Parfums de Marly Greenley was introduced in 2020, and it's available in a 125 ml bottle for $299. It's an Eau de Parfum.
The name Greenley is quite fitting for this fragrance, as it exudes a vibrant, green, fresh, and fruity aura.
It's not like your typical fragrances that I discovered from Parfums de Marly with the more intense varieties, the intense woody, ambery, sweet, vanilla kind of fragrances. Greenley, however, takes a different path, leaning towards a fresher profile.
Name Changes:
So initially, when this was announced, it was Parfums de Marly Sutton. And then, a certain brand, or so the story goes, a certain brand got in touch with Parfums de Marly and said, “Hey, you can't use ‘Sutton' because we have a fragrance that's ‘Sutton' in the name, and if you use ‘Sutton' in the name of your fragrance, we're gonna do bad things.”
And so, Parfums de Marly was like, “Dang, that doesn't sound good; let's change the name.” And then, they changed it to “Epsom,”
Now when I heard that, I was just like, “Wait, they changed it to ‘Epsom' like Epsom salts? That's gonna be the name of their big release?” And I think somebody at Parfums de Marly was like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, let's think this through. ‘Epsom' sucks. That's not a good name.” Ah, the bottle's green; “Greenley” is better.
So, a really interesting thing with the name of this fragrance, it had three names, and they settled on this one, which, to the best of my memory, is the only time that's happened, at least over the past couple of decades.
But who knows, maybe there's some other stuff out there that had similar issues; it just wasn't as widely publicized as this one. Ultimately, though, I guess none of that matters, does it?
What does Parfums de Marly Greenley smell like?
Let's first unveil the notes of the fragrance:
- Top Notes: Sicilian bergamot, mandarin orange, green apple, and cashmere wood.
- Heart Notes: Cedarwood, Petitgrain, Violet, and Pomarose.
- Base Notes: Oakmoss, Musk, and Amberwood.
It opens up with a green apple opening, very fresh, it's sweet, and you have kind of a citric rindiness to it, so you've got this bit of tartness that contrasts with the sweetness from the apple in the opening, and I think it smells really pleasant, very nice.
Some people would say that it smells like apple shampoo, and I get that. So just be forewarned that if you have a strong mental connection with the smell of apple shampoo, you might get that when you spray this on and be instantly reminded of it.
Now, it does have, in the opening, kind of a synthetic vibe to it, a synthetic scent profile.
And when I say synthetic, I don't mean that it comes across as smelling like a big chemical mess or anything like that.
What I mean is that it does smell unnatural, so it smells synthetic in that way. It doesn't smell unpleasant, but it does smell synthetic. And more so, I would just say it's the apple that's in the opening that kind of gives it a bit of a synthetic vibe.
As it dries down, that sweetness from the opening kind of fades back a little bit, and you think that it's going away, and then it comes back to the front again.
It's kind of interesting how that works. It's just as it transitions from the opening into the mid, you think, “Okay, all that sweetness from the apple is kind of stepping back,” but then, just a little while later, you pick it up again.
And that melds together with this kind of fuzzy undertone from Cashmeran and what smells like Ambroxin. That kind of base starts to swallow up the other notes in the fragrance, and it becomes the most prominent part of the scent. And that Ambroxiny cashmere wood kind of vibe that it has also had a piney undercurrent to it, so it smells a little bit at times like pine.
As that cashmere wood and that Ambroxiny kind of amber wood vibe takes over the fragrance, you start to pick up this piney undercurrent, so it smells a bit like a modern, sweeter pine note.
It doesn't smell reminiscent of the pine in something like Polo Green by Ralph Lauren, for example, you know, that old-school masculine “hair on your chest, cigar in your mouth” kind of pine note that you're gonna find in older fragrances. It doesn't smell like that.
This is, as I mentioned, a much more modern, sweeter, smoother take on a pine note, to the point that it kind of plays second fiddle to that cashmere wood and amber wood/Ambroxan.
Eventually, this settles into a dry down that is primarily kind of an Ambroxiny-smelling fragrance with musk and a little hint of oak moss, and some of the residual greenness from the mid.
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Comparison to Other Parfums de Marly Fragrances:
Greenley is going to get compared more to Parfums de Marly's “Percival” and, Sedley, also to a lesser extent, “Galloway” because those are the fragrances that most people associate with being warm-weather fragrances released by the brand.
Of that whole bunch, I gotta say, “Greenley” probably, depending on the situation, but probably would be my last choice.
Sedley. It's grown on me a bit more, and it's pretty simplistic. But what it does, it does well, you know, super fresh, very clean.
Then, “Percival,” that one grew on me over time as well, and I kind of dig that, I guess you could say, upper-class Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce vibe that it has.
Galloway is harder to pull off on a day-to-day basis than “Greenley.” Not that “Galloway” is super challenging, but this is much more of a modern, versatile scent than “Galloway” is, in my opinion.
So when it comes to those fragrances, it kind of depends on what I'm doing as to which one I would reach for.
Now, I know that makes it sound like I don't like the scent, maybe, but I do. I think it's very nice. The only thing with the scent is I don't find it super memorable.
Now, I know that sounds kind of nitpicky, and it is, but it's that type of scent, “Greenley,” where I wear it, and I'm like, “Yeah, this is pleasant, this is nice,” but then I don't necessarily find myself wanting to reach for it over and over and over again.
So, take that for what it is. I think it's really nice, very easy-to-wear, potential compliment-pulling type of scent. But it doesn't necessarily enrapture me if that makes any sense.
Still, though, very solid, and if you're a fan of the brand, you should check it out. I do think that, on the whole, Parfums de Marly does better fragrances for fall and winter, you know, cool-weather fragrances, than they do warm-weather fragrances.
Performance and Seasonal Use:
In terms of performance, it's good for a fresh fragrance. We're talking 8 hours, maybe even longer if you go heavy on the trigger, which I probably wouldn't go too heavy because the projection is above average here, too, and especially in the opening, this stuff can pack kind of a wallop.
So, if you spray a whole mess load of this on, it is potentially the type of fragrance that might give you a little bit of a headache, especially if you're prone to that.
Some people are very much prone to getting headaches from fragrances, especially if they have kind of a really sweet, somewhat cloying nature to them, and this one does have, like I said, a big pop in the opening. So, if you spray it on pretty heavily, it could overwhelm you.
But on the whole, performance is great for a fresh type of fragrance, and this one being a fresher type of scent, it's going to be more of a spring-summer kind of fragrance, but you could stretch it out and wear it during the fall as well. I think it's a three-season fragrance.
In terms of daytime or nighttime use, it's going to lean more toward daytime use, and it is office-safe, in my opinion.
Conclusion:
So there we go, Parfums de Marly Greenley, solid release, very likable, very enjoyable.
Unfortunately, maybe not quite up to par with things like “Herod,” “Layton,” “Oajan,” or even Althair.
But still, yet, is a nice one to have in your collection, and it has a good amount of versatility, a good amount of time that you can use throughout the year, and you don't have to worry about anybody not liking it.
Plus, it has a good performance.
