1902 The Vert

I've had this for about ten years now. Big bottle, down to my last little bit. I've always used this as an after shave or as a bedtime scent. No atomizer, splash-on. It's so refreshing, I love the green tea note. Doesn't last very long (one or two hours, max) and sits pretty close to the skin. It is what it is, and I like it for what it is!

I am very, very picky about green tea fragrances. This is not a matter of snobbishness but of physiology, even of survival, as hyperbolic as that may sound. I had a couple of very traumatic experiences with green tea scents early on in my olfactory journeys, and not wanting to find myself in the position of affirming the rationality of suicide, I have steered clear of green tea--and green fragrances more generally--ever since. Yes, they were vat juices produced by companies whose line-ups include a number of fragrances unwearable by me, but still the experience was negative enough that even when deciding which of the Berdoues 1902 all-natural colognes to buy, I hestitated when I got to the green tea selection. Even after receiving the bottle and examining the ingredients and carefully reading the blurb on the box to confirm that this composition is indeed made with essential oils, not the stuff of science fiction, I took quite some time to get around to testing. I still worried that it might be the tea, not the chemicals used to mimic tea which had been so unnerving to me. How unreasonable that was in my case is evidenced by the fact that I am in fact an avid green tea drinker. I drink Japanese green tea (sencha with matcha or bancha or genmaicha, etc.) nearly every single day, yet still I had concerns about whether this cologne would work for me. It turns out that my worries were naught. 1902 THE VERT is a beautiful, peaceful, pleasant green tea cologne perfect for hot-weather wear. It's very smooth, not very citric (compared to some of the other members of this collection), and not at all aquatic. There is nothing here to induce anxiety and strife. On the contrary, this fragrance induces in me a desire to wear only all natural perfumes! I highly recommend this gentle green cologne for people who like the idea of green tea scents but who have found that some of the others are simply too synthetic and scary to wear. The sillage is medium and the longevity is more like that of an eau de toilette than a cologne. Completely unisex, this is a big "yes" in my perfume book.

The notes listed here (lime, bergamot, green tea & vanilla) made this seem like something I would like. I was looking for a green tea scent that wasn’t too “citrus green tea accord”, and not floral. However, this does seem to have some sort of screechy floral note not listed in the notes. Smallflower’s notes for this are different, they have geranium listed. But to me, it does not smell like the note in question is geranium (like in L’Occitane’s Verbena, for example, which I like). Overall I found this to be artificial smelling, and I couldn’t seem to wash the scent off, either. Whatever that floral note was, it stuck. I’ll have to check out L’Occitane’s Vert scent, they seem to do a better job with these types of scents. Disappointing, I ended up giving this away.

It is so refreshing, and the green tea smell is quite strong in it, it shines through the citruses, while the similarly themed fragrances I know are only strong on the citrus. This actually smells like iced green tea with some citrus. It doesn't project or last well, but that is to be expected, and you get a big bottle for a small price. I bought the largest one, and I'm sort of missing an atomizer, although I'm used to splash bottles, but it would give such a nice aromatherapy experience to spray it liberally around me when I feel like summer. Overall, it smells lovely and rich, enjoyable and classic.

Smells like grass and orange or lemon. Subtle and more inclined to feminine side. It reminds me of walking on a road on a windy noon. Swaying leaves and grasses. It reminds me of moments when life was peaceful and simple.