A gorgeous rhubarb fragrance featuring top notes of buchu leaf, ginger root, grapefruit rind, Timut pepper, green mandarin rind, bitter orange rind and petitgrain; middle notes of basil grand vert, bergamot rind, tolu balsam and neroli; and base notes of davana, jasmine sambac, narciussus, red cedar and vetiver root.
From their website: In sheds and under cloches, closed off from the light and frost, something very special grows from midwinter into early spring. Bright pink, sour-sweet forced rhubarb, delicate and fine. We have long wanted to bottle this harvest. But rhubarb is one of those plants which has no fragrant oil to extract - so in trying to replicate its scent, we needed to create a new accord that would blend with our light springtime palette of citrus, florals and spices. Together with Elodie, our nose, we considered rhubarb’s aspects. First, its tartness - that sour zing that is so distinctive. For this we looked to citruses: bitter orange, bergamot and grapefruit. Bergamot’s florality and the orange’s bitter edge took us part of the way there, but it was grapefruit’s herbaceous acidity that touched on the acute sharpness we were looking for.
Onto our citrus we layered timut pepper, a bright note that fizzes and sparkles, and a touch of clean, fruity buchu. But rhubarb is also sweet, and this is the more pronounced in forced varieties, inseparable from thoughts of crumbles and tarts, sugar crystals clinging to pink stems. For this we used davana, a fragrant herb with an elusive scent, said to smell completely different on each person who wears it - but always with a syrupy, jam-like tone, just what we needed. And finally we came to the earth in which the rhubarb is grown. Here we reached for ginger for its dry spice, and paired it with pencil-like red cedar. The finishing touch was our beautiful Haitian vetiver, with the addition of a new form of the oil. This season we fractionated our vetiver, separating the oil into parts. This allows us to remove those facets that are less beautiful - leaving a pure scent reminiscent of the first green shoots of spring.
Spring 2024 is twice aged and bottled in Somerset England and is a fragrance that can be purchased based on a subscription.
FFERN SPRING 2024 REVIEWS
Reddit: The opening is definitely earthy. It smells like dry spicy dirt. This is probably from the balsam, vetiver root, and red cedar. Somehow this is pleasant to me, like a hot summer day from my childhood. Then you have the spices- ginger and pepper. This adds some polish. This scent is inspired by rhubarb, which doesn’t have an oil you can extract, so you have to combine other scents to get the essence. They chose bitter, zesty, and sour citrus like grapefruit, green mandarin, and bitter orange. I love these kind of citruses over sweet mandarin. This is so well blended, and to me, it all works. It reminds me of hugging my most sophisticated friend. It’s an eau de parfum with 20% concentration. It’s very long lasting, I walked through a spritz around 3:30 and could smell it on me by 8:30. It wasn’t overpowering either, and the sillage was perfect for me as I believe “perfume should be discovered, not announced”.
Ffern: Actual perfection. That sort of citrusy, basily, grapefruity, gingery, rhubarby deliciousness is incredible. So very springy. So very obsessed.
Ffern: As the layers developed I felt like I was walking through the woods on a spring morning.
Ffern: I love unisex smoky scents and the rhubarb is such an unusual and delicious addition this time!
Ffern: For me, Spring 24 is a quiet meadow with the sun shining and a crisp spring breeze. Truly lovely.
