Farouche

I have read all these reviews and comments and feel inspired to add my own very personal love letter to this fragrance. I first discovered it when my Dad gifted his 2nd wife (who I loved), with the spray perfume, in Jan. 1976 (for her 50th birthday). It was love at 1st sniff and I resolved to get my own bottle as soon as I got a job & my own apt., which happened 1 month later, and I purchased the edt in the classic glass bottle (the spray). I wore it very frequently that Winter into Spring and have so many fond memories connected with this beautiful and unique fragrance, mostly associated with music; like swooning to Ravel at the symphony, and listening to Joni Mitchell's "Hejira". So I treasure those memories all these years later, and am so happy to be able to relive them, every time I wear my vintage Farouche, in the same classic bottle (God Bless eBay!). This is truly a most memorable, life enhancing fragrance. I had previously loved and worn L'air du Temps, and that, relationship continues, to this day. It would be impossible to say which one is my favorite, I love them both. And I recently rediscovered Capricci, which is also full of delights. My vintage Bigarade is a uniquely refreshing and alluring herbal/citrus scent. Although I'm primarily a Guerlain person (& Dior; vintage Miss Dior & Dioressence), I love & need these classic Ricci fragrances which all share a certain timeless and comforting quality, at least to this "child of the 60s & 70s"!

(My review is for the EDT vintage, housed in the white plqstic casing. ) The word Farouche means both 'Wild' and 'Shy' in English and French language. This fragrance is most certainly both of those things. After spraying my vintage bottle I am transported back in time... at first, this one is very wild, feral and untamed. I was worried I had an error with my curiosity anf lack of impulsivity in this blind buying of a 70s classic. However, after I patiently waited things calmed down, the scent tamed itself and then became a much more beautiful, softer, delicate and pretty little thing. This is romantic, soft focus in the haze of a warm summers day, eating peaches and sponge cake in white colured cotton petticoats, picking wild flowers along river banks and sunbathing on top of golden haybales. It is fluffy white kittens that have the scent of baby powder in their fur and the embrace of your mother after a long absence when she finally comes home. Somehow it remains extremely feminine whilst having such an aromatic, spicy and bitter profile going on. Great stuff! I need to try the perfume version now, as I adore this. (Edit - I am overjoyed to read the other reviews after writing this and to see that this perfume really evokes similar sentiments and imagery in others minds and hearts. What a wonderful and shared connection throughout time this perfume has gifted the world).

This is a madeleine-fragrance to me...in the sense it brings back childhood memories. It was the perfume my mummy wore back in the Seventies, i was then a small child but i have very distinct memories of my mother proudly wearing Farouche on special occasions and cherishing her bottle. I remember she loved the bottle (at the time it was housed in a brown box with a red stripe and "Farouche" printed in gold on the red stripe; the bottle is not what is being pictured here on this page ) as much as the fragrance. The fragrance is a peachy aldheidic floral, very strong, sweet but bitter, next of kin to First (First is colder and classier in my opinion) and Rive Gauche. A typical perfume of the Seventies, and good God those were perfumes.... I was not extremely fond of it, but you know, it was my mummy's fragrance and I did respect it as I do today. It smelled good on her. I already had started my own collection of mini bottles - still own it to date- and had already a very defined taste. My mum gave me the mini bottles of Farouche and Capricci -the perfumeries gave plenty of minis as samples at the time -for my collection. I never wore Farouche -but did wear other frags of my collection- and still have the mini bottles (boxed!). Good memories....

Seek this out (perfume, not EdT) while ebay stock lasts if you like the idea of Venetian lace dried on a line in a sun-drenched field near a hey barn. It smells of sun, dry hey and wormwood. No sweetness, apart from dry sweetness of the air in wild flower meadows. In my mind music has scent and Farouche is La Carpinese (L'arpeggiata and Marco Beasley). It's so beautiful it hurts. I blame fashion that tells malleable 16-year olds that a cool thing now to blow their first earned bucks on is sugar-chocolate-strawberry-cherry coke-smelling stuff (stuff, you know who you are) and the likes of Farouche and Mystere are grandma scents. 40 years ago (when I could walk under a table without bending my knees) raving 20-year olds were wearing Farouche as a rite of passage. There is something fundamentally wrong in the world if eternal masterpieces like Farouche are discontinued (did it really just drop in sales? Do tell if you know) and Black Opiums that never even shared the same planet with Opium are a huge success. Stop the world then, please, I want to get off.

People exalt this for being the romantic perfume that every girl wanted way back then. Those were the times when Nina Ricci produced lived-in scents: the smell of flaxen hair under the warm sun, intertwined with dried flowers. This is one meant to be enjoyed by a lover during a tryst. Smelled intimately, like how laced undergarments smell of soap and slight sweat. It is beautiful and fleeting. Fragile, feminine in the most pretty sense, hazy and romantic. This one is all at the same time metallic, balsamic, spicy, somewhat herbal but ultimately feminine. The parfum brings me to tears. Equally beautiful with Capricci. I even wonder why Luca Turin didn't bother examining this art piece. Edit: Perfumer is Michel Hy.