Note Profile
Fougère
The fougère accord is a structure, not a single material. It is lavender on top, coumarin in the heart and oakmoss in the base, usually with geranium between them and bergamot over the lavender. The name is French for fern, but the accord does not smell of fern, and no fern note goes into it. The result is herbal and cool at the start, sweet hay in the middle, and damp moss at the end.
Herbal lavender opens it, cool and slightly camphoraceous, sharper than sage and often lifted by a little bergamot citrus. The heart is the sweet, dry smell of new-mown hay and the inside of a tobacco pouch, with a powdery almond softness and a rosy-green touch of geranium. Underneath sits oakmoss: damp, earthy forest floor with a dry woody edge and a faint phenolic note. The whole reads clean, like shaving soap and fresh linen, with green freshness from cut grass and a trace of clove spice in some versions.
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Fougère is an accord, not a material. It is built from lavender, coumarin and oakmoss, usually with geranium and bergamot. No single product carries the name, and the accord does not smell of fern.
Named after Houbigant's Fougère Royale, composed by Paul Parquet in 1882. It was one of the first perfumes to use a synthetic material: coumarin, first made in 1868. It is a compounded accord assembled from named materials rather than one product with a datasheet. Wikipedia gives the parts: a sweet lavender top, then oakmoss and coumarin, with vetiver, geranium and bergamot as the usual additions. Modern versions often replace natural oakmoss with Evernyl because of IFRA limits on atranol.
Perfumers build the accord rather than dose it. It is the backbone of the fougère family, the largest family in men's perfumery, and of shaving soaps and barbershop products. Lavender or lavandin carries the top, coumarin or tonka the heart, and oakmoss the base. Aromatic fougères add rosemary, thyme or sage. Fresh fougères add dihydromyrcenol. Oriental and gourmand fougères add amber, vanilla or more tonka.
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Fougère Accord appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.
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