No.049 Green Tea

No.049 is built on the same idea as Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea, a fragrance so ubiquitous in the '90s that its zesty, soapy-clean freshness became a scent memory for a whole generation. It opens tart with rhubarb, mint, orange flower, bergamot and lemon, moving into a green floral heart of carnation, jasmine and oakmoss, before a musky, slightly spiced base of caraway, amber and celery seed. The character is unmistakably Green Tea - that sour-citrus, just-washed-laundry freshness that made the original so wearable for hot days - but the composition here is more compressed, with the top notes doing most of the work and the base fading to a faint musk within a couple of hours rather than the original's much longer-running freshness. It's a fair everyday alternative for anyone chasing that clean, citrussy '90s signature without needing it to last from morning meeting to evening plans, and its light, non-intrusive projection makes it an easy layering base too.