Bois Naufragé (2010)
by Parfumerie Generale

An aquatic "marine" fig over a familiar creamy woody-amber base that immediately evokes the "I've smelled this before!" reaction. The fig note here is sweet, rubbery, and watery -- especially when sniffed from a distance away. It's a bit on the masculine side, has average longevity, and good projection. Both the initial and final impression are that it is a very average middle-of-the-road scent, but strangely... it works.

26th January, 2012.

A mass market perfume behind a good concept. It's completely undistinguishable form Marc Jacobs original scent for men. So if MJ is mass market why shouldn't be this one? Mr. Guillame shoud better reduce a little bit his productions and maybe focus on just a bunch of them. An unnecessary perfume!

4th March, 2011.

I like Bois Naufragé and find it to be a superior scent to Jardin de Kérylos. Here's how it seems to me. Naufragé is a very attractive woody fig scent that hits the mark perfectly in combining distinctive fig notes with creamy wood (possibly sandalwood). Kérylos by contrast emphasizes the zesty, green-sappy aspects of fig. I find that Naufragé has wonderful depth and more to offer me than Kérylos. I also find there to be fine staying power on Naufragé -- several hours later I still have a pleasing (admittedly close to the skin) note. While it was in its first few hours, it was popping off my skin with good sillage.
Naufragé starts off very delicate and translucent. It takes a minute to burn off a coconut-sweet note and settle a somewhat jumbled assortment of green, powdery, figgy and watery notes. Once the wood appears, that lends a backbone and the fig and wood go off, hand in hand, to a happy destiny.

23rd January, 2011.

After a very brief burst of galbanum and fresh green notes, Bois Naufragé settles on an attractive milky-sweet fig accord. But wait – doesn’t Parfumerie Générale already have a perfectly good (perhaps even perfect?) fig scent in Jardins de Kérylos? Why mine the same vein again?

Maybe, I figured, Bois Naufragé would turn into something very different from Jardin de Kérylos once it began to develop. What it turns into, after roughly fifteen minutes, is absolutely nothing. Poof! Once the fig is gone, all I can smell is a pale floral note so feeble I can’t identify it, plus some equally weak and indistinct woods – and these only if I press the skin I doused in Bois Naufragé up to my nose and inhale with uncouth vigor. Jardins de Kérylos is no marathon athlete itself, but it far outlasts this new offering.

Am I anosmic to some key ingredient? Beats me, but I can’t imagine paying niche fragrance prices for something that delivers less intensity or lasting power than a scented shower gel. An unnecessary release, if you ask me.

11th September, 2010.