Reviews of Bois d'Argent Cologne (2004)
by Christian Dior

When I first tested this on paper and on my skin, my reactions were very much in the positive sphere. I had written phrases like: “Delicate,” “…restrained spiciness and sweetness,” “…soft incense,” and “…transparent but rich notes.” Then came the wearing. About two hours into my first wearing I began to be annoyed by what I was smelling. The annoyance quickly changed into genuine dislike and I had experienced this dislike before from notes I recognized in YSL’s Nu, Tom Ford’s Black Orchid. It was that floral / vegetal note that, with continued exposure, tended to make me disgusted, and, as in the case of the two mentioned, I had to wash off Bois d’Argent immediately. I very seldom feel the need to remove a fragrance from my skin, but this was one of those few cases.

Sweet, smooth, and refined buttery iris, honey, incense, and blond woods. (or silver according to Slimane) As a whole, Bois d'Argent is subtle, but intricately detailed, and has surprisingly good longevity. Personally, this is my favorite of the three boutique-exclusive scents, and a good compliment-winner.

Yet another winner from Annick Menardo!

Reviewing from a second sample

This is my favourite out of the three.

Its longevity is definitely on par with most quality EDT fragrances although, as some have already mentioned, it comes across as a little too soft for my liking. Its sweet and buttery combination of honey, myrrh, patchouli, iris, leather, incense and musk creates a scent that is both delicious and sensual (but never cloying).

However, there are a couple of reservations about these colognes that I need to ‘get off my chest’:

1) Like the Cuiron bottle, it would have been better if the label was laminated – after frequent use, the soiled label just ruins the bottle’s overall appearance.

2) The inside of the fabric bag (for the spray attachment) isn’t lined. Therefore fine strands of fabric have shed onto the spray attachment itself. This is an awful design flaw and I’d advise anyone, who purchases any of the Dior colognes, to thoroughly rinse their spray attachments before screwing it onto the bottle. You’ll get a nasty surprise if you don’t!

A more intense version would have been pure perfection.

[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

wow... for once in my basenotes life I don't have too much to add to previous reviews... I unloaded a full 3 ml on myself and............... not too much to write about. Iris? check. transparent incense? check. dusty old furniture? check. I know that it is only cologne strength but this is the equivalent of someone showing me a picture of a great steak they ate at a fancy restaurant, only the picture was in black and white and taken from a cell phone. I get the idea that it was awesome, and I can almost stretch the experience enough to warrant thinking about how the steak would taste, but there just isn't enough substance to capture my attention and make me want to go out and buy the meal... Even while I am wearing it I get the feeling that someone just passed me by smothered in the juice, but it was so bleh that I would forget the sniff in a moment. The topnotes vanish into thin (or thick) air, giving you a slight tease of floral iris that dissipates immediately upon hitting the skin... there is a very rapid transformation from cheap gas station incense into a rubbery note that reminds me of a newly opened package of dog chewy toys before fulling developing into a quiet patchouli drydown. This isn't a cloying hyperbole of a monster, but a whispering ghost of notes that probably could have played well together with better blending. If you could imagine Ben Stein reading War and Peace in a slow cadence, you would have a decent projection of how exciting this is. I'm not a huge fan of loud ostentatious fragrances, but at least let me know I'm wearing one. Oh well at least it was just a sample.

Do you like root beer? If so, you should try this.

I was 16 when I first started wearing cologne and in the 20 years since there have only been a few scents that have instantly clicked with me -- Bois d'Argent, Antaeus, Acteur, Egoiste Platinum and Scent Intense.
Great stuff, this is. Light enough to be a great summer scent, discreet enough for the office, but with just the right amount of spice for sex appeal.
Very fine indeed.

Christian Dior Bois D'Argent

Due to Annick Menardo's influence on this one and on two other of my favorite quirky scents, Le Labo Patchouli 24 and Bvlgari Black I was excited to try this. This is so unlike those scents it is surprising. This is all refined and smooth, no rough edges, no quirkiness present just an expertly blended combination of notes. This starts off with a sweet incense on me before progressing into a sheer mix of leather and patchouli in the heart. where in most scents this combination would be overpowering here they are much lighter and allow for the iris note to be the dominant note in the middle of it all making this just beautiful on me. The light hand continues into the base as a mix of honey and vanilla wrap this up in fine style. Other reviewers have mentioned the similarity to Dior Homme but I think that is mainly because both have such identifiable iris notes to them. Beyond that congruency I think these are pretty different and I think I prefer this over Dior Homme because I believe it has more complexity to it.

Ever put on a cheap rubber mask for Halloween? Remember that really strange sweet smell it had? Well it's back, except now with a designer label! This is gross.

Harmless, fairly pretty little fragrance that doesn’t do anything to me. No shaking under my feet, not even a little quake. I’ve smelled a lot more exiting ones from Mrs. Menardo, not to mention how heavily this is outclassed in my books by the terrific Eau Noire.

Bois d`Argent is a simple and rounded blend of honeyed iris with a hint of incense. In addition to that, I suspect there is a great doze of coumarin to it as well.

Lasts a long time which is good news if you are (unlike me) into this.

Dior Homme with honey and a milky incense. Wear light on the skin and is more of a comfort scent.

This is some amazing stuff! I absolutely LOVE the incense (a mix of myrrh and floral/iris??) note in it, it is just as lovely as can be and really adds to the complexity and sweetness of the other notes in the scent from start to finish! Sweet and woody at its best!

Very strong and long lasting for a cologne - simply, excellent.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

An amazing, complex fragrance that reveals something new and different about itself every time you wear it. On first wear I didn't notice sweetness, just a bold, salty, woody tobacco/iris note dominating the top notes. On subsequent wears the sweetness of the honey became more noticeable, providing a counterbalance to the iris, tobacco, and patchouli. Over a few hours the balancing accords almost meld into one lovely yet bold fragrance. Lasts FOREVER - even though a swim in the pool and a shower - easily 8-10 hours if not longer.

Now, if I could only get to a Dior Homme store to buy myself a bottle...

Woody, spicy, oriental. A hint of leather in the base and the civilizing influence of iris in the top. Some people find this a bit sweet, with honey and amber, but I prefer to think of the juniper, cypress, myrrh and patchouli. It seems to me that these balance the sweetness and never really let it dominate the scent overall. This is a bracing scent to me, it keeps me focused and energizes me. While I mostly turn to it in cold weather, it seems perfectly suited for cool summer nights as well. It can make a very nice dressed-up evening scent.

This is what I expected Fumerie Turque to be like. Gobs of honey, and an incredibly realistic cured tobacco note - like sticking your nose into a pack of cigarettes, or more accurately, a pack of pipe tobacco or flavoured cigarillos. The tobacco may be just my skin, because I barely even detected it on paper. The honey and tobacco pretty much dominate the whole thing. If you like the effect, you'll like the fragrance, and vice versa.

I love it. Well balanced, sweet without being cloying, with honey mixed in that doesn't become foul on the drydown (ala Lutens Miel de Bois).

My favorite by far of the Dior trio and the most versatile (I feel). It works well for daywear, but could easily be done at night. Eau Noire is too dark for the day, while Cologne Blanche is a little too powdery to make it much into my rotation. But, this one works really well.

For a "gentleman's" wardrobe, I think having this, Chanel's Pour Monsieur, and one or two of the Creed Classics (Green Irish Tweed or especially Bois du Portugal) just might be all that he would need to make his mark in the conference room or at the club.

Nothing I'm ever goiong to love. Bois d'Argent is a very sweet fragrance with an assertive, rooty iris note, but oddly little goes on beneath the honeyed iris surface. Remarkably for something so thin, Bois d'Argent also has an ingredient that makes me cough and choke.

At least it doesn't fall back on the same generic and synthetic fruity heart that ruins Dior Homme for me. Still, I can't help but find this scent simplistic and amenic - especially for something marketed as unique and exclusive.

I like wood scents but the wood is mostly in the name (Bois). The honey is a dominant aspect. It makes for a pretty sweet (and I suppose pretty, sweet) fragrance. It is far too sweet and powdery for me to like at all.

Opening: Light, warm, and not too sweet
a very smooth fragrance with the note of leather. The contrast between the sweet and floral iris and the supposedly strong leather creates a balance that i haven't smelled anywhere before.

This is obviously my favorite out of the three but all three are worth buying anytime...

in response to Trebor's comment on the fabric bag for the spray attachment: Mine has a lining though the wool felt material on the outside is crazy and just gets everywhere...the wool is the design flaw

and i actually like the paper label; gives it a very classic and unique feel

my only complaint is the fact that there is no stoppper if you have the spray attachment on. I view this scent more on the spraying side rather than the splashing. But the Plisse topper is genius....i want a speacial brass one...

this fragrance is a must have in any wardrobe.

My favorite of the three exclusive scents. It's sweet and warm like gooey honey.

A sweet wisp of a fragrance. Honey, restained smoky-woodiness and iris. The conceptual kinship with dior homme is most evident, a light powerdery iris-based fragrance which is, of course, not at all "males only" but actually consciously unisex with a feminine edge. On me this is a skin scent which is pleasant, hardly noticeable and somewhat unoriginal. Good quality, but ridiculously overpriced considering its thinness and lack of innovation. I would prefer Lutens' Vetiver Oriental anyday, which is more complex and interesting, less sweet, longer lasting and requires a much smaller application to work its magic. But then Dior is not a house I get along with very well fragrance-wise.

Not being someone who likes "sweet" fragrances, I would not expect to like this, but I really do! The honey could be cloying, but it's not; the iris seems like it could be too much of a good thing on top of the honey; but it's not. The woody base that I smell (but I guess isn't there) puts it all together in an astounding harmony. A friend of mine a bachelor in Colorado who bought this said that it drives the ladies wild (he likes that).So, I love it, but can't buy it. I would spend all day smelling my wrists. How would that look!? Ultimately- - -too good.

Speaking as a woman who tends toward spicy/androgynous scents in addition to the "usual" florientals, this is a winner. I actually received this by mistake, having tried to buy "Eau Noir" as a possible substitute for Serge Lutens' "Bornero 1834" (miserable failure of a comparison, by the way). Honey, iris, butter, all come through, with just the faintest hint of powder.

Congrats, Joel_Cairo, on an excellent review there. I don't have a whole lot to add that wasn't in that eloquent review, other than this iris note is AMAZING. It really does smell like a freshly blooming vase of irises to me. As a whole experience, this almost brings down the fragrace a bit. The iris is rather overwhelming at times, and the honey doesn't temper it one bit. It's very sweet and powdery. Although I suspect that I will not be wearing a lot, I'll give a thumbs up for sheer quality.

Upon first sniff, a wave of comparisons rushed through my brain. Bulgari Pour Homme’s soapy/dirty musk fused with the gourmand allure of honey. That warm doughiness of L’Artisan Bois Farine, but less quirky, more solid. A non-floral L'Artisan VdR. But I think that the most useful frag with which to juxtapose BdA is Versace Dreamer. Both are buttery rich, with a glistening iris piercing the sweetness (in both compositions, the iris reminds me of spearmint gum). But BdA is far and away superior, because it seems to invert Dreamer’s recipe. In Dreamer, the tobacco comes off as thick and syrupy, many have called it synthetic, while the iris can just barely eek out its little high-pitched accompaniment. BdA has a cleaner, clearer iris, a bit powdery at first, but with luxurious and very natural honey humming behind it.
But ultimately, as Shakespeare said, comparisons are odorous. In point of fact, BdA is unlike anything else I know really. It sits at the intersection of a very unusual note combination: Iris (the least flowery of florals, and rather rare in men’s perfumery, outside of the Dior house that is), Honey (the least sugary of sweeteners and likewise unusual in men’s frags nowadays) and Incense (which is common as can be, but is hardly ever used in so weightless and whisper-like a way). What results is a spell-binding and meditative composition. Someone on MakupAlley said BdA was the ultimate Sherlock Holmes fragrance, and I think that’s spot on: thoughtful, restrained, but with unlikely prowess.

Popped into the Christian Dior Homme store on 57th Avenue in NYC the other day and tried this one to see what the deal was. Totally disappointed as how perfectly BORING this scent is and overpriced to boot. By boring, I mean that it smells not unlike a cheesey baby powder room freshener with some honey lurking in the background. Nobody will find this scent offensive, but nobody, absolutely nobody will find this brilliant, inspiring, or magnificent. It is very, very pedestrian and unoriginal in every way.

I tried this three times, and all I can remember is that it's a balanced quality scent. Definitely not enough to stand up to Dior highlights, such as Jules, Fahrenheit or Eau Sauvage.

this scent to me is as smooth as silk and has a buttery quality to it that I really enjoy. This scent to me really evokes a feeling of power and prestige. To me it feels smooth and controlled. Hedi Slimane did an excellent job with this one, which I like much more than the other 2 in the trio.

I had high hopes for this fragrance, but halas it let me down. It's not as though it's a "bad" scent, and it is infact very well made... I just find that the honey base is too strong and that the other notes don't balance it out enough for it to appeal to me. Other reviewers are bang-on when they describe Bois D'Argent as a buttery sweet concoction and succeeds fully at what it tries to do, but to me it warrants nothing more than a giant "meh" and a shrug. I'll keep the honey for my toast thank you very much.

On my last visit to Paris ( March 2006 ), I smelled this one and instantly fell in love with it. I never buy fragrance on impulse. I went to the Frederic Malle at Rue de Grenelle and stocked up on his 'classics'. Now Im back and just had to get this scent. I bought it today at the Dior Homme boutique on Rodeo Drive . Alas, it brings me back at the Galerie Lafayette in Paris. Now I feel complete- I love this fragrance and MIGHT be my signature fragrance for the moment!!

sweet honey and woodsy frag, with a hint of smoke. well rounded and has great staying power. all in all an excellent fragrance and well worth a try.

The only one of the Dior trio that I like at all. This one is buttery and sweet. The almond here comes across as smooth and buttery, and the honey is obvious. As other reviewers have commented, the honey is sweet but not cloying, as this remains light and "up." The incense adds a nice touch to this, and for me, a slightly interesting twist as I am used to incense scents being darker, drier, and more pensive. This one brings to mind a stroll through a safe wooded park on a nice sunny, breezy day. My only complaint is that it borders on being too sweet, and most days I do find that I ultimately choose not to wear it because of its sweetness. Still, a nice scent and worthy of a thumbs-up review.

This is one of the best honey scents along with Balenciaga Pour Homme. It reminds me of a darker and rounder version of Geir. Out of the Dior trio, I can easily say that this is my favorite. Although it is sweet, I don't see how it could ever be cloying because it's quite soft and stays close to the skin. It would be nice if it were available in an Extreme version though because sometimes it's a little too soft.

This is an amazing scent, unlike anything else I own. It seems so fully rounded I have difficulty distinguishing individual notes and instead love to deeply inhale the balanced richness that, on me, lasts for hours upon hours. great for forest walks, I would think.

I have a great deal of respect for Hedi Slimane, and the updates he's doing for Dior on the olfactory side just feel very good. This guy is no sell-out, he cares about quality and originality the same way Tom Ford did for YSL when launching M7 and Rive Gauche - 2 modern giants.
This silver woods cologne is a sparkling blend, woody, sweet old but contemporary at the same time. Hard to describe really, just smells awesome!

Isn't it odd how we sometimes make a snap comparison between two fragrance only to be humbled by a side by side comparison of the two? In my assessment and conversation on fragrance I often compare the notes and accords to something else that I know. In fact, I think we all do that to a certain degree. I was able to try Bois d'Argent as a sample included in a recent exchange and, at first, was very tempted to say that it was very similar to my last impression of Tamdao by Diptyque. However, after comparing them, one on one wrist and one on the other, I found the comparison to be weak at best. Bois d'Argent is dominated by a smooth woods accord, similar to a sandalwood heavy fragrance, that permeates the entire fragrance from beginning to end, but OH the subtle differences in between. The honey, myrrh, patchouli and very light spice intermingle so beautifully that by sitting and deeply inhaling the fragrance one could almost hit a euphoric high. Not only do they intermingle well, but, like a masterfully engineered fragrance, the different notes float to the top at different times and not on a specific schedule, but, it would seem, as a result of the temperature of the body or even the mood of the wearer. The leather note in this is very light, but very persistant and can best be smelled in the melange toward the late heart to base notes, at least this was the case with me. The slight wafts of myrrh come up from time to time to render an ever-so-slight impression of L'Artisan's Passage d'Enfer. In the end, this fragrance is only vaguely similar to Tamdao, which is dominated by a more straight forward sandalwood note in comparison and certainly by more vanilla in the end. While both are good and both last a very long time, Bois d'Argent bridges the gap into a superbly done fragrance that is sure to please the most discriminating olfactory palette.

With notes of honey, iris and incense, Bois d'Argent is a sunny and rich fragrance. Velvety and golden, the name perfectly suits the scent. The richness of the Honey lingers at the top, though not overly cloying, while the iris and incense notes blend in the base with a buttery and somewhat powdery finish. Whereas Blanche is more floral with its rosemary and orange blossom blended with a vanillic acent of almond, coming off as a powdery floral, Argent is almost ambery and slightly smokey!

It smells like my Grandfather's library, in a VERY good way. Woods, honey, and leather..Very special, great for all occasions.

I've tested all three colognes today and would like to add more notes to the list above, here is what I found on "Fashionlines": Falling between the two is Bois d'Argent, which is a woody fragrance meant to be worn at any time, and distilled from the quintessence of incense from Yemen, Iris from Tuscany, Myrrh from Somalia, Patchouli from Indonesia, honey from Alicante, and leather from the Sahara.
I like it a lot, it's slightly spicy, the Myrrh gives it cool and clean feel on the skin, although it was a quite hot and humid day today.