Bois Noir

TOLKIEN'S MIRKWOOD A forest is a place of magic and danger, found in many countries' folklore wherever the natural wilderness is wooded: it is a place beyond which humans normally travel and where strange things can happen. Often there are fairies, elves, dragons, dwarves, giants, gnomes, goblins, ogres, trolls, unicorns and other mythical creatures, as well as perfumers and perfume addicts, all of whom have developed a taste for dark, gloomy, smoky, woody places. If you think you have a place among these guys, then you are bound to like or even love François Piguet's Bois Noir. The opening and heart are all about intense, dark, woody scents. Palo Santo stands out with its tary, smoky and tarmac notes. But there is also austere cedar, the sweet lingering scent of sandalwood and earthy patchouli. The opening and heart notes don't seem to fade. On the contrary, they are reinforced by the strong base notes of resins, balsams and labdanum, tied together by a hint of animal musk. These rich accords of woods, balsams and resins are immediately noticeable. This dark, smoky scent is truly pleasant and is undoubtedly the DNA of this perfume. After the initial storm, as you approach the drydown, you feel the fragrance entering calmer waters. The sillage is average (but always high compared to non-woodsy scents), but the fragrance lasts almost ten hours with three sprays. It's my kind of scent, and Piguet is one of my top five niche houses for their mastery of blending this kind of dark, smoky scent. The nose behind this perfume is Aurelien Guichard, the house's 'regular' perfumer, and gems like Casbah, Visa and Oud Divin come to mind when you experience Bois Noir. Let's assess this dark, enchanted forest: ________________ Scent Opening: 10,0 Scent Drydown: 10.0 Longevity: 9.0 Sillage: 8.0 Uniqueness: 9.5 (Piguet DNA only) Wearability: 7.5 (Spring nights + Winter + Fall nights) Versatility: 8.0 (at leisure by yourself, formal occasions, dining out, no clubbing, no gym, no seaside) Compliments: 7.5 (dark fragrances lovers will like it a lot) Quality: 10.0 (quality ingredients; excellent packaging and bottle sprayer) Presentation: 9.0 (High standard but not the best) Price: 7.5 (€80,00 - 100 ml) ________________ Overall rating: 8.73/10.0 between 7 and 8 =above average; between 8 and 9 = recommended; bigger than 9 = don't miss it; MY OPINION: One of the best woody, balsamic, dark and smoky scents I own, at a competitive price for a niche perfume of this quality; if these are the characteristics you are looking for, Bois Noir does the job superbly. It's far from an 'all round' fragrance and the wrong choice if that's what you're looking for. Recommended? No! Do try it before you buy it. It's just too specific. MUSIC: "Changes" by Black Sabath

I am basing my opinion on a sample rather than a longer term wearing but this is a fascinating scent. Straight out of the traps this gives a really strong Cloves and Musk aroma which quite quickly settles and balances out in to a dark, austere, mysterious journey of spices, woods, resins and musk. Not a mass appealing crowd pleaser, oh no. Yet, it is still somewhat alluring and almost addictive albeit from curious fascination more than out and out attraction. I see how this could be deemed unisex but I feel it does lean more masculine. The scent profile conjures a youthful Dorian Gray-like character (don't laugh, I'm serious. :o) ) but not in an altogether gloomy sense as it is still very sophisticated and luxuriously woody. I see some of the votes for similar fragrances and am shocked. Gucci Intense Oud......woody and resinous yes but quite different from Bois Noir. Z & V This Is Him! - No. No. No. Just no. Lalique Encre Noire A L'Extreme, one of my favourite scents, err...yes both are woody spicy and dark but one is keenly Vetiver driven and the other is most definitely Guaiac and Cedar driven so quite different....they might live in the same forest but in very different parts of that forest. Tom Ford Noir Anthracite - literal translation Anthracite Black better known as coal - strays a little closer capturing that freshly mined coal accord with an extra dry, citrusy, spicy edge but it is still some way off what Bois Noir captures which is more of a walk through a damp, dark, cold, ancient forest. Anyway, I digress. I haven't tried every scent known to human kind so I cannot make claims like "wow! this is so unique!" but from the few hundred that I have either owned or sampled over the years I don't think I have come across one quite like this. Not to everyone's taste perhaps but for me this is special and has more than earned a place in my autumn fragrance wardrobe.

I'm not sure where it takes its inspiration from, but while I respect each and every opinion, I totally disagree that this one has been "made to put something on the table during exhibitions", or that "it is a crowdpleaser targeting mainstream crowds". What I get is a lot of resins (frankincense on top, and also probably opoponax, tolu balsam and possibly elemi), with a noticeable cedar note, and a guaiac wood note in the background. I also get some sweetness, probably the patchouli with vanilla support. A dark but warm fragrance. While this one is definitely placed on the woody/resinous/incensy shelf as other ones previously cited by other commenters (Nasomatto BA, Gucci IO...), sating that it's "similar" just doesn't make sense. Indeed, at that point, it would also be fair to specify that Nasomatto BA, Gucci IO and Carner Cuirs had tenths of fragrances preceeding them to use similar notes: but that's not enough to make them similar. Although I agree to say that the latter 3 shares similarities, I think that Piguet Bois Noir is pretty different compared to these and brings a noticeable originality to that shelf. Not to talk about price, that (for a 100ml equivalent) currently costs - in the best case online - : BA $400, IO $130, Cuirs $150, while I got Piguet BN for just $45 shipped on amazon... A big winner here, and different enough from other frags in the "same category" to have convinced me to pull the trigger. Thank you Robert! Fall/Winter evenings, 25+

It is very nice. It is also very similar to Cuirs by Carner Barcelona, Private Label by Jovoy Paris and a milder version of Black Afgano by Nasomatto. And considering from my relatively limited ventures and exploration of different perfumes, niche ranges, samples etc that I can already off the top of my head name 3 other scents that smell similar it certainly doesn't feel original. I don't know which came first, or which others smell similar, but for me I would be happy with any 1 of those 4 scents in my wardrobe but don't feel any need to have them all as they are so similar to me. I guess it would depend on what order you came to these scents, if this was the first I had smelled of its kind I would be deep in love and pricing it up right now, not writing this. That said for all its likeness to other scents this is a very lovely scent and one I love, but I do feel that it comes in at least 4 different bottles! So, I do love this smell and I do want it, so I guess it will come down to price, longevity and sillage. Basically a really lovely, wearable and relaxing scent, I am female and don't feel at all uncomfortable with any of these kind of scents so unisex for sure. Well worth a try if you like this kind of thing, but if you have any of the others you probably don't need this.

Great review from chromatic...says it all really! I tried it and I have to say I really loved it but it's very similar to other fragrances I like, super woody and full of incense...and unfortunately not very original in its approach. But who cares? It smells wonderful! I will buy this fragrance because it's so wearable has great sillage and longevity, also it's not a well known brand and is something different for the collector, quite reasonably priced too for a high quality fragrance. Smells great this one people. Update: Ha! well I never! Didn't really look at the notes in this one and there's no incense to be found.

Great fragrance, great name, great bottle. All three of these elements combine for the experience- a resinous, dark, smokey excursion into a dusky autumn forest. The smell of chimney smoke and crisp air with living and decaying trees of all kinds envelop you with long lasting yet close-laying sillage. Evocative and linear. As others have said, this is a niche scent at a designer price. It’s hardly a mass appealing affair- I believe most casual fragrance wearers would find it too dry and resinous. No, this is a great one if you like woody, smokey, balsamic stuff.

This is a great woody, smoky, incense and powdery scent. Kind of reminds me of Laudano Nero by Tiziana Terenzi. It is not as woody as you might think by looking at the note pyramid, instead I kind of get an amber vibe. This scent leans masculine, but can be pulled off by a woman as well. This does not remind me of anything in my collection so I think the scent is unique. Would recommend this for men 25 years old + and would fit in the fall and winter. Rating: Scent: 8/10 Performance: 8/10 Versatility: 6/10 Quality: 9/10

Smokey, tarred, resinous, campfire effect but still uplifting and "fresh" because of the fir and clean, almost lemony incense. Good balance of heavy, glossy, polished dark woods and a lighter kind of forest "air" effect. This has niche intensity and "edge" but the polish of a grand old French perfume house, so basically it's exactly what I like. Mr. Guichard is now one of my most favorite perfumers, can't wait to try some more recent works from him!

Just two things: 1) Bois Noir was the original name of Egoiste (before it was Egoiste) and then it was a CHANEL Exclsif AND 2) Who on earth clicked LIKE when it is not even being launched until Exsense in Milan later this Spring?!?! *shakes head* WANT is one thing, (I clicked want for this and Casbah already) but LIKE (to me anyway) means you have sniffed it and don't hate it but don't quite love it...but that is just me

I've got poor both longevity and sillage. For the first 2 hours everything is ok, but after that it subsides and becomes skin scent. As it's fairly new fragrance there couldnt be any reformulation. Who of the owners does have the same problem? Maybe it have to be settled for several months or so...

Bois noir is like a magic potion for me , i tried it , i didnt know how much i will fall in love with it until it dried down . It sould me Bois Magic or Magie de bois , since it is one of the best wood presentation in a bottle . it is woody yet i find it fresh and mood lifter .

This is a gloriously beautiful fragrance and according to Piguet's Simon Waddell is Aurelien Guichard's personal favorite of the fragrances he's created for Piguet. I cannot recommend sniffing this dark woody fragrance enough.

I like this one a lot. Its the cousin of 'Casbah' and it wasnt untilnthe drydown that I accepted that it actually was a different fragrance.

Considering Robert Piguet's 'Oud' as one of my favourite fragrances, I was dying to test 'Bois Noir' since both of these have been noted to have similarities. So I dragged myself to Harrod's on the tube in this unbearable heat we have been experiencing in London; probably not the best time to try out a scent that has been recommended for the cooler months. A very friendly member of staff who did not work for the brand insisted I try 'Casbah' instead for that smoky, "church incense" feel, and handed it to me on a card. I did not like it. Even now, 24 hours later, the scent on the blotter is a lot nicer, but still too dry and green for my personal taste. I find such scents to give off a mature or herbal medicine clinic vibe. I prefer my base notes warm, resinous, and with some sweetness for comfort. 'Bois Noir' opens how 'Casbah' appears to dry down, with that dry, green cedar and vintage, earthy woods that seemed to carry itself for quite a while on my skin, and for around a good 8 hours on the blotter. I have a block of cedarwood bark that I picked up in Morocco, and a huge jar of dried vetiver root that I use to make stock for yakhni pulaos. Both have an invigorating effect to my nose, with the smoky cedar smelling tar-like but somewhat citrusy like dried Omani limes, and the powdery vetiver root having a bright, lime-y sandalwood quality (I understand that 'Bois Noir' does not contain vetiver, but 'Casbah' does, for comparison). Within a few minutes, I was back outside on the busy street under the hot sun, sniffing my arms and my blotters as I walked to Sloane Square station to catch the District Line. Suddenly, the sharp woods morphed into a very warm and almost gourmand sandalwood, comforting and delicately spiced, reminiscent of Chanel's cinnamony Egoiste, though this could have been down to the heat on my skin, because the blotter still smelled markedly green and mossy with its earthy woods. 'Casbah', on the other hand, was starting to remind me of béchamel sauce on the blotter, with that piercing nutmeg and black pepper combination along with a dry and scratchy vegetal note that made me think of citronella and vetiver grass incense. When I finally got home I was able to appreciate why 'Bois Noir' has been compared to 'Oud'. It was bouncing around all over the gaff! From my arms to the blotter on the table, the wind blowing in from the wide opened windows carried a medley of scents around the room that transformed, sang solo, and then came together to harmonise for an interesting, beautiful, and nostalgic fragrance. Where 'Oud' has that invigorating, camphorous fir balsam flashing at intervals to punctuate the back and forth between wet, heady florals and creamy, animalic woods, 'Bois Noir' uses the cedar in the same way. Except here, the cedar provides a smokiness and earthiness to balance a fragrance that dries down to a gorgeously opulent, plummy amber. It takes me back to when Prada's original 'Amber' fragrance was first launched in 2004, and of the damp and creamy way 'Oud' opens. These, thankfully, are the notes that remain most intensively on my skin. On clothes and on paper, 'Bois Noir' manages to retain a dark and mysterious, ecclesiastical incense note that comes marginally close to the original 'Gucci Pour Homme' that I used to love so much. It's like I am wearing three or more fragrances together that have combined by expertly weaving themselves into this unique and intoxicating blend. Both 'Oud' and 'Bois Noir' are ultimately dark, magical, and deeply evocative fragrances.

I've sat with this for a few days now and I'm pretty sure I dislike it. The opening is ferociously potent and bitter, then it immediately settles down to almost a skin scent. It's a dark, inky, bitter wood-centric fragrance that turns into something darkly fruity. It's not in the notes but I'm pretty sure there is a plum accord in this. It's reminiscent of the plum accord featured in Chambre Noire by Olfactive Studio. This time in a more bitter woody context. I have a particular dislike for Chambre Noire, and I think plum notes in general. The other thing Bois Noir reminds me of is herbal tinctures like tincture of valerian root, or a bitter, dry digestif liqueur like Unicum Bitters or Becherovka. If you haven't tried those, think Jagermëister but far more bitter and dry. I'd be curious to hear if others pick up the plum note I've identified. I'll probably be selling it. Update: I never sold this though I still might and decided to try a couple of sprays to remind myself why I don't 100% like this. Two things became clear that I hadn't articulated before. The first big one is that part of what I dislike about this is definitely the sandalwood, which goes pickle-ish in the opening and drifts in and out. The other is that the guaic wood is the source of the other aspect I dislike. That bitter smokey headache inducing part. I am more familiar with different chemicals now and this guaic wood is one that seems to always give me a headache. I like the cedar and the dark background with labdanum but the guaic really hangs around despite being an opening note and makes me feel migrainey. I would like this if it didn't do that to me. Very wood centred fragrance with darkness in the background. I'd probably wear it all the time if it didn't give me such a reaction

WOW. Carlitos' review below puts it well. This is a work of forest magic. I can easily imagine this scent permeating Rivendell of LOTR lore. Bois Noir combines a lot of familiar favorite notes for me... that sandalwood from the excellent CK Euphoria Liquid Gold - but without the oddly herbaceous saffron that dominates its opening... that dry and resinous cedar from the legendary GPH and its acclaimed semi-clone Bentley Absolute, but without the powdery side effect... the incense accord (guaiac/labdanum/resin/patch) that combines a smoldering but not quite burnt church incense like and an evergreen forest floor... all of that, plus a warmth and roundness I don't get from any of the above. For me, this checks all the right boxes for a dry but approachable woodsy/incense fragrance. It's far from a daily driver fragrance, but it absolutely excels at what it does. Fantastic and manly AF. On the mature side (35+) for men who "have their shit together and haven't forgotten where they put it." Definitely best for cooler days or a special night out. Or if you're safely quarantining at home where no one judges you for sniffing your arm repetitively... As temperatures start dropping this fall, I'm looking forward to layering this gem with the likes of By the Fireplace or Raghba Wood Intense, for just a touch of smoky sweetness. Can't go wrong.

After revisiting this one, I feel compelled to strongly contradict my earlier assessment of Bois Noir, for the sake of honest discourse. Long story short, I am finding that I like it much more in the air than I do on myself... Although it still holds true that there is some wonderful woody magic going on in this one, I feel it's sorely missing a softer, sweeter offset to its almost white peppery, dry woodiness. The result is unfortunately redolent (to my nose) of old books, old dusty wooden shelves, and old men. It's austere in a sort of melancholic way, that makes me recall the olfactory memory of uncles and grandfathers whose time were all but passed. It doesn't make me feel happy or energized; just... kind of sad. I really wanted to love this as it is, but alas, I just can't. But I can respect and appreciate it.

A warm woody opening with a smoky undertone. For a brief moment, a spicy black pepper note. Then from the woods I am led into a quiet church; beeswax and incense round out the smoky wood flavour. This stage of development last quite a while; the eventual dry-down retains a lightly sweet note, and the smoky wood is the underlying theme. A lovely woody fragrance that can easily be worn by either men or women.

Mellow, soft, polite, interesting sandalwood. A bit on a creamy sweet side.

Good fragrance, have similarities with black afghano, but doesn’t project