French Lover / Bois d'Orage (2007)
by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle

I think most fragrance lovers spend their lives in search of "The One"--more than just a signature scent, The One represents the distillation of your soul, or at least of what you want your soul to be. It may take decades and hundreds of fragrances sampled to find it or, by some stroke of luck, you may stumble upon it fairly early in your quest. Signature scents come and go over the years, but The One stays with you like the intricate pattern of your retina--only an act of violence could alter it. As with everything else in life, you may tire of The One from overuse, but brief respites allow its pleasures to blossom again, undiminished.

For me, Bois d'Orage is "The One." I do not claim that it is the greatest fragrance ever concocted, that it is for everyone, that it is suitable for all occasions, or that it represents some sort of revolution in the art of perfumery. Those are fine ambitions, but perfectly irrelevant when it comes to the highly personal decision of what one wants to smell like. All I can say is that I love to smell it, and wear it, more than any other single fragrance I own or have ever tried. I read somewhere that Pierre Bourdon and Frederic Malle set out with this work to create the ultimate masculine fragrance, and I do believe they have succeeded. It was apparently Bourdon's last composition before retiring, and what a swan song it is! Bois d'Orage is everything I have ever wanted a masculine fragrance to be: resolutely earthy yet at the same time ethereal, assertive without being aggressive, classical in its proportions yet with a vibrant, modernist edge, brutal in some respects yet tender in others, intellectual, sensual, mysterious, the opposite of "fresh," and finally, uncompromising in the quality of its ingredients.

The PR for Bois d'Orage likens it to the music of Wagner. I both agree and disagree: like Wagner, it is infused with drama and chromatic harmonies; unlike Wagner, this composition is concise, not undergoing much complex development over time. I wouldn't go so far as to call it an olfactory haiku (to borrow Jean-Claude Ellena's description of his own mature style), but more like a classical sonata form--that's where the classicism comes in. That and the fact that it reminds me of so many classical masculine woods and chypres of the past, while at the same time being quite unlike any of them. The story behind the original name is that Frederic Malle was in New York, "drenched in trial number 34 C," meeting a female American friend for lunch. When she embraced him in greeting, she exclaimed: "Ooh, very French Lover!" which suggests, to me at least, that the lady in question also detected these olfactory resonances of a past age, that some kind of mythical archetype had been evoked.

I bought the 50 ml bottle and then, barely a week later, as if steeling myself against the apocalypse, hoarding so that I would never for a moment be without it, couldn't resist buying 100 ml more.

nthny nailed it! Green ..Resinous ..Dark. Yes ,it could be a relative of Yatagan..

a really laid back relative..someone who has secrets to hide but can't...There's

a dirty ,I mean Earth dirty side to this fragrance..truly erotic.

I've only tried a decant but,this one is a definite..Gimme.

Wow! this is the first lame FM scent, no attitude, no sillage, 7% concentration. I don't get it. It doesn't smell niche to me. don't waste your money.

Update- Spoke to Frederic Malle last week about this scent, and the disappointment with the sillage, and dry down........I LOVE IT WHEN I"M RIGHT!!! he did say that he adjusted the concentration to it's original strengh 9%. to make it stronger, he also adjusted the formula.....right from the horse's mouth! P-natra however, that sweet basenote that comes in at the end, does not fit the opening or heart of the composition, and while it lasts, it stays too close to the skin thus, Skinscent. I still think that it's a failed fragrance. if you want to spend 200. on a skinscent with lame projection..this one for you.
THUMBS WAY DOWN!! however, tried Escentric02 last week as well. Now this engine purrs stays dry to the end, and has a stronger TONIC effect for almost half the price.

Top - Pimento, Galbanum, (spices: Nutmeg, Cardamom, Pepper, Clove)
Middle - Cedar, Incense (frankincense), Angelica
Base - Vetiver, Oakmoss, “White Musk” (synthetic musks: karamal, ambroxan)
There is a lot of chatter about Bois D’Orage. If you like a “bone-dry, aromatic chypre and incense scent”, then you will love this one! I’ve amended the fragrance notes to reflect some of the things I’ve read about this marvelous scent. Some of the notes below are very erudite and I agree with them. There is a wonderfully aromatic opening. It is very typical of galbanum (spicy green). The middle is excellent. It has very true cedarwood and a lovely dry, lean and resinous frankincense accord. This is the equal of Cyprès-Musc or Bois D’Encens (two of my favorites of this type). This is substantial, but not heavy or rich. I tried this last night, and then also detected at times another phase, what I would call “scent of a man”. It is something in the style of Cumming, a vague sort of male odor that probably comes from the synthetic musks. Karamal apparently has an ‘animalic’ quality. I didn’t get that third phase today so it may be an intermittent thing. Finally, Bois D’Orage settles into a lovely dry resinous woody musk. For me, the dry resin dominates more than its initial moist green qualities... herbal, vegetal, forest. It is striking due to its lack of softening agents (floral, vanilla) – hooray! I find it very satisfying and attractive. My fullest endorsement for this! Lots of thumbs up.

Notes:
Top - Pimento, Galbanum, Spices
Middle - Cedar, Incense, Angelica
Base - Vetiver, Oakmoss, White Musk

French Lover is a very dry, warm incense and vetiver composition, softened by a touch of musk in the base. It opens with a whipcrack dose of peppery woods and galbanum, rendered even more piquant by a subtle hint of clove. The incense that emerges over the first hour on the skin is neither sweet nor smoky, but faintly luminous. The opening green notes eventually morph into a bold, earthy vetiver that's joined by a crisp cedar note in a very suave central accord. This isn't the rude vetiver that headlines Vetiver Extraordinaire or Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier's Route du Vetiver. Instead, it's a rakish and sophisticated vetiver - still dangerous, but also sharp, articulate, and clever. The strong vetiver and cedar accord persists right through the mossy drydown, warmed by the musk and highlighted by the incense that floats in and out of the background. The scent is incredibly tenacious and will hold for a full day unless it's forcibly removed.

There is no citrus to brighten the scent and no floral notes, benzoin, vanilla, or coumarin to sweeten it. Nor is there any of the obvious smoke or leather that gave the monster 1980s chypres all their swagger. In its uncompromising dryness and severity, French Lover parallels Caron's Yatagan, though with much greater transparency and without the prominent castoreum and artemisia. Exchange Yatagan's crude furs for an impeccably tailored suit and you might wind up with something like French Lover: Yatagan for the twenty first century. Where a scent like Kouros or Yatagan might open its fly and display its genitalia, French Lover simply adjusts its collar.

Yet for all of its sophistication, French Lover has something dark and vaguely threatening deep in its heart, a bit like the foetid animal note that creeps around Dominique Ropion's Une Fleur de Cassie. (Also for Frederic Malle.) French Lover may be a stylish beast, but it’s still a beast, and capable of some brutality.

As for the much-discussed name, I don’t think it’s all that apt – not even if it’s tongue-in-cheek. The American market name, Bois d’Orage (translated poetically as “Thunderwood”), is more accurately descriptive, if a bit less clever and original. This is not a seductive, sensuous fragrance along the lines of Musc Ravageur, and those expecting a boudoir scent are going to be deeply disappointed by French Lover. On the other hand, anyone who's looking for a bone dry chypre, incense, or vetiver but finds Yatagan too uncouth and Vetiver Extraordinaire or Maitre Parfuneur et Gantier’s Route du Vetiver too rustic may enjoy the more civilized approach of Malle’s French Lover.

I loved this immediately. This is what I wanted Tabac Blond to be, and what I've been hunting this winter: a wearable, undated, green/leather fragrance that any gender can use with ease.