Green Water (1947)
by Jacques Fath

I haven't smelled this since I was a kid on holiday in Cannes in the early 60s and I found a bottle on line, delievered to UK to day. It's all I remember and to all the lemons, citrus, sharps, and razor fresh in the other reviews I'd say I agree and I love it and when did you ever smell something so singular. I also bought a bottle of Ho Hang - trying to reclaim my youth perhaps - better put a dash in the Testogel methinks.

Smells more like toothpaste. Also smells a heck of a lot like my geraniums I have. Cool and refreshing and just perfect for a quick pick-me-up in the middle of the day before heading out since it dries down fast and you'll have no trouble applying a heavy-hitter frag for the evening.

Imagine a tall tumbler filled with ice cubes and a delightfully tart lemonade. It has sprigs of mint, lavender, and maybe even a few bruised basil leaves. Turn that into a fragrance and you have the marvelous Green Water. Many reviewers below have nailed this one, using phrases like “cold green tonic splash, razor-sharp, bitingly fresh.” Not at all sweet or floral, GW settles into a very green herbaceous tone and projects a cool, confident, professional attitude. There is also an interesting coniferous note which appears periodically. Thus, I see GW in a continuum. At the simple end is Pino Silvestre, at the complex end is Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet, in the middle is GW. All three have an icy-cool, somewhat astringent personality. But GW and BB are lovelier and much more complex than the very basic (but reliable) PS. This sort of fragrance is a perfect pick-me-up or when you need a break from richr or spicy fragrances.

Bracing tonic of a fragrance -- perfect for those who love lemon, gin & tonic, and other clean, brisk scents. I don't wear Green Water more than five or six times a year, but I genuinely love it. It's a definite summertime fragrance, at least in my book. (I need to wear this one more often, come to think of it!)

I understand what both sides of the discussion are saying here. I see this scent both ways—it certainly can give the impression of a lemon concentrate or a cheap lemon scent, but it also has a nice ‘razor sharp’ freshness about it. Maybe it all depends on interpretation. I am one who likes ‘sharp’ and I like this because it is bitingly fresh and it doesn’t smell synthetic. I get a lot of mint—too much, but not enough for it to be obnoxious. I guess my judgment on Green Water is that it is a nice scent: A kind of a refreshing room spray scent. I like it, but I don’t really have a lot of occasions where I want to actually wear it, but wearing it isn't a horrible thing, in fact, it's quite pleasant. I guess I give it a reluctant thumbs' up.

Opens like a cold green tonic splash. A murmur of mint, tangy citrus, mellow yet still green development. Delightful.