Borneo 1834

Well, I'm too damn beaten down by life right now for the usual clowning around and weekly biography (lost another job for NO GOOD DAMN REASON)so I'll stick with the juice. Borneo 1834 is an acceptable substitute for my forbidden alcohol abuse, as it smells like something really really expensive that I'd like to drink instead of something really really expensive that I love to wear. Sort of reminds me of Annick Goutal's SABLES -is there immortelle in there?- opens up with a head clearing blast of patchouli, cigar tobacco, utterly bitter chocolate, and goes on fron there. Seems almost like a lateral scent to me - I don't notice a lot of change or evolution- but my head is so fucked up lateley my sensory perceptions may be a bit out of whack. Whatever. This is GREAT. I can't really see a woman wearing this....but the woman with the personality and style to pull it off would be pretty damn attractive to me - like a woman who looks goo in a Tuxedo...I guess it's the whole Helmut Newton thing, after all, I did sexually come of age in the 1970's ya know. Anyway, it's one of those Lutens that doesn't clobber you over the head with his trademark cedarwood accord - not that I'm knocking that, but in some of his stuff (Cedre and Chypre Rouge, and a few others), it's just, well, almost nauseating. In the case of Cedre, it IS just plain nauseating...the staff at Barney's agree with me. I can't say enough nice things about the perfume staff at Barney's in Boston - when Lutens released Muscs Koublai Khan in the USA, I stopped in at the store (didn't know it was out yet) and the manager had one with my name on it and was distressed because she didn't have my phone number. (Jeanette, if you ever read this, YOU can have my number - or anything else you want - ANY TIME) I also find that this smells great if you spray on the timiest bit of Muscs koublai Khan afterwards - although I usually refrain from mixing my perfumes because the result is usually an unmitigated, hard to wash off disaster. By the way...I'm willing to be friends with any of you out there that do the FACEBOOK thing...just look for the guy with the monocle. (I'm not really a big FACEBOOK kind of guy, but most of my friends who do it are old rock and roll buddies, so a few perfume foolks would be a welcome change...)

One of the thickest SL juices, this is heavy on base notes. Top notes listed here are totally lost on me, including the usually very perceptible cardamom. Upon application I get what others call "chocolate-cacao" but not very convincing for me, accompanied by a Peru balsam(?) note which is somewhat unpleasant-fatty to my nose, some burned sugar and of course the musty top notes from the patchouli only here they are rounder than usual. The overall impression is a contrast between two opposing elements, fatty and boozy, not very far from A-men but smoother and more natural smelling without that harsh pine-like element from Mugler's fragrance that I find repulsive. As the fatty top notes begin to fade, a classical musk foundation starts peeking through and Borneo enters the patchouli-musk-labdanum phase touched with mint which is my favourite. From here it becomes quite linear. The dry down is very pleasant, slightly animalic and honeyed and I also get an impressionist representation of leather. The main body of the perfume is almost monolithic and opaque and yet in the drydown there are hints of a fragile and subtly exotic floralness that help it veer from the stereotypically masculine territory. The projection is fairly discreet but enveloping at the same time (hopefully this makes sense to you). Tenacity on the other hand leaves something to be desired, especially if you take into account the base heavy composition. A liberal application hasn't given me more than 5 hours of wear. With the exception of the beginning, Borneo is not very demanding from its wearer. Sure it differs from the airy and abstract "clean" creations we've become accustomed to but it doesn't take a perfume aficionado to appreciate it for what it is: a very comfortable fragrance of classical sensibilities from quality ingredients that is a pleasure to wear and from what I'm told, down right sexy ;)

I have to agree with some reviews right up; I've been baffled for years as to why Angel would ever compare to this. I've worn Angel so many times trying to find the patch only to be rewarded by cold berries. Some kind of weird berry. I truly cannot stand Angel. But Borneo.... Now Borneo on the other hand is an amazing scent, yes, probably acquired. If you just left your local department store full of fizzy fruity scents, you will be shocked by this one--and unpleasantly jarred. But, given time, you may just come around to this fantastic scent. At first, I get a blast of yes, camphor-chocolate-patch which then settles into 5 minutes later the smell of DIRT, moist, deep, rich. I do not mean skanky dirt--but my kind of dark soil, the kind that grows things, from which large trees and vines come barreling out of the ground. As a gardener, I really love this aspect. But, dirt is not for everyone.... The DIRT merges with the cocoa and the camphor and just radiates patch! Twenty minutes in, I get whiffs of something sweet, something caramel, almost gourmand but again, tinged with soils, and then cardamom comes to the fore. The dustiness that others have mentioned gears up--so, there's both dirt--and dustiness! This stage on me lasts for several lovely, lovely hours. The dry down is a cocoa-amberish-woody somewhat sweet smell. When sprayed on clothes, it lasts for a few days. One final note, I also had the misfortune to spill a small "pool" of it onto my dresser. I did not have the heart to wipe it off--and--I was already doused in the stuff. So, I just let it soak in a bit (what could it hurt?)? Half quickly evaporated, leaving an oily, resinous, stickiness behind. I left it a while for the dust-bunnies. My bedroom weeks later still had little whispers of it. Mmmmmm.....

a diminishing and reticent kind of loneliness. borneo 1834 is a gothic and weighted patchouli with the intensity of bitter chocolate that is far from edible. there is an aromatic and green quality which only accentuates that bitterness, making the fragrance all sorts of unpallatable. the medicinal and astringent facets, however, are what makes borneo so charming. serge lutens has a way of being unflinchingly dark but particularly sweet, but there is no sweetness to be found in this one. my cheek is pressed against the gravel and dirt of a dark and humid cave, with all of the earthy and warm tones that come with it. water drips from stalactites, falling rocks echo through the halls, and my groans of pain never reach the outside world. this fragrance is my most vivid scent memory. turning 21 and buying my first bottle of pinot noir, drenched in this fragrance, i remember the lonely heartbreak and distant introspection as i made sense of coming of age—growing up—in a way i never had done before. processing past grief, understanding unrequited love, swallowing the pill of my future... borneo wafted around these memories like fog. for these reasons, i cannot wear it often anymore without vivid rememberance of these difficult times. during what i now proclaim as the worst year of my life, borneo 1834 was my ward. this fragrance, though challenging, empowers me to fill in the blanks of its many crevases with the idiosyncracies of myself. this, i truly believe, is the reason why i love it so ardently. for, even in my darkest times, borneo allowed me the grace of honesty—however ugly it might be—in the hopes that, soon enough, i may grow out of it. there is no comfort which approximates that from someone—something—who relates.

Borneo 1834 from Serge Lutens, composed by none other than Christopher Sheldrake. One of the most iconic perfumes in the "Patchouli" genre, to which many turn their nose, searching for inspiration. And then again, there are probably a dozen such perfumes in this line, which only speaks volumes to how influential the house of Lutens was, is, and continues to be for the world of perfumery. What strikes me as so brilliant about Borneo 1834 is how Christopher combines the ugly and the beautiful to create the "wearable," culminating with a patchouli composition far from a crowd-pleaser, and yet that won't come across as your average artisanal blend/mash-up. The patchouli accord here verges on the dank, moldy, and earthy side of the spectrum. Then there is some camphor, light touches of booziness, as well as some tobacco. The latter may be just a facet of labdanum, plentiful in the base. So far, it sounds rough and far from palatable. But then there is a heap of velvety, decadent cocoa powder that falls like a dusty layer over the composition, not only completing the facets of the patchouli but improving everything about it. It softens the textures and infuses a mouthwatering quality to the blend. Later, it blends with the cistus to change consistency from dusty to molten dark chocolate. But this is not a gourmand nor a savory perfume. That's what I find so clever about it. Just enough to infuse some charm and smoothen the creases while the rest of the structure will continue to remind the wearer of moldy basements, antique furniture, and dusty old books, with a dash of cocoa to make things more lively, palatable, mysterious, and fun. IG:@memory.of.scents