FOUGÈRE BENGALE by Parfum d'Empire

Brand: Parfum d'Empire ^{pronounce in French}
Perfume: Fougère bengale ^{pronounce in French}
Concentration: edp
Notes:* lavender, blonde tobacco accord, tea from Assam, gingerbread, hay, tonka bean, patchouli, vanilla
♔Ingredients: Alcohol Denat. (80% vol.), Parfum (Fragrance), Aqua (Water), Limonene, Coumarin, Linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Citronellol, Geraniol, Citral, Eugenol
♔Information on the packaging: Viastella - 6, rue Barye, 75017, Paris, France
♔Brand owner (now): Viastella SAS, France - parfumdempire.com
♔Made in France.

 F irst, the fragrance feels very spicy. I sense two types of spices here:

- One that brings an earthy, baked texture and I think of fenugreek.

- One that has a very cold and fresh smell and I am talking about sweet fennel or aniseed, which makes its presence felt plentifully.

Second, the perfume exudes cosiness and warmth. I can see vanilla/vanillin being a great contributor to these.

All of the above are equal players. The scent's evolution is linear, so I smell them even in the drydown.

Fougère bengale gives off festive/winter holiday season vibes. It makes me imagine herbal, metholated alcoholic drinks, which could be an effect of the sweet fennel or aniseed. The fragrance is also sweet, vaguely bitter, a tad syrupy, with dried fruits (dates or raisins) and apricot skin inflections, and I can envision a fruit cake, a little bit dry, served on the table, which could be an effect of the fenugreek texture mixed with the vanilla/vanillin.

Fougère bengale is a 10 out of 10 perfume. I am enjoying a lot its cold and warm contrast. The sweet-gourmand elements push it more into the feminine territory. A concoction for adults, yet with a playful side. The list of ingredients corresponds a lot with how the fragrance actually smells.

The quality of the raw materials is easy to perceive and the resulting smell is top notch. However, vanilla/vanillin is not my ingredient of choice and there is quite a big dose of it inside. Because of that, I have to subtract one point from the total.

My verdict: 9 out of 10.

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* The notes were taken from parfumdempire.com