Creed Green Irish Tweed: Worth It?
Article Summary: Green Irish Tweed reached the market in 1985 and is sold as an eau de parfum in 50, 100, 240 and 490 ml. Two things about it are strange and both are easy to check. Creed's own product pages name no perfumer and give no launch year, so the 1985 date and the Pierre Bourdon attribution that everyone repeats come entirely from outside the brand. And Creed's British and American storefronts publish different note lists for the same fragrance, with the British one adding bergamot, galbanum and ambroxan. The famous Davidoff Cool Water story is partly true and mostly misreported: Bourdon is credited with both, Cool Water arrived in 1988, and no lawsuit, dispute or formal complaint between the two houses is documented anywhere. Ownership changed this year, which most articles have not caught up with: L'Oreal completed its purchase of Kering Beaute, and with it Creed, on March 31, 2026. In the UAE the 100 ml was AED 1,550 at both Ounass and Bloomingdale's on November 13, 2026, which is one price rather than two, because both belong to the same group. MOJ's reading, Green Irish, is AED 48, 59 and 109, with all three sizes available today.
- Creed credits nobody and dates nothing on its own Green Irish Tweed pages.
- Creed's UK and US sites print different notes for it. Both are below.
- No lawsuit with Davidoff ever happened. No award was ever won.
- Creed has belonged to L'Oreal since March 31, 2026, not Kering.
What Green Irish Tweed is
It is a green, herbal fragrance for men that reached the market in 1985, and it is the one most people mean when they talk about the fresh end of Creed. It is sold as an eau de parfum, in 50, 100, 240 and 490 ml. There is no refill format for it, and the travel atomiser Creed sells is an empty refillable vessel rather than a Green Irish Tweed product, which is a distinction worth holding on to if you are shopping by search results. The first odd thing about it is the note list, because Creed publishes two. Its British site gives a full three-tier pyramid: peppermint, verbena, lemon, bergamot and galbanum at the top, geranium, lavender and violet in the heart, and sandalwood, cedarwood, ambroxan and oakmoss at the base. Its American site, writing in prose, gives lemon, verbena and icy peppermint opening, lavender, green geranium, violet leaves and violet flowers in the middle, and cedarwood, sandalwood and oakmoss drying down. The British version adds three materials the American version leaves out, and the one that matters is ambroxan, a modern synthetic sitting in the brand's own current base notes. We tried the fragrance databases for a third opinion and could not get a usable one: one was unreachable on the day, and the other returned a page with no pyramid at all and four accords that do not describe this fragrance. So the two lists above are the two we can actually stand behind, and they are both Creed's.
Who made it, and why Creed will not say
Ask who composed Green Irish Tweed and the answer you will get everywhere is Pierre Bourdon. Ask Creed and you get nothing. Its current product pages name no perfumer at all, and its own editorial piece about the fragrance describes it as born of creative intuition shaped across generations, which is a sentence that carefully avoids a name. Creed does not credit Olivier Creed or Erwin Creed either. The Bourdon attribution is nonetheless well supported from outside: Bourdon spoke on the record to the journalist Gabe Oppenheim for a 2021 book about the house, and before that, Michael Edwards, whose reference work is the industry standard, and the critic Luca Turin had both identified his hand in it. At least one blogger disputes parts of Oppenheim's account, so the story is not entirely settled, but the weight is clearly on one side. What we will not tell you is that Creed has confirmed it, because Creed did the opposite: the house declined to make Olivier Creed available, cancelled an arranged exchange with Erwin Creed, and issued no response to the book. The honest version is that Green Irish Tweed is widely and credibly credited to Pierre Bourdon, and that the brand selling it names no one. Our Creed guide covers the rest of the house.
The Cool Water question, answered honestly
This is the story that follows the fragrance everywhere, and it is worth separating into the parts that are documented and the parts that are not. Documented: Green Irish Tweed reached the market in 1985. Davidoff Cool Water arrived in 1988. Pierre Bourdon is credited with both, by independent sources rather than by either brand. That is a genuinely unusual situation and it explains why people who smell the two together notice something. Not documented: everything else. There is no published statement from Creed, from Davidoff, or from Bourdon himself about the resemblance. There is no recorded interview in which Bourdon calls one a response to the other, although that framing circulates widely as if there were. Above all there was never any litigation, legal dispute or formal complaint between the two houses over it. We looked specifically, because we have been caught out before by a story of this shape, and the only Davidoff court cases that exist concern grey-market goods and cigars and have nothing to do with Creed. Even the direction of influence is assumption rather than record: the dates establish which came first, not which copied which, and knowledgeable enthusiasts split at least four ways on what the relationship actually is. There is also a technical objection worth knowing, that the aquatic molecule usually invoked to link the two was not commercially available until 1989, which leaves a hole in the tidiest version of the story. Treat the chronology as fact and the rest as interpretation.
Who owns Creed, and what else is not true
If you read anything written in the past three years, it will tell you Creed belongs to Kering. That stopped being true this year. Kering Beaute announced its purchase of Creed in June 2023 and completed it that October, then agreed in October 2025 to sell its beauty division to L'Oreal, and that sale completed on March 31, 2026. Creed now sits inside L'Oreal Luxe. Neither completion announcement disclosed a price, so the various billions you will see quoted are secondary reporting rather than confirmed figures. Three other things are repeated constantly and are not supported. Green Irish Tweed has never won a named industry award: we checked the Fragrance Foundation lists and found no win and no nomination, and the brand's description of it as one of its best-selling men's fragrances is a retail claim, not a prize. The reformulation story, in which older batches are held to be superior, has no brand statement, no regulatory documentation and no authoritative reporting behind it at all, only forum consensus. And the long list of public figures said to wear it, which usually opens with Cary Grant, traces back to Creed's own advertising; the Cary Grant claim in particular appeared after his death in November 1986, when he could neither confirm nor deny it. We are not saying these claims are false. We are saying nobody has shown them to be true.
Buying one in the UAE
On November 13, 2026 the 100 ml was AED 1,550 at Ounass and AED 1,550 at Bloomingdale's. That looks like two retailers agreeing, and it is not: both belong to Al Tayer, so what you are seeing is one pricing authority appearing twice. Treat AED 1,550 for 100 ml, or AED 15.50 per millilitre, as the verified UAE price rather than as the result of competition. Both listings showed a single unit remaining when we looked. Carrefour UAE had a page with nothing available on it. Sephora's Emirates site carries the fragrance but its prices are rendered by script and would not load for us, so that is a gap rather than an absence. Bloomingdale's also lists a Green Irish Tweed perfumed oil, which had none left. Noon and Amazon.ae could not be read, and we found no Harvey Nichols listing online, though the store trades at Mall of the Emirates. Creed itself has a physical presence here, at Mall of the Emirates and at The Galleria in Abu Dhabi, which is more than most houses we write about can say. Two warnings. Creed sells 50, 100, 240 and 490 ml, so a 120 ml or 250 ml bottle on a marketplace is old or grey stock. And one UAE site trading under a name very close to a well-known regional chain is a different business entirely, whose own product titles call it The Niche Gallery; check who you are buying from. Our where-to-buy guide has the authorised list.
The MOJ reading
Ours is a woody floral musk built on the green side of the original rather than the citrus side. The product page opens on iris and vervain, puts violet leaf through the heart, and finishes on ambergris and sandalwood. Set against Creed's own lists, the overlap is real and specific: violet, the geranium-and-lavender style of herbal greenness, sandalwood and the mossy, ambery base. What is missing is the top. Creed's lists both lead with lemon and peppermint, and ours leads with iris, so the first two minutes are the part where the two diverge most. Ours reads greener and more powdery where the original reads colder and sharper. We would rather name that than let you find it out at the till. One more honest note: our page calls the herb vervain where Creed calls it verbena, which are two names for the same plant and not a difference in the fragrance. It is our own composition inspired by the original, in 30, 50 and 100 ml at AED 48, 59 and 109, with all three sizes available on November 13, 2026. The arithmetic: AED 109 for 100 ml against AED 1,550 for 100 ml is about fourteen times less, or AED 1.09 per millilitre against AED 15.50. It sits in our men's collection, beside our Aventus explainer.
- Top: iris, vervain
- Heart: violet leaf
- Base: ambergris, sandalwood
Should you buy the original or the reading
If you want the real thing, there is one verified UAE price and no discount to hunt for, so the only question is which Al Tayer storefront has a unit left on the day you look. Buy the 100 ml rather than a 240 or 490 unless you already know the fragrance, and ignore any size Creed does not sell. Do not pay a premium for a batch described as vintage or pre-reformulation, because no reformulation has ever been documented, and do not let anyone sell it to you on the strength of a lawsuit or an award, because neither exists. What you are actually buying is a 1985 green fragrance from a house that will not tell you who made it, which is either part of the appeal or part of the problem depending on your temperament. If you want to find out whether that green, herbal, slightly powdery style suits you before spending AED 1,550, our 30 ml at AED 48 answers the question, with the opening difference described above, and our guide to inspired perfumes explains what a reading is and is not. Stock changes, so the product page is the final word.
Frequently Asked Questions
Green and herbal rather than sweet, built on peppermint and verbena over a violet and geranium heart and a woody, mossy base. The awkward part is that Creed publishes two different note lists on its own storefronts. Its British site gives a full pyramid: peppermint, verbena, lemon, bergamot and galbanum on top, geranium, lavender and violet in the heart, and sandalwood, cedarwood, ambroxan and oakmoss at the base. Its American site gives lemon, verbena and icy peppermint opening, lavender, green geranium and violet leaves and flowers in the middle, and cedarwood, sandalwood and oakmoss drying down. The British list adds bergamot, galbanum and ambroxan. We tried the fragrance databases for a third opinion and could not get a usable one on the day we checked, so those two lists, both Creed's own, are the only ones we will stand behind. It is sold as an eau de parfum.
It reached the market in 1985 and is widely credited to Pierre Bourdon, but Creed itself says neither of those things. Its current product pages name no perfumer and give no launch year, and its own editorial piece describes the fragrance as born of creative intuition shaped across generations, which carefully avoids a name. Creed does not credit Olivier Creed or Erwin Creed either. The Bourdon attribution is nonetheless well supported from outside the house: Bourdon spoke on the record to the journalist Gabe Oppenheim for a 2021 book about Creed, and before that Michael Edwards, whose reference work is the industry standard, and the critic Luca Turin had both identified his hand in it. Creed declined to engage with that book and issued no response to it. So the honest position is that the attribution is credible and the brand has never confirmed it.
Partly, and the true part is narrower than the story you will hear. What is documented: Green Irish Tweed reached the market in 1985, Davidoff Cool Water arrived in 1988, and Pierre Bourdon is credited with both by independent sources rather than by either brand. What is not documented is everything else. There is no published statement from Creed, from Davidoff or from Bourdon about the resemblance, and no recorded interview in which he describes one as a response to the other, although that framing circulates widely. Above all there was never any lawsuit, dispute or formal complaint between the two houses over it; the only Davidoff court cases on record concern grey-market goods and cigars. Even the direction of influence is assumption: the dates settle which came first, not which borrowed from which. There is also a technical objection worth knowing, that the aquatic molecule usually invoked to link the two was not commercially available until 1989.
AED 1,550 for 100 ml, which works out at AED 15.50 per millilitre, checked on November 13, 2026 at both Ounass and Bloomingdale's. That looks like two retailers agreeing and it is not: both belong to Al Tayer, so it is one pricing authority appearing twice rather than a market range. Both listings showed a single unit remaining. Carrefour UAE had a page with nothing available on it, and Sephora's Emirates site carries the fragrance but its prices are rendered by script and would not load for us, so that is a gap rather than an absence. Creed has physical presence here, at Mall of the Emirates and at The Galleria in Abu Dhabi. One warning on sizes: Creed sells 50, 100, 240 and 490 ml, so a 120 ml or 250 ml bottle on a marketplace is old or grey stock. MOJ's reading is AED 48, 59 and 109.
No, it is our own composition inspired by the original, and it is built on the green side rather than the citrus side. Ours opens on iris and vervain, puts violet leaf through the heart, and finishes on ambergris and sandalwood. The overlap with Creed's own lists is real and specific: violet, the herbal greenness, sandalwood and the mossy, ambery base. What differs is the opening. Creed's two lists both lead with lemon and peppermint, and ours leads with iris, so the first two minutes are where the two diverge most; ours reads greener and more powdery where the original reads colder and sharper. One more point of honesty: our page calls the herb vervain where Creed calls it verbena, which are two names for the same plant rather than a difference in the fragrance. It is AED 48, 59 and 109 for 30, 50 and 100 ml, every size available on November 13, 2026, which makes the 100 ml about fourteen times less than the original.
