Greenbriar (1984)
by Caswell-Massey

Well, Shamu said it very nicely: Cool Water meets Irish Spring.

An endearingly modest fragrance from Caswell-Massey. The 1930s golfer on the box, the beautiful green-glass bottle and the printed claims of CM's ancient history lead you to think you're getting something very traditional. The presence of "ozone" and the fact that the frag is about one degree off from Cool Water dash that particular hope.

That said it's really quite a nice fragrance - I find it smoother and better-blended than the current hectic formulation of Cool Water, and it's quite inexpensive. A likeable cheapie. I don't know if I'll be buying a bottle, but I would take this over Cool Water any day.

17th February, 2011.

It's a good thing I often revisit fragrances I've hated, because I'd be missing out on a lot of good scents. After getting Greenbriar shaving soap recently and liking the way it smelled, I decided to try the the EDT again. I have to revise my review, because this is good.

If leprachauns wore cologne, they'd probably wear Greenbriar. It may not be the most natural smelling fragrance, but it's one of the greenest I've ever smelled. It crertainly does resemble Cool Water and Aspen at first; in fact, for the first 15 minutes I'd say the three are just about identical. Where Greenbriar marks it its own territory is in the drydown, which is smells very much like Irish Spring soap, only softer and without the astringency of soap, thankfully. I do not detect any patchouli, amber or labdanum in this, nor any silly things like ozone; in fact Greenbriar smells much greener than the note pyramid would suggest, and I'm reviewing the current formulation of this. It smells clean, warm, smooth, well balanced, and most importantly - GREEN!

I can't say I prefer Greenbriar over other green marvels like Wild Fern, Pino Silvestre or Acqua di Selva, but this is a very good, solidly made fougere that is suitable for all times of year, on any occasion. I'm glad I revisited Greenbriar. Thumbs up from me now.

MY RATING: 8/10

20th September, 2010. (Last Edited: 20th December, 2010.)

Redbeard describes this well. It has much in common with the cool water/freshman/git/aspen/garrigue/chez family, but there seems to be a certain natural botanical herbal feel to this one that makes it classier than all of those aforementioned family members but GIT. It's also the most masculine of them all besides Garrigue and Aspen. Yet it is still nearly as floral as any of them besides GIT. Overall a wonderful scent. An excellent value that sits above it's price point just like many L'Occitane scents......Caswell Massey's best imho.

8th August, 2010.

Within the same family as Cool Water or GIT, but with more natural-smelling botanicals...it really feels like I'm smelling a bunch of mashed and extracted plant parts, much more so than with CW or GIT. The sweetness is much less than in GIT (which I think is a bit too sweet) and it also doesn't have the sharp astringence that I get from Cool Water when I breathe deeply over the spot that I sprayed. It lasts reasonably well to boot. Just watch out when buying because with Greenbriar you get 1.7 oz at the same price as 3.0 oz of most of the others (not that it's expensive by any means). Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) it has its own unique bottle, as opposed to the standard C-M men's one. I might replace my Cool Water and GIT sample with this when they run out in about 5000 years!

22nd August, 2009.

Mid: French lavender, Russian sage, modern florals
Base: patchouli, cool musk, labdanum absolute
Note that the fragrance notes are different from the BN description. I got these off the box, they are the same for the scent and the accompanying soap. Probably the BN reflects the earlier formulation which would have (on the face of it) been greener and more herbal. The new elements, in particular the ozone and cool musk, are a concession to the modern “fresh” market taste. This starts with a an orange-floral and fresh ozonic blast which is a bit sweet. There are some good herbal-green notes, and light patchouli. The drydown is a pleasant dusky green with a slight soapy air. The freshness and ozone is not excessive, and make this a pleasant but not brilliant summer scent.

8th February, 2009.

I've purchased this for my husband many times and we like it. It's kind of soft, not loud at all. On him it's very clean and fresh smelling. Not strong at all. Although I like it, it is a bit boring, blah, plain.

20th April, 2008.