Fougère Bengale 
Parfum d'Empire (2007)

Addictive armpit fougère. Opens with big meaty pungency like immortelle on steroids before revealing a vista of hay but butched up by moss and dry-as-bones tobacco. Floating though this are fresher notes of lavender, tarragon and mint, staking their claim to the fougère terrain. It's a rugged, outdoorsy perfume, suggestive of the blazing sun and dried sweat but at the same time cooled and freshened by the fougère strain. A bit reminiscent of Goutal's Sables but this has less of a point to prove and the rewarding tension between its savoury and airy aspects keeps my nose alert and interested.

sitting in a haystack, drinking a hot cup of tea...there's a touch of mint/ginger spicing up the tea...little chocolate cookies for dipping...weird thing is, despite all this it does not come across as a gourmand to me...more of an exotic Oriental...smells rich and full...kind of sweet and sticky...has that kind of narcotic/hypnotic effect on me that keeps my nose going back for a multitude of repeated sniffs...seamlessly blended where it is hard to distinguish notes...smells like this transports me to the outdoors..if anything does distinguish itself at this point it's a touch of geranium and immortele now and then and a nice solid vanilla/tonka base...this is balanced out with some moss...nicely done...a pleasure to smell...

A gorgeous, powerful, opulent immortelle-tobacco fougere. As has been noted in other posts, the actual list of notes far exceeds the official list. Coffee and mint are there, along with the rich honeyed tonka. I do not get the curried note that other's notice, to me it is more coffee-liquorice-anise. For fans of the original Yohji Homme, this is a richer, deeper, more expansive version of that. Sillage and longevity are excellent. This is bottle-worthy.

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth 1948

What is it about perfume houses and their "official" list of notes? Here, as is obvious in the many astute Basenoter reviews, the central note is immortelle, which is not part of the official seven notes given out by Parfum d'Empire - lavender, tarragon, patchouli, geranium, tobacco, tonka, vanilla.

The range of scents not in the note tree detected by the 23 reviews as of this writing is astounding. To summarize: coffee, chocolate, mint, Assam tea, oakmoss, maple bacon, civet, anise, cumin, coriander, tumeric, ginger.

I have in past reviews for immortelle scents (Eau Noire, Sables) appreciated the scent achievement without wanting to smell like the kitchen in an Indian restaurant. Primarily, that was due to the sweetness of the garam masala vibe that immortelle gives off.

Here, however, what I get is only one note (not 7, not any of the 12 other notes fellow Basenoters have detected), just one, immortelle. The difference for me is that this is not sweet, but both richly honeyed and bitter. The removal of the sweetness makes me like it. It removes the scent from the gourmand category and places it not in the fougere, but in the chypre category.

I have experienced hundreds of great women's perfumes of the past century and all the chypres have this great "bitter" honeyed note that closely resembles Fougere Bengale, although I don't know if immortelle was the common ingredient, as I never heard of its use in perfumery until recently.

In any case, this is the first immortelle usage I like and its all due to its honeyed bitterness and my attraction to the classic chypres of the past. A surprise, and a welcome one.