Frederic Fekkai Bouquet de Provence
As a joint venture with Chanel, Frederic Fekkai launched two fragrances in 1997. The scent in question today, Bouquet de Provence, and Eau de Jour, are both credited to Jacques Polge (via Now Smell This.)
Notes in Bouquet de Provence include:
peach, cassis, lemon, rose, oakmoss, and cypress
I would classify it as a fruity chypre scent.
It opens up with a strong blast of what I am going to call “just got back from the hair salon” note, which leads me to wonder if this fragrance was developed to compliment (rather than clash with) Fekkai’s heavily scented hair products.
I am not sure what’s the deal with the name of the scent… I don’t really think “fruit salad” when I think “Provence,” but then, I am not intimately familiar with the gastronomical habits of the area’s denizens.
However, there sure is a rose in it. But some funky thing happens to me with the other notes. You see, on my skin, they all somehow add up to “banana peel.” If I think about it I can perceive them as peachy and mossy. But really, when I don’t intellectualize it, it’s a rose on a banana peel. It’s unusual, and rather flummoxing. I have no idea if I like it, dislike it, or am “meh” on it. What do I do with a scent with appeal a peel?
Perfume possesses the power to invoke all sorts of emotions, and Bouquet de Provence induces a loopy mood in me. Usually I post images to accompany my words, but today, there can only be one thing to properly convey what I feel when I wear this scent. A song…
It’s been stuck in my head for two days now, and I’m hoping the earworm works like the flu does: once you pass it on to someone else you can finally get better.
I’m posting this today instead of tomorrow because it’s my birthday, and if all goes well, I’ll have an awesome hangover in the morning.
Enjoy the earworm!
Both Fekkai scents are discontiued, but occasionally one can spot them up for grabs on eBay.
Song entitled “Bananaphone,” by Raffi, off his album of the same name. It can be purchased through Djangos and Music Millenium.
January 24th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Hey, have the happiest of birthdays! Almost listened to the song, but then saw it was Raffi. You can keep your earworm, LOL, birthday or no birthday!
Have never smelled either fragrance. Wonder if they are sold in Fekkai salons, or ??? Would think that Sephora would have them but haven’t noticed them there. Of course, by now you’re too drunk to care…
January 24th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
I’m really sure it’s been discontinued, so I don’t think it’s at his salons nor Sephora. And it’s not even suppertime on the West Coast, so no boozing it up just yet. Mai Tais don’t go down well on an empty stomach, so first I stuff myself with supper, then cake, and then the celebratory drinks :P
January 24th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Katie, have a very happy birthday!!! I hope you do have an awesome (not too painful) hangover in the morning!!!! Have fun!
PS. I had no idea that those fragrance were done as a joint venture with Chanel. Hmm…call me a snob, but I am much more interested in them now :-)
January 24th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
You’re the first person I’ve ever met who actually knows these scents. Not only did you hit the nail RIGHT on the head, but you even mentioned the weird bitter fruit rind note that turned me off…almost like a full day at the salon: shampoo, conditioner, AND perm treatment all in one. Smelled this one at Sephora Times Square when it launched and then lost all interest…I thought I remembered reading that fans of his so loved the scent of some of the products that he was encouraged to release fragrances with the same aromas? BS or bad memory, I dunno…these didn’t work for me…
January 25th, 2006 at 6:21 am
Happy Birthday! Maybe the point of this frag IS to recapture the stolen pleasures of hangin’ at the hairdresser, reading trashy magazines and drinking coffee, with no little voices asking you for a sippy cup or to rewind the Raffi video… funny thing to name it, though. Maybe he thought Eau du Salon was too obvious.
January 25th, 2006 at 6:46 am
Happy Birthday, Katie, have lots of fun!
I was able to resist clicking on your viral pandemic, sorry, lol. Keep your earworms to yourself, Missy. Who is Raffi, anyway?
The scent sounds like a joke, but his followers probably love it. I did sample one of his products, once, in a Sephora. It was the hair smoothing cream, or some name like that. I was amazing the way it calmed my flyaway curls, but I resisted buying it, too $$. Don’t remember it having a scent.
So, report back on your birthday haul. Does DH know of the perfume house in town? Does he take good hints? ;-)
January 25th, 2006 at 7:57 am
Well, I see it’s your birthday, so a very happy one! Bouquet de Provence sounds so weird I would love to try it (is it available anywhere in Portland?). As for Bananaphone, that was an earworm for a couple of weeks for me. I think there’s a little flash animation with a funny version of it, and yeah…college. That’s what we do. Intriguing review!
January 25th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Happy Birthday Katie!
:O)
Victoria
January 25th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Marina, it wasn’t much of a hangover. Two drinks and then I just got sleepy and needed to go to bed. Sigh, I really am getting older.
Marlen, you know, I’d suspected as much, so I don’t think it’s BS or bad memory. That full-works hair product thing going on is fairly strong at first, and lingers just enough through the middle that I doubt it could be anything else. These seemed to come out with a nice bit of hype, and then just disappeared without anyone noticing, which isn’t terribly surprising.
March - heh. It was a real funny thing to name it - I kind of half wonder if he didn’t just pick two French words at random that he knew Americans would be familiar with?
Anya, GAH! You don’t know who he is and still won’t take this earworm off my hands? He’s a children’s entertainer, and he’s actually a very good songwriter. He makes the most irritatingly catchy tunes. DH is skeered to buy me perfume even with heavy hints. Besides I got three hard to find items I have been longing for forever now - an English translation of a biography of Neel Doff, the Critierion collection version of My Man Godfrey, and Kid Carpet’s CD. So he does very, very well with the gift finding even without perfume.
Jenny, thanks for the birthday wishes, and no, I don’t think this is available anywhere aside from random lucky finds nowadays, Portland included. That is, I haven’t seen it here anyhow, but then I wasn’t really looking for it either.
Victoria, thanks!
January 25th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Happy Birthday, Katie! May you have many many returns. Enjoy today. :)
January 25th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Thanks Victoria, it was very nice indeed.