Fougère Bengale Parfum d'Empire 2007

Marc-Antoine Corticchiato. The Corsican has the gift of often starting his fragrances harshly and painfully.

Here we have a real punch to the face with pure immortelle - wild, herbal, spicy, dry. This harsh curry herb note that digs into the nose.

The spook lasts (really!!!) only a minute, then wonderfully fresh and airy lavender notes and a bit of sweet wood / anise come in. The scent immediately shifts to a Mediterranean herb garden. Airy, spicy, fresh. Tea joins in - freshly brewed, slightly bitter black tea with a malty note.

Up to this point, a great Mediterranean herbal scent. Then comes the transformation à la Corticchiato.

Moist, steaming hay bales. Along with a dark, heavy tobacco note that works wonderfully with the hay. A great unity. The whole thing skillfully settles under the spiced Assam tea and gives a dark, moist, spicy ambiance. The tobacco is effectively earthy in nature.

We are no longer on Corticchiato's Corsica, but the scent made me think of the Eastern Oriental Hotel in Penang / Malaysia. In the 1920s, many illustrious guests stayed here, from Rudyard Kipling, Karl May, to William Somerset Maugham and so on.

Hermann Hesse wrote from here:

“In Penang, on a hot, humid, glorious evening, we were first met by the bubbling life of an Asian city… We gazed in amazement at the colorful appearances of street life in the Indian town, the Chinese town, the Malay town. Wild, colorful crowds of people in the always crowded streets, a sea of candles at night…”

By now, when the oak moss & patchouli kick in, we have arrived in the depths of Malaysia. They complete the exotic framework, the scent feels dense, moist, spicy, earthy, lively, exotic, foreign. Camphor-like and also unsweetened, dark cocoa nuances spread. Like a night in tropical Penang.

Even a night in Penang eventually passes, and the relentless tropical morning sun dries the streets. The drydown remains with spicy tobacco, hay, patchouli, and the revived curry herb from the beginning. But everything is a bit drier.

Longevity is about 10 hours, the sillage is relatively strong - not too much is the motto here.

I find the scent very exciting. The balance between Mediterranean & exotic is beautifully done. Typical for Corticchiato. The whole thing never feels too heavy or too dark to me, but is beautifully lightened by the herbs and the bright, shimmering lavender. The tobacco is never smoky or ashy, but rather dark, moist tobacco leaves with a bit of earth attached.
At times, the scent slightly reminds me of Lutens' "Borneo 1834".
  
One should not be averse to the special scent of immortelle - the herb often derided as "curry stew" is optimally used here and fits like a real punch to the nose. For fans of exotic spicy scents & tobacco, this is a journey to distant lands.

Very evocative, so to speak!