felt like spending time with myself, or for a work day. I felt bright, focused, and present—and kept smelling my wrist. The ending though is all bruised petals and deep brown clove and cedar-wood, which I adore, and which in retrospect made me impatient with all the different lemon/bergamot/orange citrus notes that were hiding this richness all the time—but perhaps that’s part of the experience of winter that Ffern was aiming for: bewildering and bright cold, then warm. Longevity is fine, but it won’t last all day. That said: it does properly evolve and change in interesting ways, and by the end my nose was buried in my wrist and I was excited to reapply. What stays behind is lovely and a little spicy: I get whispers of the parts I love about Le Labo Rose 31, leaning Christmas, and those base notes are so gorgeous I wish they could come through with more punch earlier. I enjoyed it so much (I am the target audience for herbal, floral, medicinal, and plant-forward fragrances) I’ll be keeping this bottle, and staying on the list.

Ffern Winter 23 is the second Ffern perfume that I've experienced and it's a very particular experience, indeed! Both Winter 23 and Autumn 25 are beautiful, to my nose. But they are both verrry herbal, quite fruity, a little floral, and not especially sweet. Judging by the character of these two perfumes that I've tried, I doubt you're going to find either sweet or floral forward perfumes with Ffern. Winter 23 is definitely not a sweet, floral forward rose. Winter 23 comes out of the gate cold, spa-like, and even a little medicinal, with prominent fresh mint, eucalyptus, and maybe fir/pine notes. As it dries down a little, I get sweet orange and tart lemon zest. And under all that, there is a cool, soft, dark rose. I low-key love it! It lasts 3 or 4 hours on me, and then I need to re-spritz. I'm really enjoying it and am eager to explore more Ffern perfumes which, incidentally, I buy on the used market to save on cost. I always love comparing new perfumes with others in my collection because I discover new things about old scents and deepen my understanding of new ones. The scent that Winter 23 most reminds me of (although they're definitely NOT the same) is the sadly discontinued Elizabeth and James Nirvana Rose. Nirvana Rose is much stronger, of course, and maybe less obviously complex than Winter 23, due to Winter 23's MANY notes, but like Winter 23, it combines a strong herbal note -- in Nirvana's case, vetiver -- with a dark, cold rose. Winter 23 is also a little reminiscent of Jean Couturier Coriandre -- but much more fruity than the verrryy herbal, oakmossy Coriandre -- also a cold, dark rose.

01/23/2024: This is a first impression of the first Ffern fragrance my partner and I have tried. We received a bottle as a gift. Our first impression, after 20 minutes is that it's spa-like and calming. We are able to pick out most of the listed notes. Looking forward to seeing how it develops over time. 02/11/2024 Update: Both my partner and I still really enjoy this. We're trying to decipher why we associate this combination of scent notes with a "spa accord." Our best guess is that spas often use the relatively short list of essential oils widely considered (but perhaps not always proven) safe for contact with the skin, such as citrus oils, clove oil, eucalyptus oil, mint oils, and other spice essential oils. We're not familiar with the full line of Ffern fragrances (we received Winter 24 as a gift), but this particular fragrance has a list of such scent notes. Ergo, we still associate this scent with spa treatments. Having said that, wearing this fragrance in public, I think, would make me feel like I was announcing I've just gotten a pricey massage. This fragrance really projects for a good 30 minutes after spraying, so yes, it would be a bit of an announcement. I'm not always comfortable sending the message I'm fresh from the spa. My partner and I decided we really do love this fragrance. But we both prefer to wear it at home, often at night while we're calming down to rest for the night. 🦋🧡🦋 🦋🧡🦋

Well! I absolutely adore this – BUT it simply evaporates and disappears without a trace within, like, an hour. How disappointing! I would have bought a bottle for sure, were it not for the absolute ephemerality of the stuff. But, for the minutes I can actually detect it: it is fantastically beautiful. Cold, green rose and clove. If I ever find myself with money to burn, I will certainly try to get hold of a full bottle. And then maybe just liberally re-apply hundreds of times throughout the day, or maybe bathe in it, or something. But given that I can't even smell any hint of it after an hour, it really doesn't seem like good value for money at all.

I really enjoy this one. The summer and fall 2024 batches were nearly identical, and I was worried about this one. I was pleasantly surprised! This is an effervescent, crystalline rosy fragrance. It is definitely intimate, and no, it doesn't last as long as I would like, but it's unlike anything I've ever smelled, and I adore it! I layer it with my Améline lotion by Phlur to increase the longevity and pump up the pink pepper notes. It's a winner for me!