Under The Lemon Tree

Edit: I’ve used up the travel spray already, so bought a full size bottle. I keep coming back to it and it’s not even hot here yet. My Original review: I quite liked this. This is the only fragrance I have bought from a magazine sampler in 60 years of life. And I only bought it because it came in rollerball size and Sephora had a sale. I am glad I did, however. My favorite scent for my hot summer climate (over 100 degrees) is Neroli Portofino combined with 4711. So I often look for summer scents in that vein, although not necessarily Neroli. Of course, I have Light Blue , which is an okay scent but rather uninteresting to me. I have several of Hermes single note scents as well, but sometimes you want to go to s summer garden party or wedding and have a bit more complexity. I think Under the Lemon Tree gives you that. It is not a lemon fragrance. It does evoke sitting under a lemon tree in the summer, smelling green grass, weeds around (coriander), a hint of citrus and musk. As it dries down, you get the most beautiful cedar fragrance. It’s no secret that I like a perfume with a cedar drydown, and this does not disappoint. It has a beautiful finish, with cedar adding woods and coriander adding freshness. That is why I bought it. As for longevity, so far I’ve only worn it half a day, so it’s hard to say. Spillage is not intense but that isn’t what I want when it’s 100 degrees out anyway. If it ends up being a skin scent, I’ll be fine. In winter I like to leave a trail, in summer just smell fresh, clean and for those who get close, interesting. It manages to be light and airy and serious all at once. Seeing how my spray goes this summer, I may buy the full bottle, although I’m starting to look like a hoarder! Neroli Portofino will always be by summer favorite and maybe overall favorite fragrance, but as we all know, performance is poor. I’d be nice to find a good hot-weather fragrance that has some staying power. And in rollerball size, I can take it with me and add if necessary. Very nice. This brand is starting to make some lovely fragrances.

A period of stupidity happened back in 2022. I so happened to bought a MM Replica sample pack for $95 NZD! I could dedicate this review to the entire Replica series, but I’ll dedicate this to the best one. Under the Lemon Tree, by namesake, sounds cheap at first. That was because of my prior experience with Moschino Fresh Couture, which left an eww impression on citrus. While my mind was lemons equals cheap cleaning liquids, the Lemon Tree blew my mind upon first whiff. The combination of tea and spice did the unfathomable work of raising the citrus’s value from $2 to $2,000! Even more so when I was sore loser on the fact that this lil bright green 2ml was not the Matcha Meditation I wanted. Under the Lemon Tree not only changed my thoughts on citrus scents, but also sealed my love for the Replica series and made itself home within my good memories of mid 2022. Back when I was reading about Ancient Greece and see how well it will go with a project about autism. It was weird but it was fun. Especially when I’ve sprayed on the pages of the book in question and oh boy was I teleported to a country house of somebody’s yiayia’s. Under the Lemon Tree, sitting together and discussing about Ancient Greece’s influence on Ancient Rome and then our Western Civilisation. We then switched the topic to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) - a rather niche but a low topic. The simplicity of the ripe lemons and complexities of the spicy Greek tea she served. From high topic to the low and the cheap to the expensive. The low humbles the high and the high glorifies the low. Other replica samples did just that but Under the Lemon Tree does it better!

This review is based on a spray sample. Years ago, I stepped off of a plane in Ben Gurion airport. There was an amazing scent that greeted me. I found out later that this was the smell of a lemon grove in blossom. I thought that this is what angels would smell like if they came down from heaven. Since then, I have been keeping an eye out for something that smelled like this. My first encounter with such a fragrance was Le Labo Bergamote 22. It was too expensive for its performance. I found that Commodity Moss was an approximation to Bergamote 22 but was too green. It made the heady citrus blossom note dirty, and this kept me away. I told an SA at Sephora about my experience with the lemon grove and she said "aha" and went and grabbed a tester of Under the Lemon Trees. After one spray, I found that correct balance that I was looking for at the right price. The lemon is approximated by the bergamot, bitter, not sweet. And the blossom is captured by the lemony petitgrain and hint of rose. Just after applying, it goes well beyond arm's reach and this lasts for more than an hour. After about 2-3 hours it becomes closer. I spray some on my clothes and hair so it projects longer than that. It does last long enough this way for me to be able to still smell it at the end of the day. And the price for a travel spray justifies me getting it. My wife loves this. My son doesn't like orangy citrus type perfumes. But this one, he does like.

LOVE this a lot!! I got a tester set for my last Christmas, and have been slowly going through each vial with the corresponding season they match. As soon as I smelled this when I sprayed it back in the spring, I became obsessed with it. I was half expecting lemon pledge, something harsh and kind of artificial and not pleasing. But what you get instead is expensive lemons with a soft, floral undertone and woodsy notes. This is by far my favorite of my Maison Margiela tester set, and I am definitely thinking about buying a full bottle. The only real issue I have with this is it's performance. It doesn't have very much longevity, doesn't have much sillage, becoming a skin scent fairly quickly. When I say I'm thinking about getting one, the fact that this is a fairly pricey fragrance for a pretty unsatisfactory performance isn't really helping it's case. This gives me a confidence other fragrances haven't been able to. Even though it might be a bit cursed on me, seeing as I wore this to multiple job interviews and didn't get any of them, I really enjoy this and it makes me feel ways that other fragrances, including other Maison Margiela fragrances, haven't been able to do.

I’ve seen quite a few reviews saying that the scent smells like insect repellent or detergent, things like that. And it’s true that the top notes are quite strong at first. Personally, they don’t bother me because they fade almost immediately, at least on my skin. After that, the middle and base notes are absolutely wonderful. I think the perfume has excellent longevity and a nice sillage as well. That intense citrus opening quickly disappears, leaving behind an incredibly lovely scent that’s fresh, clean, and not overpowering at all. That said, this is definitely a fragrance you need to let develop for a while to see how it actually smells on your skin. Even though, as I mentioned before, the top notes don’t bother me, I completely understand why some people might find them unpleasant or associate them with other smells. In fact, they actually remind me of a mojito. Overall, I think it’s a truly delicious fragrance. You just have to give it a little time to settle.