Bois d'Hadrien

This is one of those scents you need to overspray a bit to get out their true character. One or two sprays, and I got a mellow, sweet green scent that didn't really do what it promised; not bad, at all; but not alluring and enticing. But when you go a little heavier on the trigger - one of the best atomizers you can find on the market - Bois d'Hadrien starts to deliver on its promises. A touch of light, airy green citruses - zesty, and fresh, but subtle in their concentration, opens your walk in a Mediterranean forest. You walk on maritime pine needles, slightly uphill - it's warm and you sweat, but the conifers offer you some shade from the sun. Bois d'Hadrien is like that: it suggests the warmth humidity of your sunny Mediterranean grove, and the pleasure of the shade it offers. It's difficult to render this in words, but if you ever been on a hilly walk in southern France, or Liguria or even Tuscany, you know what I mean. Fir really goes so nicely with zesty citruses and here they are mixed so masterfully. Balsamic fir has also a very nice way to expand and diffuse the green qualities of this concoction and all the nice things Goutal put in this beauty. And it's so nice how the lemon and lime continue to radiate from your arm. They walk with you, with accents of greener freshness which to me smell like juniper and myrtle. Until a point, that is: when you reach those ruins where a Roman temple ruins stand centuries ago, up the hill, right at the sunset. Now the direct heat from the sun is fading, but the early night is still warm and you start smelling the incense and the resins lit on the braziers all around the temple. Sweet frankincense is burning for the gods, vestal virgins all around in their white tunic, ready for their sacred ceremony. Solid woody notes make their entry, we are in the drydown; still with some memories of those airy citruses and fir and mellow green notes. Boise d'Hadrien works by addition, not subtraction. I'm so in love with this fragrance. It's less fresh than expected - but also much more refined and behaves so well on your skin. It smells rich, mellow, fragrant but never cloying or overwhelming; yet the airiness of the opening citruses never leaves the scene, and combines so beautifully with both the greens and the incense. We are left with the question whether this scent is perfectly unisex, or steering more on the feminine side; if you underspray, the mellower side of it will be more feminine; but give a minor overdose to your skin, and you'll get a perfectly male scent that exudes quality, class and elegance. Perfect for a warm spring, summer, and autumn even; it will do fine even in the evening for a white linen shirt dinner. Beautiful bottle (the male version), incredibly precise atomizer, batch is 8H035 from 2018, and a very strong love.

Bois d’Hadrien is a very green, refreshing and surprisingly, very lemony/lime smelling. Less woody, leafy green and more citrusy fresh if that makes sense! What I love about Goutal’s fragrances is how realistic they are. At least the older versions. I own two bottles in total from Goutal and every time I wear any of them, I think about adding more to my collection. My bottle looks different than the one shown here, on Fragrantica, and was produced nearly 6 years ago. This is 100% unisex in my opinion. I am a woman and I enjoy wearing this a lot! And it doesn’t really smell as foresty/piney/woody as much as freshly squeezed lemons and limes. Yes, it has a very pleasant herbal, aromatic, green feel that I guess it’s the ivy mixed with the cypress note.. I am not familiar enough with these two notes, but I think that’s these are the standout notes out of all the woods listed. That’s my personal experience with Bois d’Hadrien. This perfume only works during summer months when weather is hot and humid. Unfortunately for me, where I currently live, the weather is rarely like that, so I mostly use Bois d’Hadrien during holidays in the South of Europe. I think I read somewhere, back in the days, that this perfume was inspired or is supposed to recreate the Tuscan forests smell. I have not been to any forest in Tuscany, but I can see that image when I wear this. A have a few green, fresh, citrusy, woody scents in my collection but nothing quite like this. What Bois d’Hadrien lacks in terms of performance, compensates in terms of quality, uniqueness and refinement! I don’t have much left in my bottle, but this is the kind of perfume that I would repurchase once I’m done with my bottle. It does really have an addictive quality to it!!

A very cleverly made fragrance, essentially fresh green lime juice linked to green unlit frankincense and further to a pine/fir resin base, some vetiver and a sweet vanillic undercurrent rounding it out. One absolute requirement to enjoy this fragrance is that you can tolerate or perhaps even enjoy tartness, because essentially all of the aforementioned facets are linked by a robust green limey freshness that turns tart woody resinous. What I generally don't love in tart woody compositions is that there is a sense of dry bitterness as in Guerlain Eau Boisee, that is not the case in Bois d'Hadrien as there is a sweetness that runs through the whole composition keeping everything a bit more playful and interesting. This is not a masterpiece type of scent, it is fairly straightforward in its delivery, a string of fresh notes that linger all day on the skin, lean slightly masculine imo, and envelopes you in a cloak of pine forest. It has no real relation to Eau d'Hadrien, which is a much drier, saltier, herbal experience overall.

I contacted the maison and they confirmed the end of production of this little gem...but what a shame! I've always dreamed of Adriano after reading the Memoirs of him in Yourcenar's masterpiece and I certainly couldn't miss a perfume dedicated to him ... bought it without ever smelling it and it was love at first sight! a wonderful incensed citrus fruit on a bed of wood and sugar, practically perfect and complete in its balsamic essence, never clashes, never clashes, enveloping, elegant and very clean, and I find myself walking in the splendid Villa Adriana, with its marvelous pine trees and the peace and quiet of the twilight and this intoxicating scent and I already know that I won't be able to do without it anymore. I have already taken two bottles. remarkable duration. on the whole.

Writing this in the middle of winter, about 7 or 8 degrees Celsius during the day, this smells completely different than the way it smells in spring/summer. So in the summer it smells like a refreshing tart lime pie with a sticky sweet crust, refreshing and delicious, but in the cold it is as if you are walking in a woody pine forest and you're getting a whiff of this lime tree that is carrying ripe fruits - strange as it may seem but fabulous at the same time - but you can't seem to be able to find it because the smell of the pine trees is dominant in that environment. So the heat seems to bring out the fun character of the fragrance but the cold seem to bring out the mysterious one, wonderful, absolutely wonderful...!!!