Un Bois Vanille (2003)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

This is IT, folks... true vanilla. Un Bois Vanille is deceptively simple smelling. It verges on smelling too much like baked goods, but it is saved by "that Lutens transparency" on the drydown. This is comfort food at its best...nutty, sweet and warm. I have been looking for a wonderful, straight up vanilla and this is IT. Unlike "The Guide", I find this to be very wearable and definately unisex. I love it and plan to save my pennies so that it can become part of my permanent rotation.

The opening has that woody, smoky note that is almost a Lutens/Sheldrake staple now, but it disappears too quickly and we are left with a straight up vanilla, albeit a superior one. It reminds me a lot of L'Artisan's Vanilia, once the fire has damped down. Definitely unisex.

In general, I love vanilla scents but I'm still not sure about this one. Initially, a burnt sugar note absolutely ruined it for me but I've since managed to overcome this main obstacle. However, now I sense there being TOO MUCH vanilla in the composition – so much that it sometimes feels like the actual composition is straining to hold itself together.

It's also very important to note that Un Bois Vanille is a completely linear scent. This would make a perfect (albeit expensive) scent for layering but, beyond this, it could prove to become very boring and tedious to wear over time.

Sillage is great but its longevity is not as powerful as you'd expect from this type of scent. However, regardless of its flaws, it's still one of the best (and genuine) vanilla scents out there.

[Original submission date: 25 May 2008]

More vanille than bois for me. It is the most beautiful vanille i've ever seen.

Call it chemistry, but this one doesn't work on. Yes, the vanilla in there smells real, just like extract, but the woody notes do something dreadful to the blend and while I can't say it is repulsive, there's something about this that I cannot abide. And it DOESN'T come off. Points for longevity, which is just too bad for me. Something in this blend gets right up my nose and twists my nose-hairs. It's pain. I can't get it off fast enough and it doesn't actually come off. Big big thumbs down for making me feel ill.

I had no idea this was classified as 'feminine' until I saw it here on BN. Obviously it's my opinion that there's nothing about UBV that makes it more feminine than any other gourmand. And what a gourmand this is!! It's every smell that one would encounter in an espresso shop/bakery, the sweetness of which is grounded and somewhat tempered by undertones of woody notes. There's a lot going on here, and as with other Lutens you can chose to either pick out individual notes, of which there are many, or you can just sit back and just take in the entirety of the aroma wafting up at you. Having just used up a pretty healthy sized sample, I will wait until winter to buy this, not because I wouldn't want to wear it in the heat, but rather because it would be so wonderful to be all bundled up in a parka in the cold outside with a healthy dose of Un Bois Vanille seeping out from beneath the coat.