Bois Lumière

I think the slightly faltering English description of this is spot on. First off, I love it. This is a line that doesn't get much attention, but all of the scents are sublime. This one was my first FB but I'm on to others. I think if you don't know your own tastes, then yes, you might not appreciate it. Many of us know that "honey" notes turn pissy on some people; that is, some of us smell cat urine. I don't. I smell honey in every honey fragrance I come across. And even if there's a bit of a skank in there, I'm okay with it. Secondly, a LOT of people do not like immortelle. They pick up pancake or molasses or something herbacious, but often a very sweet-herbal smell that reminds one of maple syrup. I love it. I love maple syrup, and I love herbs, and we have our own immortelle here in the Sierras, and I grew up with that dusty-sweet herb smell. So basically I LOVE honey and I LOVE immortelle and they're here in a sunny blaze of glory. But this does not skew gourmand--and so "theoretical honey lovers" may not love this. It's not edible; it really is a sunny, almost-too-hot day in the Mediterranean, up in the hills, not the beach, and smelling wafts of clary sage and something like the bark of trees, and it's the end of summer, transitioning to fall, and maybe some ripe fruit has landed on the ground. There's a dusty quality (immortelle and sage)and a dry-forest aspect (the juniper and cedar and dried rose-petal diffused through the sweetness). I think it's a sexy, lovely, end-of-summer beauty. Serge Lutens fans may appreciate this as it is "somewhat reminiscent" of his early oeuvre. If you like that kind of stewed-fruits autumnal aspect--this is for you. If you're a true honey lover--head on over to HG Slowdive or Zoologist Bee, or even the Solstice Scents Apiary scents (though she creates more complex honeys). Edt: Someone said below they don't like Aziyade perfume. Okay--THAT explains a lot. Aziyade is another one of my great passions, and that line also skews Serge Lutens-ish. So, again, autumn is the season, ripe fruits falling, spices beginning to waft through the air.

The opening doesn’t give me any urine notes as others have noted, but another bodily fluid: saliva. Saliva, honey & immortelle. Then dry cedar/sage/carnation, saliva still lingering. I think the saliva is a side effect of honey, which in reality often smells a little funky directly out of the jar. I get a strong cabin in the woods vibe from this. The experience of notes is... standing in the doorway of a cedar cabin, and someone has taken a baseball bat to a beehive in a tree directly in front of me. Carnation and sage blend in right behind this initial impression. This doesn’t match the perfumer’s vision and might sound generally odd, but it smells pretty good. It’s isn’t too expensive, nor is it an easy spend. I’m not sure how often i’d wear it, so my ultimate opinion is: if money were no object, I’d certainly buy a bottle. I only bought a sample, so I can’t speak to it’s longevity or sillage. I can say it is quality, though. Edit: this sample clung tenaciously on the sweater I applied it to. The days after initial application, it became far more carnation prominent. Sort of like walking through honey soaked woods into a carnation patch. Edit 2: it’s now August and the sweater I applied this to has been washed several times. It still smells like Bois Lumière, strong enough enough for my husband to notice as I put it on.

From the first moment there was something so familiar in Bois Lumiere and then it hit me - Habanita. Minus the mighty leather note and not as dark and opaque, but somehow clearer, sunny and luminous ("lumiere"). It develops slowly, opens powerfully with lots of sweet honey and golden immortelle dust and spicy carnation. There's a strange bitter-green note (clary sage?) that appears as well and fades away soon enough. Funny, it surprised me for I thought "OK, Habanita" and stopped thinking much about it expecting a linear endless boooring drydown, but couple of hours later it shifted to something much better; honey sweetness toned down and the immortelle really shines out now drying out the syrupy, spicy notes to golden dust, accompanying benzoin, woody notes. Drydown is beautiful - immortelle, balmy and woody notes, sweetness is now coming from soft carnation and rose. What initially started loud, animalic, sweet and familiar ended with much passion, smelling warm, carnal, soft animalic/spicy, but loving and just beautiful. Once again, I'll mention the old Habanita and in comparison say that BL performs fantastically, with great longevity and sillage. Would recommend it to those who can't handle the original Habanita for the monster performances, immortelle lovers and passionate-vintage-smelling perfume lovers.

Anatole Lebreton at his best here; this is niche how it should be, so niche that I could barely find the words to describe how transportative and evocative this is. A real tsunamy of honey and helicrysum over very dry woods with hints of a herbal feeling that is vaguely aromatic. At first spray, it really reminds me of a pure gem, Miel du Bois by Lutens; Bois Lumiere is honey as it should be done: dense, viscous, and intensively sticky with the right amount of animalic sourness (and we are all reminded that honey is a secretion from bees). Then we have the immortelle; here it is neither like pancake maple syrup nor it smells like the dried wild flowers. Instead, it’s a simple sweetness that bears an underlying glimmer of herbal floralcy with a degree of fiery spiciness perhaps due to the carnation. Pllease, consider following me on IG @alexolympia6 All the concoction makes me feel of dried plants macerated in a sticky bath of golden molasses. With time it turns drier and smokier, less stickily sweet until the beeswax makes its triumphal entrance imparting a degree of softenss to the scent profile. Great longevity and good projection. I admit it is my favourite from the line.

My recent quest to acquire more honey and beeswax scents has led me to Bee by Zoologogist, which I own and love. I also own and wear Luten’s Un Bois Vanille, Van Cleef’s California Reverie and Penhaligon's Ostara. And back in the 90s I went through several bottles of Feminite du Bois by Shiseido. If my bank account would allow it I’d own several more scents with a honey or beeswax note playing a significant part or leading role, including this little beauty. Bois Lumière never turns to urine on my skin. Instead it’s a honey-beeswax infused perfume with a complex mix of florals and wood notes that turn this into a kind of sweet musk scent. Linear, just growing softer over time. Like others from this line I get very good performance, both projection and longevity. Anatole Lebreton is fast becoming one of my favorite perfumers, I have not tested anything by him that I dislike. Bois Lumière perfume behaves like an extrait, you get a lot of bang for your buck.