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.

Lovely perfume! More beeswax than honey, which suits me who don't like sweet. I was scratching my heat at the reviews that claimed urine, then next time I tried it, of course I could smell it. It wasn't regular urine like Bal a Versailles, but urine after eating asparagus- usually not the most pleasant scent, but somehow it works here (and it's faint and blend with the other notes). Cedar comes on strong at certain times. All in all a very warm, comforting experience, well worth a bottle and I will rebuy when it runs out. Reminds me a lot of Osang, but much more affordable.

It's a Saturday afternoon still life. Figure in a hammock dozing under the eaves of a small adobe house set in a Santa Fe garden. Looking at the scene you hear the bees, and feel the slight gritty wind coming ahead of the afternoon rain clouds moving into the intense blue sky. The breeze brings the scents - ascerbic sage, sweet roses, cedar, all covered an combined delightfully with the red dust whirling under and around. Very nice "beeswax" based scent, the other notes complement it delightfully without being overpowering.

The opening is a wax bomb with a hint of sponge cake flavor, some citrus orange in the background, extremely warm, giving warmth just by smelling it. Then it spreads into the skin much more woody, hazelnut, round, lively, voluminous, deep, with the everlasting flower that lends seriousness to this sweetness. A marvel if you like perfumes with honey.Yes, it's sweet, but I feel like the word doesn't do it justice. There's patchouli, there's a juicy immortelle, it smells like the clothes and leather boots of a worker bee.

Honey, beeswax, mandarin, red carnations, Wood, cedar , and more cedar. Very honey based. it reminds me of Winnie the poo honey jar :) After the calm (around 10 minutes) it turns into a candle wax smell of a lighted candle on a wooden table... fresh white wax. Interesting. Edit (21 Feb 2016) after using a sample of this fragrance here.... this is AMAZING, captivating and SUPERBLY charming to my nose although when a friend of mine sniffed it he cursed me and swore plenty i really wonder why!? :D

This the only one I like in the range. It does open with lots of honey and immortelle that you could be forgiven if you fear it will be sickly sweet. This sweetness turns to much woodier notes and then the carnations appear. It unfolds before you in a very attractive way. There are also lovely aromatic notes from I guess are the fir and sage. A very interesting scent. Definitely unisex. Moderate sillage and longevity.

Orange sunset lights up the Italian coast, You're standing right in the middle of a bright green field, the wind has the intoxicating smell of Immortelle, and You're taking a particularly hot piss on a tree nearby. A lovely picture! Although the opening could let You to believe that this will be a honeyed brioche gourmand, don't let it fool You!

I'll have to agree with K1 (see the review below) - Mr. Anatole Lebreton should really tone down the animalic accords on this one! The beggining was sharp yet pretty on "Bois Lumiere". Honey was dominant on me, but it felt really masculine - almost bitter from immortele and added aromatics. At the heart I got the strongest vibe of carnation. Together with honey and beeswax carnation made the real "party begin". And oh boy is this a party - so strong, animalc, acidic, almost urine-like with accords of strange woods, dark immortele and bitter honey. In all honesty I do love me some "skank" in the bottle, but this is way too much. The urine vibe on the drydown gets so strong that I kinda felt weird wearing my sample around others as I felt some weird looks and sniffing gestures towards me. Worth a try! This is really strong and really potent, but do try first at home and see how this works on you. Don't end up like me - going shopping and smelling like 5 cats peed on me and then I tried covering it with gourmand perfume.

Bois Lumiere packs a punch. I expected some kind of abstract floral amber, but instead I got a dense, musky animalic punch with a vintage vibe. Imagine the scent of a snuffed out pure beeswax candle mixed with incense smoke. Imagine this cloak of dense white fume mingling with a densely animalic base accord and a good dose of fir balsam. Very potent and piercing, announcing its presence across the room. I defnitely also get rose and cedar elements, but they play a supporting role to the sweet animalic fir balsam beeswax combo. Very eccentric, difficult to pull off, artistic, vintage and very commanding, so definitely not something I could pull of, maybe in a few decades.

Got a free sample from Luckyscent. To me this smells very much like Kohuhu flowerings in spring, which does smell a lot like honey, but also smells a bit like the sweeter components in a healthy piss. The woody spicy provides a nice complement, which provides a masculine element that helps pull the fragrance towards unisex. While I like this fragrance, I can't see myself wearing it because the Kohuhu seems to overwhelm. If this fragrance profile fits you, the good news is that I found performance and longevity to be quite good.

I can’t get it out of my head because it feels so realistic and intriguing. It reminds me of black pine honey gathered from rural areas - the kind that could lull you to sleep. It is dirty in a good way. The hay-like, herbal note that lingers in the drydown which I believe is immortelle, carries a quiet mystery. It’s completely captivated me. Tag(s): black dirty honey, hay, herbal, waxy

Big blast of sophisticated honey...quality materials as this does not turn into the smell of cat pee on my skin...not too sweet...the florals in this are very gentle...nice perfume...

Opens with a melted honey on hazelnut wafer, almost edible before beeswax, cedar, immortelle and sweet fir and carnation balm emerge. I also take an orange in the background and in this phase I find similarities with Bapteme de feau SL. Not a fan of beeswax, this one goes from a soft, chocolaty and gourmant beginning to more tart, thin, dry, astringent and sharp woodiness. In the middle I have floral puffs of roses, chamomile and sage that pleasantly lighten the mixture. On my skin at times resembles the smell of sweet salty sweat and something with a metallic taste. The same feeling of a gold chain slid on the tongue. Not a bad perfume, rather rounded, with a comfortable sillage and with a nice natural drydown compared to other beeswax themed perfumes, but personally far from making me appreciate this note that unfortunately does not work on me. Honey YES. Beeswax NO. For me ... The struggle within. Anyway, I recommend the test!

A beautiful honeyed immortelle and incense for the first 20 minutes. There's an astringent note in the heart which wrecks the beauty of this perfume. It could be described as pissy but it's more like a discordant sour vegetal tang. It's faint, almost too faint to be a bother, but once I caught a whiff of it, there it was, like an unwelcome guest who won't stop yabbering. The perfume reverts to a deep, mellow honeyed-immortelle and incense after 2 hours, but my affection has already waned. Distillation: radiant honey dimmed by a discordant note wrecking our friendship

Made in France, a piece of art. Very original, potent, I can smell honey, wood, immortelle and cedar. 100% unisex, more for fall and winter due to the honey. Very original and intriguing but I cannot wear it. Why? For me, it is more a scent of wood cleaners (sorry Mr Lebreton) in an old house. After few hours, it is like a candle on a medieval wood table. A feeling, an atmosphere.... You need to try it, don't blind buy. 5/10 not my style but a piece of art

The name of this scent is so fitting; warm wood. It's a cedary beeswax. I don't know that it's a scent I want to smell on skin, but objectively very intriguing.