Un bois vanille Serge Lutens 2003

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7.6 / 10533 Ratings

Un bois vanille is a popular perfume by Serge Lutens for women and men and was released in 2003. The scent is gourmand-sweet. The longevity is above-average. It is still available to purchase. Pronunciation

Scent goes well with Sycomore (2008) (Eau de Toilette)

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Perfumers

Christopher Sheldrake, Serge Lutens

Fragrance Notes

Beeswax

Bitter almond

Gaiac wood
Benzoin

Benzoin

Coconut milk

Sandalwood

Glycyrrhiza glabra

Tonka bean

Vanilla absolute

Ratings

Scent

7.6533 Ratings

Longevity

8.3411 Ratings

Sillage

7.2398 Ratings

Bottle

7.7374 Ratings

Value for money

7.639 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 12.10.2021.

Interesting Facts

In 2006 a limited bottle collection, "Les Fauves Royaux", was released, attaching the design Gazelle to this scent.

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Reviews

09/08/2021

9.5
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 5
Bottle

DarioArgento

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DarioArgento

Very helpful Review 10

My vanilla reference!

The market gives yes a lot here, what vanilla fragrances.

Whether now plump vanilla aroma a`la Dr. Oetker or the countless variations in the form of custard cream, muffins, cookies etc. etc.

Quite a few of them I also have, even if one would like to attribute vanilla as a fragrance superficially rather the ladies.
Fortunately, we are as a society but now more diverse and so speaks times nix against wearing a vanilla-like fragrance even as a man.
Of course, also applies here: The total package must be right.

And that is true with "Un Bois Vanille" by Serge Lutens but times so of.

Fortunately, one has distanced himself with this perfume from over-sugared nonsense.
The result is a remarkably fresh composition that can not and will not hide its vanilla-heavy undertone.

If you read the ingredients of the fragrance pyramid, you might think here to have a children's perfume in front of you. Fortunately, this is not so.

Fine-tuned are the individual components, even if I do not want to claim all herauszuriechen. Just with the bitter almond I do myself hard, because marzipanig the fragrance now truly does not seem.

But you can sniff a lot of fresh coconut water. Coconut milk I define rather sweet / creamy. The coconut note recognizable here I consider fresh green-watery.

And here is, in my opinion, the crux, which distinguishes "Un Bois Vanille" from most other vanilla fragrances.

Of course, many many people like gourmand sweet vanilla. Me too...up to a point.

This is where Serge Lutens distances himself from most others and has created a wonderful fragrance that I think fits any season.
It doesn't smother you with sweetness in the summer, it's still cozy enough for colder days.

For me, "Un Bois Vanille" is an all-season unisex fragrance at its best.
Clearly, this is my new reference as far as vanilla fragrances are concerned.

The durability is class, the sillage as well.
A Layerbiest is the fragrance also yet. Depending on what one the sense stands, he is grateful host for a number of fragrances (ideally single note fragrances).
I am in the happy situation a huge "Library of Fragrance" library to own and so I stand times the sense of Barbados Cherry, Neroli, Hibiscus, Cranberry etc.

Currently, the perfume in combination with "Neroli Intense" is my favorite.
The two complement each other fantastically, especially with the current warm temperatures close to 28°.

But that's all optional and not necessary, since Serge Lutens "Un Bois Vanille" also does what it's supposed to do on its own: Smell damn good!!!

I wish you a fragrant day :)

1 Replies

01/16/2020

8
Scent 9
Longevity 10
Sillage 5
Bottle 6
Pricing

RedVanilla

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RedVanilla

Very helpful Review 8

Mr. Vanilla is burning his fingers!

Mr. Vanilla is clearly the king here, but cannot escape fast enough before Mrs. Caramel comes around the corner with the lighter. There are many similar gourmand fragrances, but as with most things: It's the dosage that counts. When many intense gourmand fragrances compete with each other, it often turns into a sweet sugar pudding
Un bois Vanille is designed differently here. The different fragrances do not compete for supremacy, but harmonize and support each other to create an extraordinary scent, which for me goes in the direction of delicious roasted almonds. Although this fragrance mixture should rather be classified under the heading dessert, its harmonious scent makes it wearable throughout all seasons.

I would definitely recommend this scent to other gourmand despisers for testing. Maybe you'll get the "taste".

2 Replies

12/30/2019

4
Scent 7
Longevity 4
Bottle

Finchen1976

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Finchen1976

Very helpful Review 11

Serge, 6, sit!

Well, maybe we agree on a 4-, but only with the niche background knowledge.

Well, let's start, I can already see all lovers crying out in indignation and raging against it. And I've actually driven in such a way that I usually didn't write anything about a fragrance I don't like.
But just yesterday I read in some blog that Parfumo.de is exactly what Parfumo.de is all about and that you have to keep going in the same way that you have other tastes. Perfume is a matter of taste, just like fashion, and that's the way it will stay. And actually, I would like to communicate that here as well. :-)

Of course I came across this scent at Parfümlein's Vanilla Challenge and thought, it CAN't hurt and has to be nice. Bottle ordered from a very dear perfume, mail came, sprayed like a child at Christmas and...WTF????????!!!!!!! Maggi...?! Eater tilted? BUÄHHHHH, nothing sweet, nothing vanilla, maybe a little bit, in the finish beeswax with Maggi.
I wrote a short note to the dear Parfumo, if he would be so kind to just test by himself if it is tilted. He did that too (THANK YOU again for your patience! *g*), no, it's flawless, and actually not a pure vanilla scent either. According to the list of ingredients I had to take a closer look now. Okay, not Maggi, but caramelized benzoin with licorice. Yeah, well, burned licorice. Okay, right.
And in the finish, if you don't exaggerate it, in any case a lot of beeswax, which slowly burns away. But almost no vanilla. If she wasn't listed, I wouldn't have recognized her.

Well, work of art and niche or not - I think of perfume as a great winemaker on the Moselle once told us: "A good wine is not the one that is expensive or has exquisite ingredients. A good wine is the one you like!"
Right! Just like perfume. Expensive or cheap, everyone has to know for himself where his pain threshold lies, but this scent here is like in German lessons, the universally hated interpretations: completely missed the point for teacher Mrs Finchen. And the interpretations always depended on the teachers, you never knew if it would work or not with the good grade. ;-)

The scent is quite durable, but this is always the case with scents that you don't like. ^^
(I took the scent with me to a little sit-in on Saturday for testing, the men and my girlfriend also found it horrible. *g*)

Sillage no idea, bottle not beautiful (seen from the pictures). Could be regular bath products in there. ^^ Well.

Now tar and feather me! :-)

11 Replies

12/22/2019

10
Scent 8
Longevity 7
Sillage 5
Bottle

Parfümlein

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Parfümlein

Very helpful Review 3

Challenge in Advent: On the way to "my" vanilla scent - December 21, 2019

I tested "Un bois vanille" in my niche perfumery some time ago and was immediately enchanted! In the beginning the full sweetness, which later dissolves completely in the wonderful harmony of beeswax and vanilla - I liked that so much that I had to buy a bottle, a big one with 100 ml. I've never regretted it so far. Yesterday I was allowed to use it for the first time in my Advent test and am still completely in love with the incredible warmth created by the beeswax and vanilla. Beeswax is now really quite different from honey, quite unsweet, but incredibly warm and deep. The other fragrances are not for me to determine in detail after so much testing, but they provide the wonderful sweetness at the beginning: It does not remain on the surface, but appears - through the many individual components, I suspect - three-dimensional deep. A wonderful invitation to enjoy precious abundance. I don't think the Sillage is very strong, so there is really only one thing I find wrong with the scent: I really don't like the bottle, I don't find the design appealing at all, it seems to me like it's from the seventies and doesn't meet the little voice that calls for external luxury for the price. Apart from that, "Un bois vanille" is a dream scent for me, which enchants me especially with its initial sweetness, which then slides into less sweet, warm beeswax vanilla.
I'll get right on "Vanilla extrème" by CSP.

10/02/2019

10
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage 4
Bottle

Tanja32

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Tanja32

Helpful Review 11

Magic

Autumn is here and I'm looking for a cuddly perfume. I find Un bois vanilla in my rehearsals. Serge Lutens isn't my first choice, but I'm giving the fragrance a chance. I spray up and immediately find myself in another place, I am in a forest of vanilla. The fragrance is sweet but not sugary. No pastries, no cakes. This is the roasted version, but after some time the woody notes predominate. The fragrance is very exquisite, intoxicating and magical, for me a perfect fragrance for this season

07/13/2018

8
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 6
Bottle

Mantus

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Mantus

Very helpful Review 6

Body milk

At first you can perceive a very fine, sweet - creamy exotic note which looks like a light noble body milk and is due to the coconut milk.

The coconut milk is accompanied by a pleasant light - powdery almond nuance, which is responsible for the fact that the coconut milk appears very minimally viscous, even pithy and comes from the bitter almond.

A little later the "Bodymilch" is refined with the finest beeswax, which gives the fragrance something devoted and not at all waxy, but appears to me like pure blossom honey.

In the course of time a sweetish touch of Bulgarian roses is added, which bring a very soft and warm woody touch, which gives the fragrance a very beautiful deep cuddly femininity and stems from the guaiac wood.

In the last 3 hours vanilla - absolute, caramelised benzoin and tonka bean melt into an incredibly creamy, very smooth and lulling vanilla cream brûlée.

Sandalwood and liquorice I couldn't see, but I can imagine very well that these two notes were used to complete the music.

Un bois vanilla is a great companion in the spring, autumn and winter months for women aged 25 and over who are looking for a sweet, creamy, gourmand scent that looks like a fine body milk
In total, the fragrance lasts 7 hours on my skin.

The Sillage is conceived from the outset in such a way that one is perceived clearly at one arm's length and this is also maintained 3.5 hours in such a way, before it reduces itself in quiet steps, until the smell finally completely fades away
I would like to express my sincere thanks to our perfume "Cocinera" for the sample.

07/15/2016

9
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage

Fluxit
19 Reviews

Fluxit

Very helpful Review 6

Date with vanilla and liquorice

This spring, I've been meandering with a first date through our charming city. We had happened to talk about perfumes and that was just at the time when my interest in fragrances had exploded. So we figured that we could just as well visit a local perfume shop and, why not, test some scents to let them get rated by the other. In German, the expression "being able to smell someone" actually means "being attracted to that person". So a pretty good double meaning for a first date, heh. And in the worst case, it this event could serve as conversation starter to break any awkward silence.
Straight ahead: My date didn't like Un bois vanille. Too sweet. I didn't contradict her, not because of good mood's sake, but because she was right. It IS a sweet scent, sticky fun fair sweet. Yet, I took great interest into my wrist that the sales agent - to my horror - had sprayed until it was wet, way more liberally than I'd ever apply perfume, let alone new ones.
Time lapse: City tour, cake, ciaaao date, returning home in the rain. On the next day, I sprinkled a tiny amount of a new Hermes test fragrance on my arm and was disappointed from the start. However, when I arrived at the office and took off my jacket, a soft fat vanillaliquorice-cat jumped into my face, snuggled its fluffy fur into my face and purred "TAKE ME, I SMELL GORGEOUS, PET ME!", causing me to call the parfumo site in an excited close-to-panic state to look for the content of the Un Jardin sur le Nil of this morning ... until I realized that I was sniffing at the "wrong" side: I hadn't sprayed this wrist today. And it came to my mind that the sleeve of my jacket had secretly swallowed the Serge Lutens, just to lick it onto my wrist again on my way to work. In my mind, I mumbled a silent sorry to the generously spraying agent from the shop and now it's standing in front of me, my first flacon here that I had acquired through friendly Souk contact - then again, everyone seems to be friendly here somehow ;)

So how does it smell? What I believe to recognize is a subtly tart, not exactly sour liquorice that a relaxed vanille puts to rest in a slightly bitter, smoky bed of bee wax. Would I recognize that without the note pyramid? I don't think so. As stated, Un bois vanille is expressively sweet, but not just that. There are sufficient extra ingredients that give it depth and an enjoyable tension. Yes, extra, they leave the soft sugary character intact and extend it. Yet, or maybe for that reason, the fragrance is unisex for me, assuming that sweet gourmands float your boat; a classic scent for the office this is not, though. In addition, it has enough breath to last a day and leave some traces of fur on my office neighbour's desk, yet another reason to take this expressive pet out in the evening instead. One shot is enough, for me and my environment.

I rarely comment flacons, but I was positively surprised when I unpacked the bottle. Mine came not with the round cap, but the cylindric one like on some of the photos below. For me, that suits the slim elegant flacon design extremely well, going along with the modest colour and the beautifully serifed font. A noble appearance that works better in reality than on the photographs.

By the way, I didn't date the girl again. But the scent has been much sweeter anway ;)
__________
Two additions for this .net translation:
- In German, we differentiate between liquorice as the black sticky candy ("Lakritz") and the sweet root that's used for its production ("Süßholz"). While some people find that those two smell / taste alike, I find them to be fairly different. For this scent, it's hard for me to say if I should refer to the root or rather to the candy. It's blended very well and somewhere in between.
- I wrote the German review some months ago. By now, I can say that I rarely use Un bois vanille. It's thick, heavy and sweet, not many occasions call for that, especially in Summer. But once in a while, I spray it on and even if it's just before going to bed, it brings a happy smile to my face.

06/14/2016

7.5
Scent 8
Longevity 7
Sillage 8
Bottle

Daisyvision
90 Reviews

Daisyvision

Rather linear, waxy vanilla

Pleasant.. but expensive for what it is. A very soft, sweet, and creamy vanilla with a resinous, waxy quality that makes you wish you could sink your teeth into it. Though it's unique and I haven't smelled anything quite like it.. it doesn't particularly call out to me, or coerce me into buying a bottle. Gourmand lovers would probably feel differently, however.

05/01/2014

8
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 8
Bottle

Fanny
66 Reviews

Fanny

Helpful Review 5

Smokey Boozed Vanilla

This is vanilla, almost drowned by dominant other notes: booze (brandy?), licorice, woods and benzoine.
In the beginning the licorice rules, quickly followed by some boozy note and sharp woods. After that i can clearly detect beeswax.
In about 20 minutes Bois de Vanille becomes a warm black beeswax smokey vanilla with a remote hint of coconut.

Lovely in wintertime, mature and distinctive.
Edit:
In warmer weather the coco is very dominant..!

05/01/2014

5
Scent 5
Longevity 7.5
Sillage 5
Bottle

WRoth
153 Reviews

WRoth

Un Bois Vanille

This fragrance opens with an unusual blend of liquorice and coconut milk. Together the two notes blend into a vanilla-like composition which, however, breaks apart if one concentrates on the notes. As the fragrance progresses, there are moments the notes are at odds with each other and try to dominate one another. This struggle can only be smelled up close, further away the vanilla impression is still intact. I would not describe that particular accord as thoroughly gourmand, because there are instants the fragrance smells soapy and chemical. On my skin this fragrance is rather strong and has great sillage.

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