Fougère d’Argent

I originally had a review below that I'd edited a few times, but it was in jeopardy of becoming a wall of text (as this is about to be) if I continued to update it, so here are my thoughts after about six months experience with this fragrance. To sum up what I said before: I stumbled upon this in my local Nieman Marcus and initially loved the scent on a card. I soon was taking home a sample, but I found the performance to be lacking in both projection and longevity when sprayed on my skin. Within a few wears the excitement was gone, although the scent itself I found to be a rich and sophisticated aromatic. Metallic lavender with tonka bean sweetness. Smooth. Quite different from the fougeres I've tried up until now. Slightly masculine, but typically unisex and showcasing the modern characteristic that so much of the private blend shares (which is sometimes described as feminine, or "Tom Ford DNA"). My initial impression was, "fantastic fragrance, but not worth the money because of the abysmal performance". Then, after wearing my sample out a number of times more, and getting a few unsolicited, and quite enthusiastic, compliments (some within an hour of applying, and some a good few hours after applying), I realized that the performance was much better than I'd thought. After an hour the initially great projection falls to what I would describe as "close," but not "skin close". A few of the unsolicited compliments came from people standing near me, but not exactly leaning in or getting up in my personal space (if that makes sense). On some days I've caught wiffs of myself at around the seven hour mark, so there's that. I also noticed that it will stay on clothes all day. Over the course of a few more wearings I fell in love with it all over again and I began to justify the price tag. I'd had a complete change of heart. (Plus, I found that second hand stock can be found on the internet for far less than retail so I suppose that played a part as well.) And so I bought a 50ml bottle. Since wearing it more and more I've come to realize how versatile a fragrance like this is. Initially the impression I got was that this would be great for business casual to formal events - wearing it into the office or even to a wedding when dressed up. And this works great for those occasions! However, I've found it to also work great in almost any occasion. Casual wear, night out, etc. Sophisticated is a great descriptor, but it is not stuffy or strict. I wouldn't even call it formal, although it certainly could be worn at a formal occasion. There is a bit of charm to the opposite gender (in my experience) so one might even say there's an element of sex appeal. Granted, it has only been fall and now winter since finding this fragrance so I can't speak to the warm weather suitability, but I would think at the very least it would be acceptable in an office environment year around. I've seen many comments that FdA could be skipped in lieu of other, cheaper fougeres, and I have no doubt the people who say this are more experienced and knowledgeable about fragrance than I am. However, I find it to be modern and versatile in a way I've yet to discover in the other fougeres I've tried. I absolutely think I've found an almost perfect signature scent for me.

I made the mistake of overlooking Fougère d'Argent & Fougère Platine when they first came out in 2018. By the time I was in the market for some more Tom Ford, Beau De Jour had just been released at the start of 2019, & I instantly went for the big bottle. Absolutely love it. But WOW, did I miss out on a couple great scents. Even with giving them a test wear, my expectations - or better put, my preconceived notions - clearly ruined my first impressions of both d'Argent & Platine. Revisiting my samples, both are fantastic & worth owning alongside BDJ. I love all 3 & to me, they each fit a mood, although they're entirely interchangeable to suit yours. All 3 are going to be general crowd-pleasers. D'Argent is the safest but it's a bit deceptive. It really evolves a lot & while it doesn't strike the wearer as potent, it is. It projects more than you realize & even 8 hours in with a couple sprays on each arm, I'm getting wafts of wood, citrus & lavender, even though it seems like it's down to a skin scent when sniffed directly. Definitely agree with the comment about this being along the lines of a ADP fragrance, in a very good way. Platine is more herbaceous & bracing, or "cooling". It's probably the hardest to quit sniffing of the 3. The blend is just fantastic & so soothing. A bit more "serious" than d'Argent, Platine strikes me as mature, confident & sexy... Perfect for the office, a date, or dinner with friends. That leaves Beau De Jour (in my case, the Private Blend version) as the screamer. It's definitely the most unapologetic one of the trio. I absolutely love it & get tons of compliments on it... But if you appreciate BDJ, you'd probably love Platine & d'Argent, too... Admittedly, you may need a couple wears to realize it, but at least you'll smell great doing it. IMO all 3 are safe blind buys. As fougeres they're masculine leaning but they all smell so good I'm sure some women will love wearing these, too. All 3 are clean & fresh with some edge & clever twists to them. It's straight to FB's + backups for me. 3 excellent releases... TF is on the right track with these.

#514 in my "Tour de Fragrance" Fougere D'Argent is a great scent, no debate about it. Love a classic barbershop frag. I wore Gucci Envy for years. There's some commonality here, maybe 50%. Envy was more floral and had an incense note that's absent here. Damn Gucci for discontinuing it. Nothing they've released since comes close. I feel the same about Gucci Nobile. Note-wise this struck me as close to Jacques Bogart Silver Scent Intense, but the quality of the Silver Scents is god-awful, even for $20 frags, which is not the case with the other Bogart scents I've tried. This also struck me as similar to Nishane Hacivat Oud, though in my opinion inferior to that scent. That's no shame. Damn near everything is inferior to Hacivat Oud to my nose. I love Hacivat, and I really love Hacivat Oud, but I don't love it $650 worth. Not sure I love this Tom Ford scent $200 worth. I may try Dua's dupe "Chivalry" at $65 to see if it really is a dupe. I keep threatening to try the Dua frags and this may be my motivation. If you like barbershop scents and can accept EDT performance, which I have accepted in the Replica scents, you may like Maison Margiela "At the Barber's", which to my nose is the barbershop across the street from the home I grew up in. Pinuad Clubman, Jeris, Eau de Portugal, the Pinaud barber powder, the smell of hot lather. "At the Barber's" delivers that fond memory for $90 a bit better than this Fougere D'Argent, but at lesser quality. It's not an EDP and barely lasts till lunch on me, and I have the same complaint about all their scents, which I desperately wish would be reformulated as EDPs. Unlike the cases of EDTs I donated away for Christmas, I love the Replica scents too much to give them up, and I think you'll really enjoy them too if you haven't tried them out.

Tom Ford Private Blends have finally explicitly dipped into fougere territory, this time with the brand's own re-imagining of the formula, oakmoss being replaced with akigala wood, said by one source to be a enzymatic variation of patchouli. The opening of orange, lavender, and ginger is bright and freshly sharp but very much short-lived on my skin, drying down relatively quickly over the course of 1-2 hours to the sweet, semi-animalic blend of coumarin, labdanum, and the abovementioend akigala wood, which lends the spicy character of patchouli that the oakmoss would have provided. Perhaps due simply to the labdanum/coumarin pairing, Fougere d'Argent is noticeably sweeter than most fougeres (or even most near-fougeres like Chanel Pour Monsieur), and perhaps that's in the more modern trend of masculine fragrances leaning sweeter. This is branded unisex by virtue of its inclusion in the Private Blend line, but even a deviation from the traditional fougere rings masculine. Performance is solid, reflective of the price and that, genre-wise, Fougere d'Argent is year-round-friendly and while I regard it as more of a daytime option, it can certainly suit someone at night, and surely for formal scenarios as well. The lower end of the Private Blend pricing is now up to $235 for 50ml as evidenced by this new release and its sibling, Fougere Palatine, so this is wholly in the category of "need to love it in order to buy a full bottle" and even with one wearing, I expect Tom Ford has won me over with the innovation and versatility of the fragrance, but more wearings of my decants will follow. 8 out of 10

This is a really, really good fougere. It has that "Fougere thing" where you instantly know it's a fougere when you spray it. So in that sense, it's classic or gentlemanly. But then it becomes something more than that. There is a sweetness in this which develops so beautifully. Let's talk about the performance. This is a fragrance that doesn't continuously project hard, and trust me, you don't want it to otherwise it would become annoying or even headache inducing. This is a fragrance that you will continue to catch beautiful wafts of for hours. You may think you don't smell it for a bit, and then it comes back. I suspect this is a fragrance you can go partially nose blind to. So, I notice some people saying they can't detect it even with a lot of sprays. That might be why. If you have a legitimate bottle of this fragrance, it's very strong and long lasting. In my opinion, it needs to be colder outside to wear this. 65F/18C or below. And I would suggest 2 sprays and definitely not more than 3. The first time I tested this fragrance I did 3 sprays and it was sunny and like 78F or something. And after a few hours I did start to become irritated by it because it was just a little too much in those conditions. I really think the key to enjoying this fragrance is low sprays and most importantly wearing it in the appropriate weather conditions. This is a fragrance that has to be worn properly to be appreciated. This is one of the best fougeres on the market. A classic scent profile made modern and a bit alluring. It's of the highest quality and really a special fragrance from the house of Tom Ford.