Happy Friday! It’s also Jane Austen’s birthday. Our community project for today: wear a sandalwood fragrance, if you have one.
What fragrance did you pick? As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you’re not participating in the community project.
I’m in Diptyque Tam Dao…
Ah, the wonderful, long-ago days of fragrance, when perfumers used real Mysore sandalwood (santalum album); now, I only get to smell it in my vintage perfumes — where delicious, irreplaceable Indian sandalwood appears like a ghost, a reminder of a loved one long departed. I probably won’t live to see the return of Mysore sandalwood, if it ever returns — the best sandalwood oil comes from trees fifty years or older. The Indian government’s effort to save surviving, old-growth sandalwood trees is in disarray (with trees, even almost-worthless ‘teenage trees,’ being chopped down all the time on government and private property by thieves who trade in sandalwood oil).
Crabtree & Evelyn says the sandalwood in their Indian Sandalwood Cologne1 (formerly named Sandalwood, and presumably tweaked) is from sustainably harvested sandalwood trees…
Sacred Wood, along with Imperial Tea, finishes off the Asian Tales fragrance collection from niche line By Kilian (we’re still expecting at least one more scent for In The Garden of Good and Evil, and the next series is reportedly to be called Addictive State of Mind). Sacred Wood was inspired by the Indian tale of Savitri and Satyavan from the Mahabharata, and promises “the olfactory impression of an authentic Sandalwood from Mysore”.1 As most perfumistas know, real Mysore sandalwood is no longer used in perfumery due to its scarcity.
Like Imperial Tea, Sacred Wood was developed by perfumer Calice Becker. Sacred Wood opens on citrus-y, spicy wood; it’s not a dead ringer for my long-time love, Diptyque Tam Dao, but it reminded me of Tam Dao right away…
Ashley and I are really into oils, and those were the notes we were really attracted to. — Mary-Kate Olsen, talking to Women’s Wear Daily.
Remember way back when — about 20-odd years ago in perfume years — when Sarah Jessica Parker launched Lovely, and everyone was talking about exactly which perfume oils it was based on? It was the first thing I thought of when I smelled Nirvana Black and Nirvana White, the new fragrances from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Elizabeth and James lifestyle brand. Lovely, it turned out, was inspired by Parker’s own layering blend of Bonne Bell Skin Musk, Comme des Garςons Avignon and some Egyptian Musk oil she bought from a street vendor, but as translated into something marketable by Coty, Lovely was far tamer and more wearable than you might have expected from the original mix.
Nirvana Black and Nirvana White come closer to walking the walk…
It’s appropriate the Bois 1920 perfume line is created in Florence; that Italian city, compared to Rome or Naples (or anyplace in Sicily!), is formal. Florentine people seem more reserved, conservative (in dress at least), orderly, and quieter than other Italians; they are not show-offs or big-mouths — and I‘m not knocking show-offs or big-mouths (I’m one). Bois 1920 perfumes, likewise, do not seek attention: they are understated, beautifully composed, and ‘at ease’ in almost any setting.
I like almost every perfume Bois 1920 makes and was surprised when I realized I’ve only reviewed my least favorite from the line. Today, I’m making amends by reviewing two quintessential Bois 1920 fragrances — Sandalo e The and 1920 Extreme…