Perfume Diary: Atelier Bois Blonds Cologne Absolute

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Some people ride motorcycles. Some people hang out in cages underwater with sharks. My idea of living dangerously is much more mild; on occasion I find myself buying a perfume blind. Er, unsniffed. Throw in some great decision making made after 2 AM and that's how I ended up with Atelier Cologne Bois Blonds.

I threw caution to the wind and ordered a one ounce bottle after just reading the notes. They just sounded so, so good.

From the Atelier Cologne website:

Top notes: Tunisian neroli, pink pepper
Heart notes: Moroccan orange flower, incense
Base notes: Blond woods, musks, vetiver from Haiti

See? Doesn't that sound lovely? I was so very determined to love this scent. So determined. I wore this about seven times, each time feeling defeated in the end. Bois Blonds starts with a burst of citrus and pink pepper, but the citrus doesn't last at all. It never does for me. Vetiver adds earthiness and a sort of green note to it but I find it to be a very generic bathroom soap kind of smell. You know when you wash your hands in a public restroom and your hands smell strongly of the anitbacterial soap? It's not awful exactly, but it's not something you really want hanging around you. Woody, light floral and a slight musk make up the rest of this scent but it's very faint and really not remarkable.

Though AC has a 20% Cologne Absolute formulation (rather comparable to EdPs), this scent flees from my body like animals before a forest fire. Even with three sprays to the wrist, nape and behind the ear, this scent is virtually undetectable within 40 minutes. It just doesn't wear well for me the way Vanille Insensee did. Morgan could barely sniff anything even when my wrist was practically ground into his nose but once he caught the scent, he described it as faintly medicinal. How alluring. I wanted my husband to try this one out but after smelling it on me, he wasn't keen to try it.

Longevity: 1.5/10
Sillage: 1/10

Bois Blonds sadly is just not for me, despite my love of woody perfumes. I've read really favorable reviews though, so I bet it is utterly wonderful on other people. Try before you buy. Unless you walk on the wild side like I do.

Atelier Cologne Bois Blonds start at $80 for 1.0 oz, $140 for 3.3 oz and $200 for 6.7 oz.