My Fragonard cushion cover - Thanks Kay!
I love Fragonard, not the painter but the French fragrance house from Grasse. I love their linens, their soaps dishes, clothes, napkins and pillowcases. Whenever I’m in Paris, I always stop by their stores to look for great gifts to take home for friends. In fact, I still have a fabulous Fragonard pillowcase that’s has a charming embroidered map of Paris that Kay bought me for my birthday one year. Oh, did I mention that Fragonard is a highly regarded fragrance house? Fragrance is the keystone to Fragonard’s growth and success, something that can get overlooked when faced with gorgeous, quality, lifestyle goodies.
In 1926, Eugène Fuchs opened Parfumerie Fragonard in an 18th Century tannery in Grasse. In 1936, after the launch of two successful fragrances, Fragonard opened its first boutique in Paris at 9 rue Scribe. The business continued to grow and was passed down to Fuch’s son Georges and son-in-law François Costa and then later to his grandson Jean-François Costa. Today, Jean-François Costa's daughters, Agnès and Françoise are at the reins of Fragonard and continue to build and expand the company with products - shower gels, old-fashioned bath salts, scented candles and home fragrance sprays and diffusers – and more locations. Currently, Fragonard has six shops in Provence and five in Paris.
And, Fragonard still offers their Perfumer’s Workshop at their Grasse, Cannes and Paris locations.
I was reminded of Fragonard’s fragrance heritage when I read Luca Turin’s four-star review of Fragonard’s L'Aventurier in the ‘Perfumes, The Guide, 2018’: “Fancy that: a modern masculine without a woody-amber! What is the world coming to, we ask. Young perfumer Jordi Ferandez is clearly as fond as I am of the old (pre-reformulation) Azzaro Homme (1978), because he has managed without slavish imitation to recreate the husky-velvety timbre of that old marvel. This perfume has a full-on guy thing, but not high-strung aspirational, or weird hope-you-don’t mind-me-smelling-of-wet-concrete hipster: just a guy hard to date in time but easy to date for dinner. Naturally, this makes it perfect on a woman.” Sounds like just the kind of fragrance I want to wear.
It opens with notes of lemon and pink peppercorn. The lemon isn’t brash or harsh, but aromatic and vibrant, while the pink pepper adds a rosy floracy to the opening. Soon a rich, resinous, sweet note of amber joins the lemon and pink pepper. It’s as if they are drawing the amber up from the heart to the top. I like what’s happening here. The amber blooms at the heart where it’s joined by patchouli. At this stage, I like to press ‘Pause’ for a moment so I can focus in on L'Aventurier, to close my eyes and inhale and release. And when I do, I smell a patchouli that is woody and earthy, deep and dark, and yet allows the lemon and the pink peppercorn to peek through. If this is the ‘full-on guy thing’ Turin mentions, it’s pretty fantastic on me! The patchouli latches on to vetiver at the base, enhancing its woodiness while a note of leather gives it a velvety sensuousness that belongs to both sexes.
L'Aventurier is the smell of confidant sensuality – never bold or brash – that I have every time I wear it.
Well, look at that, another reason to visit Fragonard!
L'Aventurier is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $5.00 for 1 ml.