Fougere Nobile by Nobile 1942 is a perfect example of how a perfectly pleasant fragrance is ruined by modern materials.
Fougere Nobile starts out pretty epic for a modern fougere. Its sprightly, prickly and intense, mostly from the usual lavender and bergamot start.
It opens up a bit more becoming more spicy, aromatic and sweet. It strikes a great balance within about an hour. It becomes pretty intense.
Its dry spicy and sweet from a fairly realistic flaky tobacco and a sweet, smooth, powdery tonka bean.
Its really nice for about 10 hours of humming along at the same pleasant, linear tune. Not a ton of complexity here but it strikes the right tune for a fougere.
After the 10 hour mark I begin to pick up on something turning in Fougere Nobile.
The delicately smooth, sweet, spicy nuances begin to fade and the ugly base of this begins to poke thru.
Its an intensely dry, ambery, woody, peppery Norlimbanol. If you’re not familiar with this material, imagine a bland dry, woody texture with a touch of patchouli’s rough, camphorous side.
A nice fragrance for a majority of the duration but tough sledding in the end.
Its really too bad considering Fougere Nobile is a fairly honest fougere, even if its pricing is anything but.
Performance is pretty spot on, I get about 12-16 hours from it and its volume is pretty medium, gentlemanly.
Consider Houbigant’s Fougere Royale in EDP or Extrait for a smoother ride if Norlimbanol bothers you as much as it does me.
Ratings $135
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5.5/10
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8/10
Summary
Fougere Nobile is a fairly straight forward fougere that strikes a nice balance, but dries down into a dry woody amber.
A noble, rich start, but an embarrassingly cheap finish.