Thursday, September 9, 2010

SOTD: Shiseido Feminite du Bois


I love cedar. Cedar chests, or pencil shavings, or even those fake-cedar-scented dry cleaner bags.

I haven't yet found the perfect emphatic cedar scent. Dzongkha and Fire and Cream read, to me, as celery seed instead of cedar. Navegar has a perfect dry cedar, but it's very faint; sometimes I can't smell it at all. Angeliques Sous La Pluie is nice, and I can smell it, but it doesn't come to life on my skin.

Feminite du Bois is lovely, with lots of cedar. It changes at every wearing, and I'm inclined to consider that a good thing. Sometimes it's a nice new freshly sharpened pencil - a childhood smell, just right for September. Sometimes the fruit drowns the cedar; then it seems oddly jumbled and unsatisfactory.

Today, I suspect that it's behaving as intended, the cedar and plum blending together and finding common notes that I never would have suspected were there. Cedar and plum are somehow producing silk - heavy, thick silk. It's making me think of the "curious wadded silk robe" in A Little Princess - always an image that I loved. The theme, for me, seems to be childhood luxury. I approve.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

6 comments:

  1. I have a sample of this I haven't tried yet. I'll be moving it up the cue now.

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  2. Is Timbuktu not emphatic enough for you, then? That counts as a "trapped in a tea chest" scent in my book.

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  3. Probably not, as I now see it has no cedar listed in it, lol!

    Well, I get "phantom cedar" from it, certainly.

    Gucci pour Homme II I found quite woody at the duty free...nope, that is olive wood...

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  4. Hey, Diana! Yay! It's very nice stuff. I still can't figure out why the Shiseido version is better than the Serge Lutens reformulation, but I think it is.

    Hey, Flittersniffer! If I recall correctly, Timbuktu is one of the l'Artisans that I can't smell. (Well, can barely smell.) I think it's in the "momentary whiff of wet celery" category. Which, actually, does point to cedar - when I smell celery, it's usually cedar that's intended.

    Well, I seem to like almost all woods, except for oud, so I'm making a Note of Gucci pour Homme II.

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  5. The Shesiedo version was my "intro" into niche (though I don't think it was/is considered Niche). I tried it on in Nordstroms, didn't like it, then as I walked around the mall, I absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with it. It was the one thing I asked for for Christmas and they had discontinued it at the local Nordstroms. My father drove 2 hours to pick it up in a Virginia Nordstroms. When they absolutely discontinued it, I started searching the internet and was introduced to Niche. What a gateway drug...
    :)

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  6. Yo, Geordan! I'd call it niche now, even if it wasn't then. And that's very cool that it introduced you to the rest of the perfume madness world. :)

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