Parfums de Marly Greenley Eau de Parfum

What It Smells Like

Parfums de Marly Greenley is a fresh green apple and citrus fragrance set on cedar and oakmoss. It is the house's answer to the question of what to wear in warm weather: crisp and juicy at the top, clean and woody underneath.

The opening is green apple, Calabrian bergamot and mandarin, tart and mouth-watering rather than sweet. Petitgrain, the oil from the leaves and twigs of the bitter orange tree, carries that brightness into the heart and adds a leafy, slightly bitter edge.

Cedar and cashmeran, a soft musky wood material, give the middle its body, with violet for a cool, powdery touch and Pomarose, a modern molecule that smells of rose and cooked apple. The base is oakmoss, patchouli, musk and amberwood, which leaves a mossy, mineral warmth on skin once the fruit has gone.

Fragrantica's community ranks the accords woody first, then citrus, fruity and green. It is rated 4.18 out of 5 from about 7,500 votes.

Who Made It

Nathalie Templer is credited as the perfumer by both Fragrantica and Parfumo.

Who It's For

Greenley suits anyone who wants a fresh fragrance with more character and more hours than a typical citrus cologne. Fragrantica lists it for women and men.

It is the obvious choice if you find the rest of the house too sweet, and a good first Parfums de Marly for someone coming from fresh designer scents. If you want warmth and vanilla, look at Layton instead. Castley is its drier, spicier neighbour, with pepper and ginger where Greenley has apple.

When to Wear It

The season votes on Fragrantica are unusually one-sided: summer and spring by a long way, with winter barely registering. It was built for heat, and it stays crisp in it.

It is a daytime fragrance first, at home in the office, at lunch, on a weekend outdoors. It is polite enough for close quarters, so it also works as an everyday signature from April through September. Parfumo's community sums it up as fresh and green, and that is exactly how it wears from the first spray to the mossy drydown several hours later.

About the House

Parfums de Marly was founded in Paris in 2009 by Julien Sprecher. The house takes its name and its imagery from the royal château of Marly and from the perfumed court of Louis XV, an era when fragrance was worn lavishly and horse racing was a royal passion. That is why every bottle carries a crest of two rearing horses, and why several of the fragrances, Herod, Godolphin and Darley among them, are named after celebrated horses.

The style is generous and easy to like: rich, long-wearing compositions, each built around one clear idea and usually signed by a well-known perfumer. Parfums de Marly is a boutique-only house at Redolia. It is sold at our perfumery at 92 West Main Street in Somerville, New Jersey, and not through the website. Read how our boutique-only houses work, then come in and try it on skin before you decide.