Sherapop
Helpful Review
4
Cartier gets into the "oud" game...
So Cartier has now gotten into the oud game with its latest EAU DE CARTIER flanker, ESSENCE DE BOIS. Having sniffed their approach for the other flankers, involving lots of violet leaf buttressed by...more violet leaf (in the CONCENTREE) or orange (in the ESSENCE D'ORANGE), I was expecting a dusting of wood on top of a vast field of violet leaf.
To my surprise, ESSENCE DE BOIS features more oud than violet leaf, and there are several other contributing notes which together conspire to make this much more than just another EAU DE CARTIER flanker. They really toned down the violet leaf, actually, making the bois elements more dominant, so that I'd call this an independent fragrance from its namesake.
The other reason for regarding ESSENCE DE BOIS as a fragrance in its own right is that it strikes me as heavier than its predecessors: more of a perfume than a cologne. So I agree with those who find this iteration less refreshing, but I myself do not have a problem with the musk in this composition. To me, ESSENCE DE BOIS smells like a pretty decent woody oriental perfume, completely and utterly unisex. Yes, I do believe that the oud is the tame, Westernized version, intended for neophytes, which I am, so to me it smells good! (-;