Created by perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato in 2007 for his French indie brand Parfum d'Empire Paris, Fougère Bengale was designed to evoke memories of Bengalese tiger hunts from the colonial era. It opens with a blast of fresh, herbal, mint-tinged English barbershop lavender. It’s joined by a note of warm, green, anisic tarragon. I smell an earthy, herbal, curry-like note of immortelle. Immortelle has a medicinal aspect that I notice, but as it blooms, it smells like sun-warmed hay and wild grass. As it evolves, a note of woody, camphoraceous, animalic patchouli is bolstered by geranium, a keynote in the fougère accord, which adds elegance and masculinity to the mix. Blond tobacco, sweet and aromatic, is warm and sensual; it links to a note of Tonka bean that’s sweet and vanilla-like, with facets of hay and tobacco that extend those notes. It calls forward a note of rich, creamy vanilla that gives Fougère Bengale a cozy sensuality. Fougère Bengale opens big, but morphs into a green, warm, curried, polished scent that glows like a languid seducer on my skin at the dry down. Fougère Bengale is a masculine fragrance. There is nothing unisex about it, but I am inexplicably drawn to its complex beauty. Every time I wear it, I discover new facets and dimensions within it, like the patterns seen in a kaleidoscope. That’s one of the things I love about it. That, and the way that it smells. Notes: Lavender, tarragon, immortelle, patchouli, geranium, tobacco, tonka beans and vanilla.
