The Good Life— an Unboxing Essay

There is something about alpha/beta/methyl-ionones that just get my goat, as well as isoraldeine 95. Cedar Atlas as well is incredible, especially when sat aside the aforementioned synthetics. This is the accord that defines the “Bois series” from Christopher Sheldrake, Pierre Bourdon, and Serge Lutens. I guess Maurice Roger made it more Dior. French and classic.

Feminite du Bois (1992) and Dolce Vita (1994) share the same DNA but Dolce chooses to mess around with recombinant DNA and produce something miraculous. Or perhaps this is epigenetics— the reaction to a groundbreaking fragrance was a recoil— a retreat back into tradition.

This is an iconoclastic fragrance. This defies the fragrance that this is based on: rejecting modernity and embracing tradition, seriously. The intersection of niche (the violet/cedar accord), paltry accords, with concise ideas. The emergence of new synthetics and reinterpretation of old ones is the hallmark of the beginning of the niche movement, which began with Serge Lutens at Shiseido as the creative/artistic director behind Nombre Noir.

Jean-Yves Leroy made Nombre Noir, I guess? It’s really Serge. Serge is the top down thinker that helped shepherd perfumery into a new era, which is profound. Serge is equivalent to Nadia Boulanger— the woman behind the innovation of classical music in the 20th century. Women and queers frequently are the ones pulling the strings behind the curtain. Serge may or may not be queer, but his works are queer. In both sense of the word, the are the out-group, the odd, the rejected, the ignored, and the perfumes that have been stomped out by LVMH, Estée Lauder, L’Oreal, Clarins, etc.

Dolce Vita is borne of the French tradition of the 3 phases of development with an anchoring “signature” accord, suspiciously similar to the Guerlinade. How naughty of Maurice Roger!

Also, Mr. Roger is credited as making both Poison and Fahrenheit as well as Dolce Vita. Okay…this guy is the grunt. He’s the one tinkering with the mathematics of masterpieces, behind the scenes as Lutens dances gleefully in his Palais in Paris.

The esníf:

Act 1: bright tones of yellow and gold, citrus sparkling with just the tiniest little aldehyde, the sparkly one. The powder blooms in your nose as you inhale, a rich peachy/plummy fruity accord arises and the sandalwood and cedar pierce through as the violets dance around the iris. This accord of fruits, Mysore sandalwood, cedar, iris, violet, and brightness defines the first portion of the show. The EDT is much brighter and has less depth, it’s simply less concentrated.

Act 2: the powder settles as you push it aside to discover the most complex, inexplicable heart I’ve had the pleasure to become acquainted with. This is the French twist on the already dandified and done-up reinvention of the violet/cedar core that is the hallmark of the “Bois series.” I can only describe it as “FEMINITE DU BOIS: NOW ON IMAX.” The grandeur of an IMAX movie versus the typical is precisely the way in which this already perfect Feminite du Bois gets spun into gold.

Intermission: this is the Guerlinade lmfao. A bit more woodsy but also one of the accords is sandalwood based so…

Base: tiny musks, whispers of violet, gentle sandalwood lay you to rest in a lavender tomb. How queer…

This is my #1 of all time. Yeah. I said it.

LET’S FKING GOOOOOO!!! I FINALLY HAVE ~40mL of it which makes me feel safe to use it on a “normal” day! This stuff is so rare and I cannot believe I sniped a 30mL extrait for $200…the retail was higher when it was sold !