River Fougère The Dua Brand

I've never smelled Rive Gauche, so can't say how close River Fougere is to it. Given all the hype about Rive Gauche, I bought River Fougere assuming it's in the same ballpark. River Fougere is a pretty nice, masculine, typical fougere fragrance. Impressed me as a rather smooth and somewhat mild fougere - not overly spicy or biting. While I like it and will be wearing it, I wouldn't say it's my favorite fougere. Longevity was quite good but projection was more moderate for me.

River Fougere is the 2020 Dua inspired expression of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche from 2003, a special men’s barbershop fragrance that’s since been reformulated and discontinued. Upon first spray, the resemblance is very strong, the sort of fougere-meets-champagne-cologne vibe being very prominent, as Rive Gauche is one of the fresher of the variety, albeit less fresh than Dior Eau Savauge but still fresher than the heavier versions of Chanel Pour Monsieur, Ralph Lauren Safari, etc. With some dry down, however, River Fougere is a little spicier and less fresh than the original, and that’s the main difference that makes River Flougere feel a little more appropriate for the evening or cooler weather. Overall, though, River Fougere is a nice embodiment of the original even though it shifts the balance slightly in favor of the heart and base notes, namely the anise, rosemary, woods, and vetiver, away from the top notes of lavender and geranium. Plus, River Fougere is on the more affordable side of the Dua catalogue, at $55 for 30ml, with discounts regularly available, and it’s quite a strong performer.

7 out of 10

I have also been dealing with Fougère fragrances lately. It's interesting that in this fragrance family, so much unity as well as so much difference can be observed (at least by me, and I bet this is not the only direction of fragrance families where this is the case). Especially when you really dive into the topic of fragrance, everything just feels more detailed. My selection of samples from the "Fern" family was as follows:

• Tom Ford Fougère d´Argent EDP
• Tom Ford Beau De Jour Signature EDP
• MFK Masculin Pluriel EDP
• PDM Percival EDP (even though it's not a classic Fougère fragrance)
• Houbigant Fougère Royale EDP

I wasn't really blown away by any of these; something was missing. No question, I got the impression from all the fragrances of what constitutes a Fougère fragrance. Up to this point, I had also considered whether it simply wasn't my direction. However, since I am still at the beginning regarding perfume fragrances, this probably won't be a unique case for me.

After testing all of them, I wanted to at least try one more Fougère fragrance (because of good to very good reviews): The Dua Brand - River Fougère ... and it clicked!

One of the few loud fragrances that I really like (Extrait de Parfum, of course). And well, loud doesn't necessarily mean better than quiet, just like in music. But here it just works wonderfully. A great mix and at the same time a good composition, to stick with the music example. What I can say about the other fragrance samples I ordered for testing, compared to River Fougère: I had never really noticed this moss note before, and that was very pronounced in River Fougère. I find that very strong. I also like to say, from my ideal perspective: THIS describes Fougère best of all!