Bois d'Ascese Naomi Goodsir for women and men

intensely Smokey. Charcoal , wood, moss, branches , the leaves- the whole tree is on fire . There is also an underlying leather nuance in the background as well. Pretty great , I like that it’s not sweet . This is a bit heavy for FL weather

This opens up on me like you walked into a smoked meat shop! Holy shit. But dries down to the most delicious, dark, moody incense campfire. Superb. Not for everyone.

This is the ultimate wood smoke fragrance for me personally. It smells like the air in Santa Fe during Christmas time, when everyone is burning pinion pine in their fireplace, incensing the whole town. It dries down to an ambery, day old campfire/charcoal smell on my clothes and lingers that way for days, creating a great base on my shop coat for layering with things like Monocle Hinoki and Dior Fahrenheit. I'm a woodworker in my early 40s and find this to be a perfect winter fragrance for me. Rugged yet sophisticated. Maybe not a great choice for an office worker though.

Holy smokes this is amazing! Opens with a rip roaring camp fire, heavy, heavy smoke, it’s the whole tree, wood, bark, the incense of burning cedar ferns. It literally smells like you got blasted with campfire smoke, don’t be alarmed, trust the process, it’s so worth it. 45 min in, it’s still smoke and incense forward but there’s some vanilla tobacco, leather, and a bit of whisky coming through, it’s really intriguing. 2 hours in, it’s developed into such a soft beauty: smooth amber, light musky incense, with the faintest background of the smokiness. It’s gorgeous, really lovely the way it unfolds. A photorealistic scent of my best campfire memories. It’s full bottle worthy for me.

On paper, it was right up my alley. Smoke, incense, cedar, wood, I mean look at my collection, one would think I would already own this one, but on my skin this is absolutely horrible at first. The opening on this is 70% smoke, 10% realistic burnt wood, 5% incense, 5% marine accords, but 10% rotten fruit / chemical notes, I wanted to order this one, but I buy fragrances and wear them, not for decorations. I will say though, after I got past the opening (30-45min later) this turns out to be an amazing smoky, boozy, woody, incense type fragrance. It all makes sense at the dry down. I supposed it’s a metaphor of life where you have to go through some bad things to see the beauty in them later on. Hope it works on your skin!

I really love it

I am a big fan of Naomi Goodsir perfumes. I have previously tested three samples, two of which led became full bottles. They are compelling, avant-garde compositions, housed in chic, minimal bottles that let the perfumes within speak for themselves. They also manage to be wearable. Bois d'Ascèse is a boozy woody-amber scent, not typically my thing, but an excellent example of its genre. This can be an unforgiving scent profile - too smoky/alcoholic; resembling candles/campfires/potpourri etc. - but BA is refined and clever. I'm guessing the name is tongue-in-cheek - I had to look up the French, but asceticism suggests the opposite of the vices that here are moonlighting as opening notes! It is remarkably well-composed, with each note carefully chosen, making for a scent that develops seamlessly and cohesively.

BA opens with a boozy whiskey note, paving the way seamlessly to the balsamic amber base. Tobacco follows closely, dry and plant-like initially, complementing the balsamic, slightly fruity whiskey. The woody base emerges early on, a predictable-if-perfect addition to the boozy, smoky opening. It is full-bodied and realistic, resembling an oak cask here alongside the whiskey. It becomes very dry, with a hint of leather evident as it progresses, likely thanks to the labdanum. I get some cinnamon here, adding a little sweet spice to the balsamic amber.

As it develops further, the incense comes to the fore, a seamless progression from the balsamic amber accord as well as enhancing the smokiness of the tobacco. There is a campfire quality to it here, but only as an aside. Oakmoss makes for an earthy counterpoint to the balsamic amber base while rounding out the woody notes to perfection. It remains like this until it fades to a musky, smoky skin scent. Sillage is moderate and longevity is long-lasting. It is a unisex, cold weather scent.

A top-notch example of its genre, BA is masterfully-composed with high-quality ingredients, never becoming thin or candle-like. While I wouldn't typically wear this, there is much to admire here. Another excellent scent from this house. 4.5/5.

The funny thing about this one is that while from the bottle this smells intensely of smoked cured meats ... on my skin it softens to a piney slightly damp outdoor camping with charred logs smoking in the background. And someone a few sites down is burning incense and drinking an old fashioned and keeps their tobacco pipe in a worn leather pouch.

While I fear one note will come driving forward and dominate, they always play nicely together ... especially on skin. Never anything jarring or acrid or candle-sweet or potpourri. Just confidence.

This is actually the perfect camping scent — if camping + perfume is your thing. (Or maybe I'm just weird)

I get the BBQ chips comparison immediately, but it transitions into a beautiful smoke fragrance. It almost reminds me of "A City On Fire" from Imaginary Authors.


It's worth sampling.

Timing is everything for me and this fragrance. On paper, I hated it; all I could smell was a bag of barbecue chips. But a couple weeks later, on a frigid day, I put it on before going on a walk in a blustery snowstorm. And then it really lit up: chimney smoke, ash, the air in a room when a wood stove has cooked all night. The smoke was far less savory on skin than on paper. It reminds me of home in the best way. I definitely wouldn't wear this every day, but there is something so comforting about it on a cold, snowy day. I might have to get a bottle.

I have just bought my 2nd bottle and I feel it is less smokey, a bit more citrusy than the previous one. Is anyone experiencing the same or I just need to be patient and let it spend more time in the bottle?

I really like this, but it seems like every time I attempt one of these fragrances, the initial spray is straight up BBQ smokehouse on me. I think I prefer Memoirs of a Trespasser if I want an “outdoorsy” type of campfire in autumn smell, as I think it’s more wood smoke rather than incense smoke and heavy on the Guaiac Wood which I love. It also has a little more sweetness.

The dry down of Bois d’Ascese is much better than the initial spray and the realistic campfire vibes really shine once it settles. Though not my top smoky fragrance, I’d absolutely rock it in the colder months.

7.5/10

Fifth sample of my set. Now this is right up my alley. Warm, beautiful ambery woods with a tinge of smoky incense. I get none of the booziness in this and the smoke to me is more of an incense smoke than tobacco. Either way, as a lover of incense and spices, this is fantastic. One of my favorites of the bunch for sure. This will be perfect for those cold autumn outings and winter days. If you enjoy Bois Sikar, this is in line with it, although the tobacco is not as forward to my nose here. Wonderful work by Julien Rasquinet, with great longevity and decent arm-length sillage.

This juice isn't just smokey fragrance. There's a subtle whiff of sweet notes from amber as well labdanum. My nose meter isn't able to pick up any boozy or oakmoss notes.
I have a sample and will be planning to get my hands on this juice.
I don't pick up camp fire vib, a more deep masculine fragrance that says, I'm confident, I have nothing to prove to anyone.
Longevity and Sillage is excellent. A fall/winter months fragrance, best in the evening. 9/10

Campfire and prunes. Smokey, a bit spicy, very nice. You must be into smokey perfumes to like this one

Smokey wood. Very sophisticated and mature. The projection could be a bit higher but it's long lasting. I love winter season just because of this fragrance. According to Jean-Luc, owner of Le Secret du Marais in Madrid, Naomi is very talented and she is creating exceptional fragrances. I bought it right after sniffing it.

I never thought I’d smell an elegant Smokey frag. This is it, all smoke up front but it really gets surprising in its dry down! Incense with the addition of oak moss and a scotch like peatyness. Fairly unique and classy for a Smokey frag

Straight up put a smile of excitement on my face right away after sniffing. Pure boat tar and bonfire with a piney, camphorous edge! I get immediate flashbacks to my childhood when dad used to tar the boat by the riverside. It's similar to Comme des Garçons Black, but less sweet and more frankincensey. A banger!

Very smokey woods. Overwhelming cade/birch tar and smoked cedar. Very natural feeling of being outdoors in the forest, the frigid air taming all the earthy and damp notes, leaving you with only the smokey campfire and the freshly chopped wood besides it.

It is surprisingly cozy and transportive. A really beautiful fragrance but at the end of the day I'd prefer to have this as a "log cabin" themed room spray than a fragrance to wear myself.

Islay scotch meets a small fire in a New England mountain forest. There's slight notes of lavender, iodine, and a subtle amber sweet/spicy element to it that adds depth to the otherwise very scotch-like presentation.
This is, put simply, one of the most sophisticated evening fragrances I own. If I'm going out to a nice dinner, this is what I'm wearing. It's strong, but not overpowering or headache-inducing, at all. A masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned, and I've yet to come across any other fragrance that tackles either smoke or whiskey notes with even a fraction of the refinement and accuracy of Bois d'Ascese. This will permanently remain in my collection.

From an artistic point, it's super cool that it smells almost exactly like a campfire in the woods. From a practical view, save the $200+ and go light a campfire.

So I had this down as a 'like' from a previous wearing and I'd stick to that, there's something interesting and comforting about this sort of perfume. However, I think the kind of person who seeks out such smoky thrills would be better served by something slightly less sophisticated than this, some indy bollocks where they dose birchtar like a pissed chef, or I reckon if you're into brands doing smoke and phenolic vibes, probably seek out Beaufort or something?
I appreciate the subtlety of this the smoke (that guaiac wood sort of BBQ) it hangs like a shroud over some other stuff underneath, which is frustratingly (but deliberately) never properly revealed. I get some booze and wood but it has a cool air to it both in temperature and temperament, flinty and a touch metallic even, reminds me of bonfire night as a kid when I had to do a performance of the gunpowder plot. Amazing how the olfactory nerve endings trigger these long term but rarely accessed memories.
I mean this perfume is doing no wrong by me, and if it was stronger and more powerful it probably would be annoying me now, but it's very well balanced I must say, fairly long lasting and present but reasonably quiet. This is not really my vibe but it was one of the trio I originally tried from this brand and it definitely fits in.

A perfect balance of wood, smoke, and moss. The wood here is dry, a mix of snappy kindling and scratchy logs. The smoke is very realistic campfire smoke, swaying with the wind, a little bit of barbeque savory but mostly just clean logs crackling slowly.

There is an undeniable herbal camphor quality that I don't see a lot of other comments mentioning. It's mossy and fresh, and it's what makes this stand out from other smoky fragrances.

Maybe it's because I am an urban, teetotal novice with an aversion to campfires that I don't get any of the notes referred to elsewhere (barbecues, cedar forests, whiskey etc). The first hit is just tar or stale petrol fumes, but thankfully this mellows into something dark, deep and slightly menacing. It's the scent of the lair of the wood demon.
As others have noted, subjective opinion is key. This is a demanding and insistent fragrance. You need to have the curiosity to try it, the courage to persevere with it and (hopefully) the consolation of savouring it, in private, away from the ignorance, judgments and downright disapproval of others.

On my skin, the opening smells of wet charcoal, which dries down an hour later into a nice incense. Unfortunately, that's about it. Maybe you'll have better luck.

This is the one. The holy grail of smokey smells. I have never encountered pure fiery smoke like this in any other perfume save maybe Smoke and Mirrors/Fumee from Alkemia. Certainly I've never found it in a mainstream or niche perfume. I have been prowling for a bonfire smell for, geez, years now. I have found barbecue sauce juice, I have found dozens of pines, incenses, and tobaccos with bare tiny hints of smoke, and I have found boozey, vanillic, marshmallow candle perfumes, but I have never until Bois D'Ascese found smoke and fire like this.

I don't detect all the listed notes, but I am assuming this is a "more than the sum of its parts" situation. To preface, I'm in late summer/early fall Southern California, which is still hovering in the mid 80s, and I am certain this will perform better in colder weather, but I still quite like it even at these temps. I get a super smokey, burning bonfire opening, and that goes on for (in this heat) about 20ish minutes. That starts to fade into a smoked cedar for a good forty minutes or so, and then I start to get the steady fire bubble. I'm in a little cloud of smoke, smoke from a fire, smokey wood, smoked whiskey, smokey amber. I generally DO NOT like amber, but I am not getting sickly sweet powdery amber, I'm getting gooey burning resinous amber. The cade oil brings in a touch of leather, like a leather jacket you wore to a bonfire with smoke clinging to it. It smells dangerous, comforting, amazing. Even in the heat where the smoke and burnt wood could border on too much, I get desert bonfire. I have been wearing it for several days now, in hotter and cooler weather (as cool as it gets out here this time of year, anyhow, which is about the 60s at best), and the smokiness goes from cowboy campire to scottish hearth. It lasted all day and I could smell myself, and my husband could smell me if close enough, but it doesn't project too far, which I personally love. It stayed pleasantly in my clothes like actual smoke. All this from a Luckyscent dabber vial, so I can't wait to smell it from an atomizer.

I just adore this. This is signature smell worthy, or at the least signature fall/winter smell. I personally don't think this leans too masculine, I find it very unisex, but I imagine the flowers and sugar perfume crowd wouldn't be interested. I full sized this with the quickness (50 ml shipped with taxes and fees for $150 USD from Nose Paris, for me, is a steal). If you want true bonfire, give this a try.

Truly the smokiest perfume I ever smelled. And without much of the incensey or herbaceous notes that can get in the way of a raw smokey scent. This is just pure wood burning.

شفتوا ريحه دخان الحطب في الشتاء هذي ريحه العطر لكن السؤال ينفع تتعطر بهذي الريحه ولا لا ؟ ويشبه الى حد كبير عطر سيتي اون فاير من ايماجنري اثر واحلى من هذا العطر

This is the sexiest fragrance. The initial scent is photorealistic campfire, the smoke and wood, then dries down to more amber, vanilla, and a little incense with strong wood still coming through. It's incredibly evocative. I do wish it lasted longer on me though, it faded within a couple hours.

On my skin it's not similar to "A City on Fire" which is fruity bomb (compared to BD'A) on my skin.

Bois D'Asceze from Naomi Goodsir got three stages evolution on my skin, which are:
1. SPA
2. Campfire
3. Incense

Projection is very intimate and if you try hard and put your nose into your arm you can get hints of tobacco (no whiskey unfortunately), but in drydown it's mostly only smoky woods backed with labdanum and little ambery note, so it's quite linear. If there's oak moss here it's definitely green, herbal and smoky.

Unfortunately cheaper option is just to have a good time with friends in the woods and spending the night near the campfire.

It's good perfume, just overpriced in my book and I think it does not have enough qualities to distinguish it from the situation mentioned above and wear it as perfume.

Very good longevity tho!

//Edit: After writing all above, about 3-4 weeks later I ordered 50ml bottle just because I got good offer for this one, so yeah - call my hypocrite.
//Edit2: Aaaaand sold it, I couldn't find any right moment to wear it, expect my house. :) If you're looking for something more wearable - try Bois Sikar Atelier des Ors.

One of the most beautiful smokey-tobacco-amber fragrances that I have ever stumbled on in niche selections, smells so exclusive , so different than many other ambery perfumes in the market, it makes you feel definitely in an exquisite ambience right from the first sniff on, boozy whiskey accords combined with precious smoky resins smell absolutely fantastic , the labdanum&cinnamon combo hits you in the heart unexpectedly and the oakmoss-tobacco duo carries you away in a dream-like atmosphere of a palace court with marbel floors and velvet walls, where your satin dress is rustling when your cavallier holding your hand carries you to the royal dance floor to start the opening waltz of the long anticipated palace ball night. Absolutely amazing and inspiring fragrance

Well blended, and high quality. That is definitely apparent in this perfume.

On first spritz on my skin, I very much get BBQ sauce? Maybe I'm getting more sweetness than booziness from the whiskey. Like not BBQ sauce in the bottle, but on the grill. I can hear the pop of the wood fire, see the flaming red and orange embers in the darkness of the woods at night.

There's absolutely no moisture in this fragrance, just dry dry smoke. Campfire and burning wood smoke, not so much incense smoke. I see charcoal, and the blackened charred pieces of wood left behind in the fire pit. The white flecks of ash dancing in the air and littering the floor.

I anticipate being madly in love with this in the Fall and Winter. The dry down is so comforting in its warmth and presence. Smells exactly like picking up your favorite jacket that you wore at the campfire and still smelling the smoke on it. But trying this in the middle of Summer in California, it immediately makes me reach for a glass of water. And dread the upcoming fire season.

I found this kind of a dry smoke and incense, and made me think of slate grey as a color. Austere, somewhat cool but could be warm too.

Charcoal more than tobacco or booze to me and nowhere near as pungent a smoke as city on fire, but does just have a touch of sulphur like that does.

Good but not worth the $ to get a full bottle personally as I think I could wear something like T-Rex if I want a more interesting smoky focused scent.

This is clever perfumery: art and wearability at its best. Yes it opens with a blast of smokey and bit meaty birch wood but soon it reveals a classic structure, that is a woody masculine cologne supported by a hefty dose of cedar and resins (not too much though, this isn't a heavy perfume despite the notes and image projected).
Some other perfumes do more or less the same, before and after BdA but here I find the woody/incense/smoky theme perfectly balanced and crafted.
10/10

This is a fire in the middle of the woods, under a starry night sky but there is a mystery to it.
It starts in the end, when the fire is fading and as it dies, the distinct smoke meshes more and more with the scent of the sharp yet resinous deep forest woods.
What happened before? Why does it start in the end?
...maybe this is too much but this perfume does this to me. The progress it has, from the overpowering smoky opening to a dry down that adds a gentle, very realistic forest-y smell; evokes the cold nights around the fire when i went camping with the Scouts. We sang songs, shared thoughts, sometimes we were just seated there admiring its beauty while the owls sang and the trees danced around us, in a kind of ritualistic communion.
Maybe it's this ritual that makes this perfume intriguing, this unknown ritual that you know nothing about because you arrived after it was finished, just picking the clues of what was left behind; and judging by the universe of this brand, it might have been a dark one.

Probably the most conceptual fragrance I've ever smelled. "The Tree of an Asceticism" — the name itself already prepares for an unusual and memorable experience. It is unlikely that Naomi Gudzir and Julien Raskin were inspired by the works of John of the Ladder or the equally famous "Φιλοκαλειν", but the analogies are clearly visible. Bois d'Ascese is an olfactory concept of abandoning earthly passions in favor of continuous growth in spirit. Here the point is not the height to which a person rises, but the continuity of this growth.

The fragrance also grows along with my imaginary-associative neophyte, which is too ardent, sublimely romantic, and dreamy. First, he refuses such trifles as tobacco and alcohol (top notes are whiskey and tobacco). With "women", that is, cinnamon, amber and labdanum, is more difficult to break. They create a gentle, sweetish accord that changes the rough beginning beyond recognition and makes you inhale it again.

But the struggle continues, and the fragrance is already reaching the last level of asceticism — renunciation of everything earthly (oak moss, cedar, incense). A small hermit's cell, a wooden bed without a mattress, the "Ladder", canons, volumes of the Platonists, an image on a small tablet, a lamp with a "spider" on which a piece of incense burns out. But Bois d'Ascese diffuses, the top and middle notes that have gone nowhere reappear, droop, eat into the hard woody-incense base. And now, among this ascetic idyll of mossy cedar and incense, will appeal “memories of the past”: a frosty glass of whiskey, the smoke of Perique, and a beautiful young woman, from whose shoulders the smell of ambergris and cinnamon was so exciting.

This is 110% my fall/winter go-to. The sample I got was so intoxicating, and while the bottle didn't sit quite the same I still love it. It's very smoky on me at first application, but the dry down gets really woody and incenscey on me. It is not very loud on me - I tended to add a spritz throughout the day. It's hard to describe - you want this scent to be present and not too much of a skin scent... but it's quite spectacular in both gentle vs generous application. The more I wear, the more avant-garde this scent feels to me; the less - comfier. I generally do not like these types of scents but I found it to be a real confident scent for me. It makes me want a dram of Whisky or Scotch!

Turned onto this by a dear friend. So beautiful, charred, woody, incensey, and sexy. It’s his signature so I wear it when I am not around him.

Oh, boy... This was a rollercoaster! In the opening I am transported by the fireplace, so realistic that it makes me to pause for a moment. After a while this potion takes me to a church with incense, priests, "botafumeiro" and dripping candles. In the drydown, the silence strikes with a wave of amber. Thanks for the ride! Impressive :)

Sophisticated smoky, incense, tobacco amber. Too synthetic for me personally but very well blended.

To my nose and on me, this smells like a man/woman in a cabin who has been stoking the fire all night. A campfire, a fireplace. This doesn't pull ashy to me. It pulls woodsmoke and amber. A bit of sweetness on the dry down.

To me, this scent almost reminds me of a grandfather? Perhaps it's the tobacco, though usually I don't have that response. I don't necessarily find this to be a sexy scent, it reminds me of when you are walking down the street and someone is burning a fire in their home and you suddenly get a whiff of the smoke on the street. I think it's a good smell but not necessarily attractive. Would be wonderful to wear to a Christmas Market.

Superb. This scent is neither masculine nor feminine. It belongs to the universe. This is the scent of starry, cold nights, a dwindling campfire and solitary self-reflection.

My son (7) said it smelled to him like a Christmas tree on fire. So, it’s a bit polarizing.

I haven’t found a niche fragrance I like better. I adore it in spite of its flaws—it’s linear and it has pretty poor performance and sillage, but it still offers something so insanely unique. It opens with a very strong, realistic woodsmoke—like the smoke from a bonfire of cedar wood or piñon. But there’s a warm, dry sweetness settled just behind. The cedar/pine remain in the drydown in as the sweet smell of oozing resin and fallen needles heated in the hot summer sun… Reminds me of my childhood summer camping trips in groves of cedar near the sea. Incense and a sweet amber come through too. The incense smells sacramental but not dreary or pretentious. Overall an elevating, uplifting, beautiful scent for me.

Only thing is that I like scents that smell “sexy” and this is not it. It’s beautiful but not sensual. Also, BDA just kind of disappears when it’s done shedding the last of its amber, incense, and labdanum—it doesn’t seem to bloom much on skin.

Well, I can honestly say I’ve tried. I tried it at the perfume store, then I ordered a sample online, I’ve been testing it for three days now. I went back and forth between hating it and thinking I love it (probably due to the hype), but now it’s clear to me - I strongly dislike it. Where I run there’s a golf course where they burn chopped up tree branches and trunks and, to my nose, it’s the exact smell captured in this bottle. It’s rather foul. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to smell like that. I don’t even want to smell it in the air, let alone on a person. It’s the same category as smelling like gasoline, or even on the other end of that spectrum (something actually pleasant) - freshly cut grass. I do like the smell of freshly cut grass, but not on me. If you were to ask me what the difference was between smelling like flowers (which I think is completely fine) but not grass, I wouldn’t know, but that’s how I feel. From this perfume I get absolutely no other note except burning wood. P.S. I have all the other Naomi Goodsir perfumes and love them.

EDIT 3 weeks later: I don’t know why but I’ve been coming back to the sample over and over again, and there’s just something about this smoke that draws me to it. I still stand by what I said, it’s a whole lot of incinerated wood, but for whatever reason I want to smell it. Anyway, my conclusion would be to give this one quite a few chances.... I think I’ll get a decant

Review Foundation: Have a tester, live in a high humidity country, tried because I am looking for a fire/burning/campfire scent. // Thoughts: started off with a wonderful burning fragrant wood. Absolutely love it. Lasted a long while before going into a warm rich tobacco, like the leaves in a nice cigar. // End Opinion: I do really like this, and I want to adore it but I already have City on Fire and while there are differences it’ll come down on the feeling of the day. I feel this is more alive and City on Fire more noir. I tested this on both myself and my husband, as I did with City on Fire. City on Fire smells burning on me but like a gross cigarette ashtray on my husband. But this, this, smells fantastic on both of us. I have tried a great deal of “this smells like a campfire/burning wood” fragrances and this is the one that is most true *AND* has that part of the scent last the longest.

I dont get the hype with this frag at all. It is a very linear ash tray or burnt cedar ash scent. I really wonder who would want to smell like that? I dont get any whiskey and amber note. Save your money for a Kerosene Blackmail which has way more twist with the incensy vibe.

Update: Haha this is embarrassing. I gave it a second chance yesterday. I actually wore it out instead of just pressing my nose against my wrist. Now I am sensing the citrusy touch, amber, and spices, and it dries down wonderfully with wafts of cedar smoke and a tad bit sweetness.
True beauty and very magnetic. This one need to be wore in a distance to appreciate its projection and sillage.

@rhinestonecowboy
But is he single and can you give him my digits?

It’s a brisk Saturday in 2002 and your hairy chested Israeli cousin shows up late to synagogue in jeans. He can get away with it because he is attractive and charming enough to placate anyone, including the rabbi. He doused himself in something that envelopes the room with a swell of sweetened and moderated masculinity. The scent of his mother’s Vogue cigarette smoke is lightly clinging to his jacket. As the rabbi blows out a candle at the end of the service, he walks out the door before any of the congregants can corner him and prod about his personal life, leaving a devastatingly handsome resin bomb in his wake.

10/10

This is a totally wearable bonfire essence.

I'm conflicted, because on one hand this smells like incense, and specifically the kind that is used in Catholic churches. On the other hand, I've always liked that scent, and I don't think any church deserves a monopoly on it. The only real whiskey notes I get are very smoky scotch notes (think Laphroaig), which I enjoy, but I think the emphasis is more on the smoke and less on the whiskey. I don't think I could ever wear this without thinking of church, which is about the furthest thing from sexy or joyful or cozy in my experience. Shame.

To me Bois d'Ascese smells like a campfire (made purely of cedarwood) made in the middle of the sawmill. Very prominent factors I can smell are: ash (whole a lot of ash actually!), cedarwood (which is a solid backbone, background to it) and an incense smoke. It opens up very ash-y and when it dries down it becomes more and more woody and the smoke transforms strictly into frankincense smoke.

What I really like is a fact, that Bois d'Ascese is a relatively dry scent on my skin. It sticks pretty close to the skin and does not make a scent cloud, maybe just a little bubble.

Longevity on my skin is 10+ hours and the sillage is very big at the beginning, but it mutes itself a little bit. This is potent so one or two sprays from a decanter are good for me.

I think all lovers of smoked scotch whisky should sniff this.

It seems unwearable upon first impression, but something about it is intriguingly wearable!

This smells like someone set fire to a whiskey barrel in the middle of a church. It’s fantastic! Gothic, dry textured, smoky. The story is apparently Naomi used to own a chapel in Australia and it burned down in a forest fire. Imagine that encapsulated in a perfume.

A total scrubber for me, I'm afraid. I was trying something outside my comfort zone (powdery violets and rose) but I think I rather too large a jump outside it with this. Its marketed as unisex, but this is masculine through and through. Its Bonfire Night-woodsmoke, fireworks, someone smoking a pipe all mixed together. There's a sort of chemical medicinal note as well, like when you burn wood that has pitch on it. It dries down to pine and ashes and a bit of incense. There's not a molecule of sweetness or softness in it. I think I would love this in a candle, its a warming and cosy sort of fragrance, but not as scent on me. Its very loud at first, but settles within 30 minutes and becomes a bit more restrained, but it is still obtrusive and in your face for ages.

Forget about all those sweet notes...whiskey, cinammon, amber, labdanum...there is none in there. This is the closest to the smell of a cold ashtray and nothing else. Yes, artistic it is, but not wearable to me. It reminds me of Trudon Revolution but that trudon is at least wearable at some point.

خداوندگار اسموک
اینجا سوختن زیباترین خاطرات و داشته هایتان را عمیقن درک میکنید
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Scent & Quality: 10/10
Longevity: 10/10
Sillage: 8/10
Creativity & Uniqueness: 9/10
Affordability: 3/10
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Overall: 8 +1= 9/10

The devil is in the details and Naomi Goodsir is the devils advocate.

So this is the last of all the fragances from Naomi Goodsir that i am testing out. First of all, i must say: what a stunning, daring, explosive house! Truly niche quality on all of the scents. ALL OF THEM are intriguing and worth checking out.

With that said, i can´t wear them all, it´s not possible. The fragances are so far out of my league (in some cases) that all i can do is to appreciate the quality, but then leave the frag behind me, it´s not for me. Seriously, i like all of them, but i will keep only 2 in my collection.

This is not one of them. But it´s great! Tobacco, booze and sandalwood, for what it´s worth, lovely blended, and as i said before, daring. It´s tuned down pretty fast, so don´t worry, you won´t offend people. You will have amber and church incense in the dry down, wich to me, always is a thumbs up.

Mabey i´ll have to change my mind and actually add this to my collection... this is art!

Instagram: @a_fraghags_tale

This was another of the luckyscent samples a loved one let me try, and it's one I chose to keep. On application, I got smoke, reminiscent of times around a campfire and the scent is like that of a log of pine or cedar wood that's been burnt into nearly black charcoal. It's a bit too smoky for me and I didn't apply much so a little goes a long way. This fragrance also brought me back in time to when I used to attend a women's circle for rituals around a fire out in the woods at night where we'd each apply pieces of birchwood, pieces of pine or cedar and also burnt incense. This fragrance definitely evokes a sense of that sacred space, of incense and smoke and meditation.

After the first hour, the scent became more leathery and brought back vivid memories of riding the motorcycle of a good friend where we'd both be wearing leather jackets. There's a spicy-amber mix that comes into play about a hour in and rounds off the fragrance. It's a scent to wear on a day like this one which is cool, damp and rainy, and overcast and where you're going to stay indoors curled up by the fireplace with a good book. I can't imagine wearing this when out with others, nor is it suited to the office due to its intense heady smokiness. It's definitely suited to wearing with a quality leather jacket as the loved one who'd given me this in the luckyscent sample commented when I was wearing it the other day.

This is definitely a fragrance for lovers of smokiness and cedar, and it brings to mind sitting around the campfire with friends, pieces of cedar wood being added to keep you warm, and watching the sparks flying up against the darkening evening sky. It's a very evocative fragrance and if you have any memories of campfires when younger or of wearing leather whilst riding a motorcycle, this will vividly bring those memories back to you.

The sillage is moderate with it becoming a skin scent more rapidly than I'd anticipated. The projection is quite good, though, and it's easy to underestimate this because once applied your nose quickly adapts to the fragrance so it's best to apply a little at a time. Whilst as a woman I find this quite nice, I prefer to layer it with my Clarin's Eau Dynamisante EDT just to take the edge off the smokiness and to give it a lighter note. That way, too, I'm able to wear it out and people have enjoyed the mix whilst this fragrance on its own often come across as a bit too strongly smoky. However, I'm sure some people prefer not to 'dilute' it in any way and just wear it by itself.

The opening is a blast of over-the-top smoke and birch tar which reminds me of the smell of a char-coaled grill after a cookout. As it dries down it becomes boozier, woodier a bit warm with soft lingering spiciness. Pretty linear - not much development. The overall picture it paints is campfire and prohibition soaked wooden barrels on a cold brisk night. Interesting but not worth owning nor appealing to me.

Wow! I did not expect that!

Simply put, it reframes every single facet of the Tianjian tea (天尖茶, literally means tea from heaven's ridge), a variant of Anhua dark tea (安化黑茶), originated from Hunan province in China.

Analogously, tea has six categories, namely green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong, dark tea and yellow tea, that pretty much resembles fougere, oriental, chypre etc in perfumery. Each category contains dozens of "base" notes in taste that are highly shared within one certain sub-category yet different between sub-categories. Besides, taking dark teas as example, they have also big brands like designers in perfumery, say Baishaxi (白沙溪), Xiangyi (湘益) and China Tea (中茶), as well as niche and indie houses that are appealing to nuanced markets.

The most realistic tea fragrance that I've ever smelled all these years, however, it might be not the original intent of the perfumer, given Tianjian tea is such a "niche" variant that is only familiar to dark tea aficionado.

Rating: 9/10

Early autumn bonfire and a bottle of Laphroaig is being passed around - the person next to you is wearing Hinoki oil.

its not for everyone but I think thats what makes is so great. A personal favourite!

* the packaging for this is very slick and well designed.

I love it.

I’ve been wearing Bois d’Ascese for more than 8 hours and it’s still going strong. The opening first few minutes made me think of a BBQ... a sweet, smokey BBQ. It was so realistic, that it made me hungry.

Initially I thought this might be too masculine, but not in the way the Cuir Velours was on my skin. Once I was in the drydown I realized I could pull it off. One of the most realistic smoky tobacco and gourmand scents I’ve ever worn. It’s just delicious.

P.S. I finally understand all the love for Naomi Goodsir.

Honestly it's not as harsh as people make it seem. It's so easy to wear and I smell like a great smelling man. I'm usually fine to wear unisex/male frags but this one is just TOO masculine for me to wear as a woman

I don't get the campfire so much as a forest smell complete with hints of sap.
With its small silage I'd consider it a landscape scent for basically personal wear and anyone who gets within a few feet of you.

I've had this a year and rarely used it as it is truly a brutal smoke smell. I get nothing but smoke, like a snuffed out campfire smoke, which isn't bad, but just hard to find a place to wear it other than home. I now layer it with Divine Vanilla by Essential Parfums and it blends well enough to wear out at night. Don't get me wrong, it is a very good scent for what it is and true art, but hard to wear except in informal situations among close friends.

On paper & from the bottle this smelled like a gothic cathedral to me so I bought a sample a week later from Luckyscent

On my skin it was a different story, the opening is smoky mesquite wood with a tiny flash of mineral like oud vapor

After a few more minutes I notice a little bit of incense & a lot of mesquite wood

after an hour it becomes more of a cypress wood scent on my skin, I never got any whisky, labdanum, oakmoss, or tobacco, maybe a tiny hint of cinnamon but barely noticeable, I smell sage & wood...

My partner said it smelled like camping in the forest on me

A beautiful, rich smoke that captures a by-the-bonfire feel. To quote the review that encouraged me to get it, it smells like "a sexy campfire". Definitely worth trying if you're a fan of smokey perfumes, and in my opinion you won't find a truer smokey fragrance.

9/10

The Goodsir website describes it as "RADICAL / MYSTICAL / STATEMENT" - sounds exciting! None of the above. Okay, maybe it smells a touch mystical, but in the way the apartment of that chick you know who claims to be a wiccan priestess (but by day she's an office assistant for a cosmetic dentist) smells.

It's perfectly nice. Incense, a little campfire smoke, sweet booze and amber... You've smelled it before, even if you've never smelled it before. Perfectly nice, perfectly uninteresting, far more more commonplace than it thinks it is, just like the wiccan priestess.

I really enjoy this one. Very artistic, introspective, meditative, pure scent.

To me this smells like entering into an old abandon church, in a little town where nobody lives any longer, and you just sit in one of the old wooden benches to enjoy in peace the beauty of the silence. You are surrounded by the incenses of old times celebrations, and the woods ate by the pass of the time.

Quality of materials, excellent blend, straight forward composition, that in the right mood can touch your heart.

Originality: High

Scent: 7.5/10

Performance: medium-high

Would I buy it: Yes (already in my collection)

I was hoping for more tobacco and whiskey but this is mostly a smokey scent. Somewhere between a nice incense and a campfire. Now, don't get me wrong, I love smokey scents that are strong and dry but, as someone else noted, I am not sure this is very wearable.
I would love my clothes to smell like this after camping or would love it as a cabin scent but not to wear. Used my sample today and I do not expect the usual commenters at work to give this a thumbs up.

Oh, YES! I've been looking for something dark and mysterious, with whisky and smoke, for a while now. Up until Bois d'ascèse, everything else had fallen short, whether due to bad longevity, or too much amber sweetness, or not enough booze. But this delivers on all those fronts. The three main user-identified notes say it all: this is a dry but powerful smoke-tobacco-whiskey BOMB! Nothing subtle about it, yet so well formulated, all the elements distinguishable but very well blended. Don't worry, there's also a woody-resinous-amber scaffolding clinging to the core that rounds off the edges and gives a bit of complexity/depth. This burly darling is truly a wild child at heart, though. And all the better for it!

I've had a bottle of this for about 8 months now, smelled it at the Scent Bar and slapped my cash down. Many reviews mention price, this is a contentious issue in the fragrance world today, but it all comes down to what dictates your value. For me it's composition. Yes it's up there in cost per ml, but worth it. This fragrance is not only very unique, but really a masterpiece, a desert island fragrance, especially because I tend to wear it in times of solitude. It's a juxtaposition of brooding and crisp. The powerful incense accord is exceptionally analogous to the "real" thing, and gives it a soulful tone. Beneath that there is a timeless, textbook chypre composition, always overshadowed by the smoky incense, but very beautiful. The effect to me is very masculine and refined, as such is not a "crowd pleaser" it is a sophisticated scent for the connoisseur. Does not have a huge projection and you can safely wear it out and about while keeping your amazing scent bubble close enough for you to enjoy. For me personally, in my top 3, to satisfy your curiosity my top two would be 1. Dead Of Night and 2. Clive Christian No. 1.

This is simply the best smoky tobacco fragrance I got to smell as of today. It is a lighten-up cigar, smoky, spicy, with a support of booze and woods, extremely refined. The best smoky tobacco I have ever got to smell. Projection is moderate/heavy, and longevity is great.

Why I haven't bought it yet? Well... $180 for just 50ml is a tough shot...

Majestuous.

Fall/Winter evenings, 30+

Strong and realistic aroma of Lapsang souchong tea leaves and a hint of lanolin. Spiritual. I love it, but I’m not sure I can wear this as a perfume. I’d rather just smell it in the air when meditating... perhaps. I can see myself getting addicted to this. Beautiful.

This beauty smells like a whiskey with resin, smoke and tar. A bit like Laphroaig.
The cedar appears after the opening and settles down with the resinous whiskey.

I could also compare it with being outdoors and letting the clothes soak up the whiffs of the campfire, the air and timber.

Sort of reminds me of the opening of Chaman´s Party by Honores des Pres.

Linear, long lasting and really nice!

the definitive scent of whiskey, wood smoke, tobacco and cedar wood.
very alcoholic in the opening. then I imagine myself and my girlfriend eating in the mountain hut with the fireplace lit. at the end of dinner our clothes smell of burnt wood smoke and cedar wood that comes from outside. all while I sip a whiskey and a friend next to me and I smoke a cigar.
some notes of amber, labdanum and oak moss.
excellent perfume but I would not buy it. too extreme for me. but I admit it's really good. 8/10
excellent performance.

Amazing.

Recently extinguished wood fire.
Frankincense.
Fresh cigar tobacco.
Oak-aged bourbon.
Underpinned by a spicy, bright waif.

Wish longevity on mine was better but I am using a 1ML sample so that doesn't warrant a generalization of the product.

One of the best "smokey"/"tar" fragrances out there, and I've made a mission to try as many as I can.

A+

You are entering a sacred forest, its late fall and the earth is moist with the night rain, you can smell the humidity, fresh moss and the leaves that are starting to turn while releasing the most beautiful decaying aroma. Deep into the woods there is a church, where incense is slowly burning and you can't quite make out the ritual thats happening inside. You can smell the wood, almost boozy intoxicating labdanum and thick melting amber at the altar dancing in this beautiful smoky madness. This is a dark journey into the depths of the unknown. Give it time to show you all the hidden paths within it, trust me it won't disappoint you. Its comforting and strange at the same time. I have been loving this perfume for the past 6 years and it is still as captivating to me as the first time i ever smelled it.

@olyabar

What a great fragrance for Cedar lovers it opens up with a lot of smoke and booziness kinda heavy hitter but not in a bad way. Then in a few minutes the cedar comes in and it is beautiful the Insence and Tobacco make is more heavier and smoky which makes the composition really nice.
It smells like you're sitting in a forest by the fireplace in a cold evening and someone is peelingi off the cedar wood.
Its kinda dark but really wearable not animalic or offensive in my opinion.
Perfect fragrance for outdoor folks who like to wear Cedar fragrances.

Bois d'Ascese is a smoke based scent suitable for winter/fall and cool spring days. The opening is quite challenging with strong and dominant smoke & tyre which transforms gradually into a campfire smoke with hints of hay. As time passes it changes again into a burned wood smell with a dusty vibe. After a while it smells like a dusty old bookshelf with very old books. A familiar smell of mine as I used to have a collection of old books. Then comes the cedar, strong but not enough in order to cover the dominant smoke, has a light sourness like a faint lemon peel accord. Yes, there's no a nice incense note here. It's all about smoke. I get smoke, cedar, labdanum, mild amber, very faint pencil shavings and very mild whisky. I don't get much booziness from it. The labdanum with the mild amber make this scent wearablr but not pleasant enough. This is not safe or a crowd pleaser scent and its versatility is zero. It smells better in the air and not from up close. The dry down is much better than the opening. It's not a unique smell for me but it's well blended without drama. 

It is a long lasting scent with moderate sillage. The projection is heavy for some minutes but it calms down pretty quickly.

If you love smoke, give it a try. 

The most realistic and quality cedar fragrance I have ever smelled

If you love cedar then celebrate, this is your holy grail

I get some smokiness and a little resin and 6 to 8 hours longevity,fair projection and alright sillage

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood ?

This is dangerously addictive. The salty bonfire opening
gives way to a nuanced yet expansive incense. A coastal conflagration.

I got this from a sample set from LuckyScent. Bois d'Ascese has a strong and boozy smell. Also reminds me of the smells from a fresh overturned log mixed with whiskey. Makes me feel like I’m going to have a hangover. I do not like hangovers.

Tobacco in a pipe, smoked meat, campfire, those bales of hay around animal exhibits at the fair.

Mostly, it reminds me of campfires from my Boy Scout days. I find it very pleasant and nostalgic.

Smoky campfire / bonfire / woodfire. Reminds me a lot of A City On Fire by Imaginary Authors.

My first review here and I'm certainly not a perfume expert so I'm just going to try to give my reactions to this scent for what they are worth.

Testing from a sample in a dauber vial:
On application a very strong blast of burning wood smoke, kind of like when you're standing at a bonfire and the wind switches around blowing the smoke directly into your face (minus the watering eyes, thank heavens). After a few seconds, the sharpness settles a little and the smell starts to take up more of a pipe tobacco smell, much more mellow and pleasant but with that wood fire still quite evident. Over the next several minutes it continues to mellow and I start to pick up faint hints of cinnamon and some incense. The cinnamon note is quite faint and soon disappears but the incense note seems to expand and grow stronger, still with the wood very present there in the background, but with the burnt aspect of it toned down.

For the next half hour, or so, I'd describe it as a dance between the incense and the wood taking turns coming forward then receding. Eventually it turns into a mostly incense skin scent on me.

I never really pick up the whiskey note although, now, I am second guessing myself that maybe the early tobacco note might have been a whiskey scented tobacco. I'll have to test again to check that out.

As an overall impression, I love this. It creates a delicious experience and I can certainly see myself applying it generously and really enjoying it on another grey, damp day like today when I just want to curl up at home. However, I'm not at all sure that I can see myself using it on a day when I have to go out and meet the world.
I'm not sure if those I come in contact with will register it as an interesting, or even odd choice of perfume, or if they'll just think I bought my shirt at a fire sale.

This maybe the first scent I end up buying as a small decant just for at home use.

The scent of my soul.

Bois d'Ascese is everything I wanted it to be and more. It mostly smells like smoke, tar and burned wood. It reminds me of my childhood when I spend a lot of time at my grandparents' farm. The farm was by the lake and they had a smoke sauna right on the edge of the water. A smoke sauna is chimneyless; the woodsmoke from the stove permeates the air and then drifts out through smaller openings on the walls. The wooden walls of the sauna were obviously pitch black and saturated with smoke. The smell was really strong and almost pungent, but still absolutely gorgeous. In addition to that, there were wooden boats on the shore and they were treated with tar. All those scents together created a mesmerizing combination and that's what I get from Bois D'Ascese. A couple of sprays and I travel back in time into my childhood summers. I feel content and peaceful. Dry woody and tarry smoke with a dash of tobacco and whiskey. It's uncompromising and linear, but not harsh. A masterpiece.

It's quite long-lasting with a moderate projection. The performance is perfect for this kind of scent because it could easily become unbearable in beast mode. Some might say it leans more to the masculine side of unisex and it's probably not something that people traditionally consider as feminine, but, on the other hand, it's such a natural scent that it can be seen as genderless. I'm a female and I wear this one without any hesitation.

The perfect fire place, cozy woods and lots of smoke

Bone dry, peaty smoke. If you don't like smoke, avoid; the opening literally smells like a campfire. No joke. I absolutely adore this but it's basically smoke and the most peaty whisky you ever smelled. There's nothing sweet here, this is a dry, sere incense fragrance. It has an amazing texture though: smooth, warm, velvety... you can almost feel it. Like warm, smoothly planed wood sitting in the afternoon sun, or the smell of hot, dry wood in a sauna (except the smell is far less sweet). Sacramental.

Luckyscent compares this to Lugavulin whiskey of which I have a bottle, and it is an acquired taste for sure. I compare Lugavulin to Valerian tea which is very dark, soil, mossy flavored. I picture layers of mossy earth under moldy damp trees.

So using the little glass vial, this opened with a smokey wood and wet cow barn (including the manure) which soon calmed down to a burnt bacon and smokey campfire with a faint sweetness, maybe that’s the cinnamon incense. I have found that glass vial samples don't always tell the whole story but based on the dry down I would consider a bottle after a few more sample tests.
Definitely not a blind buy.

Almost criminally wonderful, insanely high-class incense-woodsmoke heaven at a definitely criminal price. Has certain notes of cade and cedariness in common with Perfumer H Charcoal (my great blazing love), but it is gentler and more fragrant than that - there's no mist or wet leaves in here as with Charcoal. Bois d'Ascese smells a bit more like a sauna set on fire - the wood aspect is really really expensive-seeming timber - but there is much more than just woodsmoke going on - the spicing is also masterfully done and really nuanced. The initial burst is almost medicinal; the whisky restrained; everything beautifully organic and nuanced. Other people complain of 'bacon' or 'kippers' or 'ribs' or other barbecued food but I don't get any of that, just pure wonderful smoke.

This may smell like a beast but it doesn't perform like one - it contracts hard, to a skin scent only after 3-4h in my experience, but it lingers long and even the tiniest whiff is bewitching. To me, very easy indeed to see why it's so widely recommended - certainly extreme and smoky enough to be distinctive, but done with a controlled hand and just overloaded with beauty. I'm going to try this again in a straight battle with Charcoal, and get hold of a tester of Trudon Revolution first, but depending on how that pans out, this one may zoom straight to the top of the want list very soon.

Warning: this may polarise, and is certainly not a good candidate for a blind buy - it really is almost one of a kind.

I got this as a sample from one of the decant companies. This is a very particular review based entirely on my own preferences.

I wish I had paid closer attention to the scents before I tried this. I do not like the smell of whiskey, strong cedar, or oakmoss. The whiskey scent is overwhelming for the first twenty or so minutes. It is not sweet or caramel-malty whiskey, either. Rather, at least to me, it is heavily medicinal with just a touch of honey. After the whiskey fades, I smell strong cedar. It is a cedar that is not familiar to me in nature. In my part of the US, I am used to Northern Whites, which have a much more "moderate" smell than the cedar scent in this cologne. If I had to guess at the cedar scent of this fragrance, it would be based on a calocedrus rather than the thuja occidentalis in my backyard. I am always mystified by "incense" scents. They are not described with sufficient particularity for me to understand what they are supposed to be.

On the positive side, I love the smell of certain pipe tobaccos, particularly those that are sweet. That scent is heavy here at the outset. It lends a warmth that I otherwise find lacking in this fragrance.

I'm not a huge fan of posting negative things (outside of Yelp, that is). So, I repeat that this is a very particular review.

Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí 1951

To me, Bois D'Ascese has two parts. The opening, which lasts around 15 minutes, is an explosion of the listed notes. You get smoke with a distinct hickory flavor (thankfully restrained and temporary) mixed with ambery sweetness and boozey notes from whiskey. It's not as elegant as I make it sound though. The opening is kind of jarring and messy and everything mixes together in a way that you're not sure smells good together. It's smokey, it's cold, it's sweet, it's dry, it's chemical, it's natural, it's confusing. HOWEVER, Then comes the drydown, which lasts around 4 hours, and is the real reason to own a full bottle. It starts off with pencil shavings and quickly becomes the smell of chimneys on the first cold evening of fall. It's amazing the way it makes your skin and close surroundings smell like your clothes do after spending the night by a campfire. It conjures images of dry oak leaves on the ground, crunching beneath leather boots. It captures the way burning wood smells in cold temperature with low humidity, that crispness. I recommend spraying heavily and disregard the opening which doesn't last very long.
PS: I am wearing today on a cold fall afternoon and it’s beautiful. There is a base of leather that fits nicely with the theme. Brings back memories of growing up in a house in the woods and my attic bedroom with hardwood floors and the fireplace directly below downstairs.

I'll start out by saying I'm an oriental woody kind of guy and I love woody scents. I was anxious to try this one, and I did like it. It has a smokey wood scent that smells like a bonfire or a fire in the fireplace or a campfire = burnt wood. The woody scent is good. However, to me, IMHO, it is a one note scent. That's all I got for the entire time it lasted, i did not get the other notes listed. And it didn't last all that long. Like I said, I liked it, but definitely not to buy a FB. That said, much better woody scents that are much more complex and rich, and that last longer (again, IMHO) are Tauer's L'Air Du Desert Marocain (LOVE this very woody complex scent) and Profumo Roma's Arso (beautiful complex woody scent that dries down to a pine resin - heavenly for me). I recommend you try samples/decants of those two and you'll get what you came for!

Apre denso,carico,bruciato e umido con una nota pungente tipo lucido da scarpe.
circa 15 minuti dopo allontanando il polso,inizio a captare belle zaffate di cedro austero e incenso.
Una volta che il whisky si asciuga un po' ricevo bene anche ambra calda, cannella e ladano.
Super elegante e maturo.
Forte, crudo ed elegante con un bicchiere di whisky che fa' compagnia.
Bois d'ascese e' duro,macho e senza evoluzioni particolari.
Si deposita meraviglioso sulla pelle.
Eviterei l'applicazione sul collo perche troppo hard concentrandomi sui polsi.
Con questo profumo si gode in lontananza e sicuro fara' felice chiunque si trovi dietro di voi,nella vostra macchina e nei paragi.
Roba buona!!!

If you are an outdoorsy , Autumn camping/campfire lover of all things woods and smoke..You will LOVE this ! Alternatively , if you can imagine sitting in a large old study , with endless shelves of old books , sipping whisky in front of a blazing fireplace , and you want to recreate that in a fragrance , you too will love this .

Bois d'Ascese is wood shavings, incense and campfire smoke blended into an exquisite , hypnotic fragrance .

Smells like smoke of burning coal and lamb and BBQ in a jungle!completely annoying and unwearable!bcz its not a perfume to wear.its a concept.when u smell it you can close your eyes and imagine a place.thats what it is.creating a scene by smelling.
After 5 minutes had to scrub my wrist 4-5 times to remove it!that was just oh gosh!to describe its sillage best is to say something like Amouage Interlude!imagine it.so potent.if you wear BDI going out,you will recieve some explicit insulting contents:D
Anyway good concept and i can get what Julien Rasquinet was looking for.think he knows himself its an unwearable perfume.my 2ml sample is enough for me.

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5.5/10

JERKY LUMBER

I am not an expert, but I have smelled a lot of fragrances and I can tell you that, for me, this actually smells bad. When I put it on (applied from a sample that I got from luckyscent) I was quite surprised, since not only was it not appealing but it reminded me of something that I smelled a long time ago that I couldn't quite place. And then it came to me: boot conditioner. It smelled like a waterproofing emollient that I applied to my hiking boots about forty years ago.

There is some incense in here but there is also a kind of a bitter smoke that ruins it. Now I am an old guy whose taste runs to fougeres and orientals, so take this for what it is worth, but with this one you must try before you buy.

Wow I fall in love with this cologne.It is the best incense-tobacco and boozy composition that I smelled.
It is bitter, luxury ,chic , deep and very nice scent.
I love it.
9/10

As a good rule of thumb, one should always try a fragrance on skin, rather than just on a tester strip. For this one, adherance to that rule will serve you well, for on the card this struck me at first as though I was smelling a perfume called Lays Barbecue Potato Chips Pour Homme™.

However, when you spray this one on the skin, all the talk of campfire fragrances, which have dissapointed a great deal many throughout the years are suddenly smashed to pieces, for here there is a very dense campfire smoke that, even when it's light all you need is the smallest whiff to be knocked off your ass.

There is a strong char note, that can occasionally smell like a well cooked piece of bacon or the mesquite woodchips in your fire. There is a definite whiskey note you can smell hiding with the labdanum beneath the thick smoke and woodsy notes.

This is a different kind of smokey from your Amouage's and your incense heavy fragrances it definitely brings to mind the smell of a manmade campfire, and perhaps even a post-gourmond quality that suggests having been out in the woods camping for weeks - if I had to describe it, I would say this is the way an American shows up to an incensed UN meeting.

10/10

YT: Jess AndWesH

I grew up with a wood stove and fireplace being used frequently during the winter months. So I have always had a soft spot for perfume that places "smoke" front and center. Here we have the the king of the hill as far as I am concerned regarding a smoke filled perfume. There is little subtle layering, rather a full frontal smoke assault that makes me grin from ear to ear. This juice is what I refer to as a base fragrance. The opening is what I get at drydown. Forget nuance here, this juice is a well placed right hook to the jaw. Picture a frozen winter day with the scent of wood fires burning mixed with a touch a dry pine. Dry smoke in a bottle. I could not be happier. Went through half a bottle in less then a month before I cooled my spray trigger finger. I suppose some might find this a difficult scent if your wheelhouse is spun by the more conventional designer/department store flankers of the moment. To my nose this is crazy sexy juice, full of confidence and swagger. I get about six hours before this creeps away to a low, very low level skin scent. On my second bottle now, and see wearing this lovely beast many years down the road.

It's the scent of a beautiful winter's fire that's just gone out and as you enter that log-cabin, you get a hit that's just wonderful - the burnt ambers smoking away, leaving their mark on the wooden beam above the inglenook that's been there for a century. It's full of emotion, story and nature - it's not for the faint hearted. Perfect for a cold winters day or anytime you need that little blanket of comfort from the flame of memory.

Scent - whiskey, incense & tobacco.

Season/Time of Day - I prefer to use this one in the warmer months, day or night.

Projection - I didn't get noticed, I didn't get a compliment.

Longevity - I get 24hrs consistently.

One of the most elegant and alluring tobacco and real smoke fragrance I own!

7/10

Haunting and undeniably sexy, this Is a mysterious and powerfully masculine scent. The smoky incense erupts in plumes of smoke, swirling around dry pipe tobacco, fresh cut cedar, and rich, deep oak moss.

The effect is beautifully evocative and, upon first sniff, smells like high octane, sexually charged gasoline.

It's lovely.

Aroma quite original and unique leather.

Since the beginning feels quite warm, good fragrance, I'd say more than warm a smoky leather turns out to be very "churruscado".

It has much to do in this note snuff effect that feels quite bitter and dry (smells a little dirty ashtray filled with cigarette butts), reminding me here Mona di Orio Cuir. Alcoholic note of whiskey that accompanies the game feels clearly, giving the feeling of drinking and smoking at a time, but never becomes unpleasant, a soft cinnamon qualifies this entry is more, the resulting strong scent I find quite interesting. Incense causes considerable smoky note, markedly sought and ladano a roast effect smoke marks a clear intention to high temperatures, as if out is an oven.

The nicest thing about this fragrance is drying, cedar and oak moss slightly change the aroma toward a dark side, dry and woody diffuse away from this ashtray effect. Amber brings a slight sweetness making Bois d'ascèse become somewhat more friendly and bearable.

It is a complex and difficult fragrance, it no doubt also not suitable for everyone, even so, I found it very interesting with quality, is well processed and structured to thoughtful and deliberate, the qualities of the composition they are very good as well as the duration and wake.
I already found excellent work he did RASQUINET for Masque Milano: "Russian Tea". And this, although less wearable, I liked.

Rating: 7

Niche Polo. Upscale version of an old standard.

First I thought it smells like bonfire, but after falling in love with it I realised that it's more like good quality bacon. Oh well.

A secluded CHAPEL,
BLAZING dusk,
moment of GRACE,
DIVINE smoke,
silent CANTIQUE.

Meditative, Mysterious & Magical. It's the perfect olfactory depiction of Caspar David Friedrich's famous work Abbey in the Oakwood, one of my favorite works of art. Even the name is spectacular.

This is what niche is all about. Genius.

tinyurl.com/zd5bmty

i've been wearing this off-and-on for over a year now, and there's always been something off-putting about it. have never been able to put my finger on what it is/was, until now.
there's a 'dirty' accord struck between the whiskey and something else. and it's not a 'good' dirty-vibe, either. unlike tobacco oud by tom ford, this has more 'sweet' elements in it, and they class with the dirty whiskey, creating an offputting background note which, for me, ruins it.

if i could remove that off-putting note, it is smooth, boozy and smokey. it's just not for me...

Okay.. Update. This reminds me exactly of the cedar oil that I use in my oil diffuser

I'm enjoying this one thus far... Not fb worthy, however... A little too close to a designer frag for my taste. Perhaps too wearable? Very green on me when I wanted brown. More peat soil and less embers would've been nice.

Hmmm...it smells like my dentist's office and my fireplace all rolled into one...boring scent that lacks devilish/sexy vibes :(

I wonder what chemicals are used to create that opening.. It literally burns your nose (NOT figuratively)! But then again, you probably shouldn't sniff such fragrance at a close proximity before it settles; just stay away for the first 5 minutes.
Aside from that, it's an amazing creation that beats any "smoke" any fragrance ever claimed; this is the real stuff! Exactly what I was looking for :D
It's also very natural smelling; the woods are somewhere between a bonfire and a dry sauna, almost nostalgic and meditative. I'm not sure on what occasions this would be best suited for though... Maybe when you're home alone minding your own business? or maybe at a party

When I was 11 my father moved us into his grandmothers small ranch in NC that sat in the middle of a forest of pine trees. The house smelled funny to my young nose. The cabinets in the kitchen and dining room walls were made entirely of cedar. I didn't know it then but that was the funny smell. To top off this funny smell was a wood burning stove that kept the house warm during the winter months and whenever it was opened to put more wood in, smoke filled the house. That is what Bois D'Ascese is to me, smokey cedar. After about an hour it transforms into something entirely different. The smoke is barely detectable and the fragrance lends itself to a beautifully clean, soapy, spicy something or other that I can't describe, completely different from the initial spray of smoke and wood! This is the most drastic fragrance I've encountered. Lots of bad memories in that ancient house but Bois D'Ascece tells me that life may end up being that indescribable beauty and not the smokey cedar I want desperately to forget.

عطری تلخ و بسیار گرم با تمی خاکسترمانند
گرمایی همانند گدازه آتشفشان نخندید :) دارم شدت گرمای عطر رو منتقل میکنم بهتون

این عطر یه کار چوبی خوش ساخت با دز بالای دود و سدر هستش که در اولین استشمام شما در این لحظه یه شیرینی خیلی ضعیف خامه ای مانندی رو هم میتونید متوجه بشید که به اصطلاح عطر و از حالت بی روحی در میاره . شیرینی عطر خیلی خیلی کمه ولی همین مقدرا کم هم واقعا وجودش الزامی بوده .

یه همچین حس خاکستر مانند و بسیار تلخ و دودی رو به صورت وحشتناک و بسیار بی رحم در عطر تام فورد توباکو عود تست کرده بودم ولی تو این عطر این حالت خاکستر مانند و دودی خیلی خوبتره

عطر کاراکتری فوق العاده مرموز ، تاریک و خشن و جدی داره با هیچ بشری شوخی نداره
ساخته شده برای قدرت نمایی و بس

حدودا بعد از 20 دقیقه عطر علاوه بر حفظ رایحه ی تلخ و دودی خاکستری مانند و چوبیش ، یه ته بوی صابونی ملایمی هم پیدا میکنه . شما رو یاد صابون های سبز رنگ تند زیتونی میندازه

بعد از این دیگه عطر تغییری نخواهد کرد و رفته رفته قدرتش کمتر و کمتر میشه و اون تاریکی مطلقش کمتر میشه

پخش و ماندگاری عطر خوبه مخصوصا ماندگاریش
فقط مناسب فضاهای بازه
بی تردید فقط به درد زمستان میخوره
همین طور که دوست خوبم احسان هم اشاره کرده واقعا نیاز به دوش گرفتن نداره این عطر فوقش چند تا اسپری کفایت میکنه

کفیت : 8.5
رایحه : 7
ماندگاری و پخش : 8
ارزش خرید در برابر کیفیت : 8
ارزش خرید در برابر قیمت : 6

فرض کنید توی هوای سرد با هیزم اتیش روشن کرده باشید و در حال کباب کردن گوشت باشید که یکدفعه جهت باد عوض بشه و دود اتیش بیاد سمت شما و سرتاپا تون رو بوی دود بگیره. اینقدر که خودتون از بوی دودی لباسهاتون اذیت بشید. این توصیف میشه دقیقا بوی حاصل از عطری به اسم بوژ اسس.

عطری با پخش و ماندگاری عالی. تقریبا در تمام ۸-۱۰ ساعتی که این رایحه همراه شماست فضای غالب عطر رو همین رایحه تشکیل میده فقط در اواخر کار مقدار جزیی بوی شیرین ضعیف ناشی از کهربا رو می تونید حس کنید.

نکته ای که بهتره به اون توجه کرد٬ این است که در اسپری کردن اون زیاد روی نکنید. بعد ۲-۳ پاف اصلا نمی تونید از نزدیک عطر رو بو کنید چون گلوتون رو تحریک می کنه و حس خفگی از دود روتداعی میکنه ولی بعد از چند ساعت و با ملایم تر شدن رایحه وقتی از نزدیک بوش می کنید حس بوییدن چوب سوخته یا زغال خاموش بهتون دست میده. اگه کسی اهل دخانیات باشه براش تداعی کننده باقیمانده تنباکوی سوخته رو خواهد داشت.

رایحه و فضای عطر فوق العاده خاص و کیفیت اون عالی است ولی ارزش خریدش بنظر من خیلی پایین هست.
کلا این عطر برای کسایی ساخته شده که از بوی کباب روی اتش و باربیکیو خوششون میاد. مگسی هم که در عکس تبلیغاتی این عطر روی شیشه نشسته بیانگر همین موضوع است. دی:

This is and must be pure art in a bottle. This is a BBQ and a party. I do agree with others there is a bacon and smells of BBQ ribs at a grill out. Beastly but dies out in 4 hrs. I don't think this is wearable unless you are at a BBQ! But even then it might be doing the most.

Interesting, risky, I do not deny having good quality ingredients, but .... this does not smell right, which I think is paramount in a fragrance.

It smells exactly like a barbecue, with its burnt bacon.

A big pass for me.

She just goes clank and boom and steam
A halo, wings, horns and a tail
Shoveling coal inside my dreams

Tom Waits


Simplistic interpretation:
Black coal tar with resinous lemon incense
Smooth base.
Remains true to opening notes over time.

More a statement by the maker more than a perfume.


Epic.
Wearable.
Good.

finally, and at long long last, my holy grail smoke! yay!!! it's perfect: strident and unambiguously smokey, but with depth and complexity without ever deviating from that core, central aspect. it doesn't relay on birch tar or phenols to ramp up the smoke but what seems like a more organic wood-based accord (how that's put together here, i don't have a clue, perhapsstyrax, opopanax, myrrh, actually i don't want to overthink this one). it doesn't develop appreciably but does soften into a gorgeous denoument of shimmery resins that mirrors the last coals of a fire gone out. i bought profumum arso and was disappointed by how cedar-wussy it smelled - THIS is what i'd hope it would smell like, so arso has gone to another home. did i mention that bois d'ascese was just perfect?

One of the smokiest scents I have smelled for sure. On paper its even more so, but it keeps a sweetness to it as well that is lost on my skin. However it certainly smells like a BBQ party sorta smell.

Sadly though on my skin, the smoke is turned down a notch and the foody element is more apparent. Especially at the beginning and it has a beef jerky kinda smell. And in my one wearing of this I did indeed get a bad reaction lol.

As the beef jerky phase dies down the smoke comes in more, and then near the end and remainder of the fragrance I get a lot of oakmoss which brings in some "freshness" and basically translates to a "nice" or at least enjoyable in its own kinda way smokey oakmoss sorta smell.

More so than a BBQ say, I think this smells more like charcoal from a grill after you just cooked some steak or whatever it is you decided to make for the day. Thats what it reminds me of.

I appreciate the novelty of it, and I think its worth testing just because its "fun" in its own kinda way. Sadly though because at least for me the beginning has a beef jerky kinda smell. I find it pretty unwearable. And even if there wasnt that food element to it, I think that its probably a scent just for the wearer. Not super offensive, but generally deff more novelty than anything else.

As for performance projection was alright and longevity was good.

unholy incense and burnt wood / campfire camphor on opening. it's a face no mother could really love, it's just too harsh for mine. for fans of dark, smoky scents...

This is a very unique fragrance , I would like to thank Lucky Scent ,I looked all over Canada for this Gem , I contacted Naomi Goodsir , I contacted Min NYC , Only to recognize that Min they did not care for my business , I contacted Lucky scent and explain my run arounds . There commitment to their costumer and service . They went to the extreme measures , By Contacting me , Calling me at home and took my order. Cheers to Lucky Scent and there service,
Thanks,

To someone who might be familiar with fruity florals and ozonic aquatics, this may be scarcely recognized as perfume. With such an intense natural quality and perhaps such ancient trails in our subconscious associated with the hues in which this fragrance is painted, it might seem abrasive and harsh and dangerous. For this is a story of smoke signals! If you grew up in the countryside or would go on rustic adventures as a child, you will be familiar with the fascinating embers that glow black orange yellow and red after a campfire You may remember so far back as to be mesmerized by the transformation that the wood would undergo. This scent captures all of those mysteries, that wonder, and that sensation of participating in something vey ancient and at the core of our very being. Not that this is a childish scent, for it also carries all the austerity of sombre moments of reflection and meditation. I imagine being in a foreign land and coming across a tiny chapel unexpectedly, taking a moment from the sunshine and the cicadas and the roar of the aromatic bushes that thrash in the wind, to enter a sacred space of selflessness and humility. The main focus is clear, it's smoky and that's evident, but within or behind that are other aspects that make it entirely intriguing - there are stories being told around the campfire. A very very subtle soapiness cleans it from being dirty, an amber dignifies it on the skin. A curious phantom meaty aspect occurs between the herbs and the embers' warmth, but the relationship between the exalting incense and the woods' exhaling adventure, this particular smoke retains a really interesting and beautiful aspect that even if you're new to exploring unusual perfumes can appreciate - especially surrounded as we are by ugly car exhaust smoke, tobacco smoke, fire pits, incinerators, etc. this fragrance reminds us of all the beauty and majesty in smoke that connects a resin burning in the deserts of the Horn of Africa to the plume rising through the rain from a wood burning stove in a cottage hidden deep in a forest, the sacred sanctuary of a faraway temple to both our childhood selves exploring fire, and to early man who in taming fire and acquainting themselves with its aromas profoundly altered their destiny, and for millennia have burned certain sacred woods and resins to connect themselves to a deeper state of mind. This perfume most certainly captures that epic brief and gives plenty of time and volume to allow this sacred smoke idea to be perpetually explored again and again until you will feel bereft without it.

It would be a bit pointless to discuss how close this is to Andy Tauer's Lonestar Memories (is it 100%, 99%, 98% etc.), but I was quite surprised that I couldn't quite find the difference between the two. I'm just shaking my head...

A fragrance only a man with confidence can pull off. Not like any other fragrance .
Within the first hour that I wore it ,I was trying my best to recognize what I was actually smelling . I love it 9/10 for being something special.

Just got this today, and although I'm still too novice to try and talk about notes and layers etc, wanted to give my experience.

When I first applied it, the smoke hit me as very very strong. For some reason, it reminded me of the scent of a hot power saw after it cuts through some particulary frangrant wood....and then catches on fire.

I could detect notes underneath...kind of a whiskey,and insense/amber mixture. My first thoughts were that I wouldn't wear this except at very special times, and that was more about my audiences reaction than the way I was feeling.

Throughout the day I kept catching hints of it and it dried down to a really lovely addictive scent. The wood went down a bit, the amber came up and I detected some sweet cedar. it's now been at least 7 hours and I can still smell it- I think I'm in love.

Opens up extremely smoky/slightly boozy with a whisper of cinnamon that has an almost burned paper characteristic to it. As it moves on, the amber and oakmoss become a bit more prevalent and start to add a slightly sweet, soapiness. All of the time it never loses a bit of the ash-like quality that it opens up with. A few hours in it loses some of the smoke, but a very dry wood emerges and mixes great with the touch of oakmoss from before. Thankfully it loses the soapy quality that appeared in the early stages of “development” the times that I’ve tried it as it can be a bit overbearing. In the end you are left with an extremely dry wood/moss/smoke scent with the slightest amount of powdery/ambery sweetness to round it off. Sillage is moderate and longevity is excellent.

I can't do this justice right now because it makes me swoon. Might make out w/ my hand where I sprayed the sample if it keeps throwin me those eyes this way...!

A bit strong up close in the cedar/smoke departments, the wafts you'll give off from a distance wearing this are otherworldly good. 5 stars! 'High quality' is putting it mildly. Sillage is just right, longevity is great at 8+ hrs on me w/ just a partial sample's worth of a dab. Buying it asap.


EDIT: I bought it asap along with Cuir Velours. Wearing it now for only the 3rd time (since it's summer and this is strong, manly juice) in the cool of the evening sitting at home. The cedar and smoke are as delicious as that first magical time I smelled it and there are definite touches of a smooth whiskey to be found intermingled with all these freshly downed cedar logs. A campfire must be nearby... and there's my lumberjack, drinking his Gentleman Jack on the rocks just how I like it ;)



Reminds me of: Sex with a lumberjack. Not that I've been there. *looks from side to side*

Compliments?: Not needed, I'm in love. I've only worn it around the house because of how manly it is. This is for ME! And a certain deserving man whom I wish to nuzzle up to, perhaps.

Sillage: heavier side, spray lightly
Longevity: 8+ hrs
Experience: worn 3 times (FB)
Usually apply: 1-2 sprays
[8.28.14]

A tremendous amount of smoke, which I love. This is as close to a wood burning fire as I've ever smelled a fragrance. The problem? Too subtle. Especially at over $3/ml. The price would have to be dramatically cut for me to consider it bottle worthy. Subtle projection, and about average longevity for me. My rating 8.3

Too incense appears to be covering to all other ingredients. I appreciate it a lot better after an hour, but I could not wear it for a whole day. Not good, not bad, not for me.

The note of tar should be used with very, very moderation. Is a note too much strong. In my opinion, this scent gone a bit more of the point.
I had expected something more elegant by the advertising that was made.
Anyway... i dont liked too much.

4/10.

Hello Guys
This stuff is my signature I've just ordered 2 bottles
My review
1 hr it turn to ashtray,burning wood castle very smoky I like this part a lot

2-8 it turn to sexy smoky woody dominant by cedar incense and oakmoss and back up with tobacco I don't get whiskey and amber

10/10 if u like smoky incense fragrance

This is a very nice fragrance, a very nice job done! Its indeed an all over smoke scent (i get less whisky) but the amazing thing is, that it manages somehow to come accross as fresh. I dont know how they have done it but it works even in the mornings as an uplifiting fresh smoky scent. Its loaded with energy. The oakmoss gives it a great backbone at the drydown. A winner and maybe even more perfect when layered with Heeley's Cardinal which is a "smiling" incense scent.

Beautiful stuff, more on the masculine side though.

Pinnacos: About the fly....... I think this is a way of emphasizing the fact that Naomi Goodsir is australian. Flies can be really bothersome in Australia, and they even have a name for the act of chasing flies away from ones face: The Aussie Salute.

Beautiful stuff. Bottle on order.

What's with the fly on the bottle in the pics though? I can't see how that's a selling point. Any ideas?

I told luckyscents that I was interested in a fragrance that suggested a campfire, and they told me about this one. So I bought a sample. Yep - campfire it is! Smoke and wood. Since I love the smell of a campfire I quite like this one.

I see one of the basenotes is described as incense, and to my nose it smells like the same clean wood/pine plank smell I detect in Tom Ford Sahara Noir and Tauer 02 L'Air du desert Marocain. (To Catholics it smells like Mass, to me it smells like pine plank.) This fragrance goes on very smoky but after about an hour the main note is this one.

I barely detect a tobacco scent and for me there is no whiskey note.

My wife hates it, and gives it the same verdict she gives to the smoky notes in Encre Noire: "Dirty ashtrays at Grandma and Tony's!"

Nice. I've been testing it alongside Profumum Arso and Montale Aoud Cuir d'Arabie and I think I like Arso best, then Bois d'Ascese. It's nicely smoky, though not as aromatic and resinous as incense, more like a dry, leathery smoke, or like burnt pipe tobacco ash, not the aromatic tobacco itself. I don't like amber scents and I don't get amber here, so if it's there it must be very gentle indeed.

I don't dislike it, but it's almost like there's something missing, as though there should be a rich central note to hold the dry ephemeral notes all together. It's like two-thirds of a perfume, like the top notes just evaporate and the base notes come through and I'm left wondering where the heart is. Eventually all that's left is a trace of musk.

The accord in this smells like straight up mesquite smoke. I'm very surprised to see cinnamon, labdanum, and amber in the mix of notes. Not sure why a woman would wanna smell this smokey. If a woman were to pull this off, I would imagine her to smell like a female auto mechanic. This might be offensive to some but it would be oxymoronic to be a pretty woman wearing bois d'ascese. As for men, this could very well be someone's perfect scent. This is a smoker's delight. Even if you're a non smoker, it can still find a place on your fragrance shelf. Closing thoughts: Smells like someone stomped out a campfire. I never smelled a fragrance tailored perfectly to the month of October quite like this one. This fragrance grants automatic qualification to the man card. Different. I like it.

192) Smoky slap
I absolutely do not know Naomi Goodsir, an Australian hat designer, and I readily admit having a little sigh at the idea of testing the two creations. Again poor creations sold very expensive to cover their mediocrity? (sorry but I still have the vile creations of Bond No. 9 in the nose)
Both were created by Julien Rasquinet who was a pupil of Pierre Bourdon, worked under the wing of Christine Nagel for Mane, before embark as an independent. And at smelling its two latest creations, therefore the 2 Naomi Goodsir orders, that succeeded him really well.

Bois d'Ascèse is a good slap in the nose, a very original work on smoke and wood. The fragrance opens with some unsettling heads notes, it is unclear on which grounds they will lead us, but that quickly gave way to the main theme: the combustion.
The asceticism, understood as meditation and a search of beyond, who immersing in the origins of perfume, per fumum, purifuing smoke, the sacred wood and the divine essence.
We sail both among Australian aborigines using ash and soot for their ritual paintings, as to the mystical Eastern and Western cultures.

The scent is all about Cade Wood, a variety of juniper which from is extracted oil and next fumed: seldom used in perfumery, not really friendly, dry, burned, tarry and very intense, it forms somehow the central pillar. Cade Wood is accompanied by Somalia incense, tobacco (raised by a hint of cinnamon), ambered through labdanum and dried with a touch of oak moss, revealing the overburn facet of evernyl, a synthetic material which replaces and now supports the banned oak moss.

Real good longevity and average sillage.
Too expensive but this one is a unique work of art.
Bravo Julien, beau travail!

It's Real name should be: Chateau broulè. Burned castle. To be nice. It is between a burned room, an unoxigenated room with a fireplace, and barbecue sauce. Intriguing. A great idea for a middle note for a complex perfume, but pure like this is hard to wear. Nice idea anyway.

The wood smoke combined with the labdanum reminds me of the smokiness in one of my all time favourite fragrances, Sombre Negra by Yosh. The thing is with Sombre Negra you also get leather and a knockout patchouli, along with the fabulous smoke. This one is great if you want smoke, smoke and nothing but the smoke, but I'll stick with Sombre Negra for now.

Holy Grail Stuff!

If you're into smoky fragrances, this is something you shouldn't miss for any reason. Smooth smoky woods, incense and a tad of boozy-amber to soften the general austerity. Minimalistic but at the same time deep and incredibly satisfying but, most of all, absolutely not derivative. Smoky, balmy and incredibly striking. Meditative and assertive at once.

If you like woody fragrances but you're sick and tired of aggressive woodyambers, this is the way to go. A masterpiece.

Rating: 8.5-9/10

I have a neighbor who burns crappy wood (like pallets), often wet, and garbage in his damned outdoor fire pit. That's what this stuff smells like. The few spices and other notes are overwhelmed by wet smokiness that's astonishingly persistent. I've washed my hands repeatedly and still can't get rid of the scent. If you want to smell like you spent the night sweating next to a bonfire you've found your perfume. If you don't, there are a million really good incense perfumes out there--keep looking. A suggestion to the brand: perhaps change the name from Ascetic's Wood to Flagellant's Wood? Seems more like the experience.

Sillage: as far as you can throw a punch
Persistence: truly impressive
Fabulosity: scorched s'mores
Value to price ratio: Poor
1/10

Frankincense, it’s the new black.

Bois d’Ascese is a good, solid fragrance. It’s handsome. It smells like frankincense. I’ve smelled frankincense many times and love it. Most people do.

There’s the hazard.

Bois d’Ascese falls prey to the Amber Trap. Take a ‘ready-made’ botanical such as frankincense or labdanum (or rose, or vetiver...). Then build a fragrance around the central component by applying olfactory make-up. Enhance it. Detail it. Build a Greek chorus around it for christ’s sake. Just make sure it’s dead center and don’t stray off course. This style of sola-nota perfumery is conservative by definition. It’s what has lead every niche house to have an unmistakeable Amber which very often is nearly indistinguishable from any other house’s Amber

I can’t argue with the fragrance. It’s lovely and would be wonderful to smell on someone in passing. But to say that the perfumer has made frankincense beautiful is like saying that the make-up artist made Cary Grant handsome. I know that it puts perfumer Julien Rasquinet and designer Naomi Goodsir in the spotlight, but releasing a frankincense perfume in the niche perfumery market is not far conceptually from making a fresh aquatic for the mainstream men’s perfume market. I’ve never smelled, Cuir Velours, Goodsir’s other perfume, but the name alone leads me to a cynical frame of mind. I imagine the third fragrance will be an eponymous Oud, and following soon thereafter will be an Amber, a Musk and a nouveau Vanilla.

‘Niche’ can mean so many things. It can refer to an alternate strategy to the mainstreams, it can describe a sensibility, it can mean something particular that has spun off from the norm into its own little eddy. Naomi Goodsir convinces me that niche in perfumery means the same thing that ‘young’ and ‘modern’ mean in fashion--code for the most recent iteration of an easily identified item.

from scent hurdle.com

I've tried both fragrances from this house and I am impressed with the creativity and the longevity/projection. However I also found them to be disturbing. As in please get this off me now.


This One:


Industrial smelling. Like freshly greased tools picked from a tool box. Cold with no sweetness and nothing to comfort you.

This is unique but not elegant in anyway. I can't believe someone would even try to dress this up.

As a student in mind bending philosophy hallucinations and surrealist art this is your HOMEWORK !

Just keep in mind that most art collectors feel Salvador Dali's best work was done before he became recognized for surrealism.

Keep it real is my advice. Thanks for the $4 lesson in psychadelic perfume making:)

This is what niche is all about!

The smoke is wood fire, not tobacco and mingles with the whiskey and incense with amber and labdanum stoking the flames.

This is unisex but leans strongly to the masculine, but women could wear this on the right occasion. On a man, this would be devastating.

Despite the strong notes, this has poor longevity which is the only drawback on this truly stunning perfume.

IT'S LOVE!

First smokey. It's still smokey for a while and then it's opening for your personal skin. Churchy, sweet, balmy and very SAFE. A comfort, more confidential smell.

I have been smelling this side-by-side with Les Nombre d'Or Cuir by Mona di Orio and they are very similar to me. I don't see Cade listed on the ingredients listed here but it's definitely there lending the smokey campfire smell that's so present in Mona's. I do love them both and am trying to decide which to purchase a full bottle of. I am leaning a little more towards Cuir as it has greater sillage and lasts far longer on my skin. Bois d'Ascese is less expensive though.

I'd love to hear more from anyone who has sampled both.

I generally can't stand tobacco smoke fragrances, but I like this stuff. I don't really get tobacco at all, rather I get a ton of campfire and burning log that lasts much longer than any of the other notes. Fascinating stuff!

EDIT: After wearing this again, I'm even more impressed by it. While it sits very close to the skin, it's mind-blowing just how well they recreated a very specific campfire quality. As far as I know, there's nothing else like this out there.

Just like a terribly smoked JAMON SERRANO from a spanish farm house. And it is not getting better. Jamon serrano is a great stuff to eat, but being smelled like.....it depends on your taste. For me - a big NO!!!!!

Update.
After two days of use, I found the church incense present in the base, it develops as very prominent ingredient after many hours. There are constant explosions of both, smoke and little burned olibanum... Perfection :)))

I got a present. Of corse perfume and of course full of smoke and incense one. What could be better to make me happier? Actually nothing. I'm in love with Fvmidus and Chaman's party, so BA is my another Holly Grail. The juniper tar (however not listed), different than classical we get from the birch wood... Lighter more mysterious not such harsh, like a velvety, smoky mist around the autumn fireplace. Delicate spices are in the base, they are warm but not sweet at all. Incense is there but it only plays the supplementary role enhancing the smoky tones of tar. Masterpiece with strong personality but only for smokiest perfume lovers.