Bois Farine L'Artisan Parfumeur 2003

Bottle Design Federico Restrepo

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7.3 / 10268 Ratings

Bois Farine is a perfume by L'Artisan Parfumeur for women and men and was released in 2003. The scent is woody-powdery. It is being marketed by Puig. Pronunciation

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Perfumer

Jean-Claude Ellena

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Grapefruit Fennel seed
Heart Notes	Iris Ambrette seed Wheat Grain
Base Notes	Benzoin Gaiac wood Sandalwood Cedarwood

Ratings

Scent

7.3268 Ratings

Longevity

7.0207 Ratings

Sillage

5.7194 Ratings

Bottle

7.8178 Ratings

Value for money

6.920 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 06.03.2022.

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Reviews

08/04/2021

WildGardener
301 Reviews

WildGardener

Jardin de la réunion

Bois Farine is inspired by a tree which grows on the isle of Réunion. It's an ironic name because Réunion, which means meeting, is six hundred miles off Madagascar; not so handy for meetings then...
But that’s where Jean-Claude Ellena went to sniff the flowers of the tree, which apparently smell like flour.

The perfume is light and powdery-woody but it has a depth, a heft - which l’Artisan call pastry and hazelnuts – and which gives it a real charm. There's the almond smell of marzipan, as well as a kind of soft woodiness along with the flour - which I don't quite get as much as bitter oily-powdery-doughiness. It’s quite honeyed - fruity, and with fig leaf.

This may have been new in 2003 but its quite familiar today, the powdery-woody core of the scent has been copied many times; and - lets face it - it's a great idea and a good base for development.
Its made with ambroxan, and probably Iso E Super, so these days it would be a no brainer : start with the core of this for a light woody scent with powdery hints, and then take it in a masculine or feminine direction - as required.

But, coming back to our scent, it’s a good piece of work, imaginative; and it conforms - in the best possible way - to the old adage KISS : keep it simple stupid. A simple
harmony, filigreed with bitter-sweet contrast.

But for me it gets a bit sticky later on; insistent. In fact, the base reminds me of Jardin en Méditerranée; which Ellena wrote the same year, and has the same kind of fault at the end, too heavy.

03/01/2021

8
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage 8
Bottle 7
Pricing

Vrabec

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Vrabec

Very helpful Review 10

En Voyage chez l'Artisan Parfumeur:18 - The Light Wood' Fascettes

Jean-Claude Ellena has created 5 fragrances for the house of L'Artisan Parfumeur, 4 of which I am familiar with. This one reminds me most of other fragrances of his, in fact most of the Un Jardin range. Not because it smells similar, but because it's such a mildly composed fragrance that doesn't take an epic course and yet creates such diverse images, while at the same time flaunting its individual ingredients side by side without being able to clearly delineate them from each other.

Classic "woody" men's fragrances I often find boring, this woody smell is for me at most a good base. Here it looks quite different.
Because here wood shows itself in unexpected Fascetten, almost in all possible, at least the "light woody".

The top note is brilliant. I smell here mostly sesame, here it will be the fennel seed. Sweet, crisp, dry, the scent hits almost gourmand lines. Add to that a cool woody note, I think I smell cashmeran. Whether this was used at the time would be intriguing to know. This is joined by a finely ground hazelnut, as well as the surface of a dry, smooth chestnut.
Wood shows itself here so multilayered, but always authentic. Between dry rabbit litter and freshly planed boards pulls a fresh breeze, decomposed with bitter dust.
And suddenly it turns to gourmand again, a floury wooden board in the bakery where sourdough has been kneaded. Long dried marzipan lies on top of the shelf, wood what dries at the oven to fire it later. Now and then the cool scent pushes through, I think of water splashing from a mountain stream into a trough on an alpine pasture. The sun in the bright blue sky is reflected in it, the air is cutting clear.
I would like to bring Nord du Nord by Wiener Blut comparatively, which I think smells similar, but only captures this one cool side.
And between all that warm sweet musk. Thoughts of wet clay and fresh laundry alternate. Then again a green deciduous forest, dense undergrowth, dense bushes. Bois Farine is really an interplay of assozoationen.

In all the haunting Bois Farine remains one thing andzwar always bright. All kinds of thoughts and Bildet are light nature, dark wood, gloomy heaviness is not found here. And that's good.
Exactly how I imagine niche fragrances. Spectacular andes and still smelling decidedly good.

Thank you for reading my comment

6 Replies

02/19/2021

8.5
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage 9
Bottle

Gandix

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Gandix

Top Review 37

The girl and her brothers

Once she belonged to a group of jugglers and witches She was prettier than all the rest
and her father and brothers spoiled her rotten.
But she was never conceited no, she had a soft heart,
soft, like the fur of a rabbit.
Her mother had long since passed away,
and so it came to pass that one day her father
took one of the witches as his wife This one was abysmally wicked and eaten up with envy.
So she also could not bear
sharing her husband's attention with the children.
She cursed the children.
The sons became cedar, chestnut and hazelnut.
But with the girl the spell failed
because of her soft heart.
She did not become fennel,
but only wore instead of the feet
a bulb on her legs.
Thus she was outcast in the forest with her enchanted brothers.
Hunting was out of the question because of the tuber.
She subsisted for the first few years on the grains of wheat,
that birds dropped.
As the years passed, her brothers grew into stately trees,
and shared their fruit with their sister.
From the boughs of the cedar she carved herself a bench,
the hazelnuts she ground into flour,
which she formed into patties with water and honey from bees.
The chestnuts she roasted over the fire.

So many years went by.
Every seven years, on the day of their transformation,
the brothers took on their human form,
and the siblings could embrace and enjoy each other.
But the girl had grown up among the witches and knew.. there was, of course, a counterspell.
The clearing in the forest was the luck that came to her aid.
For everywhere in that clearing grew deep blue irises.
These she had to flatten, dry, and from them
Knit shirts for all 4 siblings.
These then in a 7.year on the day of her transformation overdraw.
7 x 7 years passed,
until the 4 shirts were finished.
The girl's hands were maimed from the hard work.
But then she had finished them all.
On that very day, a troop of soldiers came by
and wanted to take the girl with them.
She fought back with all her might,
quickly slipped into her shirt,
and threw the other three over the trees There was dead silence,
when suddenly the 3 boys stood before the soldiers.
They had not aged a year.
The girl also shone in her full beauty.
Only Brother Cedar's shirt had lost a sleeve in the fight,
and so on his left side, instead of an arm, hung a branch.
The soldiers took the brothers and sisters to the city
and they led a happy life.
Brother Cedar retired to a monastery, never quite able to come to terms with his handicap
and the years of being an outcast.

( loosely based on the fairy tale the 7 swans)

This nutty-mealy-woody scent has a very delicate and quiet effect on me, like years of silence and loneliness.
Like a meditation, beautiful.

33 Replies

01/08/2019

8
Scent 6
Longevity 4
Sillage 6
Bottle

StellaDiverF
213 Reviews

StellaDiverF

Eccentric Woody Gourmand

The opening of Bois Fariné definitely reminds me of some bread or cakes that I smelt before. I don't think it smells like peanut butter or nutella on me. I just can't put my finger on it! (What on earth is it? It's driving me crazy! Grrrrrr....... =A=)

After about 3 or 4 hours, the benzoin loses its power on the fragrance. The sandalwoods and other woodsy notes become more prominent. The scent also turns slightly sour on me. The powdery aspect is noticeable but not aggressive.

The sillage is soft but the scent stays solid along the wearing. The longevity is around 6 hours on me. Actually, Bois Fariné doesn't evoke much emotion to me. I'm attracted by the scent itself as it smells just so interesting and addictive. It definitely worths at least a try!

11/13/2018

6
Scent 8
Longevity 7
Sillage 7
Bottle

Nofretete

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Nofretete

Top Review 17

Journey to the land of the baker's flower

Bois farine begins surprisingly, even overwhelmingly. It smells penetratingly of damp flour, a little later of popcorn, fat-free and slightly salted, with a mineral, earthy note of wet clay fragments. Original is that undoubtedly, but portable or pleasant?

With time, the flour note becomes austere and stale, pressing it lies on the central floral chord. Dark iris root is accompanied by marzipan heliotrope, at the same time flowery light and powdery heavy. Gradually the cereal muffle gives way, finally letting the beautiful floweriness come to the fore. As a contrast to the violent opening, the fragrance ends gently and flatteringly. The velvety, sweet benzoe-guaiac wood mixture is covered with a hint of light flowers until the end.

Who doesn't like to indulge in travel memories! Mr. Ellena created a perfume from his impressions of the island state La Réunion with its exotic vegetation and the French-influenced Creole culture. With Bois Farine he has set a monument to the endemic flour blossom tree, which almost died out at the turn of the millennium, and created an unusual fragrance work of art.

Nevertheless I would rather look at photos of La Réunion and eat a pastry instead of perfuming myself with flour pollen. Or rather: travel there yourself and smell these extraordinary tree blossoms in the Botanical Garden.

15 Replies

04/30/2018

9
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 7
Bottle

Augusto

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Augusto

Top Review 15

Painted blossom powder plant

AugustA had expected something completely unusual, something bulky, very strange (always positive for me) on the border to the unwearable What I get when spraying on is: roasted flour, iris powder with a slight sweetness of bread transformed into energy - quite prosaically also called starch, yes, indeed. And it smells good, not sour or after dinner with tired faces. The fact that it is outside the scope of cosmetics is the strength of the fragrance. Trust and fragrance is spreading. But also slight astonishment. With today's flood of gourmand, no one finds food in a fragrance strange anymore, but this fragrance has a special and different scent than the well-known iris elegance.

Slightly fresh and spicy with the fennel seed at the beginning, then roasted cereals in the transition to the heart note, but all with the woody florality of the iris - in the end it is once again an iris scent that convinces me.

The woods mentioned for the base are interwoven with these facets, do not become too harsh, yet have some edge, but also sweetness. Guaiac and sandalwood are often sweetish to me, benzoin anyway, dryness from the cedar, which goes well with the flour dust, but adds some light freshness.

So the perfumer found a plant on one of his travels whose flowers smell of flour. Ruizia Cordata, the plant with the red flowers, comes from the island of Réunion. It is reflected in the fragrance as an image - a powdered flour plant. Lightly flavoured and better tolerated with a little fresh fennel. Smells very good and is extremely portable! Not obtrusive - an Ellena would never be like that - consistently beautiful, pictorially it always brings itself to mind. You smell with every breath. Every breath a colour, a brushstroke. Just as this perfumer always paints with the scents for my senses. Not cosmetics. It's the big picture. You're the perfume when you wear it. Art, yes, a work of art
Shelf life approx. 6 hours, Sillage low, but noticeable. A very nice scent!

3 Replies

05/01/2014

1
Scent 5
Longevity 2.5
Sillage 5
Bottle

WRoth
153 Reviews

WRoth

Bois Farine

This fragrance starts with an accord that smells like flour, salt and nuts. It is rather dry and indeed reminiscent of peanut butter. As the fragrance progresses the woodsy notes appear, mainly sandalwood with a dash of iris to make it more creamy-powdery and peppery cedar wood. Once its has reached this stage, the fragrance stays the same until fades. I have to say this is a really odd wood fragrance unlike most others I have encountered.

02/09/2013

10
Scent

TeaWithMilk
27 Reviews

TeaWithMilk

Helpful Review 4

Palo Santo Sticks

I love palo santo, or "holy wood," and I have a lot of the raw wood as well as the pure essential oil. It is difficult to describe the scent of it, but I will try. It's definitely woody; but not dark like oud. It's naturally sweet only to the extent that it's not bitter or dry like cedar or birch. It smells a bit creamy and smoky too, although these attributes are subtle.

Bois Farine, my friends, is not farine at all. It's pure palo santo in a bottle. Ok there might be a few extra notes, like some powdery florals, but all in all, this is nearly identical to my palo santo wood and oil. I never thought I would be able to find this wood so prominently in any perfume, so I am thrilled to have found Bois Farine.

SUMMARY: Holy moly, this wood is good

2 Replies

01/26/2013

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Helpful Review 5

not the skin scent i was looking for

I've been thinking about how I'd write about Bois Farine. It's novel, it's interesting in light of Ellena's other work. It's got a hefty dose of that jolie-laide thing that made whole eras (80s) and genres (fruity chypres) of perfumery interesting. Hell, I like it. It drives a herky-jerky line between starched and savory.

I wore it today to a basic life support re-certification class today. As it turns out, we had to demonstrate more than explain today. About 4 minutes into my first round of chest compressions, at the sweat point, I started to smell as if I'd been hiding peanut butter sandwiches under my arms. It was a 3 hour class. I don't think my classmates enjoyed the nouvelle-gourmande experience so much.

2 Replies

02/12/2012

8
Scent 5
Longevity 5
Sillage 10
Bottle

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Helpful Review 2

Flour Implies Baking Implies Mother Implies Safety

Imagine a pile of white flour in the middle of a sawmill that processes dark wood trees into planks to be used to build stable and secure houses in the country that are havens from metropolitan madness. L'Artisan Parfumeur BOIS FARINE smells literally just like that.

I am not one to be seduced by names--I often take issue with them--so I do not believe that my experience of BOIS FARINE is being caused by my belief that this edt should smell, as advertised, like "woods of flour" or "flour forest" or "woody flour". And yet it does!

This is a comfort scent, to be sure. A warm woody unisex linear that imparts a sense of protection. The flour note (not listed, but somehow emergently created from other components...) manages to subliminally evoke the image of a big baking kitchen in which white flour abounds. Flour implies baking implies mother implies safety.

Yes, BOIS FARINE really is a warm, woody, flour-y comfort scent that would appeal to men and women alike. No need to chain your doors!

Show all reviews 11