All Outdoors: Perry Ellis America

The gimmick, if it is one, of Perry Ellis America is that it's composed entirely of things that grow natively in the United States; no exotica like vanilla and myrrh here. It's clearly meant to be a fresh, clean, all-outdoors smell, and that's exactly what it is The notes are as follows:

Top Notes
Fresh Anise, Pineapple, Sage, Bergamot, Green Fern

Middle Notes
Juniper, Lavender, Geranium, Basil, Palma Rosa, Vetiver

Base Notes
Neroli, Cedar, Amber, Musk, Sandalwood, Napa Leather Tone.

The top does have a quick, juicy wham of pineapple, but it's dominated by a bright green fir-needle scent as an introduction to the overall fougere structure. The middle is straight fougere: lavender, vetivert, and green herbal notes. It fades very quickly: there's little left but base notes after two hours or so, mostly musk and sandalwood, and the whole thing has vanished in less than eight.

This sounds in many ways similar to yesterday's Perry Man--citrus, juniper, lavender, cedar, sandalwood--but the composition and the execution are so much better; Perry Ellis America has an honest, unsynthetic cleanliness about it. It's not a great scent, not a classic, but for the price (I paid $6.99 Canadian for a one-ounce bottle) and for the unselfconscious charm of it, it's worth having.