Good Day All!!! I have a question about a soap my wife found for me at the local antique store. I did a google search and searched this board as best I could but couldn't find much except for one on EBAY for an outrageous amount. The soap is Houbigants Fougere Royale, it's green and in what feels like a hand sanded tan wooden bowl. The puck still has all lettering in the soap and doesn't look like it's ever been touched with a brush. From what I gather it is a rarity, and I've never heard of it until now. It smells great, but does have that "old antique shop" smell as well. Can anyone tell me anything more about this soap than the fact it is crazy on EBAY? Mainly looking to see if it works for folks, has different lathering process, or anything like that (or should I use it at all)? I apologize for rambling, and appreciate your time.
Soap info question
- Thread starter Titan2T2
- Start date
With a question like that you have to post photos of the soap too.
More seriously, I think that one is too rare for many of us to have tried: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/126718-Houbigant-Fougere-Royale has a little discussion and a picture. Originally the main attraction might have been the scent, but it could be a great shave soap too.
However we rely on you to try it: let us know what you think.
More seriously, I think that one is too rare for many of us to have tried: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/126718-Houbigant-Fougere-Royale has a little discussion and a picture. Originally the main attraction might have been the scent, but it could be a great shave soap too.
However we rely on you to try it: let us know what you think.
- Thread starter
- #3
Sorry about that...
This is like having your wife tell you she got an old car for you and it's in the garage. You go out there and find a 1965 Ferrari 275 with some chipped paint a tear in the seat.
This is one of the rarest soaps out there. I have never used it, nor even seen it in person before. You need to buy your wife a diamond. NOW!
This is one of the rarest soaps out there. I have never used it, nor even seen it in person before. You need to buy your wife a diamond. NOW!
Can we all come over and try it out?
That soap is fantastic. Congrats!
Great find, you going to use it ? Better keep the wife around. When we go antique shopping the wife seems to find more than I do.
AS A MODERATOR OF THIS SHAVING SOAP FORUM:
I wish to congratulate you on finding something which is akin to the Holy Grail. Enjoy the soap!
I wish to congratulate you on finding something which is akin to the Holy Grail. Enjoy the soap!
Hey guys, my wife gave me a baseball card today. It's some guy named Honus Wagner. Is it any good?
Nice find!
(I did a little research on the subject of Fougere Royale when creating a fougere soap of my own, and here's some of the info that may be interesting to you.)
Houbigant's Fougere Royale is THE ORIGINAL FOUGERE (there should be an accent over the first e in fougere, so pretend it's there for this post.)
The whole fougere scent family was named for this scent.
It was developed by the then 20yr old Paul Parquet in 1882 for Houbigant, the French scent house that made scents for Napoleon, Queen Victoria, and various other royals and notables. To quote wikipedia "An Houbigant legend, not verified, has it that when Marie Antoinette was fleeing to Varennes to escape the French revolutionaries she was recognised as royalty because of her Houbigant perfume, which only royalty could afford."
Fougere is french for fern, and the scent is supposed to be reminiscent of a forest floor, lively and green. Ferns themselves don't have much of a smell, but as the humble Parquet once said, "If God gave ferns a scent, they would smell like Fougère Royale."
While he was not the first to come up with the "fern" scent concept, since scents along similar lines had been created in the 1870s by Yardley (English Lavender, 1873) and Geo F. Trumper (Wild Fern, 1877), his was the scent that was so widely hailed that it gave its name to the that whole scent family, which is one of the more popular masculine scent families down to the present day.
Fougere Royale was the first perfume to feature a synthetic fragrance material. That material was coumarin, which was originally synthesized out of coal tar in 1868, and later extracted from the tonka bean.
The original formula of Houbigant's Fougere Royale was available until the late 1960s, and can still be found on ebay, and samples of the scent itself can be purchased from various online decanters.
It is an amazing scent. I purchased a vial of the scent to create my take on the fougere, and attempting to create something similar out of essential oils was a fun challenge.
As to whether you should use it, that's entirely up to you.
On the one hand, it's a rare shaving soap in almost perfect condition, that hasn't been made in well over a generation, featuring a landmark scent, from a company that made scents for emperors and queens, so maybe keeping it as a collector's item isn't such a bad idea.
On the other hand, it's YOUR soap, and this place is ALL ABOUT the luxury shaving experience, and there's not much that can beat whipping up a lather on a landmark soap that will, in all likelihood, never be made again, so this might be a soap to keep with your nicest razor and brush, for those times when you feel like indulging yourself, just because you can.
Either way, enjoy it! And thank your wife for making you the envy of the shaving soap cognoscenti.
(I did a little research on the subject of Fougere Royale when creating a fougere soap of my own, and here's some of the info that may be interesting to you.)
Houbigant's Fougere Royale is THE ORIGINAL FOUGERE (there should be an accent over the first e in fougere, so pretend it's there for this post.)
The whole fougere scent family was named for this scent.
It was developed by the then 20yr old Paul Parquet in 1882 for Houbigant, the French scent house that made scents for Napoleon, Queen Victoria, and various other royals and notables. To quote wikipedia "An Houbigant legend, not verified, has it that when Marie Antoinette was fleeing to Varennes to escape the French revolutionaries she was recognised as royalty because of her Houbigant perfume, which only royalty could afford."
Fougere is french for fern, and the scent is supposed to be reminiscent of a forest floor, lively and green. Ferns themselves don't have much of a smell, but as the humble Parquet once said, "If God gave ferns a scent, they would smell like Fougère Royale."
While he was not the first to come up with the "fern" scent concept, since scents along similar lines had been created in the 1870s by Yardley (English Lavender, 1873) and Geo F. Trumper (Wild Fern, 1877), his was the scent that was so widely hailed that it gave its name to the that whole scent family, which is one of the more popular masculine scent families down to the present day.
Fougere Royale was the first perfume to feature a synthetic fragrance material. That material was coumarin, which was originally synthesized out of coal tar in 1868, and later extracted from the tonka bean.
The original formula of Houbigant's Fougere Royale was available until the late 1960s, and can still be found on ebay, and samples of the scent itself can be purchased from various online decanters.
It is an amazing scent. I purchased a vial of the scent to create my take on the fougere, and attempting to create something similar out of essential oils was a fun challenge.
As to whether you should use it, that's entirely up to you.
On the one hand, it's a rare shaving soap in almost perfect condition, that hasn't been made in well over a generation, featuring a landmark scent, from a company that made scents for emperors and queens, so maybe keeping it as a collector's item isn't such a bad idea.
On the other hand, it's YOUR soap, and this place is ALL ABOUT the luxury shaving experience, and there's not much that can beat whipping up a lather on a landmark soap that will, in all likelihood, never be made again, so this might be a soap to keep with your nicest razor and brush, for those times when you feel like indulging yourself, just because you can.
Either way, enjoy it! And thank your wife for making you the envy of the shaving soap cognoscenti.
- Thread starter
- #11
I appreciate all the feedback. I had no idea this soap had such a history and "pedigree". I really did think it was "just another antique store find". After much discussion with the wife and showing her the responses from here I/we decided to go ahead and lather it up for the first time. As she put it, it was a gift from her not a profit item; and that means the world to me. Now onto how it performed, keep in mind my only soap experience is Trumper's Rose, Williams, and VDH (more of a TOBS cream type of guy). It lathered amazingly well for a however old soap, even better than my new puck of Trumper's. I have to be honest though, after reading the history of this scent and how fondly it is looked upon I was a little underwhelmed. Granted about 99% of that is probably due to the fact I've never smelt this fragrance before. But I couldn't get past the subtle antique store smell. Maybe with more use that'll wear off some. Again I appreciate you all taking your time and responding to this, consider me educated 
