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“What Ferns Would Smell Like if Only They Could”
HOUBIGANT : Fougère Royale
by Parquet (1882)
By Houbingant owner Paul Parquet in 1882. It's the first to use tonka bean isolate coumarin (10%), hailing in the era of modern perfumery and defining the family of the fougère (fern, in French). Also, the first perfume not trying to recreate a scent of nature, but creating an abstract idea (ferns don't have a smell for real).
Fougère is a now defined by lavender, oakmoss and coumarin, which smells of fresh grass; so it's woody fresh. Personally, I'm surprised how fruity it starts; it tones down the fruit after 20 minutes though and becomes woody. 2010 recreated by Roja. Reformulation has a lot of chamomille, too.
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