Bois d'Armenie Guerlain for men

I have nothing to add to the comments here which explain the smoky/creamy benzoin/vanilla and incense notes save that I have yet to smell anything quite like this. I can't decide if it's a metaphysically religious scent (the incense) or a gourmand. It seems quite original to me and very nice.

It passes my Mmmm test: I flutter my shirt front and go Mmmm when I smell the released scent.

Guerlain does it again!

Chocolate-covered andouille sausage was my initial impression. It's pretty strange at first, smelling chocolately, smoky, and oily all at once, but then it settles into a smoky-sweet skin scent.

Bois d'Armerie begins with a soft, comforting blend of benzoin, vanilla creaminess and a very slight allusion to smoke. The heart continues on these notes with the vanilla becoming creamier. Now add a growing presence of patchouli and a healthy dollop of warm wood which proceed to bloom as the contact with skin continues. Musk and iris start a slightly sweet powder which blends with the patchouli - at first pleasantly and later in the dry down it becomes slightly dirty.

Up until this point, I would consider BdA a wholly unisex fragrance - slightly sweet and appealing to anyone. In fact, I find it extremely appealing and lovingly blended. But then something happens that tips it a minute amount into the male realm - a sort of aftershave scent that starts very, very slowly well into the base (2 + hours). This trait I find less than endearing.

My No's: no patchouli chocolate, no coriander. Just my nose - no judgments here.

what a great perfume , love it , i wish if it was 1 liter :)

It's amazing the texture chocolatey and also caramel that this perfume has.
A benjoin surrounding all other notes, at one point the incense comes up in another, the floral light powdery tone, other the pepper in another some woods, which makes it unique and unmatched quality, where every time you use it, love more and more.
A unique work, and undoubtedly the most intriguing line.

Another stunning masterpiece which usually remains on the sideline owing to the more hyped Tonka Imperiale and Double Vanille. But to me this is THE masterpiece and very much unisex.

I recently lit real Papier d'Armenie to see the resemblance. Obviously the fire engenders a smoky burnt paper scent but the underlying beauty is the resinous benzoin infused with the paper that also emits a sweetish vanilla aura.

Guerlain mastered this very well with Bois d'Armenie. This is a well constructed benzoin scent with elements of smoke and sweetened by a vanilla tone. The typical Guerlain powdery infusion adds a degree of class and sophistication. What you are left with is one of the most understated yet noticeable enough sexy scents from this house. I love it most ardently.

Without a shadow of doubt, 10/10

This scent reminds me of chocolate, not sure where that is coming from since it is not listed in the notes. A good classy, chocolate fragrance.

I've just been having an interview with Sylvaine Delacourte (Guerlain’s Creative Director, and she has recommended me this fragrance. Madam Delacourte came to Madrid and I have been given the chance to meet her. She is a wonderful, charming and elegant lady. We have been talking about perfume, art and what else, and it's been a real pleasure. And I have to agree with her choice of a perfume for me: Bois d'Armenie is just an incredible fragrance! Subtle, über-elegant, yet magically suggestive, in brings back to my mind so many beautiful memories. It has been a great great discovery for me. Thank you so much, Sylvaine!

this is an unisex fragrance like any other of the collection L'Art et La Matière... it's really wonderfully rich & warm, woody benzoin & some spices; I think maybe it could be even better on a man, but still on a woman's skin it feels just great anyway! So soft, deep, reminds almost of cashemire wood, or cashmeran. It's a bit sweet, but it's all well balanced by the woody notes,& the sharpnes of incense... a masterpiece really.

THIS IS NOT MARKETED AS A MEN'S FRAGRANCE. GUERLAIN ITSELF DOES NOT SPECIFY, AND BOTH NORDSTROM AND NEIMAN MARCUS LIST IT UNDER WOMEN'S FRAGRANCE.

finally got my sample, it is a wonderful fragrance i really enjoy this one, the opening is beautiful..i feel like an aristocrat..i agree about the slight amen comparison..so much more artistic than that...it certainly aims higher. i think annick menardo's fragrances are truly a labor of love..the price of this is staggering though..not sure it would be a wise decision , more of a passionate one of purchasing for me, not sure others would agree it was worth it..when testing it i asked others what do you think...they all loved it...but when i told them this is what it would cost, it was Bill are you crazy?...but just maybe i am, whoa...

This is where I should probably say that this smells like...and while it might have some similarities, that isn't what I associate with Bois D'Armenie.

This isn't complex, but it has a very mellow incense, spice, and woody composition that in the final dry-down seems like a combination of tonka bean and tobacco with a little suede mixed for good measure. It's comforting, it's lush, and feels quite posh on my nose from first spray through dry-down many hours later. And perhaps that is the interplay between the benzoin and other elements, or the softness of the iris -- if I attributed that to any one element, I'd simply be guessing. This is a difficult scent not to like.

The vanillic outcome that some derive seems more to me a creamier tonka bean. Vanilla would seem sharper, where this is subtle and understated. In either case, the elements for me were harmonious, none trying too hard to outshine another. On my skin, the transition was so subtle that top to base notes just flowed effortlessly. This is what a perfume should be, not a sharp contrast from stage to stage.

Gorgeous, silky, smoldering like an ember. Wearing it is a calming yet confident experience. Brilliant.

There’s a little bit of incense initially, a hint of iris, and a surprisingly sweet vanilla-woody note, and that’s about it. If it’s supposed to smell like benzoin then fine, I get it. I have a love-hate relationship with benzoin because I love the smell but the real material is an unpredictable bitch to work with, so I don’t necessarily want to be reminded of that resinous diva during my leisure time.

Having said that, Bois d’Armenie actually goes well beyond benzoin to produce a cuddly-soft vanilla-iris scent that is almost suede-like. It keeps a low profile but is definitely present and doing its job, sort of like my favorite lightweight gray fleece hoodie that I wear when working. The fleece-y hoodie is the ultimate comfort garment on a cool morning, and the fragrance is the ultimate comfort scent. It’s one of those things that I like and would use often simply because it’s easy on the nose and makes no demands.

Why I love librarians from now on....
BDA is a perfume so peculiar I have never encountered before. No monster sillage, in a positive way very subdued, it is understatement to the core !
It is a woody-aromatic scent, named after "Armenian wood" which is paper drenched in benzoine, to be used as incense for rooms.
BDA is a paper perfume. The first impression is wet paper with malt. Interesting !
Paper has a very specific scent which I absolutely love.
BDA is a library. A large room full of ancient, valuable books with all their knowledge and stories collected for decades or even centuries.
The comfort and the tranquility of such a library was perfectly captured in this fantastic scent.
And as is usual in libraries things go very calmly.

BDA starts off calmly, develops calmly, puts you at ease calmly. Very meditative and comforting.
I began to feel "at home" when wearing it. Georgous !

A hint of camomile hits my nostrils but just a whiff of it. I love the smell of camomile but avoid drinking it whenever I can :-) Only a very mild sweet vanilla-like note, just enough to avoid dryness or even bitterness. BDA does not provoke, it soothes !

Why do I love librarians ? Because I reckon they should smell like BDA if they are surrounded by old paper the whole day long :-) At least in my fantasy which was nicely arroused by this drop-dead beautiful Guerlain scent !

I am yet another female jumping on the band-wagon for Bois d'Armenie.

Screw the 'for men only', I will happily douse myself in this and call myself a lady. It's such a compelling and beautiful fragrance, something that should be shared between the genders.

This is everything I pretty much love in perfume; woods, incense, dustiness, spice and heaviness. Although vanilla is not listed as a note, it is most certainly there, particularly in the drydown.

I may just describe this fragrance as creamy vanillic incense with faint, white woods. The pink pepper and the patchouli often like to provide an extra tang to this fragrance, however the sharpness of these notes comes and goes.

Another favourite of mine from this exclusive Guerlain range is Rose Barbare, which I loved more for its complexity rather than the scent itself. The same could be said of Bois d'Armenie. If I ever tire of this fragrance (be damned if I do!), it will be Annick Menardo's exquisite work that will keep me interested.

Most resinous notes tend to be masculine and sometimes fierce, however the resinous drydown of Bois d'Armenie is actually sweet. The sweetness was a shock to my senses, however the more I smelt it on my skin, the more addictive and perfect it seemed.

Bois d'Armenie is elegant, like something I would wear to an upper-class formal event. The lasting power and sillage are of course a reflection of why this fragrance is priced so high. It is unfortunate that in my current financial predicament it will be a few years before I see a bottle of this. I guess it will be an incentive to try harder at University to score that high paying job which will fuel my adoration for expensive perfumes.

When I was a little girl, I always cried at the fable "The Little Match Girl." I always thought she died because no one cared enough to buy matches from her or to let her into their warm, dry house. (now I know it is a warning against daydreaming)

Bois D'Armenie is my warm, dry house. When I wear it I feel enveloped in the deepest comfort; a soft, crackling fire that will never go out (indeed, longevity is over 12 hours)

To me this is one of the most perfect oriental woodies, and I've now sniffed a lot of them in hopes to find one as good as BdA. This is just sensuous. When I first tried it I couldn't stop daydreaming about it, and this is the perfume I ever bought.

Love it.

Having tested this fragrance, i've become disappointed, because it didn't deliver and hasn't met my expectations. The drydown on my skin reeks of pink pepper and incense and imho, it's safe to say that it's a toned down version of Azzaro "Visit" - maybe it's because both frags are the creation of A. Menardo. Unfortunately, Bois d'Armenie evoked solely pepper notes on my skin.

A ligther, much more refind version of A*MEN by Thierry Mugler. Compare these two yourself, and you will se!!

I am not sure what accounts for the slight sourness in the opening of Guerlain BOIS D'ARMENIE, but it quickly dissipates, leaving an ever-so-lightly spiced woody vanilla fragrance which compares favorably to Dior DOLCE VITA and is at least unisex, if not better suited for women than for men (as advertised...).

However, at five times the price, and with mediocre staying power, BOIS D'ARMENIE, while certainly nice, will not be sitting next to my shimmering bottle of DOLCE VITA anytime soon. To be honest, I prefer the Dior composition. Just lucky, I guess!

I am in Love!!!
This scent has a smoothness and a creamyness (yes, it is CREAMY!) so fantastic.
The sensation of wearing a vanilla essence all over my body it is formidable. However, it’s not the same vanilla of Rochas Lui, for example. By the way, as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t have vanilla notes in its composition.
It is a “vanilla” sensation, which is a result of the perfect mix of Iris + incense + benzoin + guaiac wood. It has to be that!
It is another love passion made by Guerlain.
And the bottle, with that classic vaporizer, makes it even more irresistible. 10 stars!!!

I tested it a few days ago and I've never been so in love of a fragance. Bois D'Arménie is incredibly well done , so Guerlain.
Soft , warm and confortable like an old plaid blanket.
It's like being at home by the fire while it's snowing and raining outside. An amazing feeling really...

But it's too expensive.
Is there a smell-alike fragance?

P.S:sorry for the english mistakes

I had high expectations for this perfume. I burn papier d'armenie as incense and love the smell. I was hoping for a similar smell in the perfume: that way I could always smell like the cozy-ness and mystery I experienced with the incense. But this perfume did not deliver that. It does smell slightly like a nice warm incense but it does not have any power. The drydown is pleasant but not magnificent. Plus, it smells like just like one of the 4 new perfumes in the Annick Goutal line. The price is astronomical, so its best to invest in a bottle of Montale than this.

Later: I did end up buying this one after trying to decide between the outrageously expensive Guerlains in the Neiman store. After many trials, this is one of my favorite smoky incense scents, though it lacks the creaminess and sweetness that some other reviewers have described.

We tested this recently. In fact, of all the perfumes we smelled, it was the only one my male friend actually allowed to be sprayed onto his wrist.

Initially i was quite ecstatic. We had been trying to find a men's fragrance without citrus, which he strongly dislikes. And he seemed to like it, too.

But in about 1/2 hour or a bit more, it had dried down to vanilla, granted, a nice vanilla, but vanilla. I like vanilla in cooking, i like vanilla when it is well blended and well balanced, as in Shalimar. But neither he nor i likes something that smells only of vanilla.

Perhaps this would smell different on someone else, but it ended up disappointing us.

Nibble-me delicious benzoin creates the overall effect of a creamy, light gourmand. Too sweet and tasty to be a traditional male scent, I would call it unisex, even feminine. I sometimes wish the vanilla note were tuned down just a notch so that the orris, pepper and incense--all present for the first few breathtaking minutes-- would last longer. But as the SA on the Champs Elysées told me: "Vanilla? But that's Guerlain!"

I usually avoid vanilla (and its friends and family), but after said SA generously perfumed my hair and clothing for a test drive, I had to go back the next day for a full bottle.

I don't know about 'for men.' I love this and I'm quite female. It is supposed to represent the benzoin-scented papers burned in the 1800s as incense and somehow it does give that impression. Light, faintly smoky vanillic incense with wood undertones and an impression of paper. It's never harsh or bright. It's a faint, delicious, present scent, just lovely. Bois d'Armenie is my new favorite. I just wish it wasn't so very expensive. I can't bear people who bathe in their scent and force it on the rest of us, but this one did make me wish I could, just for a moment, bathe in the scent, just so I could wrap myself in it completely. Gorgeous and yes, suitable for men or women.