Bois Farine (2003)
by L'Artisan Parfumeur

Cloying sweetness, uncooked honey noodle wetness. Unwearable. Made me and my boyfriend think of raw honey, straight from a beehive for some reason. He was repulsed by it, and it is pretty strong especially the first few minutes. Lucky for us it started to rain so he could wash it off his wrist.

I tried a sample of this last year and really really liked it - I got the peanut butter and baking bread notes from it and found it a comforting yet unusual fragrance. I am now the owner of a whole bottle and it smells different to how I remember it. The sandalwood is now the predominant smell and it smells more like a masculine fragrance than it did before. I don't know what has happened. Has my chemistry changed, has my nose changed or has the perfume changed? Whatever has happened it is still a lovely fragrance and I'm sure I will finish the bottle but I can't help but be a little disappointed that it is not quite the fab fragrance I thought it to be.

I actually really like it! I guess it has to do with childhood memories, Nutella, comfort food, baking etc. However, on the downside, I do not think is wearable, only, maybe, as Trebor wrote, in an intimate situation (although I would rather go for my Must de Cartier) - you cannot really show up at a party, or a job interview smelling like you have just cooked a batch of cookies - and the other thing - it does not last long - maybe is just me, however after 1 hour I could not smell anything anymore.

A very fun scent to wear. It's not sexy, sensual or something to attract others, but it sure is pleasant to wear. It smells like flour far more than wood and is pretty linear, in a good way. It's too expensive for its own good though, but it's very interesting to try.

Jean Claude Ellena’s creation of Bois Farine for l’Artisan Parfumeur is said to be inspired by the flower of the “Flour Tree” that is genuine to the Réunion islands. The tree bears red flowers with a distinct floury, starchy aroma. The perfume almost lives up to this premise, commencing with an accord of fennel and white starchy wheat flour going up your nostrils and you knead that dough or visit the local miller to pick up freshly ground flour. It also has an aftertaste of crushed raw peanuts at first – oily and subtly earthy, barely detectable aroma. However, it quickly turns into an iris perfume, slightly floral and sweet with notes of cedar and musk and slightly vanillic underpinnings, not unlike Hiris, which reminded me of certain semolina patties, and not unlike Bvlgari au The Blanc with its underlining heliotrope and white musk sweetness (also by Jean Claude Ellena).

I approached Bois Farine with a bit of trepidation given its much touted “bread notes”. I mean, who wants to smell like a loaf of bread? Upon spraying, the first note I got was oddly yeasty and sharp, and then it mellowed into a gentle floral overlaid with a light smell of Saltine crackers. It is oddly wonderful and compelling, and I found myself hoping that it stays on my skin for a long time. I then craftily offered my wrist to a male colleague (aka my perfume sniffing guinea pig) to do a blind sniff to see if he would pick up the Saltine note. He typically likes citrus (Creed Himalaya) or peppery (Ormonde Jayne Isfarkand) scents so I did not expect him to like it at all. However, he loved Bois Farine! He said that thought it was a wonderful scent for a woman and was something that “you only get to smell if you get really close”. As of hour 2, the sillage was still quite good.

As if all that weren’t reason enough to like Bois Farine, when I went to look up the official notes I saw that it was created by my idol Jean Claude Ellena, and upon reflection, can now see his subtle minimalist style.