Reviews of Mare (1997)
by Beth Terry Creative Universe

Beth Terry Creative Universe Mare

What is the scent equivalent to that broken in pair of jeans you wear forever? Or the t-shirt that just seems to fit so well? Or the pair of sandals that fit your feet like a glove? None of those choices are the "best" but they impart a sense of comfort and familairity and as I have with clothes; so do I have with perfume. When I want to wear the equivalent of something that just seems to "fit" I choose the 1997 release by Beth Terry Creative Universe, Mare. Mare is a deceptively simple scent, three notes listed; sea salt, avocado, ginger lily. That is all that is there, each note rings out clearly and forcefully. Mare is mostly an aquatic scent and, for someone who is decidedly light on aquatics in his wardrobe, it is surprising how comfortable this is on me. Mare begins with the the brininess of sea salt; it reminds me of the smell of the spray off the front of my boat when I opened the engine full-throttle. It has a cleanliness but also a heft due to the saltiness that feels perfect to my sensibilities. Next up is avocado and this is a brilliant choice to pair with the salty beginning. Most times citrus is introduced in many aquatics. Ms. Terry's choice of a richer accord makes for added depth and the avocado compliments the top note instead of trying to add contrast. The base is ginger lily, a slightly spicy accord, with the clean lines that lily can afford makes this the ideal partner in a scent of this type. Mare develops into a phase where all three notes are present and accounted for and intermix quite pleasantly. Mare has above average longevity on me and decent sillage. Mare is easily my favorite aquatic scent some of which is due to the level of comfort I derive from it. On the other hand, isn't that what every scent should do?

Not completely terrible, but lame scent nevertheless. Interesting concept and nice try, but the scent seems to me, like I said; lame.

I actually enjoy scents in general with salty, sour or/and tart notes, and this has them all, but still I can’t like it. It is just so thin and sharp. Its in a way too simple and it doesn’t smell particularly well made. It has an ability to sting my nose to the point it really annoys me. It’s also very feminine in my opinion.

It lasts about 2 hours on me. And I think the smell has very little to do with the ocean. It smells much more like some green, very bitter plant.

I applied Mare to myself which I realize this is a men's cologne which I do not like it on me!

However, I think this is a great scent for female olfactory, because I think Mare would smell sexy on a man.

As far as the perfume goes, the floral do not appear on my skin, rather the clean sea salt and a crisp avocado. I do not detect ginger lily.

I tried this perfume in winter 08. I think this fragrance works better in summer. I will try again summer 09.

Traveling Air Mare to foetidus' beach we arrive on the moon Titan circling around the gaseous giant Saturn. Mare smells ethereal, airy and clean and one heck of an oddball aquatic since it's more green, like seaweed, than blue like fresh scents. Cuts to a floral in the heart and fades.

Glad that more sophisticated noses than mine enjoy this one. No, no irony inteded. To me, however, this smells like Erolfa with an iodine band-aid around it. I'll pass. Strongly suggest sampling before buying

Mare is one of the only natural smelling marine scents I've worn. It loaded with sea salt and what smells like a blend of floral-oceanic notes. It evolves for its lengthy duration, and while I get some florals, I get a lot more of the brine, especially as Mare's sea salt and my sweat start to mingle and get funky in the heat. All of that salt also makes it feel somewhat sexual. It makes a good tonic after a shower, but in general I find it relatively dormant and useless in temperatures less that 75-80 fahrenheit. It needs warmth and sweat.

This smells like the beach — some strange, pure, clean, ideal beach without the seaweed and fishy smells, just salt air and occasional vegetal / floral breezes off the land. As the others have said, this is an astoundingly simple scent, and yet it accomplishes a lot — an escape to Cancun — white coral sands, turquoise sea, suntan lotion, and salt. So refreshing. So refined. HOWEVER! It’s not a good performer on my skin in the hot, humid weather. It turns abundantly floral—lily to be exact. And it throws a very strong sillage for such a light scent. This propensity toward floral is not a thing I appreciate. I’m not exactly a fan of aquatics, either, but I recognize their usefulness in tropical situations. Consequently, I don’t wear Mare in the hot weather and I want to wear something spicier, woodier in the cooler weather, so I seldom have reason to wear it.

Robyogi says it best -- scroll down to read his review.

Seaside? Hardly. Bright greenhouse in the spring? You betcha.

I have nothing to add by way of description or analysis here. Pluran and scentur7 have done better than I ever could.

Mare is the only aquatic besides Erolfa that has held the slightest interest for me, though except for a certain harsh, briny quality, they have almost nothing in common. Mare is "wet" where Erolfa is crusty-dry, bright where Erolfa is faded gray. Both utterly transcend the banal aquatic genre. An outstanding achievement.

As a connoisseur of aquatic/marine fragrances, I’m utterly baffled by the notion that Mare is even classified as an aquatic/marine. To my nose, it is far too fruity, sweet, pungent, and cheap-smelling, not unlike dryer sheets…yuck! It does not in any way, shape, or form call to mind the sea air or water. In stark contrast, a good aquatic/marine, like Erolfa (my absolute fav.), is dry, airy, sparkly, and refined. Mare is just not the ocean-bottled as the description/classification might have you believe. In fact, if I had to make a comparison, it sort of reminds me of CK-One…gross!

After Erolfa, Mare has been the most talked about aquatic/marine fragrance. The initial notes dont give any indication of its intent to imitate the smell of the ocean/beach - pleasant and floral, the ginger lily note presents an inviting opening. From there, the sea salt and the avocado form a characteristic accord which smells green, earthy and salty at the same time. Infact, the effect is not unlike the posidonia "soiled diaper" note in Bulgari Aqua, except that its not as prominent in Mare. The ginger lily does great work in controlling this "soiled diaper" note, and the overall effect is of walking near a clean breezy beach with some salty decaying seaweed in the vicinity. Mare also suffers from poor longevity: 3-4 hours max.

Mare's not a bad scent, but it does share similarities to Bulgari Aqua, which I am not too fond of. Consider Mare to be the toned hotter beach sister of Aqua; same family, better genes, wears bath suits with aplomb and shows off more at the beach. I had grown tired of Erolfa after wearing it for 6 months. Wearing Mare reminds me how great Erolfa is. Erolfa: still the king of aquatics/marine.

This is definitely the best recreation of the smell of the sea that I've encountered (with Aqua Motu by CSP the runner-up). But, I still don't find it very pleasant because of the latex-like note provided by the seaweed and kelp. I would have much preferred just a simple emulation of salt water.

Sea salt, ginger lily, and avocado - who knew so simple a composition could create such an astounding olfactory effect. One of my favorite marine aromas, Mare has been well-reviewed here at Basenotes and for good reason - it's one of the most unique scents of its genre: Fresh, clean, and nothing like Acqua di Gio...what moe could you ask for?

If I'm ever in a position to rub elbows in June with people who live on the Hamptons, this is what I imagine they'll smell like. MARE is fresh, clean, classy, and full of sea salt. And, like the Hamptons, relaxed yet reeking of money. Unfortunately, I'm a teacher in the Midwest, so it is actually a fairly hard scent for me to pull off wearing well. At the right occasion, it would be great, but as it is, it is just a little TOO much like the beach.

Something about this just screams fresh cut green apples, sitting next to the beach with a drink in hand, letting the breeze slowly caress your skin. Ah...relaxation.

Agree with Robyogi that this fragrance is more gardeny than beachy but it is sweet in the personal not the nose sense and has a nice breeziness. Since I live at the beach where deciduous trees grow right down to the water's edge and the summer season lasts until October - this is a winner for me!

I'm not sure what a beach without the seaweed and fishy smell would be! I guess Mare takes a stab at what that might smell like. But, to me, Mare smells more like a garden in spring, a greenhouse, or a nursery than a beach. Beaches have more depth, heavier notes, with salt and ocean stinkiness, sometimes even the smell of decaying animal life. Beaches do not smell floral or sweet. They may even have some human stink: sweat, tanning flesh, hormones in the air. Even the ocean itself, far removed from the beach, has an animalic and salty smell.

To my nose, Mare doesn't capture either of these. Mare is more like a crisp, light floral note riding the breeze. There is something a bit substantive under the floral note, but nothing that grounds the scent enough for my tastes. It seems like it might just float away. I can see how someone would like this, maybe even love it, but, sadly, that someone is not I.

*Mare* has the purest, most authentic marine note of any of the more popular marine-note fragrances currently on the market, all of which seem tricked up in comparison. *Mare* is pure sea salt in some ways. Also, it has a very simple and minimalist note structure: sea salt note, avocado note, and ginger lily note. It’s really a masterpiece of simplicity and elegance. The ginger lily gives it a beautiful, very quiet, final white flower basenote that begins to develop well into the drydown when the avocado note abates the sea salt note by adding to it a creaminess that rounds out the accord beautifully in concert with the final ginger lily note as the sharp, brackish sea salt note begins to recede like the tide going out. A word of warning: the initial sea salt top note is a little jarring at first, but I think that’s part of the fragrance’s appeal. Salt smells strange, otherworldly almost, and since this fragrance has one of the truest marine notes of all, one would expect that note to have a strange, brackish quality to it. Finally, what I also really like about *Mare* is the experience of how it develops over time. It’s one of those fragrances that makes you aware that not all great fragrances have to smell exquisite right out of the bottle. Some things are certainly worth waiting for and waiting for (and experiencing) *Mare’s* drydown is one of them.

One of the best true, organic-like marine fragrances ever - this and Calypso Marine are the only two I've ever smelled that avoid taking the "sun tan lotion" route to evoke being at the beach. (That being said, the shockingly good Beach Smells by Smell THIS is also remarkably "at the beach" real but has just enough of a cocoa butter note to disqualify it from being all-natural smelling.) Mare smells exactly like sitting in the dunes watching the waves hit the shore, and I'm not sure how it accomplishes that with the notes involved. There's the light iodine essence of sea salt, that much is identifiable. But precisely how the other two notes, avocado and ginger lily (this is a very simple scent) manage to conjure being shore-side is a mystery to me. The avocado is both fruity (in the same way that olive oil can be fruity - not literally fruit-like, but round and sweet) and buttery, which perhaps does conjure cocoa butter after all, just a little tiny bit. And the ginger lily is crisp and clean. Somehow, the workings of these three elements together create magic. The scent literally smells as though it's been warmed by the sun when you apply it to the skin. Hands-down, an awesome marine scent that's great for women and men alike.

Mare is a very unique marine scent, quite different from the many other aquatic fragrances out there. Its fruity saltiness is outstanding. It contains Sea Salt, Avocado, and Ginger Lily and really smells like a sunny afternoon at the beach. Good longevity, too.