Miss Boucheron by Boucheron, 2007

Miss Boucheron opens with a brief spray of bergamot citrus before a growing fruity pomegranate and raspberry accord joins a somewhat synthetic smelling rose and white musk tandem, with just the faintest whiff of underlying gentle pink pepper in the heart. As the fragrance enters its dry-down the rose and fruity accords both recede, revealing a slightly spicy woody base that combines with the remaining synthetic musk now acting as support. Projection is excellent and longevity is outstanding at well over 12 hours on skin. I bought Miss Boucheron blind due to someone mentioning that it smelled very close to Le Boise by Ginestet, a fragrance that I enjoy but don't get great performance out of. Unfortunately, I see little resemblance between the two and Miss Boucheron is a *much* sweeter fruity floral concoction. The noses behind Miss Boucheron are a couple of the best out there, and while their raw material budget may have been limited (as the fragrance definitely has a very synthetic vibe throughout), their skill is quite evident and it is clear they did the absolute best they could with it. My favorite part of the development is the dry-down, as the slightly woody facets of the fragrance finally are revealed. The bottom line is that while I am not the target demographic for Miss Boucheron (as it definitely has a distinct feminine bent to my nose), I am not disappointed in this blind buy at all as it is quite the outstanding value at its under $30 a full bottle price online, earning a "very good" rating of 3.5 stars out of 5 outright.

I know there are people who peruse these reviews in hopes of finding a forgotten designer cheapie that smells more like a niche gem. Miss Boucheron is my nomination for that prize. As Ubu pointed out, this was a collaboration between Dominique Ropion (Portrait Of A Lady, Carnal Flower) and Anne Flipo (Iris Pallida and a bunch of other good L'Artisans), so it's definitely got a pedigree. So what does it smell like? It's a really deep, almost gothic smell. On me, the star of the show is a sawdusty, lightly toasted oak note (one that's familiar to me from a few of the woody L'Artisans, including Timbuktu). It's topped with red fruits (nothing stupid - it's more like a dark pomegranate with boozy undertones). The whole wood smell is burnished with a waxy smell that confused me until I recognized it as a subtle take on that animalic wax note from Ropion's Un Fleur De Cassie. This waxy deep red-hued oak is underlain with a deep jammy floral smell that reminds me a lot of the rose/patchouli/sandalwood/fruit mix from Portrait Of A Lady. The end result of all this is a smell that reminds me of an oak wine barrel, burnt on the inside and filled with the jammy dark dregs of a very deep red wine. That being said, it's also pretty much what you'd get if you replaced the upfront pepper in Noir Epices or Parfum Sacre with oak. Over the day, a carnation-ish clove note peeks out, having been hidden somewhere deep in that POAL jammy rose wine smell. This gives the impression of a wine barrel stuffed with carnations (nice!). Also, the oak settles a bit eventually and makes more room for the sandalwood, resulting in a smell reminiscent of Santal Noble's sawdusry sandalwood giving a creamy richness to the carnation-infused wine dregs. If I had to compare this to anything, I'd say Ginestet's cult-favorite Le Boise, though Miss Boucheron is stronger, deeper, and better crafted than Le Boise (though Boise wins the bottle-cuteness award...). All in all, as you can tell, I'm quite impressed. Miss Boucheron clearly contains the DNA for a lot of what Roipion would do with Malle, and aside from that, feels like some of the better work Duchoufour has done for L'Artisan. And it's all over the discounters for cheap!