Feminitè du Bois (1992)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido (orig. by Shiseido)

Feminité du Bois starts out with spices and sweet white flowers, quickly joined by a very soft, powdery note that persists into the heart of the fragrance. The florals and spices blend seamlessly into a very pretty accord that's underpinned by the most subtle of wood notes.

Feminité du Bois holds in this sweet woody oriental mode for a long time, then drifts very slowly towards a powdery cedar drydown as the woods nudge the floral/spice accord out of the way. The whole composition is wonderfully light and delicate, particularly when compared to the much heavier sweet orientals Sheldrake has composed under the Serge Lutens label.

Oh this was a fragrace I used for may years untill was discotinued (why??) they had those breath taking curved violet bottles to die for, and a smell that was just so different back then, they even sold at the shiseido counters travel size samples in a shape of a tiny pen with a roll to use. Uber modern all the line all the package, everything was just pure class, personality, unique, modern, warm but not overpowering.

To have a bottle like this ext to the squares of Chanel and the uber tacky high street brands was just a class apart.

I never knew what cedar was untill I did a research o this fragrance. I tried to find a substitute and I have failed.

It was a bottle that would look just like a sculpture o all the sizes available, Shiseido i my opinion will never make anything better tha this.

I've been told this could be the reference scent for Iso E Super but even with a heavy spray, there were no strident notes to be found, cedar or otherwise. All I got was a well-rounded and silky smooth blend of dried fruits (esp. plum), spices (cloves), flowers (? unidentified) and just a hint of cedarwood. Though FEMINITE DU BOIS seems modest in its portrayal, there is no denying that this is another top quality creation from Christopher Sheldrake - I enjoy it very much even if it lacks that 'wow' factor.

A very clean plum/cedar fragrance. Rich and fruity to begin with, but remaining quite fresh. The plum is almost mouthwateringly good in the beginning. It doesn't really change much on me after the initial 5 minutes for at least another 3 hours, so I get a good dose of the plum note. I like it, but you know... overall it's not all that. I find it pleasant, and quite unlike many of the fragrances I have ever smelt. So for this reason, trying it for the first time is fascinating, but upon several wearings I ultimately found it uninteresting. When the cedar takes centre stage I tend to get a little bored... But it does last for at least 8 hours on me.

(After 6 hours of wearing this, and sitting comfortably within the drydown, I tried layering what was left of FdB with 2 sprays of Eau Sauvage to the chest in an attempt to bring a bit of zest back to the relatively smooth, and somewhat tame cedar base. I found this combination to be utterly delightful, perhaps even more tasty than the fruit-heavy beginning of Feminitè du Bois by itself. So if you have both, I'd say that this is definitely worth a try!)

I tried a sample of the reissued rectangular-bottle FdB and loved it insanely. I had to order the original in the brown translucent bottle (god I love that bottle, I dont find it dark and sinister at all, as esquirol does). Its fantastic! It starts out cedary and violety and suede-y and then turns to dried fruits and then to church incense like they had on special occaisions at the Anglican church when I was a child.

The ultimate autumn scent. Because I love woods and incense, I like to layer it with Gucci pour Homme, which brings out the dry cedary goodness.

The Shiseido EDP version: This smells like nothing I've smelt before. The wood note is very potent and distinct from the beginning, and does come across a little bitter to my nose. The fruit notes are actually very tame and play a much muted role. This is a much richer, "darker", and far less sweet, compared to the newer Serge Lutens version. A very classy scent.