Crown Fougère (1880)
by Crown Perfumery

It's like a walk through an herb garden while peeling a fresh lemon on a cool misty day. You stray off the path and your feet crush the leaves of lavender, Baron thyme (caraway thyme), monarda and tarragon. The scent of the surrounding cedar and trees add their rich woodiness of the experience.

Crown Fougere is a clean, earthy and fresh scent. But it also has its dark and mysterious side.

Lemon, lavender, and something that smells a lot like caraway leap out when I apply Crown Fougere. After this comes a semi-sweet anise note, which in conjunction with caraway makes an accord both earthy and medicinal. At this point Crown Fougere brings to mind an ancient monastic liqueur: perhaps Chartreuse or Benedictine. It's extremely "old world" and sophisticated, but with an earthy aspect that prevents it from becoming too stodgy.

By the time it's been on my skin for an hour Crown Fougere begins to smell remarkably like Olivia Giacobetti's recent Fou d'Absinthe for L'Artisan Parfumeur. So much so that I'd recommend reviewers who lament Crown Fougere's demise try Fou d'Absinthe before succumbing to absolute grief. The newer scent is a bit sweeter and more boozy, but once its top notes dissipate it walks very much the same aromatic fougere path. So much so, in fact, that I could not justify owning bottles of both at once.

Pavane pour une parfum défunt (with apologies to Maurice Ravel): a song to a deceased scent. Crown Fougere is an amazing, lovely green-fern fougere. It is a tragedy that this is out of production. I’d place CF on a continuum. At the greenest end is the lovely Wild Fern by Trumper. At the sophisticated warm spicy wood end is the superb English Fern by Penhaligon. And CF sits comfortably in the middle, combining each of those aspects. The wood tones are really noteworthy (sandalwood, cedar). In addition, this has incredible longevity. Lovers of fern scents would enjoy this one. The world would be a better place with more scents like this!

Very fresh and soapy, the lavender and fern make for a very appealing combination. Great as a dress-up scent. If you have sampled this but cannot find it (because Clive Christian has discontinued the whole line), try Trumper's Wild Fern of Penhaligon's English Fern, as they are nearly indistinguishable.

Man, I don’t know what to think. A part of my really likes this earthy blend, but there is also something very unpleasant lurking around in a medicinal sort of way. It’s slightly green with dry earthy accords. It’s just got this weird toothpaste like note that kind of throws me off.

I bought this for my husband, who has very discriminating tastes in relation to scent. He loved it, as I do also! Rich, masculine scent that I wish I could order more of.