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alanal1968 – :
Recently I had a pleasure of sampling a reconstruction, ancient formula contemporary ingredients, of 1882 Fougere Royale.
It was fabulous.
Non of that chest-hair sprouting, testosterone affirming, sea life decaying or, God help us all, diabetes inducing nonsense.
It was a wilderness inspired exquisite concoction for men and women. Barely contained in the bottle. Something that I could never became tired of.
I finaly understood, fougere is not about cut grass or lavender, it’s about untamed wilderness. About freedom.
Sabotage74 – :
One of the best Fougeres ever made along with Rive Gauche, Paco Rabbane pour Home, Azzaro pour Homme, Tabac and of course king Kouros.
Fougere Royale is pure class in a bottle. This juice is in nearly numerous upsale barbershops across Western Europe and North America. It’s the first Fougere and still one of the best. Unfortunately I never smelled the vintage, but the current version is darn good. So don’t let the “vintage is way better” comments discourage you from trying this amazing fragrance
BTW Fougeres are not unisex to everyone. Even today Fougeres are commonly used in barbershops so they are a masculine fragrance to many of us.. men and ladies. Most of us remember our dads wearing aftershave fougeres. I dont recall my mom splashing on a fougere aftershave after a close wet shave. Maybe yours did. Hey, to each their own.
When I smell a fougere I immediately think of shaving cream, barbershop, wet face shave. And that’s not a feminine trait as far as I know. Sorry for my lack of political correctness for disagreeing with the unisex claims. Blame my nose and memory. And blame testosterone that forces me to shave. For that I will not apologize to anybody
pavelgraf23 – :
The new Amouage Bracken Man may be closer to the far superior vintage.
Kingston96Rus – :
This was my 1st husband Richard’s fragrance when it was still selling and smelling like the original back in the 50’s. He passed away and the bottle remained in my possession and I too began to wear it for old times sake and to remember his scent. I finished it up circa 1962. By that time I had moved on and was involved with another man who would become my second husband. This fragrance is so melancholic for me. I can’t help but shed tears for the loss of my Richard. It’s such a sentimental aroma for me. I can no longer smell it and it has a reformulation that is selling today but it is nothing like the original. I have bought an old edition through ebay and wear it out of nostalgia on the anniversary of our wedding.
The opening is fresh bergamot and anise (not listed) spicy and not fruity. It smells like a man’s aftershave and a bit similar to the opening of JICKY bu Guerlain. The sage and citrus are very aromatic and green and fresh. This part is very enjoyable. I remember being close enough to kiss Richard and inhaling that citrus scent.
Fougere Royale is a traditional fougere and in fact THE FIRST fougere so it has a very important place in fragrance history. This scent has a lavender note that smells very typical of fougeres, which are essentially floral fragrances for MEN, but are unisex as well and can be worn by women. This is the first floral fragrance for men and it would be a formula and style that would continue to be used up to the time Sophia Grojsman created Eternity for Men. The lavender is floral and spicy, aromatic, and it’s joined by additional flowers of rose, orchid, heliotrope and geranium.
The one thing the rose and heliotrope have in common is the light touch of powder but they never get into powder scents because the lavender reigns supreme in this fragrance. She is too spicy and too bold to let the heliotrope and rose becomes dainty and girly. For the most part however this is a floral fragrance and each flower can be detected. The heart is floral and I have always enjoyed the progression it takes from sage to florals. Beautiful!
The dry down is vanilla and it, too, is sweet and powdery, soft, but then it’s embraced by a musk that returns the fragrance back into the realm of men’s colognes. The musk is realistic and warm. It also has oak moss and lots of it. The fragrance becomes green and wild, like a scent of forest lavender and sage, moss and woods. The scent starts and develops like a woman’s perfume but finishes up like a man’s cologne. But it’s soft and lovely and today even in that reformulation can be worn by both sexes.
This is my Richard’s fragrance and so far I have never smelled it on anyone but him. It is a fragrance that has not had too much attention and is a rarity in the world today. It’s out there and I recommend you fume heads to check it out. For me this is a one of a kind fougere and a good example of a traditional classic fougere. It has so much meaning to me and my past life that I am able to literally smell it in my dreams when Richard shows up in my dreams smelling of Fougere Royale.
MrHaiD777 – :
FOUGERE ROYALE
HOUBIGANT
GROUP: UNISEX, AROMATIC FOUGERE
NOTES: LAVENDER CLARY SAGE BERGAMOT CARNATION ORCHID HELIOTROPE ROSE GERANIUM TONKA MUSK VANILLA OAK MOSS COUMARIN
SILLAGE: MODERATE RADIATES WITHIN ARM’S LENGTH
LONGEVITY: LONG LASTING 7 TO 12 HOURS
REMINDS ME OF: JICKY BY GUERLAIN
Created in a lab in Paris in 1882 by Paul Parquet for Houbigant, this fragrance preceded Guerlain’s Jicky and Houbigant’s own Quelques Fleurs. This then would make Fougere Royale the first truly modern perfume. This was the first fougere a floral woodsy scent for men. The opening is pure essence and extracts of bergamot orange and lavender. There was no aldehydes at this time and usually a sharp citrus was the opening. Smelled like men’s aftershave. Every other ingredient in this frag is also natural: clary sage, oak moss, and the flowers of rose heliotrope orchid geranium and carnation. We may never know exactly what the first Fougere Royale smelled like. Houbigant has recreated the fragrance and reformulated dozens of times. They have kept some of the same formula notes but added vanilla and additional notes of chamomile, cinnamon, amber and patchouli. These latter notes particularly vanilla amber and patchouli are what we smell today. This is an aromatic floral, smoky floral green herbal lavender scent. Because it is full bodied, rich, but soothing, and floral, it is definitely unisex and women are able to wear this too. This is a historic and very important fragrance which unfortunately gets under the shadow of Jicky by Guerlain. I would say that the two smell somewhat similar but Fougere is more floral. This is a beautiful fragrance. It’s romantic, elegant, sophisticated, classy, and it just makes you realize how far we’ve come and what a pity we can’t go back.
DiamaXxX – :
The Fougere of All Fougeres. Vintage Fougere Royale is a unisex fragrance in today’s market but in the 1880’s it was a men’s cologne that had less spicier and less intense notes of musk or tobacco. This fragrance is a beautiful floral scent of lavender, rose, geranium and heliotrope. The lavender is aromatic and opens this scent beautifully. The rose and geranium smell alike but the heliotrope really stands out. It’s a soft and comfortable scent. It’s something to wear while staying at home or when you don’t really want to make a statement. If men were wearing this in the 1880’s this was their scent to wear when spending time with their wives who snuggled up next to them. It’s an inoffensive subtle scent. It’s got all the big ingredients that make up a fougere: lavender and oak moss. Yes it does turn woodsy but not heavily woody. It’s aromatic but not in the patchouli sense. I do love the flowers in this scent and they’re my 3 top favorites: heliotrope rose and orchid. On me this is mostly a floral vanilla. Women should wear this because it does smell very nice and perfectly suited to women. I recommend it for casual wear in the day time in spring and summer. Beautiful classic timeless fragrance.
ssstas – :
Absolutely lovely fragrance. Lavender makes you calm. However, I would not wear it in public. It has signs of age on his stick and smells musty maybe for one or the other. Old school.
babay_73 – :
Fougere Royale EdC (vintage) opens with very intense (not dramatic like Guerlain) lavender and wild bergamot. During the drydown I detect hints of vanilla with a pleasant herbal green vibe. I really like it 🙂
vov4ikFear13 – :
Anybody who may be interested in experiencing a sketch of the original “Fougere Royal” by Houbigant should most definitely avoid buying the recent re-issue of this by Houbigant: It is so far removed from the original in every aspect that it defies logic that they would dare to slap this legendary name on a very expensive bottle, beautifully packaged, that contains a perfume so common, that, barring Serge Lutens “Muscs Kublai-Kahn, which made me vomit in the loo at Barney’s, it is the only perfume I have ever had on my skin that, not only caused me embarrassment during the day I tried it, but eventually made me quite ill, and would not come off of me: I have a very high tolerance of fragrance, and have tested thousands of perfumes: Very seldom do I find myself trying everything imaginable to get one off: This was the case with the re-issue: Nothing would kill it, including, after soaping, scrubbing, alcohol rubbing, blasting with the strongest scents I own. It is so vile that it truly reaches “joke” territory, so common that I would sooner dump a plastic bottle of Brut “cologne” all over me in a drugstore than allow a single drop of this onto my dermis. I found a 500ml bottle of the original Fougere Royale perfectly preserved in it’s box in the Clignancourt Flea Market in Paris in the late Eighties, and used it to the last molecule: Even setting the bottle upside down once empty then swabbing the screw-on cap with a Q-tip. Penhaligon’s “English Fern” was a near perfect copy of this in the days prior to re-formulation. Today, it still is the closest I can suggest. The second closest would have to be Geo Trumper’s “Wild Fern.” Interestingly, if you can get hold of an original bottle of Dana’s Canoe, which may only be “Made Bottled and Sealed in France,” especially in its long ago disappeared “Extra Rich” formulation, while this has much more carnation in it than Fougere Royale did, somehow, I am reminded very specifically of this flea market bottle i picked up for a song that I so voraciously wore, that, when it was done, I found myself in a panic. For years I looked for another, and never found one. The fragrance “H Pour Homme,” which regularly is passed off as “Fougere Royale” in ebay searches, is not the original, as I very sadly found out after buying an entire stock of it (18 bottles!). I can only marvel at the house of Houbigant, and, under my breath whisper “Shame!” that they could ever begin to think this re-launch could so much as suggest the original, which, buyers beware, it most definitely does not. Fougere Royale, R.I.P.
xentaikartinka – :
Yes, Fougere Royale started and gave its name to the Fougere category. Be advised. The Fougere Royale presented on this page is the original as created in 1882, which, while fabulous, is no longer available (and if you have a bottle – don’t open it – it’s SO collectible!). See my review of the wonderful, newly-recreated Fougere Royale.
maers13 – :
Be advised. The Fougere Royale presented on this page is the original as created in 1882, which, while fabulous, is no longer available (and if you have a bottle – don’t open it – it’s SO collectible!). See my review of the wonderful, newly-recreated Fougere Royale.