Nantucket Briar (1985)
by Crabtree & Evelyn

I used to work for C&E and have tried most of their line. Nantucket Briar is probably C&E's number one selling fragrance. I remember a customer asking me why it was so popular; she described it as smelling so "old ladyish." Well, it may not be a "modern" fragrance but is appealing to many women who a comfortable with a classic powdery, clean, slightly spicy floral. It's affordable, has accompanying items (i.e.powder, lotion, soap, etc.) and is easily gifted. One thing I can say about most C&E fragrances is they have staying power. If not careful, Nantucket Briar can be overpowering. I prefer using the fragranced body lotion.

20th February, 2011.

Women women - I find this one ultra conservative - with a strong statement of standards and a superb longevity

Powdery - flowery and the ambergris do make this great scent a Vintage/Classic style

Superbly constructed

It would be great if more ladies wear this one instead of the ultra marketed gloomy high street scents - this one has class and power

21st September, 2010.

Unisex in my opinion too, because even the femninine , floral, feminine notes are a touch more masculine due to their restrained beauty, their moderate warmth, a certain refined spicy quality. Very old-school, but also optmistic and uplifting scent, reminding me of a day at the seaside, as it has a certain ozonic and marine quality, followed by a warmer drydown, but also exhaling a certain coolness( both in the sense of clean, icy touches, but also in the metaphorical sense, meaning calm, elegance, sobriety and self-confidence).

21st December, 2006.

WOMEN'S fragrance? Unisex, maybe, but this stuff is, IMHO, about as feminine as Martina Navratilova on steroids. No, no, no -- I like it, yes, but feminine it ain't. (A woman could get away with it, but only if she had some honorary cojones, friends.)

Longevity is a slight problem with N.B., but -- for the price -- I should complain?

2nd October, 2006.

One of Crabtree's real classics and one of the most place-evocative fragrances ever created, in my opinion. (I've spent a lot of summer time in New England vacation places - Nantucket, the Cape, Newport, Bar Harbor, etc - so I speak from happy experience!) This is a blend of wild rose, lavender and a scattering of green and powdery notes, meant to create the impression of rambling backyard gardens and fresh linens flapping on the line. I smell this and in my mind literally see childhood memories of relatives' homes that exactly fit this description. The rose you get here is not a lush, hothouse one, but something modest and discreet, like a primrose. And of course, the lavender is clean, a bit bracing, a touch spicy. There's not too much of it, either, so you don't get that slightly masculine effect that this note can sometimes lend; Nantucket Briar is very feminine all the way around. The green notes could be either a smattering of grass or something a little more citrusy like bergamot or verbena, I'm not entirely sure; they're not that noticeable but they lend a little spark to the scent, which might otherwise tend toward a bit of flatness. This is just a purely simple and beautiful fragrance.

28th September, 2005.