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Notes04/13/2015
ColinM
516 Reviews
ColinM
Modern "eau de cologne"
An interesting scent; not sure if a “beautiful” one, but interesting. And surely well crafted regardless of personal tastes. First of all, I enjoy the subtle sharp discreetness of Bois Blond; it’s not a thin or unsubstantial scent, on the contrary it is rather thick actually; but at the same time it smells weightless and unobtrusive. It suprises me how it smells powerful and sharp if you get close to it, yet almost unperceivable sillage-wise. Then, it has indeed a “woodier-than-wood” soul, but with a really peculiar and nondescript sort of peppery-watery twist. It’s pungent on one side, but extremely smooth on the other. In a way, just to give some idea about how it smells, it’s an (apparently!) quite conventional woody-to-the-bone scent with fresh and herbal hints, showing some solid roots into the classic masculine fresh “eau de colognes” family – Eau Sauvage, Monsieur Rochas, Signoricci. Sharp pepper-juniper, some citrus, something musky on the base, and a ton of raw, slightly wet, salty wood – both vetiver and cedar. Actually apart from the abovementioned classic colognes, initially for some reasons this reminds also – and somehow, more specifically – of Nina Ricci Phileas from the 1970’s: like a sort of clever, contemporary “synthesis” of some of its essential features. Most of all I get here the same slight yet quite peculiar rusty-metallic-musky-herbal-watery nuance which I get in Phileas too. I am not saying they smell similar; rather, they share that specific and quite unusual feature, which makes Bois Blond particularly enjoyable. It smells classic, slightly exotic in a sort of “vintage” meaning, but with a definite contemporary look. Plus, it has at least a couple of unusual traits which make it distinctive enough: a whiff of licorice (due to vetiver I think, like in vintage Etro Vetiver, which is another reference that came to my mind especially for the drydown) and an overall peculiar “thick-yet-weightless” texture making it light enough to be elegantly discreet, but also keeping a sharp personality. It isn’t the most creative or groundbreaking scent around but it’s definitely solid and worthy a sniff for me.
7-7,5/10
7-7,5/10
