Chanel - Bois des Iles

The Cashmere Wrap Scent

Do you have a cashmere wrap scent? It's a perfume that makes you feel like you are wrapped up in a soft, luxurious blanket. For me that perfume is Chanel Bois des Iles.

Bois des Iles pushed boundaries in its time. Ernest Beaux created it in 1926 as twist on a traditional woody masculine fragrance, but for women. Bois des Iles opens with a hint of citrus and the champagne sparkle of aldehydes. Soon, it becomes all about the creamiest sandalwood you have ever smelled.  Flowers are used to add shimmer and highlights, but they are also seamlessly blended with the wood. I get hints of lily of the valley and jasmine if I inhale deeply. There is also a touch of soft peach skin and fruity rose.

The wood beneath these flowers glows and surrounds you in a close cocoon of comfort. It has a slightly spicy and sweet warmth to it, which many have called the "gingerbread" note. It's gourmand without being foody because the creaminess is dry. If Bois des Iles were a colour, it would be chocolate brown with champagne highlights or the colour of silk by candlelight.

Bois des Iles is my comfort scent, but it's also very rich smelling. Rich as in decadent. When I want to smell like a million bucks, I reach for my Bois des Iles. Luckily, smelling like million bucks is more affordable, now that Chanel is offering its Les Exclusifs line in smaller, 75ml, bottles and not just the enormous 200ml ones.  If you'd like to give Bois des Iles a sniff, head on over to a Chanel Boutique, or Holt Renfrew in Toronto.

House: Chanel
Nose: Ernest Beaux
Notes: aldehydes, and "Sandalwood and Ylang-Ylang spirals in a base of Tonka Bean and Bourbon Vanilla, with heady, enchanting notes of Sicilian Mandarin and Calabrian Bergamot." [from the Chanel website]

Maison Francis Kurkdjian - Absolue Pour le Soir

Dirty Dirty Rich

Some perfumes are demure, innocent and cheerful  - and then there's Absolue Pour le Soir. This is pure sex. Francis Kurkdjian has created a perfume that I wouldn't even consider for my young niece and I'd be embarrassed to wear in front of my mother. But, oh baby.

Absolue Pour le Soir is the dirtiest thing I've smelled in a long time. It's gorgeously filthy. It's interesting too. It has a sort of backwards progression that keeps you guessing all day as you take furtive sniffs of your illicit smelling wrists. It starts off with a brief fruity twist of candied orange peel and a bang of smoke and amber. The smoke is thick - was there a fire in here? The amber is pure sex, like the amber in Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan. In fact, every note that could conjure up the illusion of animalic relations has been used: sweaty cumin, sticky, slightly urinous honey, and civet, tons of civet, that ultra-sexy bottom note.

Gradually a cool, creamy floral, like soapy rose and ylang ylang pudding, becomes noticeable underneath the smoky amber. The sensation is like burying your nose in warm fur and coming across a hidden vein of cold cream. Incense smoke and honey continue to swirl around the cooler notes and a lovely sandalwood becomes more noticeable in the later hours.

Wearing Absolue Pour le Soir is like waking up in bed the morning after, in tangled and fragrant silk sheets, and having your naughty escapades from the night before return to you gradually in blurred images.

House: Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Nose: Francis Kurkdjian
Notes: Benzoin from Syam - Rose honey - Incense Absolute - Ylang Ylang - Cumin - Atlas Cedar and Sandalwood

(Apologies to Lady Gaga for the unauthorized use of your image. I'm a big fan. Don't sue me.)

Olly The Smelly Robot

Smell-O-Vision is finally a reality. Mint Foundry has developed a "smelly robot" they call "Olly." This computer peripheral can be customized to puff out fragrance for any Internet action, like a tweet or a Facebook message or a calendar alarm.  Olly has a removeable section in the back that can be filled with perfume, essential oil, even alcohol.

The possibilities for perfumistas are tantalizing. Imagine if all your incoming tweets were announced by the sillage of Fracas? Or every time you received a Facebook Like, you smelled a waft of Joy? Or a calendar reminder pops-up to tell you you're late to meet friends for drinks, and it smells like Juniper Sling?

via Core77