Precious Woods

it's taken me 2 years to finish the 30ml bottle of Precious Woods. here are my thoughts/experiences. on the positive side: this is everything i wanted and love in a woody perfume. the notes dance beautifully with eachother and i truly cannot fault this fragrance at all. high quality oils, a rich dense sillage, absolutely gorgeous. it makes me feel calm and if i could, i would bathe in this daily. i've never found anything else that comes close to being the wooded perfection this fragrance is. unfortunately, there is a massive problem, and it's the packaging. the bottle this came in leaked like crazy despite keeping it upright and in it's cylindrical box at all times. whatever metal plating is used to cover the atomiser started peeling off the more i used this. i think, due to the nature of the high quality oils in Precious Woods, said oils actually encourage degredation of the atomiser. legit, i found flakes of the metal plating on my skin when i spritzed this on my wrists, and sometimes it would also come out on my neck, as if the metal plating rode the perfume from the bottle to my skin. the plastic top also started to get bunged up with remnants of the fragrance, eventually making it impossible to close. this is the last perfume i want to have any criticisms about, i love it so much, but the amount of this that was wasted due to the packaging disappoints me greatly - this stuff ain't exactly inexpensive; at €130 for 30mls i expect better packaging, i expect to be able to wear this without the product oozing itself out of the bottle. this leaked so much that the actual box it came in became damp and saturated with this beautifully fragranced perfume oil. i want so much to repurchase, yall have no idea how much i adore Precious Woods. saying that, until the bottle/atomiser issues are addressed, i cannot bring myself to pay another €130 for 30mls when i'll only end up actually wearing 15-20mls while the rest of it leaks. i have actual photographic evidence of the problem, including a picture of metal plating on my wrist after application as well as the bunged up top and the soaked bottom of the box it comes in. the bottle has leaked so much it's sticky when you hold it in your hand. it saddens me to write negative things about what was my second signture scent (my first being Tam Dao.) this is a truly remarkable fragrance that i wanted to wear for the rest of my life. shame the price point only applies to the quality of the fragrance itself, because the atomiser and packaging issues really let it down. until those issues are addressed i cannot justify a repurchase, despite my deep love for Precious Woods.

The packaging is very nice with the bottle contained within a long cylinder like box. Also the bottle has three crystals within down to the creators new age pure ingredients holistic approach. On first application of the scent to my chest and side of neck the first thing that grabs you is the quality of the ingredients. It's like scent in high definition as the fragrance is concentrated, vibrant and intense. The scent of cedarwood is what I first smelled which was quickly followed by stunning pine notes. And I mean breathtaking in their beauty like you are smelling the aroma in a forest on the air. With this I'm smelling a golden like sandalwood with hints of Patchouli and again awesome quality. I think the Sandalwood is a mix of different woods as I seem to be picking up different woody aromas. At some point this stunning Myrrh and vetiver note becomes more prominent mixing in with the pine. This gives the scent a earthy resinous feel and you could imagine smelling the forest floor after the rain which has pine cones and leaves covering everywhere you look. Also mixed in with this is a green like spice. I have to say it is a gorgeous woodsy fragrance as the natural ingredients do make you feel like you are experiencing scent in high definition. I cannot compare this with straight forward Sandalwood fragrances as this scent is like a "walk through a lush forest bottled". Meaning you get the whole smell of the forest experience and not just Sandalwood though the quality is really good. Now the scent as whole is soft and tightly weaved in a intricate way and the projection is about below average to average. It does stay close to you though it does have a definite presence and people will pick up on it when they get near you. It lasts between four to five hours with traces of the basenotes still on my clothes. The first three hours is it's glory ride where it's strong and then it hits the basenotes for the next hour or so. Also after the first three hours it becomes more subdued though I have had my girlfriend say she can smell it six hours or so after application. But I'm putting that down to the scent lingering on my clothes. Though the projection and longevity are not great they are not poor either. You pay your money to experience the glorious quality of the ingredients on your skin. Anyway I have enjoyed wearing it and can only imagine how wonderful the other scents from this company smell like.

If like me you enjoy woody scents, you may be forgiven for asking the next question on the list: "which woods do you like?". A hard to answer question as there are so many out there - patchouli, oakmoss, vetiver (or is that a grass?) and the more well-known cedar and sandalwood. Precious Woods takes all of them together and presents them to you in one go. The first puff of this scent is woods overload. Dark and balsamic at first, you could easily judge this one as a scrubber. But good things come to those that wait, so the more patient frag-heads will appreciate what happens next. The deliciously woody and hazelnutty (is that a word?) dry down is pine, cedar and santal. Creamy yet not sweet, smooth and refined. The 'hazelnut' aspect comes out quite prominently, but it isn't immediately obvious which ingredient(s) is/are causing that effect. This well-blended scent is hard to find as the brand is not very well known and the 30ml bottle is a disappointment. Also the 'new age' feel of the brand with its associations to yoga and glass "pearls" in the bottle (you read that correctly) does not warrant full marks from me (it's a perfume - juice in a bottle - and nothing else!). But it still performes well as the blend is well-crafted. There are definitely many other superb woody scents out there from many niche brands, but this is certainly one to spritz before you buy. Overall 4/5

This is my favorite scent so far as a newbie. It is what got me into all this. It is similar to Tam dao but I prefer this. Both are basically sandalwood with cedar and some other notes blended well. There are scents I can't place in precious woods but remind me of time in India and tropical forests when you come upon an aromatic tree whose wood envelops you. I'm using this daily just for me. I find it calming, grounding and brings me back to places and things I love. This smells nothing like a perfume/cologne and is focused on the scents of woods. This is a negative for some but is exactly what I love. On my skin it lasts all day and the woods change over time with cedar stronger initially, sandalwood becoming stronger over time and the other scents in there modulating. It is not overpowering for daily use. Price per ml is high, but tam dao edp I need to use multiple times in a day and barely lasts an hour, is very weak, and I find the blend less immersive or beautiful though I love it too.

Another masterpiece from Tanja Bochnig from April Aromatics. This house has been surprising me day after day for such a great quality of its perfumes. It's wonderful trying them, you have no idea what to expect for, every perfume that I have been testing I have new experiences and wonderful olfactory surprises. Precious Woods reminds me of a wonderful and dark pine forest after the rain, there's nothing like the smell of pine trees when walking through the forest. This fragrance has this quite genuine pine and pine resin smell accompanied by vertiver notes that makes this a very unique perfume with a wonderful and fresh natural woody scent. The top and middle notes lasted for about 8 hours on my skin, and now there's not much left except vetiver and maybe a little of Sandalwood and Cedarwood mix. That being said the fragrance is a luxury, this would be perfect for a pine and vertiver lovers to wear during the day in the late fall and winter and special occasions.