Traversee du Bosphore L Artisan Parfumeur for women and men

Traversée du Bosphore is the first perfume I've tried that has a three dimensional feel. It is indeed pretty strong but in a delicious way. If you've ever tried turkish delight this is a PERFECT rendition of it. Every time you smell this gourmand it invites you to a journey, you enter that place full of pistachio, apple and sugar (lots of sugar) plus a deliciously elegant leather. You feel there are different layers and they work all together, so you can't escape getting immersed into that world. It lasts for many many hours and I'm delighted when I realise that checking my wrist just for the sake of it, without doing it consciously, means I get such a trip to Turkey, you can't simply smell it and go away, you "enter" this fragrance, and so it always amazes me for the experience.
My only complaint is that the drydown sometimes gets too flat into plain sugar plus a hint of vanilla that is 10000 km away from its initial phases... it has no interesting edges and smells like many other boring cocoa basenotes. You fall from marvellous Istambul into disturbing sugarland. Unbelievably, but it is this disappointing end which prevents me from buying a full bottle (yet). Also, I think that after the mouthwatering top notes, TdB leans more towards the feminine side. Great great addition to your wardrobe anyhow so just test it yourselves!!

I'm crazy about saffron and can't remove it or reduce it in my diet. It makes me like I'm in the clouds!
After The Scent of departure's approach to the historic and famous cities which I admire it as a positive step toward identifying the cultures, this one is just another prove on the value of Istanbul; the multi-layer city which once a time used to be the most powerful city; the city that doesn't fit in the political borders of Turkey and its history goes beyond.
Anyway, as I was telling, saffron, my seductive spice, is the boldest element in this filed but I confess there is something in the opening which like it more than saffron smell. It was something only related to this part of world; the middle East. Something tied to my childhoods, something that smells oldish and mature and I can't distinguish it.
The middle is more floral and here is when saffron shines with some woody tone although it's not listed. The sillage is like a tear gas, scatters and covers everywhere, I swear!
Wondering that when it reaches the dry down, the woody tone gets stronger with deep floral and balmy leathery play.
It's a highly highly highly formal stuff for men and nice item yet not casual for women. So chic and royal.

Traversee du Bosphore is an elegant, sweet, different fragrance. It opens with a fresh and juicy fruity sweetness (probably the apple?), then it changes into some kind of candy smell which becomes lighter and lighter. It is a sweet, vanilla fragrance, I detect no sign of leather, nor woodsiness, but it remains a remarkable fragrance, because every note is in harmony with the others, it is very well balanced, nothing sticks out screaming, it is a well rounded scent and although I don't think it will ever become something I use all the time I take pleasure in sniffing it when I am wearing it, and since I wear perfume for myself, I see Traversee du Bosphore as a lovely selfindulgence.

Can't put a thumb down to my beloved BEDOU (Bertrand Douchafour, the nose behind this scent). But this is not a masterpiece, apart from the evocative name. Too sweet perhaps. I don't know why I don't love it.

this was one of the first scents from l'artisan that i tried on my skin. i was quite drawn to the leathery smell backed up with a sweet but subtle vanilla. not the usual scents i would go for, but i definitely would like it in the winter, so it's quite seasonal and not an all year rounder. it does remind me of one of my other favorite, dior homme but sweeter and more oriental. it does remind me of istanbul and freshly made leather satchel. might consider it in the future when i want a winter scent.

I regard it as the best way to warm your winter! I did not want to add any review being it quite unuseful as so many interesting things have already been said and better expressed but I love Traversee too. Despite my complete ignorance about Bosphore or being also not so interested in Mr. B.D. travelling's experience, I enjoy wearing this fragrance all the same. I appreciate the good measure that the creator has shown, while rightly controlling so many ingredients (many among them rather strong) without losing his command. After reading the "pyramid" one could expect some probably "disgusting" fragrance because of too many spices or sugary and fruity ( I normally prefer leaving fruit on the table instead of taking around with me!) in the same liquid; but never mind what he chose: that's his job and responsability after all. I find that the result is remarkable! Good sillage, brilliant sensation and at the same time you get the impression that the fragrance keeps on whispering to you and it does it for along. It's an E. d. P. so with a consistent longevity. Again I regard it as the best way to warm my winter.....
(....and also that of those who come around me!)

I did not need to spend time with Traversee du Bosphore to know that this perfume is for me. It was a love from the first sniff. Where do I start? This perfume has so many different themes wonderfully put together. There is a lovely gourmand notes with delicious loukhom and honey. There is a romantic flower garden with dark iris and romantic rose. There is a fruit orchard. There is a sophisticated leather note, soft and smooth. There is a heat generated by warm saffron. All these notes are intertwined in the tapestry that Bertrand Duchaufour masterfully weaves to create his vision of the mysterious Traversee du Bosphore. And the result is a lavish, delicious and multifaceted perfume.

The composition is beautiful from the top to the base notes. I smell the sophisticated leather note right from the start. It has this gorgeous suede like quality, which is so luxurious. There is also a beautiful layer of ginger and warm saffron, which makes the composition smooth and sensual. The scent unveils beautifully on my skin when it finally reveals its gourmand heart with dusty loukhom note and powdery iris. I have tried both, Keiko Mecheri and Serge Lutens interpretations of loukhom but Traversee du Bosphore is different from them. It is definitely not as sugary sweet. The loukom interpretation here is extremely sophisticated. The supporting layers of leather and saffron keep the fragrance from going into sugar overload. It is more like driving pass loukhom shop and inhaling the aroma without actually eating any. The base notes are comforting and delicious with benzoin and vanilla but there is no strong sweetness. The sillage is medium but the lasting power is quite good.

Overall score is 9/10. I love wearing this scent. And it is one of those rare scents that not only satisfy my needs for complex and unusual compositions but it is also loved by my family. I get compliments when I wear it. I got a full bottle after the testing.

I have never been to the part of the world that inspired Duchaufour to create Traversee du Bosphore... I probably would not have guessed what idea stood behind the scent just from smelling the fragrance.

The scent is actually very very sweet and I get none of the top notes. Right from the start I can smell leather covered with a huge amount of rose and sugar and almond essence (the one used for baking cakes). After the initial sweet punch, it tones down and settles as a sweet mist around the body and even the leather disappears within 20 minutes. On a whole, it does make me think of KM Loukhoum, except it lacks its distinctiveness and turns out an average scent. I like it, but it does not really fulfill the promises it makes.

Oriental, fruity (not berry like though), spicy notes composed around the leather. There was also some coconut and vanilla that do not appear listed above. The Turkish delight note in this creation takes a different twist from Loukhoum's and uncle Serge's syrupy confections; it's complicated, and well blended with all the other flavours, being rich but also sheer, as if the East meets the West in a passage,just like the name suggests,merging opulent eastern tradition with western perceptions on beauty.

Because the name of the perfume is of historical significance, and I happen to know it since it's traced back to my Greek heritage. Bosphorus is a Greek word meaning "passage of the cow" (βους = αγελάδα-cow, and πόρος = πέρασμα-passage), deriving from the legend of Io who was one of the many lovers of Zeus. When Hera, Zeus´s wife, suspected her husband being involved in a love affair with Io, Zeus transformed Io into a beautiful cow, and tried to send her away from Hera´s rage. Io, in the form of a cow, swam across the strait but Hera discovered her and she sent big flies after the cow, to bite and disturb her all the time, ending Io in the Ionian Sea (thus named Ionian sea).

Most of the time I love perfumes purely on their smell, defying bottles, and big names. This time, I will have this fragrance mainly because of the underlying story (but I also love its scent); it is of particular importance to me, and it is my sweetest little secret!

Attraversiamo!

As Suburbanites sais ''It's baklava''! Ok,maybe Baklava and Turkish delights in one! Starts with warm,creamy apple,I smell saffran and light leather too.I couldn't detect any rose but yes I detected sugar when it dried down. I really like it(I love baklava too!!!)but I would like to be a bit less sweeter than it is. It is not cloying,but still it can make you feel that you are the baklava!In this case I don't know if I want to smell like dessert!It is not bad at all,brings euphoria when it opens,high blood sugar when it dries down!Lasts well too!

@Arrogant_Cat: Beautiful review

Traversee du Bosphore...

So many thoughts on this scent. My first niche experience. I somehow stumbled into the Artisan shop in Covent Garden, London and knew very little about niche and this line as I normally wear gourmand, very sweet designer fragrances. The gorgeous saleslady greeted me with a huge smile, she was very skilled and happy to have a chat with me about perfumes, she let me take my time and sniff all the goodies they had. I explained to her that I liked gourmand, vanillaish, sweet scents. She showed me Vanille Absolument which I thought was OK and some others and then she introduced me to Traversee du Bosphore. A little bit different, she said as she sprayed it on my wrist.

Turkish delight? Sounded good.
Leather and tobacco? Not so sure about it, it was new to my nose.
I was definitely being pushed out of my comfort zone with this fragrance and it just felt so damn right!
This stuff is gorgeous!

Starts off very leathery with prominent tobacco, to my nose at least. As it softens it gets a bit sweeter, but it is not that sugar-overload I am usually used to, Traversee du Bosphore is not actually sweet to my nose at all. I do detect honey, I guess it is supposed to be the Turkish delight accord and I could swear that I smell almond as well, although it is not listed , but almond is very close to Turkish delight, right?

If I could make up a whole new olfactory group for just one single fragrance, it would be Traversee du Bosphore and I would classify it as an oriental - leather - gourmand, such an amazingly interesting and complex scent. It is like trip to an exotic land indeed.

Longevity is amazing, it lasts all day on my skin!
Sillage is not monstrous but pleasant and I think this perfume is actually thick enough to make a good nighttime scent, I find it extremely sensual with all it`s warm unisex qualities.
When I visited the shop I ended up buying Nuit de Tubereuse and I got a sample of Traversee du Bosphore which I enjoy wearing and sniffing every now and then.
When my sample is gone, and it is gone soon, I am going back to that fabulous Covent Garden shop to buy a big bottle so I can be a happy owner of this extravagant, exotic perfume which basically introduced me to the world of niche perfumery and got me fascinated by L'Artisan Parfumeur.

Thank you ever so much.

It's Baklava! Everyone loves Baklava!

Both my wife and I tried this. As a fan of florals, she found this a bit too over-the-top fruity/honey. That same aspect made it interesting for me from top note to dry down. The combination of honey, sugar, apple and pomegranate smelled precisely as if someone had poured liquid Baklava over my skin, so the odd feeling of whether to simply smell or actually taste is a bit odd. It is somewhat eccentric yet gourmand. The rose and floral notes that I thought my wife would have liked were ones she really didn't appreciate but for the fruity/sweet opening. For me, that was the defining moment in this piece as if dried into the saffron/leather heart. By the time I reached rose, it had transformed nicely. Duchaufour created a very unique masterpiece.

Having said that, however, this isn't something I would look to for much more than a curiosity. While it was a very delicious scent, I couldn't think of one occasion on which I'd expect to wear it, so it definitely is an eccentricity; nonetheless, I could think of many worse ones. This is definitely one to be sampled if for nothing else than the sheer experience.

Wow! A real curiosity..
I was lucky to get a big bag of samples when I bought a Mure et Musc from L'artisan Parfumeur, this was among them.
At first application I got an almost unpleasant smell, a little germoline, a little 'industrial', I know that's an odd description but it really did smell peculiarly fuel/garage like.
However, after 10/15 minutes it develops into an extraordinarily lovely fragrance. I dislike very floral and rosy fragrances but in this one the rose is really subtle and the floral notes are so gentle. I think I can smell a parma violet but it's not listed as an ingredient. The sugary almond is definitely there.
I'm rather surprised at how much I love this. It's a floral fragrance for women who don't like florals. Superb and the right side of eccentric.

It opens like a Turkish apple tea - so it has something to do with my Istanbul memories after all.
On the paper, it smells like dry apple bits, on the skin - like I said - apple tea, warm and fragrant, with saffron notes. But it's not for long, later it goes through many phases of sweetness: honey, maybe Turkish sweets. I'd say this sweetness is quite nice, but nothing distinctive. Couldn't smell leather at all.
Must say, I like "Traversee's" opening best, and it's a pity.

I read a lot of different reviews, mentioning apples, loukhoum, and all sort of edible notes, from marzipan to fruits, including vanilla and almonds. I read about metallic notes, leather, syntethic smell, smooth, powdery, in the same time breezy, flowerish or . So my curiosity was bubbled like a baloon when I ordered this sample. And the testing was accordingly intrigant. I didn't understand anything at the beginning. And then...well, the name helps: Traversee du Bosphore (Bosphorus crossing). Of course! It smells like an old wooden boat on the sea, in the full heat of the sun of Turkey, while the passengers eat baklava.

One of the strangest perfumes I've smelled. What's funny, is that this was the first perfume I bought this past winter when I started getting back into perfume after many years. Its an odd choice being an expensive niche, and a weird one at that. I was attracted to this for the loukhoum note. The suede accord is unusual, but wearable; I see this as a good gateway leather fragrance. Worn in cold weather, its awesome, but its sort of nauseating in warmer months. When I wear it now, its powdery, soft aura reminds me a lot of L'Heure Bleue, except this is more L'Heure Rose.

Inoffensive, smooth, unobtrusive. I can smell the leathery component which is very light and accompanied by small doses of rose and probably - apple. I agree with reviewer "Levissima" from Istanbul: This does not in the least render the atmosphere of the great Bosporus, nor does this scent evoke any other images of Turkey. The name is not in the least suitable. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant scent, wearable, enjoyable and made from high-quality ingredients.
6 out of 10 ponts on my personal scale

This is a strange little perfume. On me it's a bit like the story of the Ugly Duckling. This starts out a lot like dust to me. At first I was thinking~??? How can anyone think this is soft and sweet?? This stuff is soooo dry I think it actaully just blew off of my skin!

Awhile later I was moving around (as you do ) and I kept getting wafts of this soft, sweetish, wait a minute.......is that rose? smell. It took me a minute to realize that it was Traversee. I was enchanted.....to say the least. And then I couldn't resist. For 3 days in a row which is ground breaking for me I wore this beauty, craved her. Then I bought her. Now I love her all the way through and spritz quite often compared to the others in my collection (for now of course).

This is a transformer. She starts out cloaked in a dry dusty veil. About 5 minutes in things start to change. I can smell the presence of suede quite prominently w/a bit of rose rising in the background. 5 min. later I start to smell the sweet beginning of a far off Turkish delight. Then she really starts to go there and you can start to pick apart the different delicacies(sp?) that create this rich dessert. Then she stops. Before you get to Louhkoum.....she mercifully stops.

You're left w/a soft, gorgeous veil of sweetish, rosey Turkish Delight. More of a suggestion really than an invasion. It wafts so beautifully for hours w/out creating a thick, sweet, noxious cloud around you. She rides the air rather than capturing and weighing it down.

This is a comfort scent for spring/summer. Light as the breeze and absolutely charming.

I loved this one for the first couple of hours. It's sweet but in a gentle, calming way instead of the candied, nauseating style of some mass market fragrances.

I don't smell any leather nor almonds at all; on my skin it's a fruity/flowery scent that's very feminine and not at all gourmand.

However, wearing it for a whole day -and yes, it lasts that long!- I find myself somewhat bored with it. I'm not a fan of sweet scents in general and I couldn't detect any depth in this one to make it FB worthy for me. No spice, no incense or smoke... I just need these notes in my sweeter perfumes to make them wearable in the long run. So alas, this is not a fragrance for me after all. But fans of feminine, romantic perfumes, will love this one.

I really like this fragrance. I got a sample and I love the almond and fruit notes. There's a fresh note that I can't figure where it comes from, but it's lovely. I think this is one to save for to buy!

Absolutely charming,mousseline-"like" fragrance-i can smell very distinctively apple,few seconds later wonderful saffron notes,all this rounded with very light honey-pistachio fume....I don`t get any leathe notes-except they are such velvety soft,they "underline" the whole "composition".
Apple an honeyed saffron go along with all day i wear this wonderful,magic frag-for me is this a skinscent,but with very good longevity-amazing for such a light scent...
I love it !!!!

Starts out with a sharp, acrid, metallic note contrasted with a medley of sweet notes that include almonds, vanilla, and dark-toasted coconut. In fact, it’s like a marzipan-stuffed coconut macaroon in a metalworking shop. I don’t smell anything like the Turkish delight that’s supposed to be there, but I suppose I was expecting something bolder and more “oriental”, with a candied rose scent.

After 10 minutes or so the metallic notes fade, leaving a subtle, sweet, slightly musky fragrance dominated by marzipan, toasted almonds and vanilla. I really did not smell the watery note that others mention, nor did I smell much iris, leather, or saffron. I suspect that the odd top notes that I noticed were part of the saffron and/or leather that are mentioned in the perfumer’s notes, but they were not the full accord and vanished fairly quickly. Eventually the drydown leaves mostly a sweet light vanilla reminiscent of Havana Vanille, but not as transparent.

The scent lasts all day, with traces still lingering the morning after. Aside from the odd beginning, this is a nice, light, comfortable scent, but not special enough that I would go out of my way to obtain more than my sample.

I was curious to try this because I love Guerlain's Cuir Beluga, another fragrance humorously classed as a leather.

The top notes frightened me a bit, becuause it usually means a big 'fruit toot' is set to escape. But I was strangely drawn to it, it's very tart and playful. Now that I've worn it through completion, it is the opening that was most enjoyable.

The middle phase grew increasingly sweet on me. I dind't get dry leather, or any leather for that matter. Just juicy, heavy wetness. While there are subtle changes wafting in and out this was mostly linear on me. I got the tart fruit note in all phases, but it became less and less enjoyable as the overly saccharin basenotes kicked in. The almond nuance is very noticable, so I would check to see how you rated this note in the past before sampling this.

Overall this was an OK fragrance to me; not my genre but certainly not offensive. I was ready to move on at the four hour mark, but out of fidgetiness and not irritation. (I replaced this with one of my floral chypres)

Although L'Artisan Parfumeur TRAVERSEE DU BIOSPHORE does not list any woody notes, it seems that the standard AP cedary base is here along with the dark, oily leather, the honey and the rose. The fruits are very light and fleeting, and I would never have guessed that this composition contains apple--but maybe that's because so many fragrances containing that note are sweet fruity florals closer to cider than perfume.

In any case, as one might expect, this is another smooth, likeable perfume from L'Artisan, a house which I personally find more noteworthy for its high-quality ingredients than for earthshattering revolutionary creations. TRAVERSEE DU BIOSPHORE is a nice leather perfume with a fairly strong honey presence, which does seem new to me. The longevity is better than usual for this house...

Nothing spesial!!!!!
i live in istanbul and i was very exited about this fragrance... my friend even ordered a sample at luckyscent, but it turned out to be a waist of money... no apple, no leather, nothing gourmand about it, no honey or sugar at the end.... just vanilla!!!! Yves Rocher vanilla!!!!!

Yes I agree, the most dominant notes in the drydown are the honey and the suede leathery rose.. quite uncommon notes alltogether but beautifully matched..I even like the strange spicey apple note in the opening notes..and for me it comes really at the right time in that cold novemver rain...cozy and cuddly fragrance, very good

(I am grateful to Celina, who introduced me to Traversee du Bosphore.) I was not sure what to expect, given the somehow haphazard combination of notes: Would this be a fruity, tobacco, leather scent, or all of the above? Well, it is certainly not fruity. There are no fruit notes that I can detect, except (perhaps) for a slightly smoky apple in the beginning. If I sense any leather notes, they are probably a result of my imagination. Tobacco might have more of a presence, but only as a subtle, fleeting sensation.

The general impression is of a relatively quiet, even subdued fragrance from the beginning to its end, and this is not a bad thing here. It opens, to my nose, with the smell of bitter almonds and quickly turns into powdery gourmand sweetness. It won’t give anyone a toothache, though, unless you absolutely detest sweet notes.

Have you tried those Turkish delight treats (lokum), the kind that is filled with slightly bitter nuts? On me, Traversee smells exactly like the fine powdered sugar sprinkled on a box of these—a very good quality of lokum, I must say.

This is a cozy, comfort scent, which seems more suited for colder than hot summer days. It may not have powerful sillage, but unlike some other L’Artisan creations, it is extremely long lasting! In fact, it is stubbornly tenacious. If you like powdery scents or have appreciated the Keiko Mecheri’s Loukhoum series, but for whatever reason it was just not right for you, Traversee du Bosphore is worth a sniff.

It's a quite interesting fragrance, not at all what i expected, but still intereting though.
It seems that Bertrand Douchafour left aside his over spicy kaleidoscope that he used in every single fragrance. Here he is following a similar way that he did in Havana Vanille: use exotic, strong notes in a velvet mode. This produce fragrances that are never overwhelming and that demand your attention to get the nuances of the composition. I feel that i don't like his new style, it seems to much pale, doesn't match with the exotic inspirations of the travel collection.
Still, the result produces something delicious to pay attention.
I don't know why so much hate for the apple note, but here it works well at the opening, producing an aroma of a fresh apple juice, slightly sirupy. The apple juice is the first thing that i get at my skin, and it's doesn't stay so long as i wanted to last, because it's a beautiful beverage accord. I progressively detect some dominant accords after that: one of leather, which has more of a suede feel than a leather accord here, a soft powdery flowers, and something that surprised me, because it isn't listed on the notes above. I get a gray powderiness which screams iris for me. It's the same kind of iris found in Dior Homme - something that reminds me of color pencils and cement. It's between a powdery iris aroma and the grey-earthy accord of iris. For a moment on my skin the combination of aromas seems like Dior Homme made in an alternative world, where they combined the iris with a delicious apple juice, which drains any kind of sad aura in iris, and supported by a suede aroma instead of the leather and cocoa in Dior Homme.
I also get, for a moment, a quotation of another L'Artisan here, which is Saffran Troublant. The Saffron note here is worked in a similar way that the one founded in Saffran Troublant, less spicy and metalic, and more soft and with subtle floweriness.
After one hour, the scent seems to fade into a soft murmur. It's the phase were you get musky roses with a hint of sugar and honey. This rahat loukhoum accord is not trashy like the one found in Loukhoum by Keiko Mecheri, which smells like scented baby wipes for me, or like Serge Lutens Rahat Loukhoum, a incredible sweet confection of cherry-syrup almonds, honey and rose. Here it works like a kind of scarf scent, a scent which is perceptible but which is only a trace of itself, a fragrant and constant trace of musky rose, barely-there sugar and honey.
After analysing the aroma, i perceived that there's something similar in the structure with Idole de Lubin, but in a less exotic way and with the aromas switched in their progession. While Idole de Lubin starts with a honey and rum and sugar cane aroma and progress into a velvet leather base, Traversee du Bosphore starts on the opposite direction, with some modifications. After the apple accord goes away, you perceive the soft leather and the saffron, without the woody aroma, and then you get the honey, rum, completed by some powdery roses.
I wouldn't say it's a feminine creation. That are some dry and spicy edges that could make it a dare masculine. It intrigues me, because it's subtle, soft, but there are a lot of fine details to be analyzed here. It goes on the smooth direction as Scentofsoul pointed -the notes seems very blended here - but if you pay attention you can catch them individually on different moments. On me it doesn't seem to go in a top-drydown direction. I get most of notes at the opening, with different phases and accents, that start to progressively fade and leave space to the drydown. It's like the constructed a top-heart-basenotes over a base of rose, honey and sugar.