Love's Fresh Lemon
Cologne, Love's (1969)

I loved Love’s Fresh Lemon. When it was made my Chatem/ Mem, was the time period that I had it (Middle School/ High School in the 80s), and I went back to it over the years after Dana took over. It was a little different under Dana (90s-00s); that was more of a candy lemon. Under Chatem/ Mem, it was that “Love’s DNA”, plus a fresh lemon scent. A simple lemon, with no mid or base notes.

I must have tried every lemon scent under the planet since this has disappeared, and although the one by Dana was okay, there’s never been anything quite like Love’s Fresh Lemon from the 80s (and I think the 70s, though I was a child and that was before my perfume wearing time, but I bet it was good under the Love’s brand, before Chatem/Mem took over). The closest I have come to recreating it, is taking lemon essential oil and mixing it with a good quality perfumer’s or grain alcohol. Not a single fragrance oil that I have tried over the years has come close, it’s lemon essential oil that is closer to Love’s Fresh Lemon. It’s missing that “Love’s DNA” accord that those colognes had, but close enough.

When I was a teen, Yardley produced Love's Baby Fresh and Love's Fresh Lemon. Fresh Lemon was then bought by Mennon - the fragrance did not alter. They in turn sold the fragrance to MEM and there was a marked decline in the fragrance quality.

I still have some old spray bottles of the MEM LFL; it is just okay.

I learned too late that gift sets were available at stores around Christmas 2011.

I have no idea if the fragrance is the same as when MEM took over in the 80's or if they have improved and the quality is back to when Yardley and Mennon produced it.

I love lemon in fragrance, so when I saw a bottle of Love's Fresh Lemon at the drugstore I had to sample it. Most lemon based fragrances are pretty awful. They may start out okay, but end up either totally fake or syrupy sweet. Love's Fresh Lemon didn't. It remained lemony for several hours. A nice, honest, almost real lemon. Lemon is fleeting, so it has to be a synthetic for a long haul...and Love's has managed to create the closest I've ever smelled to the real thing. Now I can't vouch for Love's Fresh Lemon from back in the day (children of the '70's, you know who you are), but I can attest to Love's Baby Soft still being as groovy now as it was back then. That's why I'm a little surprised by Zahara 8's negative review. That original stuff must've been the total Lemon Bomb, because I think the current version is pretty damn good. I've seen bottles of the original on Ebay...maybe I'll do a comparison. But in any event; for dudes who dig the big yellow citrus, Love's Fresh Lemon will do you proud.

My first fragrance at about the age of 11 or 12. Really clean and pleasant. Perfect for that time in my life!! A fond memory.

What happened? This was the closest thing to airconditioning that we had when I was a child - both my mother and I would envelope ourselves in a cloud of Love's fresh lemon before being around people in the summer (and where we lived, "summer" meant everything from March 01 till Nov. 30). It was fresh, true lemon aroma, from peel to the juice, and was simply a fantastic pick-me-up. It was impossible to overdo it - lemons - just lemons. Take a bath in lemonade - no harm, no offense.Driven by nostalgia, I picked up a bottle of Loves Fresh Lemon this year, amazed to find it still in production, and nearly cheaper than air.How unexpectedly awful to find it artificial, nasty and chemical. Has there been a reformulation? My nose can't have changed that much over the years. So sad.

My first introduction to the concept of "hesperides," LOL! I still remember so vividly getting a bottle of this (and also Jean Nate - wow, that WAS a long time ago!) in my stocking at Christmas and being mesmerized by the incredible *blast* of fresh-squeezed lemon coming from the splash-style bottle. That was close to three decades ago and I'm convinced that I love citrus fragrances to this day because of Love's Fresh Lemon. As far as lemon scents go, it's honestly shockingly good; even today, when I'm wearing L'Artisan's Zeste d'Ete, I can honestly say with a completely straight face that the quality of the lemon in Love's comparaes favorably to that in the L'Artisan. Pretty remarkable. This really is a fresh lemon - no oiliness, no furniture spray overtones or random sugariness. Great stuff. Sadly, this is darned near impossible to find anywhere anymore; Dana has brought back some of the other Love's scents but the Fresh Lemon seems to have been left behind. Too bad - especially as it's still a totally relevant scent!