Bijou Vert

This is really amazing. Smells a bit like an Aveda salon. What it really reminds me of (for the first 5 minutes) is Coriandre (a luxe version). After that things take a woodier turn. Sometimes I find cedar a bit nauseating, but it’s not the case here. Vetiver is the star, but it’s a greener, grassier Vetiver. It’s not at all sweet. I get pepper and geranium. The overall effect is a dry one. Don’t expect lush greenery. The dry down is resinous with hints of pine. Overall, the scent is really successful. Projection is not great but it noticeably lasts on my skin for at least 6 hours. Maybe it would perform better in warmer temperatures. It’s unisex but I don’t find veers too masculine for me personally. This is a really sophisticated fragrance. This will get a lot of daytime use is spring and summer especially when I’m spending time outdoors.

I get the Terre d' Hermes references, but there is something in this that is slightly sweet and effervescent that makes it sparkle in a different way. Maybe if you mixed TDH and added a splash of an old school green fragrance like Calandre by Paco Rabanne or Cabotine you would end up with Bijou Vert. There is something clean and classic about this that would appeal to many. It's completely unisex and can appeal to the older and younger crowd and is very transitional, it can be worn for work or play. Considering the saturated fragrance market, this is an exceptional creation. Raw Spirit made a true all around, well made fragrance for just about anyone to enjoy. How many designers can do that? Well done, Raw Spirit, very well done indeed.

This is one of those scents that somehow perfectly emulates smells from a moment in my life and immediately sends me back. It’s like time traveling to when I spent a hot summer living deep in a forested ranch in the northeastern US and used a specific essential oil blend to keep the bugs at bay. It’s a spicy, dry green mixed with hay, wildflowers, musk, and oils. An overlay of citrus keeps that moment of summer throwback frozen in the peak of daytime, while citadelle of the same brand is like how those days turned to hot night. It’s amazing how powerful scent is at triggering memory, my brain pinpointed in an instant. It was a cool experience to test both of these simultaneously and be thrown back into happy memories from the same time. I think it is truly unisex while citadelle tips a bit more masculine, although I love both on my skin.

When applying this fragrance I smell the cedarwood and pepper prominently at first. After a couple minutes I smell hints of citrus and greenery. It is both warm/bright and fresh/green, a very intriguing combo. I think the parfumers did an excellent job of blending these notes. This fragrance has a noticeable presence without being in your face. It is definitely unisex; it leans much more masculine than the usual type of fragrance I enjoy, but it is a refreshing change and I think I will wear the sample from time to time. I probably wouldn't purchase the full size, not for myself anyway, but I'd love to sniff this on my husband. Overall grade: A-.

This is citrus, vetiver, and geranium heavy. That said, the latter two are very complex notes to my nose, so this fragrance is simple but definitely not simplistic. It's dry and aromatic, and it does smell very "natural" - there's the sharpness and bitterness here that isn't tempered by any smooth or sweet counterpoints. I love that grassy astringency, but I imagine it could be warmed up with a touch of vanilla. Raw Spirit scents are substantial but also lend themselves to layering in my experience.