Reviews of Bois d'Ombrie (2006)
by Eau d'Italie

Wow! This is one weird ride. The opening is a bruising smoke/wood/booze accord that'll curl your nose hairs for sure. Super.

This is joined almost immediately by a sour, stinging note that I can best describe as boiling vinegar. Ever accidentally inhaled the steam from boiling vinegar? If you have, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, it's nothing I suggest you try at home. Over time the the booze subsides, and the smoke and woods blend into a rich leather accord. To my great disappointment, the vinegar steam note persists as well, effectively ruining the whole experience for me.

Close. Very close. A promising scent that was ruined for me by one discordant note.

Another scent that smells like pickled pimientos to me. It opens with that vinegar and spice accord and stays, and stays, and stays. I can't wash this off my skin. I love spice, but I cant take this. These aren't fresh spices. They are old spices sitting in the kitchen cupboard for too long. Whilke I respect the opinions of those that see the complexity in thios, it just doesn't work for me!

I took a tiny swipe from a sample vial 16 hours ago. One bath, one shower and a night in bed later and this is still pumping out unwelcome sillage. The smokey woody aroma chemical is so strong that I cannot even imagine enjoying the lack of craft and subtlety in the selection of materials and composition.

Utterly without merit for me, it seems to have little complexity of evolution, little reference to naturalness in composition and be intensely synthetic in its smell.

To me, this belongs with the lowest level of cheap modern fragrances and indicates the depths the so-called niche brands can stoop to under the cloak of a fancy box and a high price.

This is a great scent. I feel I almost should say gorgeous.

It is very typical scent from this perfumer. It has that signature smell that is based around incense and iris root. It is a truly a wonderful achievement to create such a notable, distinctive style in an ones perfumery.


I have often mentioned that I am not the biggest fan of iris, but this is an example where I do enjoy that ingredient in full. It is masterfully blended; it smells so warm and dark in here.

In addition of iris root, I mainly get that incense here with rich medicinal balsams and warmth of opoponax.

Not awfully strong fragrance; it has a gentle presence that lasts a long time.


Bois d`Ombrie smells like a dark and warm forest that closes you in without a hint of fear.

The first boozey notes I found slightly repulsive. I see at least one other person smelled the same weird vinegar note that I did. Like a ginseng-filled tchotchke shop where they're boiling vinegar in the back to clean the air...
With a smaller application I smell the leather and tobacco. Very strong but smooth tobacco scent, makes it worth the time to see through to the drydown. It's the smell of a well-educated bachelor study. Maybe the smell of Henry Higgins himself?
I liked it in the end, but not for myself. Would make a better male scent to me.

Wow… Bois d’Ombrie opens a full-scale assault on the olfactory pleasure centers. Simply amazing notes / accord. Whiskey, leather, iris, on top leading a whole troupe or striking notes to form one of the most amazing opening I’ve experienced in years. Those notes form an aridity that is vibrant, dynamic, masculine, and solidly attention getting. It is a Wow! This engaging opening lasts for a respectable period of time until the fragrance settles down to a textured leather / tobacco / vetiver accord. I don’t remember smelling many accords like it in addictive richness. The dry down continues the leather and adds myrrh, opoponax and patchouli of a deep, dark, but soft base. The dry down is as well done as the top and middle, except that I find it a little too soft – it could use more sillage. But it lasts beautifully… I love this fragrance: It is rustic and daring and elemental. It is unique and offers accord after accord of rich and passionate olfactory pleasure with its incredible use of resins and leather and spirits… Bois d’ Ombrie is intoxicating.

Love the sweet boozy opening. It's much like Michael Kors. But there's a very harsh wood that's in here. It intermingles with a tobacco, vetiver and leather accord. It's interesting but confusing.

This is a boozy, leathery scent. It has old-school style: it is rich, smoky, powerful. There are lovely notes here. Normally I’m not a fan of leather scents but this has clubby charm. Likewise with the tobacco leaf. The incense notes are intriguing and dusky. Apply in small doses and wear in cool weather, this generates its own heat. Lovely dry-down.

Top notes : whisky, cognac, Korean calamus, wild carrot

Middles notes: tanned leather, Iris of Florence rhizome, Brazilian copahu essence

Base notes: Caucasian leather, Haitian vetyver, Turkish Latakia tobacco, Mexican opoponax, Yemenite myrrh, Indonesian patchouli

With Bois d'Ombrie (Wood of Umbria, BO), Perfumer Duchaufour promises to whisk us away to the deep dark and autumnal green forest of Umbria..."a golden embrace of wood and leathers". If you have hitched a ride with Duchaufour on his eastern travels to Bhutan on L'Artisan airlines, this trip to the dark forests of Italy might smell strangely similar.

BO opens with a wonderfully pleasing accord - an alcoholy burst of goodness, a smattering of porous leather notes, and a resinous frankincense like balsamic and woody note of copahu. Attracted by the beautiful opening, you keep walking further and further into the deep and dangerous woods of Umbria and soon realise what twisted freaks of nature reside within. The leather increases in intensity and takes on a peculiar dry, salty and spicy character. Sprayed on too heavily, I can see how it can remind some peope of vinegar...imagine inhaling the vapours of boiling vinegar, and how they zing the nostrils before sawing the brain in half with their splintery accents. The salty character becomes too pronounced. However, with a light application what one gets are occasional whiffs of a perfectly balanced salty-spicy-woody leather accord. I am especially intrigued by the spicy aspect of it and wonder how Duchaufour achieved it. Is it because of a certain type of leather used? Maybe so. True, this forest could use some trimming...this accord needs softening around the edges, some sugar to balance its salt N pepa. The myrrh, patchouli and iris notes need to be increased in intensity to simmer down the overly zealous leather melange. BO is also a long lasting fragrance...I could detect it 9 hours later, that spicy salty leather kick perking me up late in the afternoon when exhausted by the sameyness of the cubicle environment.

So there you have it .. BO smells good, but like its namesake, it needs to be handled with care. Too much BO can smell bad...but a little BO goes a long way, and can intrigue the opposite sex. Animals with primal instincts live in the deep dark forest of Umbria. Enter with precaution.

Rating: 7.9/10

Haha! Whiskey and woods! Besides its cedary booze smell, there's also a hint of green notes like that of vetiver, and also resinous notes like that of frankincense and myrrh. Definitely creates the impression of calm, relaxed and indolent bliss! I couldn't concentrate on my work because this scent was taking me so far away!

I would have a difficult time, indeed, coming up with a better description than that given by Caltha (below). So far, I have loved everything I've sampled by Eau d'Italie. Somehow, Bois d'Ombrie has become my ideal "woodsy, smoky, dry, spicy, leathery (cognac-y?)" scent. I'm also fascinated by the wild carrot note--which I probably wouldn't recognize if it bit me. This said, to my nose, it's just not a gourmand scent; rather, it's a dry, slightly peppery tanned wood. I'm stunned that this hasn't received more attention! It's certainly one of my favorite discoveries of the past year.

Wow, just wow! Eau d'Ombrie has the dark, caramellized sweetness of Idole or Aomassai, combined with a smoked leather note and a dry, red hot spice like the one in Les Nereides Oriental Lunmpur. There's actully no spice in it so I think it might be the bitterness of vetiver that's coming off as spicy.
This is autumn, but not in a forest like the name implies, this is autumn in a men's club with a crackling fire, worn leather chairs, old tobacco smoke lingering and dark, aged liquor.
It's gourmand-y but not overly sweet. With the dry, spicy accord it could easily be a men's scent. I just love it.