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!

Hands down one of my favorite winter florals I’ve ever had. I’m almost done with my bottle, but I won’t buy it again because of its terrible performance for the price point. I’ve been applying two sprays per area for it to last longer but it barely made a difference. Amazing, amazing scent though 😪💔

Beautiful fragrance and truly unique. It definitely has a relaxing, spa-like quality. The rose 🌹 is always there, realistic and clean, never overpowering. The scent is a juxtaposition of fresh and warm, sweet and herbal, deep and light. It’s a love for me. I’m excited to try more from their line.

My first fragrance from Ffern as a subscriber. This is special. The marketing and delivery are original, intentional and in excellent taste. I absolutely loved the unboxing experience, the tea, the visual art, the podcast, the email and text communications, all of it. (The exception is their use of marketing on instagram, a platform whose aesthetics and ethics are a terrible match for Ffern and the only thing that makes the brand unspecial. Instagram is tacky. If you truly do have a wait list, why not rely on that and word of mouth, and have a more loyal and loving customer base as a result?) The fragrance is wonderful. It will capture my winter 2024 forever more. There is a lot going on in the frag but my favorite aspect is the bitter green tinge of the rose, something that also shows up in Antidris Cassis (by Maison Louis Marie, also a natural line) and in Little Flower (Regime des Fleurs). This is the best version of it but also the least well performing. There is also for me what seems like a juniper note, which I absolutely love in this combination with bitter greens, herbs and citrus. What they are doing here is off the corporate frag map and totally inspired. Its teaching my nose, in a way that words simply cannot capture. To those who want better performance from this frag, yes for sure. But I would note that it is packaged to encourage generous use. The spray dispenses a lot of product in a steady stream (the best spray mechanism in the entire industry, I think!) and there is a LOT of product so you can refresh it a lot without rationing. Weirdly I get the best performance of all on the ceramic fragrance disk, which gives off a little stream of scent when sunlight hits it, even if I haven't refreshed the disk in days. What is most special about this is that it gives a SEASON a signature. It's not "me" who gets to own this, it's the particular zeitgeist of a few months. As someone who has always used fragrance to anchor unique experiences, vacations and phases of life, so that I can re-invoke them later (each trip gets its own travel spray, and I never take my signature scents into unique new experiences) I am most interested to see how I relate with this fragrance in the years to come. As I transition out of Winter 24 and put this at the back of the shelf (with still a 1/2 full bottle) I am guessing it will remain as a kind of portal into this season I'm now exiting. A whole different way to think about and relate with my scent library. It's a new form of luxury and celebration of life.

I've been on the Ffern roster for a year and this has been my favorite of the '24 fragrances. Opens with extremely strong citronella accord reminiscent of bug spray, but give it 45 minutes and it settles into really nice herby/medicinal tempered by a lingering sweetness from the rose. It reminds me of homeopathic medicine or a spa like everyone else is saying. It's a very natural and comforting smell to me and the opposite of headache-inducing. Longevity is not good as it's barely detectable by 4 hours of wear, but I don't mind that. This is one of the few fragrances I've found where I like the base notes just as much as the top/middle notes. Not sure it's worth $129 for 32 ml but after searching for a similar fragrance I just gave up and decided to buy the full bottle lol.

This smelled delightful to me in the bottle. Upon first spray, the citrus is extremely prominent on my skin and comes across as very rind-ish. Not juicy and delicious, but sour and soapy. Slightly unpleasant, a bit bug spray, nothing like how I expected it to smell. It dries down into a lovely rose and clove with much less rind. The citrus is more prominent when you put your nose against the skin, so I wouldn’t recommend that. As for season—definitely a winter rose. It’s a lovely scent, but leaves something to be desired. I’d prefer to swap some of that citrus rind for vanilla to make it creamier, but that’s just my preference. It’s nice, but not stunning on my skin.

this one is not as dearly beloved as autumn 23, but it was still absolutely beautiful. as a floridian, the "winter rose" concept is a little foreign to me, but also as a floridian, the heavy citrus note is perfect!! i was afraid for this one because rose is not a favorite scent of mine, and i generally shy away from florals, but i think everything is really well balanced here. its true that the longevity isn't the best, but i give it some grace for being so natural. i still love it. :)

A tart, bright rose! Wearing this makes me feel perky and ethereal, almost nymph-like I'm not getting the "Christmas cliché" that other reviewers mentioned - the rose softens as you wear it, getting darker and settling into your skin like a dog curling up on its bed Overall, a beautiful winter fragrance that I'll be reaching for this coming cold season! (my bottle was wholly under-appreciated when I received it last winter)

This is more feminine than other Ffern scents, and really interesting for winter. I usually associate winter with heavier, smokey, spicy, and/or gourmand scents, and this is the opposite...very fresh and light. Like walking in snowy woods. I'm not the biggest fan of floral scents, but I really like this one. It's also floral enough that it would work great for early spring.

It's a lovely perfume, but for the price, I want it to last more than an hour. Even clothing sprayed with it only holds on to the fragrance for a couple of hours. If anyone finds something that smells like this with better performance, I hope they'll mention it in a review for this perfume.

I definitely enjoy this fragrance! To me, it rings similar to Diptyque's L'Eau. I actually almost prefer this fragrance over my Diptyque one; it's very light and refreshing.

This one was released in 2023, this year’s Winter fragrance will be called Winter 2025. Please make sure you are commenting on the correct fragrance!

I don’t know, I get mostly mint. Unisex. Mint- cools to a wintergreen scent Lemon as it drys- ( 2-3 minutes after spraying) Settles to a dry crushed mint leaf - more tart than sweet, slightly herby For me- not something I would wear often. Did love it on the little diffuser disc My nose could not find the rose. This is something I would use more in the summer. Recommend trying this house for the natural perfume enthusiasts.

Woody rose bomb, soapy and fresh spicy. Harsh opening with smooth and vintage dry down. This is one inoffensive vintage, but for the price point and longevity with skin to skin sillage, it's a let down.

This wasn't a bad product, it was just way too feminine for me. You definitely get the citrus and rose combination off the bat. Would be a nice spring time scent. Not tested on skin.

I tried this recently and was quite disappointed with it. It's a fragrance that sounds great on paper, but then you spritz it on your skin and realise it's a Christmas cliché with overpowering clove. There is very little nuance to it in my opinion. It is a shame, because the advertising and packaging make you expect a truly singular olfactory experience which the scent itself fails to deliver.

Not worth the price and definitely not worth dealing with there subscription they won't cancel even I've requested and called them

This was my first fragrance from Ffern, and I canceled my subscription soon after. I was on the fence about this and ended up keeping it, but I kind of wish I hadn't. Wanted to love the brand and the concept but this is not it for me. It smells more to me like a home air freshener than a perfume. This was advertised as a winter rose fragrance, and I don't get rose at all. It's a lemon eucalyptus scent that just smells like essential oils to me, and doesn't last much longer than essential oils in water would. It's not totally unpleasant; makes for a nice spa-like room spray, but it's way overpriced for that purpose.

I don’t get any citrus; in fact the pyramid was a surprise for me. At first I get a fairly medicinal vibes (tarragon I guess) and rose, and after an hour or so the rose comes forward, and it’s so beautiful: fresh, clean and bright and very life-like. I am not a fan of the start, but I love the middle part. It’s not your usual heavy rose, but a very airy and natural one. Stays pretty long, I can still hear it at the end of day.

On my skin this evolves as the top notes being orange blossom and lemon zest, with some greenery hidden behind this. Then the rest is practically all a powdery iris starting from the middle to the bottom notes mixed in with greenery. This is a very feminine scent I cannot picture a man wearing this. It’s a light, airy, powdery floral. I do not get much rose, but mainly orange blossom and iris.

Serious question How is it that people are writing reviews for these specifically seasonal scents when the scent written about hasn’t been released by the date the review is posted on? Are there trolls here?

This brand uses higher levels of naturals so it gives most realistic experience so don’t expect longevity. Just wear it and enjoy.