See Prices

More

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

Force Majeure Jacques Bogart 1998

7.6 / 10 38 Ratings

A popular perfume by Jacques Bogart for men, released in 1998. The scent is spicy-sweet. It is still in production.
Compare

More

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

Main accords

Spicy

Sweet

Fresh

Floral

Green

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Ozone

Bergamot

Mint

Aldehydes

Heart Notes

Cinnamon leaf Clove

Clove

Black pepper Jasmine

Jasmine

Base Notes

Cedar

White musk

Gaiac wood

Ratings

Scent

7.638 Ratings

Longevity

7.732 Ratings

Sillage

7.232 Ratings

Bottle

6.244 Ratings

Value for money

8.513 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 11/27/2024.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Présence Eau de Toilette

Santal Ancestral

Sex Appeal for Men Cologne

Le Mâle Eau de Toilette

Reviews

5 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/05/2012

9Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

Kannan
37 Reviews

Kannan

Nice Bottle with Good Smell

This Stuff is a real masterpiece from Jacques Bogart. This is only for men. This smell is between 80"s & 90"s , U Cant say its old smell or Mordern, its both mix, Opening notes starts like aftershave, but soon it dry downs the magic starts, smooth & the projection & Longevity are really amazing. The projection stays up to 5 hours plus. The Longevity also good. I get many compliments when iam wearing it. If u looking for smooth projection, then this Froce is the Best. But it suits only for men. I Like it. I give 9/10. Projection: 8/10, Longevity: 7/10. It costs 17 USD for 100 ml. Cheap But Worth. TRY IT...

08/03/2021

8.5Scent 10Longevity 9Sillage

ThomC
30 Reviews

Translated · Show original

ThomC

Top Review 15

The forest green Le Male for the people

I simply love it, this strange green dude from Bogart. It's a bit misplaced, as it stands between the chairs of various style-defining perfume decades: 70s soap, 80s shoulder pad brutality, 90s modernity. A hybrid, and yet so distinctly masculine, herbaceous, and aloof. One that doesn't know where it belongs - and neither do they at Bogart, but they let it run under the radar since a few scattered individualists remain loyal to the Force Majeure. But such a scent tells me stories, and I like that.

Just the bottle alone: an ugly duckling in forest green. The cheap-looking plastic cap in silver enhances the initial visual impression - a confusing mix of styles, stylistically hardly assignable to any decade, but so likable that it can pass the style police as a retro shabby-chic. A bit like the old VW Beetle: it wasn't beautiful by classic standards, but offered a timeless concept with charming simplicity that you just had to like.

Force Majeure is a rare but affordable youngtimer from France on today's perfume streets, which was probably never popular in Germany (also because probably hardly any German can pronounce this cryptic name correctly ---> "Um, Fohrschä Majöre or something...."). And looking back, it was already on anachronistic paths in its birth year 1998 - had it been thrown onto the market in this style twenty years earlier, it would have been seen as a typical thing of the late 70s. But as it stands?

It remains a typically French niche product and reminds me of cars from Talbot: hardly visible, but quietly cherished. (I recently saw a small workshop that still had a decaying TALBOT brand sign on the facade - simply beautiful!)

But the scent packs a punch: angular, with clear right-angled lines and wonderfully out of date. Incredibly striking, dense, without caring about broad consensus. Sturdy and gently coarse. It is the overwhelming moss, the forest floor, a hint of woodruff, bundled with accords of old leather. In the base, a lot of black wet pepper and crushed black (!) cardamom pods. Plus, it has a sillage that is a force to be reckoned with. If it weren't so, it wouldn't be a true Bogart. So it fits.

Cliché images come to mind, and I attribute such scent clouds to the aging village macho of the 70s, black faux leather jackets and creased trousers in mouse gray, Gitanes cigarette at the ready, a glass of red midday Burgundy, a kiss here, ça va bien there. A gray-haired, wrinkled Jean-Paul Belmondo. This vintage lifestyle is Force Majeure.

It also reminds me of Gaultier's perennial favorite "Le Male," which is a bit older. I attribute a distant kinship to both with their coarse spicy-green mint. Nevertheless, the Bogart seems stylistically older in every way, is more unrefined and a bit more rough around the edges. It is the dry late summer air, the spicy beginning of autumn. The "Le Male," on the other hand, is a happy, cheerful early summer. Fits.

The Le Male is the distant flamboyant uncle from America, related in a thousand ways, but not seen for at least 25 years. While one made an international career and took off in a striped torso bottle as an eccentric clubbing scent, the other remains grounded in the French countryside and performs his charm show in the café at the village square. That's enough. One always remains the average of their social environment.

Yes, the Force Majeure is - I just realized - the Le Male for the people, which does not make it any worse. Quite the opposite. While the Le Male drifts into tackiness with a touch of Parisian international haute couture, the Force Majeure has always been a deliberately coarse fine spirit with sausage fingers. A Gérard Depardieu of scents. Drunken, wild, and freedom-loving with anti-opportunistic traits - cheap on the outside, striking on the inside. Its conspicuousness is its advantage, as I have rarely had a perfume in this price range that is so loaded with emotional anchors as this one.

*the music for the scent "Force Majeure" by Tangerine Dream (1979)

11/06/2015

8Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

Cappellusman
358 Reviews

Translated · Show original

Cappellusman

7

Powdery-aquatic Spice

... or also a powdery-spicy half-aquatic. Maybe something else. Yes, the fragrances from Bogart usually do not make it easy to categorize them. There are heavy incense/leather bombers ("Bogart" or "One Man Show"), spicy old-school scents ("Witness"), sweetness to the max ("Story Red", "One Man Show Ruby Edition" or "Bogart pour Homme"), or even intensely animalistic ones ("Furyo").

"Force Majeure" heads in a completely different direction. At first sniff, it immediately reveals itself as a scent from this house, although it lacks the otherwise typical extreme sillage and ultimate longevity that Bogart is known for, despite its name (Force Majeure). My classification as "half-aquatic" comes from the ozone in the top note, which conveys a noticeable saltiness. Serious and rather stoic; there is none of the fresh impression that other aquatics often exude. In the heart, it becomes spicier, slightly peppery, while the dry down then adds powdery elements (likely from the cedar and musk). Sweetness is also present, but rather subtle. Overall, everything is beautifully integrated and carefully composed.

What I particularly like about "Force Majeure" (besides its truly exciting development) is that it manages to be and remain unique, even though it is actually composed of accords that can also be found in numerous other fragrances. The (unfortunately unnamed) perfumer has truly come up with something special in this blend. By the way, the fragrance is available (like most other Bogarts) at a fair price from France.

02/08/2020

4Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

Ajlen
122 Reviews

Translated · Show original

Ajlen

Helpful Review 6

Let me think about it briefly...... No.

I was very curious about this one. And yes, it really is something completely different. Unfortunately, I don't like it at all. And I can't imagine it smelling nice either.

It is actually a very interesting combination of a (spicy) base with a minty-fresh structure. Above it hovers something rather indefinable, somewhere between a powdery veil and synthetic aquatic notes. This cinnamon-like aquatic aspect strongly reminds me of Montblanc's Présence (which I don't like), and the sweet-spicy yet fresh component is close to Davidoff's Relax (which I really like). That sounds not only chaotic - it really doesn't create a cohesive picture. For me, it smells totally overloaded and very, very unharmonious from start to finish. Interesting, different, and unusual is indeed not always good.

Now I've given it several chances. It doesn't always have to be love at first sight. But as I said, it doesn't smell nice here. Quite the opposite: the more I used it, the more unpleasant it became for me. A first - I've never experienced this before.

Do I want to keep it? Let me think about it briefly...... No.

06/08/2018

8Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

Minigolf
2517 Reviews

Translated · Show original

Minigolf

2

"Hotspot" in Glacier Ice

Who has ever experienced that fragrances can change temperature? I only came to this idea while sniffing this extravagant perfume.
To somewhat "explain" it, I would like to refer to an example from nature.
An icy glacier, paired with a geyser, bubbling and hissing, spews 100-degree hot water from a hole in the eternal ice. From a safe distance, it feels warm, but the feet are ice-cold.
It’s the MINT that makes "fiery" cinnamon and hot-blooded clove seem cooled, creating a "hot-cold" aroma mix that wafts around your nose. Even the woods seem to be dusted with a powdery layer of frost.
I could also express it the other way around... Mint and bergamot are "poured" over by the lava of clove and cinnamon, while the woods add their "smoky" whisper, creating an unmistakable scent cocktail that is wearable for anyone who loves a bit of extravagance.
The trend towards "niche" may also apply to "Force Majeure," without being considered an "extreme outsider scent."

Statements

16 short views on the fragrance

BrianBuchanan

4 years ago

1

A smooth-synthetic masculine, this harsh ozone and green woody musk has a saving grace; it’s dirt cheap, and it smells a bit like Good Life

Axiomatic

1 year ago

8Scent 9Longevity 8Sillage

40

32

Green and spicy, the fresh sea.
Warm spices on board, cold musky winds.
The jasmine navigates coolly in the maelstrom, staying dry.
Ship ahoy! *

Translated · Show original

Morpheus1

7 years ago

8Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

7

Something completely different and special. Spicy-floral-green, minty-fresh, metallic woody sweet. You definitely won't smell this a second time, guaranteed.

Translated · Show original