Benjoin Bohème

A revisit In my first review i mentioned me not gagging at the perfume. It felt weak and bland, especially compared to the price. But yesterday i received this for my birthday. Now I dont let other people choose perfumes for me most of the time because id hate for someone to waste their money only for me to end up hiding it in a box, but I accepted it this time. And i dont know if that affects my love for this fragrance, but i must say i enjoy it much more than i did while sampling it for the first time! Before describing the perfume in depth, i want to talk about benjoin bohemes longevity and performance. When i first sampled it, i was appalled at how thin and weak the scent felt. Its a benzoin fragrance, how could benzoin ever be weak? I literally own benzoin resin and i can smell it from a distance sitting in sealed bag. To (not so) my surprise, the back of the box lists alpha isomethyl ionone. The ingredient thats present in almost all of diptyque perfumes, even Tempo! I immediately thought of my experiences with fleur de peau and orpheon, scents that seemed to be extremely weak when i wear them but extremely strong and long lasting when i smelled it on others. Thats the beautiful and i guess ugly side of ionones, they make a scent smooth and powdery and moreso violet-y than iris-y, but also impossible to smell for extended periods of time. So i decided to treat BB the same way as fleur de peau and tempo: dont think about them, dont sniff the spot you sprayed, dont spray it too close to your nose and dont actively try to smell it often. Suddenly, benjoin boheme revealed an ancient golden glow to my nose. Something deep, sweet, radiant, enveloping, mysterious and almost religious with a classic and vintage amber touch. I was shocked! I always saw diptyques perfume as pretty (and implicitly) vintage, but i never thought benjoin boheme would be their vintage amber! Eau lente came close but that one has a weird citronella facet that annoys me.. As the scent continues to open up, it becomes more and more ambery. Its not JUST benzoin mind you, the addition of patchouli makes it an amber to my nose. The cinnamon and incense dusted vanilla aspect of the benzoin gets highlighted as time passes. The initial powderiness remains, but the scent evolves into something more ‘syrupy’ (DEFINITELY not caramel). Its almost like a solid piece of resin starts melting on your skin, which generally also means the resin starts smelling more ‘alive’ which is the same for benjoin bohème. The other notes are definitely just there for support, i do not pick up on angelica root on its own. The sandalwood is probably just there to smooth everything out as i dont find this to smell necessarily woody or creamy in any way. Never smelled styrax on its own but since its also a resin it must be supporting the benzoin. The patchouli is handled with care and accentuates the deeper and more meditative facets of benzoin without taking over. They blend together basically! Benjoin boheme is surprisingly deep, diffusive and long lasting. I sprayed this 4 hours before sleeping and the next morning i can still smell it like it was sprayed on a minute ago. And while i can only catch wafts of it here and there, others have said they can definitely smell me. My dad thinks its way too heavy for example (literally the opposite of what i thought) Would i have bought this with my own money? Probably not. Its still 250 euros which, after all these years of testing perfumes, feels unnecessary to me. There are certain perfumes where i think the price is extremely justified (like angel’s dust francesca bianchi), but benjoin boheme is not complex enough for me to think its worth the price. The smell is complex dont get me wrong, benzoin itself has a very deep and layered scent. But this feels like a benzoin soliflore with a touch of other things. Anyway, sorry for this long review. If i ignore the price, this scent is an easy 10/10. Very signature scent worthy and even a bit quirky. It reminds me of a discontinued perfume , prada l’eau ambrée. If you can ever find that one for a cheap price, you definitely can skip this one

A supremely warm and elegant fragrance. There are a lot of good warm resinous fragrances. I may have figured out why this is so exceptional. The green Angelica, that is in another of my top 5 frag, "French Lover". This is boyant for a balsamic fragrance, extraordinary blending, subtle, understated. Update: The notes Diptyque list, are only 4, Peru balsam, Benzoin, cistus/ (Labdanum) and patchouli. These are listed with the bottle I received. The Peru Balsum lends especially to the regal warmth of the fragrance. There is a nice green spiciness, maybe it is angelica that gives the fragrance a coolness as well as warmth. This is not complex, but just smells soo dogon good. Super high quality ingredients. This reminds me of chesnuts roasting on an open fire, warm, woody, and nutty. This is the most I ever spent on a fragrance, because I had to purchase it from Diptyque boutique in Brooklyn. Diptyque site is out of stock, and not available on eBay, only 2 ml. I'm happy I was able to purchase it. Benjoin Boheme is a very warm Labdanum and Benzoin fragrance. It has nutty vanellic, and chocolatey undertones comming from the finest Benzoin and patchouli notes. So it smells warm and allmost delicious, without hardly getting into gourmand territory. There is a benzoin and pepper accord here that is similar to Roja Dove Enigma. There is no sweetness added, but Benzoin has a natural sweetness, and a vanela like smell. The nuttiness and spiciness, may just be comming from a very refined Patchouli note. This is an exquisitely attractive ambered fragrance. I want to wear this around people. It will make a good impression, by the deep, beautiful woody warmth, exquisite quality of notes and blending. A safe blind buy, nothing possibly offensive here, leans slightly masculine, but mostly gender neutral. Performance: Sillage slightly better than projection which is softly moderate. Longevity is great, still a solid skin scent after 12 hours, and my skin absorbs quickly. Good projection for a few hours for me. A very classy fragrance for formal events, or casual. The most beautiful ambered oriental I have experienced; Better than Amber Absolu or Ambre Sultan. MFK Grand Soir is close, but this is not too sweet, just right. As the MFK Amber's are too sweet, or honeyed for me. I was able to order a bottle by phone from a Diptyque boutique in Brooklyn NY, will be my most exquisite fragrance for Winter. Arrived cracked, bottle is fragile blown glass. Diptyque replacing express mail, nice. Rating: 10/10 God bless. John 3:16

Benjoin Bohème Diptyque (Skin test) I remember I test out Goutal Ambre Fetiche and something not resinate with me. I feel like where it suppose to be the Beautiful / airy - Melt benzoin heart, it is thick blocky syrup vanilla. I recall Benjoin Boheme. This is it.. this Best Benzoin highlight fragrance. The way Benzoin slowly crystallize on your skin Imagine how I would put my hand on bowl of amber, tint with natural sweetness. The rubber matte feel from Styrax and heart of Patchouli that not really strong either. It well balance and harmonize. Still pretty much a daily wear fragrance, yet something so finely done. Only a person who truly love Patchouli can do this, best work from Olivier Pescheux. ===== Comment on 2024 bottle release on December 26, 2024 Uhm.. so I order a bottle of new release in 2024 (The edp bottle with gold plate). (What I have sniff is the one release under La Collection 34, 2015 glass cracked bottle). I think this is reformulated, enriched by more stronger vanilla. and amber aroma-chemical base (Almost Oudy but not there yet). I think 2024 version is slightly leans to Grand Soir by MFK (30-40% from Original release) Luckily, the development stage of scent is mostly preserved. (The silent earthy patchouli still there, beautifully / The benzoin still slowly crystallised). It just slightly more sweeter vanilla than original release). And there is tone of spice, kind of Cinnamon / Cardamom. Presented in newer release. I believe with time, the newer bottle will perform stronger than original release. (I think this case of reformulation similar to transition of Coromandel EDT to EDP) I don't mind newer release as this vanilla still beautiful. (Not the gourmand-extra creamy thick vanilla). 2024 -> slightly more vanilla, spicy tone stronger base leans more commercial as ease of use. 2015 -> focus on delicateness of bezonin that merge with patchouli, more details. Both version is beautiful fragrance nonetheless. ===== Update 2 on January 20, 2025 I now own a bottle from 2016, the glass cracked bottle. I have done compare test and I confirm my statement above, will keep both version.

This is so dreamy! I was lucky enough to find a vintage style, cracked glass bottle, out here in Taiwan which I've been testing against a sample I have of the newer stuff. There is a difference, but it's rather slightly. The new stuff isn't quite so luscious and seems to fade a little quicker, but the overall smell profile is the same. What we have here is a gorgeous benzoin note, which stays fairly linear throughout the whole wear, which is absolutely ages. 3-4 hours of gentle projection off my skin, followed by whiffs here and there for the next 10. I can spray this first thing in the morning at 8am and still catch benzoin hums 12 hours later. That's after a gym session, cycle, work and walk around. Those who complain about this juice's performance must be talking about the newer formulation, or are simply unlucky with their skin chemistry. This stuff lasts and lasts on my skin, creating a gentle, golden-coloured, ambery, resinous sillage, which is difficult to capture in words. It makes you feel like your skin is glowing with a sweet, yet not too sweet essence of sheer deliciousness. It never feels pretentious or snobby and certain notes, I guess the patchouli and angelica stop it from ever becoming too sweet. The sandalwood backbone, which is not a heavy, obvious sandalwood, gives structure to the scent and gives the benzoin note a 3D effect which resonates all around you. The presence of woods is probably aiding the longevity of this fragrance too. I adore this perfume! It's unlike any other I've tried before. I see it compared to MFK's Grand Soir, which is also beautiful, yet what I'd call a more classic amber, with little else going on. The dominance of benzoin here, tamed by slight greens and woods into an exceedingly wearable versatile scent, is what truly makes it shine. The fact I was able to grab a new bottle of the vintage design in Taiwan (batch code from 2020) in July 2024, shows there are still some of these bottles out there... I urge you to buy one if ever you have the opportunity. It's magical.

A hologram of balsamic benzoin and spicy powdery woods Benjoin Boheme is one of those experiences for me of stopping at a fragrance counter, casually picking up a fragrance bottle you find interesting (in this case because of the stunning cylindrical bottle it used to come in), spraying it on a paper strip and having your brain shout *WTF is that* before getting tingles all over your scalp and spine and zoning out sniffing at your hands like some kind of depraved fool. Benjoin Boheme has this kind of opening for me, a slightly sweet slightly powdery bright pristine almost 'crystaline' but simultaneously deep balsamic warmth which almost knocked me out the first time I smelled it. Its probably almost exclusive to me and my nose physiology but it just knocks me straight into a minute-long olfactory high of sorts. A few minutes later and the finely almost powdered soft spicy facets start erupting through, quite reminiscent of the peppery patchouli of Tempo but much more delicate, im guessing a pristine grade of terpeneless patchouli, which gives a very suave woodiness to the composition. This duet of benzoin and patchouli continues for several hours to come. There is also clearly a slight incense element. There are times I am convinced it is myrrh, but i am still not entirely certain. There is something I find incredible about this fragrance, which is how lightweight it feels. It's not weak, it's clearly there, projects well for a decent amount of time, but feels incredibly radiant and almost 'holographic' like my nose chases it constantly. Where it a musical composition, it would be one composed of only high mids and faint treble. This is also not a sweet fragrance, yes it is balsamic and vanillic, but compared to Grand Soir, the red velvet cake, this is like eating a halfsweet slice of Swiss roll filled with unsweetened whipped cream and tart raspberries.