BALANCING EXERCISE 1: BASIC FOUGERE ACCORD
Oh wow, this sideblog is still alive?
My constantly distracted self realized that my self-taught perfumery lessons are going nowhere so l finally signed up for an actual perfumery class. This exercise isn't a part of that. I just finally had the motivation to pick up where I left off because I want to be prepared for the actual classes. Nothing spurs me into action like a looming deadline and potentially being the dumbest person in the room.
ANYWAY—
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FOUGERE - "fern" in french. A fragrance type that is typically composed of coumarin + lavender + moss/oakmoss (+ geranium; optional). It's supposed to give a green, forest-y, and woody impression.
Personally, what I immediately think of when I hear fougere are barbershop scents and aftershave. So basically, scents that are conventionally "masculine"-leaning.
The Exercise:
Make a fern (fougère) heart by balancing coumarin + lavender + moss. (Try 1:2:1) Add geranium if you're feeling daring.
The Materials:
Coumarin (10% in DPG): Cherry-like but in an enveloping way. This is what I imagine bitter almond smells like (after a quick google search, apparently i'm right. yay). Not exactly powdery but almost to that effect. Like I said, enveloping. Either it's very light or so strong that it made me anosmic. Becomes more powdery and a little stronger after a while. Also develops a little bit of a coconut-oil like scent later on but very minimal.
Lavender (Diva): that wasn’t a side note, diva is apparently a variety of lavender from France I haven’t smelled fresh lavender but I do have a small jar of dried lavender buds and the essential oil smells exactly like that. Floral but in an herbal and aromatic way. Slightly powdery.
Oakmoss Absolute (10% in ALC): Resinous?? Woody but also medicinal and quite salty. Kinda reminds me of Betadine. Dry down has a bit of a dusty smokiness to it.
Now I wasn’t feeling daring but I did have a lot of time so I added Geranium as suggested.
Geranium (Egypt): Floral with a hint of something lemony, green, a little bit herbaceous. Kind of like vervain or lemongrass. After a while, it becomes slightly similar to rose absolute with a little bit of spice and something like a wet brown paper bag (I swear this makes sense in my head). Something about it kinda reminds me of a liniment. It has camphorous and gingery nuances. When diluted to 10% in alcohol, it’s fruitier and quite rosy but still retains the slightly spicy/paper bag/liniment-ish facets.
NOTE: The trials were “blended” on perfume strips and measured in drops because this shit’s expensive.
COUMARIN (10%) + LAVENDER + OAKMOSS (10%)
TRIAL 1 - 1:2:1 ⭐️
Herbal and vegetal and clean. Definitely something I’d smell in a men’s cologne. The lavender is quite strong but doesn’t smell overpowering. I actually expected the oak moss to overpower since it’s quite strong on its own but the saltiness I smelled from the oakmoss alone is gone. There’s a cool greenness to it. Late dry down, you get more of the woodiness and slight saltiness of oakmoss. Already quite nice but I’ll try adding another drop of coumarin.
TRIAL 2 - 2:2:1
For some reason it’s like I get more lavender here. It’s a tiny bit sweeter and cozier. This also feels like it has more impact/stronger but we’ll see if it’s recency bias (update: it was). There’s a cherry-like nuance in the dry down from the coumarin. Seems to last longer than the 1:2:1. Late dry down, the coumarin takes over and it does not smell like a fougere anymore.
TRIAL 3 - 2:1:1
Definitely not balanced. It became sweeter and the lavender became weaker. The overall scent is muted. Smells nice but it’s not giving fougere. Idk what I was expecting tbh. Longevity is surprisingly weak despite coumarin having a pretty decent longevity when on its own.
TRIAL 4 - 2:3:1 ⭐️
The lavender is stronger again but like in Trial 1, it feels balanced. Has more astringency to it compared to Trials 2 and 3. But compared to 1, this is smoother and sweeter. Not by much but there is a difference.
TRIAL 5 - 1:1:1
Feels like a watered down version of Trial 1. Has the weakest longevity out of all the trials. Makes sense why this wasn’t the initial suggested ratio.
TRIAL 6 - 1:2:2
Not as “clean” as the other balanced iterations because the saltiness of the oakmoss seems to peek through. Dry down improves a bit, although the oakmoss seems to be fighting for dominance with the lavender. Not exactly bad. It’s just more of a clean woody scent than fougere.
CONCLUSION
Best ratio in my opinion is 1:2:1 or 2:3:1.
2:2:1 could work for a softer, smoother feeling but it’s not very fougere after it completely dries down.
For a fougere accord, coumarin should be less than lavender. If you use more than, it doesn’t feel very fougere anymore.
In this accord, Oakmoss seems to work best as a background/supporting character so it’s best in small amounts. Otherwise, the accord becomes woody.
ADDING GERANIUM
COUMARIN (10%) + LAVENDER + OAKMOSS (10%) + GERANIUM
TRIAL 1 - 1:2:1:1
The geranium is definitely overpowering the other materials. It kinda gets better as it dries down but it still stands out and makes this trial smell ginger-y. The geranium needs to be diluted.
COUMARIN (10%) + LAVENDER + OAKMOSS (10%) + GERANIUM (10%)
TRIAL 1 - 1:2:1:1
MUCH better. It’s giving fougere except the lavender doesn’t stand out as much but in a good way. Surprisingly, there’s still a gingery nuance there but not as strong as the version with the neat geranium oil. (It might also be because the diluted geranium was added last to the strip). The accord now smells a bit more floral. Nice but could be better I think. The more it dries down, the more it smells like a traditional fougere—cold and clean a la men’s cologne/aftershave.
TRIAL 2 - 2:3:1:1
I like this better than the first trial. The gingery-ness of the geranium doesn’t stand out anymore but the camphorous effect and the added floral quality is still there. Definitely giving men’s cologne/aftershave now. After smelling the dry down of the previous trial, I can tell this is somewhat softer and has a smoother feel because of the increased ratio of coumarin.
CONCLUSION
The addition of geranium made the accord smell more complete.
It blends well with the lavender to create a more balanced floral note while adding a cold/camphorous quality to the overall blend.
Use sparingly or else it will add a gingery/papery/liniment-like quality to the accord.
Both the base blends of 1:2:1 and 2:3:1 work well with the 10% diluted Geranium. It will just be a matter of preference or what will work better with other materials.
FINAL NEAT RATIO
1 : 20 : 1 : 1 • For a basic fougere
3 : 20 : 1 : 1 • For a basic fougere with a touch of sweetness and smoothness
