I haven’t checked in on indie brand Imaginary Authors since last spring. Here are quick reviews of two of their recent-ish efforts. If you’ve tried anything from the brand, do share your favorites in the comments!
An Air of Despair was launched as a limited edition for Summer 2015 (it’s still easily found), and features notes of cedar, saffron, musk and sadness…
Diptyque launched Oud Palao last autumn. I just got around to trying it this week. Why? Because I was 99.9 percent sure I wouldn’t like it. Oud Palao’s list of notes didn’t sound original…but to make up for that, each note, trying way too hard to excite, had a Travel the World with Diptyque! signifier in front of it: Bulgarian (rose), Laotian (oud), Madagascar (vanilla), Indian (cypriol), Sri Lankan (sandalwood), Somalian (olibanum), Spanish (cistus) and Indonesian (patchouli). I laughed.
The laugh’s on me! I love Oud Palao…
It’s Woodfest Friday! Our community project for today: wear something woody — but no oud, because we already did oud!
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 considered Serge Lutens Chêne, but in the end I went with Comme des Garçons Sequoia, from the Red series. I smell like a tree. It appears to be out of stock everywhere, although others from the series are still available…
Last week I reviewed Desert Blush and Wild Fire, two fragrances from the new-ish brand Raw Spirit, both inspired by the landscape of the Australian outback. This week I tried Winter Oak and Summer Rain; once again, these fragrances were developed for Raw Spirit by perfumer Harry Fremont, but they refer to seasons in California and Florida, respectively.
Winter Oak is “a smooth, creamy, warming scent” inspired by “the oak-lined trails of the Chumash Lands of California on cool winter mornings.” Its composition includes clary sage, bergamot, pepper, lemon and geranium; saffron, maté, clove bud and olibanum; leather suede, oakwood, oakmoss, cedarwood, vetiver, patchouli and musk. It feels more nuanced than the woody Wild Fire…
Just as Picasso had his Blue period, Serge Lutens had his “Bois” period, and Féminité du Bois was its foundation. Féminité du Bois established a new “flavor” in women’s perfume: sharp cedar counterbalanced with fruit and spice.
Like the gastronomic rediscovery that salty and sweet go well together (hello salted caramel and bacon chocolate), Féminité du Bois’s honey- and spice-dipped shaved cedar feels intuitively right. Serge certainly thought so. He followed it up with a raft of Bois fragrances…