06/24/2022

WildGardener
322 Reviews

WildGardener
1
Ernest Beaux as artist, Jacques Polge the restorer.
Bois des Îles is a reworking of No5: rose-jasmine, iris, muguet & ylang-ylang, floating on a soft cloud of sandal, which overtops the vetiver. The heart has been dialled back to give more space to the woods, and the aldehydes are also less evident. On top of this, green verbena-citrus leads the head notes.
In restoring this old formula by Ernest Beaux, Polge leaves traces of his own work; echoes of the cigar box of Antaeus, and Ungaro - which my notes call ‘dense, rich but also snappy [and] despite the edge not very structured, rather baggy.’
It would be nice to smell the original as it was in its prime, but alas that is a lost dream. As it is, what we have now is seen through a glass, hazily.
The record shows that since No5, Beaux had composed No22, and many number perfumes that have been struck from the catalogue. He composed Cuir de Russie and Gardénia, which were released in 1924, and their success may have galvanised the Wertheimer brothers into action; they bought a controlling stake of Parfums Chanel the following year. If they had hoped for more like those, they would have been disappointed. Chypre, which appeared in 1925 has since disappeared, and the only one of Beaux's subsequent perfumes to remain is this.
I have to say I'm not that impressed with Bois des Îles, it is beautiful - there's no denying that - but it's a rehash of No5; a recycling of old ideas, but without the same focus.
Perhaps this lack of focus is due to this being an old formula - given a modern makeover, like an old painting which has been subtly changed by a restorer who - despite his best efforts - cannot really know what was in the mind of the artist, an artist who likened himself to the 'damned poet' of Baudelaire.*
[* Cf: Son Parfum by Nathalie Beaux]
In restoring this old formula by Ernest Beaux, Polge leaves traces of his own work; echoes of the cigar box of Antaeus, and Ungaro - which my notes call ‘dense, rich but also snappy [and] despite the edge not very structured, rather baggy.’
It would be nice to smell the original as it was in its prime, but alas that is a lost dream. As it is, what we have now is seen through a glass, hazily.
The record shows that since No5, Beaux had composed No22, and many number perfumes that have been struck from the catalogue. He composed Cuir de Russie and Gardénia, which were released in 1924, and their success may have galvanised the Wertheimer brothers into action; they bought a controlling stake of Parfums Chanel the following year. If they had hoped for more like those, they would have been disappointed. Chypre, which appeared in 1925 has since disappeared, and the only one of Beaux's subsequent perfumes to remain is this.
I have to say I'm not that impressed with Bois des Îles, it is beautiful - there's no denying that - but it's a rehash of No5; a recycling of old ideas, but without the same focus.
Perhaps this lack of focus is due to this being an old formula - given a modern makeover, like an old painting which has been subtly changed by a restorer who - despite his best efforts - cannot really know what was in the mind of the artist, an artist who likened himself to the 'damned poet' of Baudelaire.*
[* Cf: Son Parfum by Nathalie Beaux]