Baume au Doge (2008)
by Eau d'Italie

Promising opening, disppointing drydown. Baume Du Doge opens with an orange/cinnamon accord that's immediately joined by a strong woody note (cedar). Minty hints add a bizarre, sort of strident, feel to it while cardamon remarks its presence during the middle phase. The overall effect is Interesting and somehow pleasantly weird but unfortunately the fragrance dries down to the same woody/ambery/incensey base that's way too common in many Duchaufour's creations...

Don't get me wrong, BDD smells good but if compared to other Duchaufour's woody-incensey compositions in the same vein such as Jubilation XXV or Dzongkha, it fails to coalesce into an outstanding fragrance.

9th January, 2012.

this starts quite promising actually, a blast of resinous, exotic spices, quite sweet but also incensy, unfortunately after half an hour you are left with only.... oh, no: toothpaste. yes, a minty, fresh toothpaste. i will have to pass i'm afraid.

6th January, 2012.

This is a rich but soft incense / soft spice treat. Baume du Doge opens with a beautiful, balanced, sparkly spice / citrus accord with the cinnamon dominating the spice part of the equation. After a respectable length of time, the opening cinnamon is replaced with cardamom and then the cardamom, with black pepper. By the time the pepper has weakened, the incense from the heart accord has risen to prominence. These progressing accords from the opening to the base are varied, excellently balanced, and completely satisfying. The subtle incense is the core of the fragrance – it is rich, elegant, and wearable… The spices, too, are lush and discreet. The drydown is woody and spicy, and it comes across to me as a resinous, spicy, and a tad-more-than- skin scent.

This is not a fragrance for someone who is looking for strong projection, and yet, in spite of its reticence, it is oddly fulfilling. Baume du Doge is beautifully elegant and discreet with longevity that is a bit disappointing, but it’s my favorite offering from a favorite house.

17th August, 2011.

This starts really well. A smokey incense and softer less boozey version of Dzongka. Resin, cinnamon and woods, I was in heaven. However within half an hour it became toothpaste. Herbal toothpaste to be sure, with plenty of cloves, but stubbornly minty and seriously unsexy. Not for me, this one.

19th February, 2011.

I remember little cedar log cabins we kept incense cones in. That's what I smell like right now. (8 hours after applying). I can't say it's bad. It is what it says it would be. What was I thinking? If that appeals to you, I can assure you, it has staying power.

12nd January, 2011.

Imagine the kind of dry, austere, smoky incense-and-cardamom accord that Bertrand Duchaufour presents in Dzongkha laid over a rich, bittersweet vanilla gourmand base, and you might come up with something like Baume du Doge. The juxtaposition of sweet and dry, stony and edible is novel to the point of shocking, though in an gratifying manner.

Within a few minutes of application, a minty/camphoraceous note wells up from the gourmand base, and somehow manages to stitch the two opposing olfactory blocks together. (Since there is nothing even remotely minty listed in Baume du Doge’s pyramid, I attribute my impression to an odd synergy between the herbal fennel and the crisp quality of clove.) At this point in the development I’m reminded of Lorenzo Villoresi’s Piper Nigrum, which also uses mint in a sweet oriental context, but Baume du Doge displays a smoother and more fully integrated structure. Where the opening of Piper Nigrum can come off as jangling or cacophonous, this new scent is suave and articulate. Baume du Doge also dries down crisp, woody, and slightly sweet, which is a far cry from Piper Nigrum’s powdery vanillic-amber exit. It is tenacious, with moderate sillage and projection, and it strikes me as relatively gender neutral – leaning perhaps slightly toward the masculine.

To the best of my knowledge, a gourmand woody oriental represents new territory for Duchaufour, and I believe he navigates it quite adroitly. I may be in a minority of one in finding Duchaufour’s recent excursion into peppery aquatic florals in the guise of Magnolia Romana more interesting than Baume du Doge, but I can heartily recommend this new scent to anyone who enjoys a spicy oriental.

11th December, 2009.