Boisé Torride is a powerhouse of a fragrance. In some ways it reminds me of Paloma or of Estee Lauder’s Knowing. It starts off with a bang and hours later ends up with a sigh or a whisper.

You have to like patchouli and cedar to love this fragrance. That is where it starts on its journey.

I do.

And this combo takes it a little bit from the sweet patchouli into a more incensy version. The overall effect is not like some of Neil Morris’ fragrances, which I also love, but unique to the vision that Guerlain was reaching for.

It also is not like the sweetness of Gucci by Gucci with the added fruits.

It is called an androgynous fragrance, designed for a woman but to me surely suitable for a man, part of Les Elixirs Charnels series, which also includes Chypre Fatale, Gourmand Coquin, and Oriental Brûlant.

It is translated

smoldering wood, a new opus for femininity

though I think torrid or scorching would be easy translations also. Perhaps it begins as scorching and ends up smoldering. Some like it hot!

Guerlain loves women and has always celebrated their sensuality. A new expression of sensuality now completes this collection of Elixirs Charnels.

To me, there are three distinct stops on this voyage. The first is the initial flare. I used a couple of drops on my wrist and arm, passed to the other wrist and arm. Frankly, I can’t imagine this one sprayed 10 times in the beginning, as at least two people I know do with some of their fragrances. You might knock someone out with the sillage.

I could see extending the 10 squirts throughout the day to refresh it back to the flare stage.

OTOH, an extremely heavy hit of this fragrance, depending on your chemistry, might soften just as nicely to a richer sigh of an ending. You’ll have to try it both ways and get back to me. You would certainly have some serious sillage, at least for that moment. And some would have to be on your legs. After all, fragrance rises.

A couple of hours later, the fragrance hits a midpoint. Patchouli is still evident, it is wafting through the trees. I catch it when I turn or move my hands quickly. It surprises me. It is softer and gentler, but still has presence.

The last stage is about 7-8 hours in, when the fragrance has settled into a sigh.

I like the presence of all three. I like that the fragrance moves and isn’t linear, though in some sense it is linear, because patchouli and cedar, less so, are evident throughout.

Now something completely silly to me and totally unnecessary is the excessive verbiage of the ad copy’s stream of consciousness of the imagined wearer. I could do without that. I’d rather have my own imagination, thank you very much, laughing here. I mean, get real! It sounds like drivel. (And this is true for the other elixirs as well.)

…I still can’t decide…Too obvious. I have to seduce him in a different way. Take him down paths still unknown to him…Why didn’t I see it sooner?…masculine outfit…nothing under the jacket… contrast…ambiguity do the talking. Androgynous? Perhaps. Terribly sexy? But of course…[2 more paragraphs similar except for telling the notes] He will…become intoxicated by my skin and my essence, strangely androgynous yet irresistibly attractive.

Are they trying to reach a young, unseasoned woman, who presumably might not be able to make up her mind? Or the mature, knows-her-mind-and-how-to-get-it woman who would be more apt to choose this fragrance. After all, it is a fragrance for grownups. It certainly is not a fruity, sweet concoction.

How many of us think this way? I sincerely hope not many.

Perhaps it reads and sounds better in French. Everything sounds better in French!

If I were a man, Boisé Torride would lose me right there, without even giving it a try. And this would be a mistake, because this would be a delectable fragrance on a man, maybe even more so than on me. Or, it could be one of those shared fragrances between two lovers, where it develops differently on each one, to be individual, yet complementary, the way life should be.

Top Notes: bergamot and tangerine with pink pepper
Heart: jasmine and orange blossom with white musk, underneath is a mallow note, not sweet like Mariah’s M
Base: cedar and patchoui

Have you tried it?

If you like
If you like any of the patchouli fragrances I’ve mentioned, you would likely like this one.

To me, there is a little bit of second-cousin-twice-removed to the fragrance Narciso Rodriquez for women.
It has some similarities, but ends up in a different place. Maybe it’s the woods and orange blossom.

It’s a good one for your repertoire. Remember you have to be a grown up. And that isn’t a bad thing.

Where to get it:

Guerlain @ Palazzo in Las Vegas. Call (702) 732-7008 or email: GuerlainPalazzo.STORE@lvmhuspc.com. Ask for Claire. Be sure to tell him that you heard it from me.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com
don’t steal my posts, you know who you are!

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Love…don’t be shy…was the fragrance I thought I preferred when I smelled it on each of my two previous trips to Vegas (the only access I have to Kilian fragrances.) It didn’t surprise me that I loved it again.

I generally give fragrance several tries before I commit, because I find that sometimes they are scrubbers on me, when I had thought they were not.

Love…don’t be shy is another play on words. If you wish to find or experience love, you have to put yourself out there. Don’t be shy. Risk a little. (Maybe that would be a good name for one of his fragrances.) Or, express your love, don’t hold back. To have love, you must give love.

Here’s the description from the insert booklet:

L’Oeuvre Noire [in English, Black Masterpiece], a collection of 10 fragrances composed with the most expensive and rarest essential oils. A deca aroma that revolves around three themes: Love and its prohibitions. The artificial paradises. The temptations.

And here’s a quote from that same insert:

Perfume should be the essential in the excessive. Kilian Hennessy

I think I’d love to sit down and chat with him. …essential in the excessive — isn’t that an interesting way to describe one of the pleasures of life!

And here’s another quote I like of his:

Perfume is a messenger that opens a thousand doors in the memory. Kilian Hennessy

I think we can both create and recreate memories with perfume. All I have to do is smell a certain fragrance to feel once again that someone I knew is near, though she is no longer living. She created an aura with fragrance. I prefer my aura to be lighter, but nonetheless there. She wore hers too heavily. I don’t think that is possible with these. They have a cap on how strong they are.

Created by perfumer Calice Becker, here are the notes:

Top notes: Marshmallow, Neroli
Heart notes: Sambac Jasmine with Rose and Iris
Base notes: vanilla and musk.

This is not a dreckly sweet marshmallow concoction, but rather mature and intoxicating. Again, a bit boozy, definitely intoxicating. The vanilla is not sweet. It’s not like Shalimar; no, this is darker.

I was off-put by Iris after Guerlain’s Iris Ganache. I might have steered away from this one after that one. But this is what I hoped IG would be, even though descriptions didn’t necessarily match my idea.

Again, on me, this is a deeply resinous fragrance. It is no Mariah Carey, and it certainly is not Pink Sugar. It’s a night time fragrance suitable for day time. It insinuates rather than shouting. It isn’t shy, but it doesn’t hit you over the head — those are fragrance types I prefer not to wear. I believe it would layer well with any other Kilian fragrance. It is very smooth, but it also ruffles. This is a fragrance for a woman who knows her mind.

Do you wear it? Have you tried it?

You can see an overview of all his fragrances here.

Karin

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