Last week I bemoaned the fact that Etro Rajasthan didn’t smell like India. I’ve smelled what seems like a zillion perfumes, watched plenty ad campaigns, and read through news releases, so I know I shouldn’t expect fragrance names or PR to match reality. I may be disappointed Rajasthan didn’t conjure India (for me) but if that fragrance had been good, I would have forgiven false advertising. This week, I’m wearing Naomi Goodsir Bois d’Ascèse* (ascetic wood) and the aura of the perfume matches its name and description: “…a secluded CHAPEL, BLAZING dusk, moment of GRACE, DIVINE smoke, silent CANTIQUE….”

Bois d’Ascèse conjures one of my favorite places — northern New Mexico; the fragrance creates a dry, austere, pungent scene. Willa Cather was on my mind as I wore this fragrance (I’m reading her letters) and I think a tiny vial of Bois d’Ascèse should accompany every volume of Death Comes for the Archbishop — Cather’s New Mexico novel in which her European characters travel through Santa Fe, Ranchos de Taos, and Acoma, Isleta and Laguna pueblos…

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