Vanille Botanique

DSH Perfumes – Vanille Botanique is one of the more popular offerings in her catalogue, from what I can tell, and one that’s been on my list to try for some time. In trying the EDP form, it immediately lives up to its billing, a resinous and multifaceted vanilla that, while clearly indulging a vanilla fan like myself, nevertheless is not overwhelmingly sweet, let alone cake-like. Its ingredients seem to consist predominantly of a couple types of vanilla and several resins—labdanum, peru balsam, siam benzoin, tolu balsam—along with wee hints of citruses, rose, woods, and even civet, though I admittedly don’t detect much civet at all. The blend balances the smoothness and sweetness of a vanilla/resin mix while providing some quirks in the form of the ever-so-slightly animalic touches of the resins, as well as the floral/citrus/woods mix that lies in the background. Again, it’s still mostly vanilla and sweet, creamy resins, but not predominantly to the point that it’s simple or monotonous. It’s not quite as boastful as DSH Café Noir EDP, but the darker, spicier character of that fragrance might make for a louder start. Still, Vanille Botanique is dense and pungent. A 60ml EDP bottle is priced at $235, no doubt in part due to the cost of raw materials, which, in the case of vanilla, has increased dramatically in recent years, it seemed, but as with the rest of her catalogue, there are a variety of sizes and formats available. I think Vanille Botanique is great and it’s one I’ll consider buying, as it certainly deviates a bit from other vanillas in my collection. 8 out of 10

Perfection! Vanille Botanique is my favorite cold weather vanilla on the market including designer as well as indie, all natural, and niche perfumes. It smells like a true vanilla bean, the kind that you can buy two at a time in a glass jar from Whole Foods. It's rich, intense, extremely complex in the way the actual bean is woody, earthy, spicy, and almost animalic, and very natural smelling. You must enjoy labdanum (AMBER) to love this too. I expect this to smell extraordinary all year round. Why couldn't I have known about this from the very beginning!? I even love it more than Vanille Bourbon Intense (smokey, boozy), and Au Lait (milky, sugary) by the same house. All vanillaphiles do yourselves a favor and sample this next. An artistic rendering of the magic of the bean itself.

opens with vanilla and a very woody/resiny base that has a hint of a slightly animalic sort of thing. it’s very familiar but hard to describe in words-an almost mildly burnt wood smell, i think it's tolu balsam. the vanilla is a bit creamy, smells like vanilla extract but less intense, however not a super gourmand vanilla. after about 10-15 minutes i get a floral note, but doesn’t necessarily read as jasmine. overall it’s an earthy vanilla with resins and amber, and gets more ambery over time. really gorgeous after being on the skin 30 minutes+.

This wasn't love at first sniff but something that I began to love later. It came with other from DSH scents that I had ordered and when I've first sniffed it was like, ok-ish, nothing special. But a bit later, oh boy, it became something out of this world. A warm, cozy and fresh floral, ambery thing that I've never experienced before in a vanilla scent. It's thick, syrupy and balsamic and I detect the labdanum, the tolu and peru balsam, the benzoin, the beeswax, the vanilla. This is my happy, comfort place and I'm addicted to it!!

How this vanilla scent has not become more known I don't know. Utterly sublime and luscious. A sophisticated vanilla that isn't too dry and needs skin to bloom. Perhaps the most sensual vanilla on the market that I can think of. You just want to keep sniffing yourself, a perfect balsam vanilla.

Marvelous marvelous. Do it all the way: shower gel, body oil, shea cream, edp. Hot diggity !

One of the best vanillas I’ve tried. It’s a dark vanilla as opposed to a light and airy one.

I love DSH Perfumes, but I am so, so glad she uses synthetics as well as natural ingredients in most of her creations. For years, I have tried very hard to love at least one botanical perfume, but something in my chemistry causes nearly every one I've tried to have an overwhelming stale mustiness. Seriously...the kind of thing where people go, "Eeew" because they can't imagine what they're smelling would be an odor worn on purpose. Frankly, Vanille Botanique doesn't smell like vanilla on me. It smells like civet and black molasses. This same mustiness is present in SIP Magazine Street (which I adore on paper), Ecco Bella Bourbon Vanilla, and Auric Blends vanilla oils. Vanille Botanique is an expertly blended, high quality fragrance that simply is not beautiful to my nose when I wear it. When I smell Vanille Botanique in its vial, I think it smells amazing, I just don't like it on my skin. I know I would love this on others, including my husband.

DSH Vanille Botanique is a vanilla perfume for grown-ups. No sugar festival here whatsoever. Instead the scent is rather woody and oriental and barely sweet at all. The labdanum is quite marked and there is some darkness imparted it appears by ... civet! Well, this does not smell very animalic to me (maybe just a touch...), but it does smell very well blended and unisex. I find this just as well-blended as my favorite vanilla perfume, L'Artisan Parfumeur Vanille Absolument. This creation by DSH is akin to its savory analogue. Everything works together harmoniously in this composition, which I find to be a gorgeous wintertime perfume. It's nice to find a creation such as this one where it is obvious that the perfumer spent a good deal of time refining the work rather than throwing together n'importe quoi and calling it a day. A rare cause for celebration in the flanker/limited edition/Twitter-esque multi-launch twenty-first century perfume world.

This is a gourmand perfume centered on tolu balsam. It opens with citrus and sweet custard. Then moves tolu and real vanilla and finally a tolu heavy amber. A universally likeable cozy vanilla amber.

Of all Dawn's vanillas, I think this one deviates the most. It's rich and dark and frankly, a little odd. What I don't get: sweetness, beeswax, anything to suggest "gourmand". What I do: woods, wet resins, that slightly musty vintage floral quality; if you added a dash of the highest quality (and highest alcohol) vanilla extract. Reminds me of Halloween without candy. If you told me this was a very old scent, I would believe you no problem. Very unisex and SO niche. But does it actually smell good to me? I don't know. It's not for me, anyway. I am into naturals but not the biggest vintage lover. For fans of both, I could see this being a home run. Also worth noting that this is strong for being composed entirely of natural ingredients.

A really great 100% natural vanilla, not a simple vanilla; before I realized how the entire note list read, I would've attributed it's middle thickness to a well-blended dirty jasmine. But once I saw the entire note profile, I'm seeing where the civet comes in, which per my understanding is a signature botanical blend of DSH's to mimic the synthetic civet that perfumers work with today. And it works in that regard really well. It's great to know a botanical accord can mimic civet...although I'm def not a big fan of civet, it does have it's place here and there and can add a depth to fragrances that is welcome. To then be completely botanical is just perfect. I would define the fragrance as a real vanilla semi-thickly-sweet yet with a dry musty-powder edge vanilla. In that regard mature, and really great. Really decent projection/longevity for an all-natural botanical. (P.S. This is sprayed on my clothes, not my skin). I can confidently say it's my favorite vanilla fragrance at this time. I'm also kinda curious as to what I could/may layer it with. Cheers. (Middle-aged male reviewer)

Ordered a sample to try. The name...well a bit misleading. I would put vanilla way down towards the bottom of the list. This is all about the benzoin, labdanum & honey & a really unusual scent to me (maybe the civet). Oh, and I smell the rosewood, which I like. This is warm and honeyed but I'm not really sensing any florals. This is a very interesting perfume and I like that it is a bit different but unfortunately not what I was looking for.

Balsamic vanilla honey blend. The honey note in here is memorizing mixed with that sour like balsamic note that results in honey woodsy slightly animalic blend. This could be categorized as gourmand because of that vanilla honey mix that presented the juicy caramel biscotti and then the animalic balsamic notes strikes up the blend making it's contrast quite balanced and captivating. Quite interesting.

This review is based on a tiny decant. I get mostly labdanum and benzoin/vanilla. Reminds me of Ambre Sultan by Serge Lutens without the herbal/spicy notes. Moderate projection and good longevity on my skin.

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