Collection Classique

Fougère Bengale 2007

Fougère Bengale by Parfum d'Empire
Bottle Design Bel Epok
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7.2 / 10 147 Ratings
A perfume by Parfum d'Empire for women and men, released in 2007. The scent is spicy-fougèreartig. It is still in production.
Pronunciation
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Main accords

Spicy
Fougère
Woody
Green
Animal

Fragrance Notes

HayHay LavenderLavender OakmossOakmoss PatchouliPatchouli Tonka beanTonka bean Animalic notesAnimalic notes Assam teaAssam tea VanillaVanilla Blond tobaccoBlond tobacco HoneyHoney Spice breadSpice bread Woody notesWoody notes

Perfumer

Videos
Ratings
Scent
7.2147 Ratings
Longevity
7.9115 Ratings
Sillage
7.6113 Ratings
Bottle
7.7108 Ratings
Value for money
6.631 Ratings
Submitted by DeGe53, last update on 25.04.2024.
Interesting Facts
The fragrance is part of the "Collection Classique" collection.

Reviews

4 in-depth fragrance descriptions
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
8.5
Scent
Bloodxclat

30 Reviews
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Bloodxclat
Bloodxclat
Top Review 34  
The world in the bottle of the Corsican
Marc-Antoine Corticchiato. The Corsican has the gift of starting his fragrances often hard and painful.

Here we have a right haymaker right in the face with pure immortelle - wild, herbal, spicy, dry. That harsh curry herb note which eats into the nose.

The haunting goes (really!!) only a minute, then comes wonderfully fresh and airy lavender notes and a bit of licorice / anise. The scent immediately shifts to a Mediterranean herb garden. Airy, spicy, fresh. Tea joins in - freshly brewed, somewhat bitter black tea with a malty note.

Up to here, a great Mediterranean herbal scent. It follows the transformation à la Corticchiato.

Damp, steaming hay bales. In addition, a dark, heavy tobacco note, which really works wonderfully with the hay. A great unit. The whole lays absolutely skillfully under the spiced Assamtee and gives a dark, damp, spicy ambiance. The tobacco is effectively earthy in nature.

We are hereby no longer at all on Corticchiato's Corsica, but the fragrance made me think of the Eastern Oriental Hotel in Penang / Malaysia. In the 1920's, many Illustre guests descended here, from Rudyard Kipling, Karl May, to William Somerset Maugham and so on.

Hermann Hesse wrote from here:

"In Penang, on a hot humid glorious evening, the swelling life of an Asiatic city struck us for the first time...We gazed with amazement at the colorful phenomena of alley life in the Hindu city, the Chinese city, the Malay city. Wild, colorful bustle of people in the always crowded alleys, nightly sea of candles..."

At the latest now, when the oak moss & patchouli pop off, then we have arrived in deepest Malaysia. They complete the exotic framework, the scent seems dense, damp, spicy, earthy, vibrant, exotic, foreign. Camphor-like and also unsweet, black cacaonuacs spread. Like a night in tropical Penang.

Even a night in Penang passes once in a while and the merciless tropical morning sun dries the lanes. The drydown sticks with spicy tobacco, hay, patchouli and the revived curry herb from the beginning. But all a little drier.

Durability is about 10 hours, the sillage is relatively strong - not too much is the motto here.

I find the fragrance very exciting. The balance is very nicely done between Mediterranean & exotic. Typical for Corticchiato. The whole works for me at no time too heavy or too dark, but is nicely loosened up by the herbs and the bright, shimmering lavender. The tobacco is not smoky or ashy at any time, but is dark, moist tobacco leaves with some earth to them.
At times, the fragrance is somewhat reminiscent of Lutens "Borneo 1834".

Here you must not be averse to the special scent of immortelle - the herb, which is infamous as "curry stew", was used here optimally and it fits like a right haymaker on the nose. For fans of exotic spice scents & tobacco, this is a trip to faraway lands.

Very evocative, so to speak!
25 Comments
Intersport

62 Reviews
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Intersport
Intersport
Helpful Review 7  
Détour I: Fougère Bengale
A few years ago, Goutal's Sables appeared somewhat watered down - fortunately corrected in the meantime, but should this moment draw my attention to *related* fragrances. This much in advance, there is nothing seriously similar, Sables remains a solitaire; but this detour was an opportunity to get to know perfumes with real as well as imaginary immortelle notes: Apres Midi d'un Faune, 1740, Chêne, and just now Fougère Bengale. This was suggested to me at Les Senteurs in London, and the subsequent walk along Edgware Road reinforced this subcontinental as well as problematically postcolonial reference that the name holds. This road - one of the original important routes from the industrialization of the suburbs to the center of the city - still suggests the range of trade networks from the Middle East to India. Despite this exotic location at first encounter, Fougère Bengale transports me not to Bengal but to the scrub of the floodplains of alpine rivers in the hottest summer, to the vegetation at the edge of fields under a blazing sun, hay, the lavender and helichrysum shrubs in the garden, and more unclassifiable resinous woods. Fougère Bengale manages - without immortelle, in my opinion - to sketch an aura of Sables without copying in the slightest. But even more to note is this teleportation function: Christos' remarkably affectionate as well as idiosyncratic memoryofscent blog, already revealed almost ten years ago another memory landscape: the flora of a group of Greek islands in summer. Bengal, foothills, Cyclades - Fougère Bengale apparently conjures up all manner of Proustian hawthorn hallucination, Corticchiato's brilliant work is impressive and I'm glad for new acquaintances through this detour.
2 Comments
ColinM

516 Reviews
ColinM
ColinM
Very helpful Review 4  
French Mediterranean
Fougère Bengale opens with a nice, rich, powerful, kind of dark and almost intoxicating blend of spicy-resinous notes, almost boozy initially, a tad sticky and cleverly mixing an Oriental feel of candied-spicy sumptuosity with a Mediterranean herbal inspiration – which is possibly the nicest trademark of Corticchiato’s style, I personally think he’s particularly good in “revisiting” the classic French opulence with a shady Mediterranean feel. At the very heart of Fougère Bengale lies a powerful, incredibly aromatic, thick and warm herbal-tobacco accord comprising nuances of hay, licorice, aniseed. A light floral breeze provides the right amount of liveliness and “fresh air”, together with a sweet and graceful tea note (perfectly melting with licorice) and a subtle yet detectable mint-balsamic feel. Fantastic drydown rich in tobacco and, again, sweet-balsamic nuances of licorice and aniseed, just more woodier, overall quite dark but still with a touch of floral grace. I feel the tribute to fougères too, although this is not a fougère at all and has quite nothing to do with traditional fougères – I only think it’s more a matter of small subtle echoes (tobacco, woods, lavender, herbs...). Evidently close to some Lutens works as well, like other scents by Parfum d’Empire, but somehow more austere, more green, and also more simple. Honestly I don’t think the materials are that great here (just a feel), but Fougère Bengale is overall surely pleasant, refined, rich and sophisticated with its peculiar sort of Mediterranean “gloominesss”. A bit linear, but you won’t get tired of smelling it.

7-7,5/10
0 Comments
7
Scent
Coutureguru

223 Reviews
Coutureguru
Coutureguru
Helpful Review 6  
Tiger! Tiger!!
I am fascinated by Fougère Bengale! In the space of a day I have gone from loathe to like ... which is very uncommon for me.

Upon first trying this on paper, I pulled up my nose and hastily dismissed it. The overwhelming stench of curry wafted off the paper ... and while I like eating it, curry is not necessarily what I want to smell of. The sales assistant tossed a sample in my bag "just for good measure". I tried it on my skin a half hour ago and ... well ... it's very, very nice. How perplexing!
Now, curry is not listed as a note here and scouting around I notice that many other reviewers also smell it. I can only conclude that this effect is created by the patchouli/tobacco/pepper combination. Immortelle is cited as being included elsewhere, but not having the faintest idea what it smells like, I can't comment on that.
The important bit here, is that on my skin, I don't really get curry per sé, more just a spicy warmth flooded with delicious, dry, hay like notes, loads of green tobacco and lashings of sweet, sweet vanilla. The Oakmoss is there, as is the Lavender ... but if you like Tobacco then this is the one for you ... it's reminiscent of lovely blond pipe tobacco ... just gorgeous!

This fragrance has a Rudyard Kipling-ish gentleman-on-safari feel to it ... and I'm quite astounded that in my current (heavy feminine florals) frame of mind, I like it as much as I do.

Go figure!?!?!?
1 Comment

Statements

3 short views on the fragrance
Finerthings8Finerthings8 1 day ago
1
Bottle
8
Sillage
9
Longevity
7
Scent
Very polarizing scent.despite my huge respect to this house .it reminds me of curry .I don’t want to smell like this.hard pass
0 Comments
ChicoRoch1ChicoRoch1 1 month ago
A high quality niche fougere that reminds me of fragrances of long ago
0 Comments
EstbienlaEstbienla 2 years ago
Good smell of quite unusual and original ferns. Niche perfume and not for the general public
0 Comments

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