Un Bois Vanille (2003)
by Serge Lutens

Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille offers something special as far as a vanilla fragrance. Surely it's sweet, but it's a sweet, woody mix with nuances that keep it from being over-the-top. Vanilla, benzoin, beeswax, and the mix of sandalwood and guaiac wood create an easy-to-love, albeit all too familiar, vanillic/resinous/woody blend, but this blend is modified by the quirk of almond, tonka, and licorice, giving it some bite, some slight bitterness, and keeping it from being altogether too sweet for the enjoyment of many.

Rather, what results is a nuanced, interesting take on vanilla, well-performing and also modestly-enough priced (at $52 for a standard 50ml bottle size on FragranceNet). It's an easy win and a slight deviation from most sweeter vanilla offerings that lean boozy, cake-like, or extract-like.

8 out of 10

This is my autumn staple. The warm-cold interplay of vanilla and licorice has the contrast of salt toffee, of those days when I take my jumper off in the sunshine, only to shiver in goosebumps seconds later when a breeze blows to tease me. I never know which sensation will appear, or when. It is as if I have weather wafting up from my wrists.

Lunia Czechowska by Amedeo Modigliani 1919 Museu de Arte de São Paulo

As the name says, it opens with spicy wood and softens with a beautiful creamy and very sweet vanilla. Caramel, coconut, something powdery... I like it a lot, although it sometimes makes me think of a cheap caramel Demeter scent like Cotton Candy or Sugar Cookie.

Pleasant.. but expensive for what it is. A very soft, sweet, and creamy vanilla with a resinous, waxy quality that makes you wish you could sink your teeth into it. Though it's unique and I haven't smelled anything quite like it.. it doesn't particularly call out to me, or coerce me into buying a bottle. Gourmand lovers would probably feel differently, however.