Perfume Review: Parfumerie Generale Limited Edition - Bois Blond, L’Ombre Fauve, and Ether de Lilas Blanc sur Feuillage Tendre

The tireless Parfumerie Generale have introduced three limited edition scents, Bois Blond, L’Ombre Fauve, and Ether de Lilas Blanc sur Feuillage Tendre. Bois Blond, inspired by an August evening, at the time of the harvest, has notes of cereals, grass, galbanum, cedar, hay, blond tabac, amber and musk. Those who could not wear Aomassai, because of the very sweet, caramel-like note that ran as a leitmotif through the woody-balsamic composition, should be delighted. Apart from not having even a hint of edible sweetness of Aomassai, Bois Blond is also much less balsamic, much less brooding, more light-hearted in feel…but it has the same sumptuous woodiness, which makes me think of a newly built wooden house in the country…The greenness of grasses and galbanum give Bois Blond a drier, brighter feel; the hay smells a little damp and strangely comforting (I love this note!)…All in all, Bois Blond seems to me to be more urbane than Aomassai. She is a city-girl, dressed in fashionable “country” clothes, she is visiting her parents at their big chateau…at night she sneaks around with an old beau (the groundskeeper, rugged but handsome) and spends many pleasant hours with him in a hay shed. L’Ombre Fauve, described as “imperceptibly cat-like” and “bestial”, is the most sumptuous of the three limited edition scents. It smells “thick” and luscious; patchouli, which is strangely absent from the laconic official list of notes (amber, musk, wood) and which is the most prominent note on my skin, brings to mind sweet, soft, pitch-black soil…Yes, we are still in a country, these clearly are Parfumerie Generale’s “bucolic” series, but it isn’t a European countryside anymore, we are transferred to an exotic land, to a nocturnal garden, with the moon shining its ghostly light on two beings in a passionate embrace…Coming back to the scent…the second most prominent note on my skin here is amber, it is a lush, sweet-smelling note with a slight incensey undertone. And really, the two notes, patchouli and amber are all that I smell in L’Ombre Fauve. This is one of those scents that is attractive not because of its complexity but because of the opulent feel and quality of the ingredients. By the way, according to Parfumerie Generale, L'Ombre Fauve contains a high level of natural products, and it is advised, upon receiving it in the post, to let it sit for a while at room temperature and shake lightly before testing. Ether de Lilas Blanc sur Feuillage Tendre, built around a note of white lilac (syringa vulgaris alba), and also featuring the notes of passion-flower, orange blossom, bark, mandarin, lilac, leaves, iris and musk, is perhaps my favorite of the three. To me this is the smell of an early morning in spring…so early, the sky is still dark-grey, the landscape is wrapped in shimmering mist and the dew is glistening on the leaves and the intoxicatingly fragrant white flowers…The scent is gentle and quiet and not overly complicated. I smell mostly lilac, a certain greenness and just a little bit of musk. Ether de Lilas has an uncluttered, elegant feel; it is ethereal, translucent, melancholy and very charming. The three limited edition scents are available at boutique-parfumerie-generale.com. Bois Blond and L’Ombre Fauve cost €75.00-€120.00. Ether de Lilas Blanc sur Feuillage Tendre costs €58.00-€78.00. The third image is The Last Peony by Micheal Parkes, from Piersidegallery.com.