Ffern Winter 25

We had a number of days of ‘real’ winter last week – ie, very cold, and it even tried to snow. A good time to be testing the new-to-me concept brand Ffern. And we’ll get to that.

First, though, a small new year’s joy. My garden backs on to the big garden of a thatched Devon long house. If you want to look this up, all it really means is a house on a long footprint. So, much more rectangular than square-ish. The house is actually split into two. The front is a second home for a nutter who doesn’t walk her dog (ie, it gets tossed into the garden and brought back in when it’s barked too much).

Thankfully, she is only around on weekends, it appears. The back is lived in full time by a pleasant but weird couple with an absolutely incredible sheep dog. The woman spends a lot – and I do mean a lot – of time and energy on the garden. Which is a lovely garden.

Anyway, TMI. The small joy is that mid last week I looked out to see the overgrown (with ivy – I hate ivy) panels being pulling down. On Thursday, they were replaced with new, higher panels. I pulled down the remaining ivy. And the guys were even kind enough to cut back some of the straggly trees behind the new panels. Which means I’ll get more light.

So, yeah. Happy bunny.

Now, on to Ffern. I had noted in last week’s post that the internet comments on this concept – natural perfumes released four times a year on the two solstices and the two equinoxes – were very mixed. But I got a space on their list so I thought I’d give it a go. And then a number of people commented on last week’s post that they’d done this or been gifted it and weren’t impressed. So, hmmmm.

Anyway, I received my box of Winter 25. You get a lot of faff with this which should be a bit of a warning: they appear to be as focused on the presentation as on the juice. More hmmm.

You get a box with the perfume, plus loads of marketing stuff, a pretty ceramic thing that can be hung on an Xmas tree or elsewhere, and a couple of seasonal tea bags. The interior lid of the box tells you which season the release is, the barrel aging days, aging environment, bottling date, something to do with the ingredients, and the artist who does the card decoration for this particular release. It actually made me tired typing all that.

This is meant to evoke figure skating in a moonlit landscape of wild ice and frozen forests. Notes include saffron, peppermint, bitter orange rind, lemon rind, pink peppercorn, key lime rind, green mandarin rind, rose de mai, palmarosa, blue gum eucalyptus, neroli, bergamot rind, jasmine sambac, vetiver root, lavender, brown-eyed rock rose and red cedar.

On me, after three days using the sample – oh, I didn’t mention that: this part is actually very intelligent. They send you a sample along with everything else so you can use that to decide if you want to keep the bottle. If you don’t, you haven’t cracked the bottle wrappings and can just return.

Anyway, on me, there are aspects of cold winter air and forest. But, the overwhelming smell on my skin is citrus. A reasonably nice, very cold citrus.

Longevity is decent: at least five hours. But, this doesn’t develop much on me. I get a whisper of rose after a couple of hours and a bit of vetiver. Overwhelmingly, however, the fragrance is still citrus.

I have a nice citrus cologne in a 100ml bottle that cost me £18.

So, Ffern Winter 25 will be returned to the company and I’ll hope that 1) someone else enjoys it and 2) that Spring 25 suits me better.

Pics: Pexels and mine