Fougère d'Argent
Tom Ford (2018)

A digital fougere - I think i prefer this over Beau De Jour. This one has a sharp quality, but its not as old-school as other releases in this genre. It is metallic, sexy and almost the perfect "American Psycho" fragrance, there is this silver modern coldness about it, while underneath, there is a warm ambery base lurking. One of the last great Tom Ford fragrances, while Tom Ford himself was in charge of creative direction.

A blast of a bright ginger and crisp cistus start it off, with a coumarin joining in a bit later to provided an additional restrainedly spicy undertone. A transient touch of mandarin with some powdery stages are also noticeable.

Then a lavender is added, which develops on the backdrop of a woodsy patchouli impression (Akigalawood); both reek of laboratory chemicals.

I get moderate sillage, very good projection, and a longevity of eight hours on my skin.

W hist the name of this autumnal scent describes its colour wee, there is little that this generic and ultra-synthetic concoction has in common with a classic fugère. It is, however, not without a touch of originality, and its good performance is as one expects from such a chemical soup. 2.5/5

Fougere Argent is a lavender + coumarin prominent fougere fragrance that is sweet and bold, rigid in its conformity to the fougere standard and lifeless in personality or concept. The opening and early stages are loud and kind of stiff, while the later stages get better and better. I guess this product fills a slot on the fragrance to do list, but I don't see a reason to prefer this fougere over the dozens of others on the market that have a little more of anything different. I do smell a slight green resin only noticeable in the first hour. Also the base does even things out nicely and after a few hours the akigalawood adds a sheen that is probably the saving feature for this one - but you have to wait for hours to get that. Towards the end of the day the basenotes polish off all of the bumps and objections from the brassy beginning into a well honed luminescent perfectly glowing soft masculine fougere fragrance. Rating: 2.8 of 5 stars.

This is clearly based on that lavender chemical that blows out my nose, leaving me unable to smell it. While I trust that I smell of metallic lavender to passers-by, all I can smell is a very faint cinnamon amber, followed by a cheap aquatic "woody amber" drydown taken straight from an Axe body spray.

Thumbs all the way down. Bad composition, bad chemistry, and a terrifyingly cheap base all combine into a complete failure.

Didn't really like how the notes combined in this one. Fougere Platine is better blended than this one. OK, but nothing I see myself purchasing. 6.5/10

UPDATE: 4-21-24

I received another sample of this one and I now have a better appreciation of Fougere D' Argent. The mandarin note is pretty good mixed with the ginger note. The ginger is not too strong and the wood note calms everything down. I am bumping this one up to an 8/10.

As the name suggests, there's a metallic edge here, but not a chilly one. This is a warm scent, a smoky lavender-amber cloaked in dark woods.

I prefer this to Beau de Jour, which uses the same kind of fruity lavender, because Beau de Jour is a retro fougere pastiche made of unmistakably modern materials, and that creates an "uncanny valley" effect. Fougere d'Argent has some of the same components, but it embraces futurism, wrapping the ghost of a classic fougere in a decidedly modern blend of smoky synthwoods.

It goes without saying that you have to be able to enjoy dark synthwoods to get along with this one. I find this to be quite a pungent fragrance (both on me and others), and can only assume folks who complain about performance are going nosedeaf to it, probably because the heavy use of such materials.

Smelling it, my mind conjures up an image of a faint golden glow in the midst of an abstract, dark fog.