New Perfume Today!

Today I received a beautiful perfume, from Les Salons Shiseido, in Paris. It's Un Bois Sépia, and it was already in my Wish List for some time. Bought it unsniffed, because I knew I would love it, since I had a wax sample from Les Salons and was quite impressed by the scent. It's been conceived by the genial Serge Lutens (the above website includes a mini-biography) and contains some of my favourite notes:

• Precious woods - cypress, oakmoss, a hint of cedarwood perhaps, and sandalwood for sure...
• Earthy tones - vétiver and patchouli roots...
• Resinous, dark opoponax...
  

It is an almost masculine fragrance, which doesn't bother me at all, since I am not a "flowery" girl when it comes to perfume, favouring oriental or woody, earthy scents instead. Besides, the fragrance I use the most these days is Guerlain's Vétiver, which is a classic man's fragrance (with my beloved vétiver and again some patchouli alright!), so, not surprising...

I think this scent is pretty much related to Shiseido's Feminité du Bois, whose dominant note is cedarwood. This has a delicious, and almost nostalgic smell of colour pencils, a big box of colour pencils, pencil shaves everywhere! However, Un Bois Sépia would be a more discrete, and almost shy version perhaps, not nearly as pungent or strong as Feminité. It doesn't seem to have a very long lasting power by comparison, it simply melts onto your skin, slowly, graciously, a "solitaire" kind of scent, a scent for oneself - almost like an olfactory secret. Adagio.

There is another thing I love about it, which is the name. Un Bois Sépia. Like an old photograph, a distant memory, or something out of a Mishima's book. A tad bit melancholy perhaps, and I like to think it was probably raining on those woods. But I am digressing... It is a wonderful fragrance, subtle, and comfortable. There is also something sweet in the remnant, base notes, probably tonka beans? I am not quite sure, but it looks - or rather smells - like it to me. The tonka beans work as a "fixative" in a perfume, and are quite often found at the base notes. It also provides an almost sweet, nutty and sometimes "smokey" note, that we can sometimes detect in a number of fragrances.

Here is the new acquisition then!



(I received that today but... before you say anything... no, no, no, I did not use that much! Those missing 20ml I have decanted into a spray bottle, for the original one - as you may be able to see here - is a splash, traditional bottle, and I don't want to "harm" the fragrance with the constant skin contact, or even the air of course!)

These are the news for tonight. Need to go now! Good Night!