Duc de Vervins (1991)
by Houbigant

On its face, Duc de Vervins has little to offer in comparison to other 1970s-1980s masculine aromatic fougeres. I would suggest the Duc is restrained and perhaps more regal than other contenders like Azzaro pour Homme, Paco Rabanne pour Homme (now watery dish soap), Aramis Tuscany, and others. I find Duc de Vervins is closest in style to Patou pour homme Prive though it is far greener and does not employ as high of quality ingredients. While Patou is a purple-golden orientalized fougere, Duc is a green-purple fougere. Many of the accords are similar, but nowhere near as good. Duc de Vervins has come a long way since the days of Fougere Royale, but who better to build your fougere than the fabled firm of Houbigant?

17th November, 2011.

spice,amber,oakmoos,citrus well put together to an aromatic scent.It reminds me of Tsar,Egoiste Platinum,Pour Homme by Paco Rabanne and Drakkar noir!-very similar.The opening is fresh and spicy-nice.The dry-down is the same : aromatic-fresh-green.I like the fragrance and although it´s quite particular and special in comparison to the fragrances being launched nowadays Duc de Virvins remains very linear all the time-powerful aromatic spicy fresh opening on quite a high level but then nothing else happens: long-lasting,strong and no further progress or evolution.A man´s fragrance- a virile simple but well done scent.The more I smell it the more I want something to happen but this fragrance stays the same all the time.At the end I was bored and bugged- okay, maybe this was never the intention of Duc de Virvins but I expect more-Duc de Virvins: an aristocratic promising sound and a bottle with golden letters- even more promising but this fragrance does not satisfy my expectations.It´s singular but remains on a mediocre level!

31st August, 2011.

next to Creed Original Vetiver, this is my favorite scent. It is so clean and limey, but the rich musky base is comforting and fresh. I love this scent. Yes, it can be called an "old man" scent by people who aren't big on these musky mature scents, but the quality of this fragrance is worth its weight in gold.

29th August, 2011.

This kinda reminds me of the Paco Rabanne classic, the green bottle. Smells like rompope, a Spanish holiday drink.

29th December, 2010.

Duc de Vervins very well satisfies my criteria for “neutral.” It’s a competent approach to a traditional genre, and while it has no glaring faults, it does nothing special to distinguish itself among its many kin either. It’s a classical aromatic fougère composition in the established mold of Azzaro pour Homme and Aramis Tuscany per Uomo: bergamot and lavender top notes; additional aromatics, including hints of anise, caraway, and sage, at its heart; and a drydown of coumarin, vetiver, and patchouli with a touch of moss. It partakes neither of Tuscany’s Mediterranean sunshine (less citrus, no tarragon or basil,) nor of Azzaro’s animalic depth (no ambergris reconstruction). Instead it offers a well-balanced, if also rather featureless reminiscence of a style predominant in men’s perfumery well over a decade before its release.

Duc de Vervins shares with other late entries in the aromatic fougère style, such as Tsar and Tuscany, a degree of understatement not often found among masculine scents of the 1980s. In this respect it may hold some lasting appeal, though to my nose both the Aramis and the Van Cleef & Arpels offer more of interest than the Houbigant, especially considering that Duc de Vervins has a less full and nuanced drydown than the other two. Since Tuscany and Azzaro pour Homme are both cheaper and easier to find than Duc de Vervins, I wouldn’t feel especially compelled to seek it out.

31st May, 2010.

(My Perfumed Court sample started to evaporate before my current round of sniffing this, so hopefully I only lost solvent and the smell is still true.) This is a really nice green scent, and a wealthier relative of Drakkar Noir, as everyone else has said. More specifically I'd place it into the space between the smokier, butterier DN and the brighter, sweeter Bowling Green. The opening is a refreshing medium green, neither very bright with unnecessary citrus nor very dark with moss and vetiver. Its sweetness falls toward the sweet end of being believably grassy, and goes no further for the time being. Soon it starts to get bracingly sharp, and a little musky from up close...very masculine, almost like taking the piney components of Yatagan or Polo without much of the leather or the harsher herbs. Scents like those two have led me to place a limit on how sharp I'm willing to go, and DdV falls just shy of that limit. By the base, it develops a sweet undercurrent similar to BG's cinnamon leaf, but DdV has slightly less of it than BG, and I'd say does a better job of it, maybe with some extra cedar.

As a side note, this is a classy, upscale product, and I'm sure they wanted it to come across as very "old money." Unfortunately the big gold initials on the bottle look like something a rapper would wear on a neck chain, or the logo that a 1950s Texas oil millionaire would engrave on the gates to his ranch...decidedly "new money." Very strange contradiction in packaging.

24th October, 2009.