# Crabtree & Evelyn — Verbena and Lavender de Provence

> A simple, high-quality "soap-and-sunshine" aromatic cologne from 2013, built almost entirely around lemon verbena with a supporting wash of lavender — the fragrance arm of one of Crabtree & Evelyn's m

## Essence
A simple, high-quality "soap-and-sunshine" aromatic cologne from 2013, built almost entirely around lemon verbena with a supporting wash of lavender — the fragrance arm of one of Crabtree & Evelyn's most popular bath-and-body ranges. It is a transparent, unisex freshie meant to evoke the French countryside: bright, herbaceous, clean, and unpretentious. As a cologne concentration it is deliberately light and short-lived, and it is now discontinued along with most of the old Crabtree & Evelyn catalog after the brand's collapse and online-only relaunch.
## Scent Profile
This is verbena-dominant, full stop — the consistent verdict is "more verbena than lavender," with several wearers saying the lavender barely registers. The opening is a bright, zesty, citrus-adjacent lemon verbena with a green herbaceous edge; because lemon verbena is itself both citrusy and herbal, it can be hard to tell where the verbena ends and the lavender begins.
The lavender, when detectable, is a soft aromatic haze rather than a sharp barbershop lavender, described as "not very realistic… but not annoyingly synthetic either." Over time the verbena turns slightly more floral and slightly less citrusy.
The cedar, tonka, and white-amber base is light and mostly supportive — it adds a faint soft warmth but does not turn the scent woody or sweet; it stays a green-citrus haze from start to finish. One sharp read is that it "projects as a monotone green haze somewhat less than the sum of its parts." It is linear and uncomplicated by design, and the dominant impression is "smells like a quality soap" — fittingly, the same fragrance was used in Hilton hotel bath amenities, which several people recognized.
## Performance
Performance is modest, as expected for a cologne. One detailed wearer called longevity and sillage "exceptional for an EDC — about 6 hours and arm's length," but noted this was helped by applying over a glycerin-based unscented lotion; without that, expect less. Another stressed that the low essential-oil-to-alcohol ratio means "it will not last as long as EDPs — you'll have to spritz it on several times a day." The realistic expectation is a few hours of bright freshness, best used as a re-applied pick-me-up. To stretch it, layer over the matching body lotion or shower gel and spray generously.
## Wearing Context
This is a daytime, warm-weather, casual scent for spring and summer — mornings, office, errands, anywhere you want to read clean and freshly-showered rather than perfumed. One wearer captured its dual use neatly: "a fresh pick-me-up (if applied in your waking hours) or a calming relaxant (re-applied at the end of your day)." It is genuinely unisex, marketed toward women but often described as leaning aftershave. It would feel underpowered as an evening or cold-weather statement scent. Low-risk, inoffensive, and English-coded despite the brand's American origins.
## Comparisons & DNA
Within Crabtree & Evelyn, the obvious reference is the brand's own discontinued original Lavender — fans of that line treat Verbena & Lavender as an adjacent, more verbena-forward option, with one calling it "my second choice" after the original. The broader DNA sits in the classic lemon-verbena cologne tradition, near the L'Occitane Eau de Verveine end of that genre, though this is a more soap-clean, less complex take. It is niche enough that few specific cross-brand comparisons get named.
## Reception
Coverage is thin but consistently mild-positive. The recurring praise is that it is "a fresh, high-quality aromatic daytime scent" of good quality and that it "smells like a quality soap." The recurring criticisms are gentle: too little lavender and too much verbena — one wearer would have loved it "if there had been a little less verbena" — and the "monotone green haze" flatness. There is no real polarization; it is a likeable, low-stakes freshie rather than a love-it-or-hate-it scent. The strongest sentiment is regret that it, and the wider line, was discontinued.
## Versions & Reformulation
The scent anchored a full Verbena & Lavender de Provence range — cologne plus hand cream, shower gel, body lotion, and other bath products — and the same fragrance appears as Hilton hotel toiletries. There is no documented juice reformulation, but it is discontinued, and reviews across Crabtree colognes report batch-to-batch inconsistency and "this doesn't smell like my old bottle" complaints from the brand's troubled late period, so age and storage vary. Effectively a single composition, now out of production.
## Acquisition Notes
It was priced as an affordable mass-prestige bath-brand cologne when current. Now discontinued, it is available only secondhand or as remaining old stock; bottles surface on marketplaces and occasionally at discount stores where much of the old catalog was liquidated during the wind-down. The matching body products are easier to find than the cologne itself. There is no meaningful counterfeit issue, but watch for aged or turned juice given the discontinuation. The smell-alike market is minimal — this was never a hyped collector's item, just a beloved everyday freshie.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- The same fragrance was used as Hilton hotel bathroom amenities, which is how many people first encountered it.
- Despite its "quintessentially English" image, Crabtree & Evelyn was American, founded around 1971 from a Cambridge, Massachusetts soap shop called "The Soap Box."
- It is overwhelmingly a lemon-verbena scent; the lavender in the name is a supporting note many wearers barely detect.
- Launched in 2013, it became a casualty of the brand's collapse and online-only relaunch, which jettisoned most classic products.