Bois de Violette Serge Lutens for women and men

Got a sample (together with my Arabie Christmas present) and applied. My husband - usually only mildly interested in perfumes - purred "hmmmmmmm, that smells very much like a pair of new leather gloves".

Guess I have to get the BdV as well.......... ;

For a longtime I have varied from one type of violet to another, some were an ace and others were a scrubber. However when you strip down the essence of this perfume what you get is a clean cut, sharp violet. I appreciate it's rawness and simplicity. Serge Lutens fragrances are hard to like my chemistry only a few has accepted me. Happily this Bois de Violette is one that likes me. It represents a long forest walk where you are constantly brushing up on violets which translate to amazing sillage, so much so it has become you hahaha. Anyways without me writing a novel. I LOVE THIS. Give it a try.

At night I like to slip into my comfy pajamas and hang out with a mug of hot tea. This is when I try my new samples, preferring those that aren't loud and clangy. For the past three nights I've been sitting with Bois de Violette, and oh my, what lovely evenings I'm having!

I almost want to say this should be dabbed and not sprayed. Dabbing is giving it a well rounded, lush aspect. Yes I detect the wood violet, which in other scents was a bit too much, but here it is sweet with a green, springy softness.

The violet is youthful and candied, and brings a playful edge to a note that can turn melancholy on a dime. I'm really liking this one. Violet, in my opinion, is a hard note to deal with. All too often I find it 'an experience' and not an olfactory treat. Here it is a treat, and a dewy, perfect treat at that.

This is one of the Lutens I most enjoy.

The first time I tried Bois de Violette I kicked myself for having bought Feminité du Bois a few months earlier. You know that shitty feeling of having bought the good, and then finding the better? I quickly came to the conclusion, though, that I prefer Feminité for most purposes and would choose it over BdV if I were to have just one. BdV brings into relief a feeling about Feminité that I could never quite get my nose around. Feminité’s boozyish combination of fruit, wood and flower expresses itself with a dried-fruit resinousness that I find nowhere except in the SL Feminité and Bois perfumes. Without using any of the classic perfume resins/oils (benzoin, olibanum, myrrh, spikenard, peru balsam, cistus labdanum) Feminité synthesizes a flower/fruit/wood that has the same stickiness and chewy quality that we associate with botanical resins.

Bois de Violette, while gorgeous, removes the stickiness of Feminité in order to focus on the highs of the added violet. The result is that it speaks in a higher, perhaps prettier tone of voice, but loses some of the implicit harmony of Feminité’s middle register.

The Feminité / BdV dilemma fleshes out an understanding that I’ve been coming to. I’ve always preferred the range of the viola to that of the violin. In the small bit that I’ve experienced of opera, I’m instantly drawn to the mezzo soprano rather than the soprano. The majority are drawn to the most prominent, the one that shines the brightest, the highest in the hierarchy. But just listen to Marilyn Horne singing Rossini and you’ll understand why I’ve come to prefer Feminité du Bois to Bois de Violette.

It's beautiful, top line and I just can't stop showering myself with it. Thank you so much Serge Lutens for making the world better with Bois de Viollette.

For the money, Bois de Violette is a little harsh. The violet is very sweet, very thick, and very much the spine of this fragrance, which is surprising to me. I thought the "Bois" part would be the upholding factor, but I guess they took the floral part more seriously. Then again, the woods are prominent, and the ashen cedar intensifies as the perfume dries down. Unfortunately, this heavy dosage doesn't do much for the composition, which gets a little bogged down by the darkness and sheer weight of so much earthy timber. It's a double wallop of heaviness with Bois de Violette; the violet note is too strong for my nose, and the woods does nothing to alleviate this imbalance. Frankly, I can't recommend this. It's just too hard to wear, and personally I find it to be an overrated mood-killer.

Wearing "Bois de Violette" makes me think of a day in the forest. The violet buds bursts early in the morning and release their scent, all sweet and juicy. Apart from violet I can detect curious notes of liquorice, cough syrup, soap and a Swedish candy/breath freshener named Läkerol. Makes you wonder what kind of creatures wander those woods at night...

But as the day goes on, sunbeams find their way down to the forest floor, drying the petals, making them drier and more brittle, weakening the flowers. But the sun also warms the trees and the forest floor, adding an aroma of woods and warm soil. A reminder that life goes on.

I like it a lot!

Dark, unusual violet, slightly smokey and buttery. Of course, violets in the hands of Serge Lutens, what did you expect? Because her name is Di Bois, the power of the cedar balances her ethereal sweetness, giving her a spine, a character, becoming witchy and haunting; As if a fairy stepped inside the enchanted forest to pick some flowers, but the wicked wizard is lurking somewhere behind the trees... The perfume's evolution centres around the hunting of the fairy (violets) by the dark wizard (wood), and as she's chased around the forest, you get whiffs of each ingredient, not necessarily both at the same time. When she finally gets away, after three to four hours on my skin, I look forward to her next pursuit!

I don't like it at all. It's so synthetic! The fragrance seems to be very cold and metallic. It's a little bit similar to eternity by CK which I really dislike. Definitely not for me.

Starts off as violet lozenges on my skin! Actually would be good to try if you're feeling a little tired- a 'I am violet hear me roar!' scent. The violet is not sweet or powdery but dark and bracing. I think this would be excellent on a man.

At first a sickly cough-syrup-candy violet then fades to a boring soft woody leafy scent. I've hated every lutens I've ever tried, and sadly this is no different. This is one of very few perfumes that I've actually wanted to wash off immediately, it turns my stomach.

really like it. i am surprised that they've managed to make a violet scent have some unisex appeal, but the woodiness gives it just enough edge i think. love the soapiness of it as well. it sticks there without taking over which is rare-ish. very nice. i would love for my house to smell like this all the time :).

Violets are center stage from the beginning, but they’re dry, powdery, leathery ones, not candy and not the fresh flowers. After an hour or so, there’s a sweet, slick, green note that creeps in from time to time, but for the most part the scent is fairly linear. It’s one of those perfumes that is good to have on hand for times when I want something that smells pleasant to me but that won’t smell weird or too strong to other people. It's quiet but lasts all day.

Yes, it is synthetic but I am not sure it`s a flaw. Violet candies? Probably that`s how violet jell-o would taste and smell like...That`s what this scent comes to in about 15 minutes - gourmand + weird gelatinous note.

The synthetic chemical Serge Lutens force is with this one (as it is with most of the Bois series). The 'bois' here is due to a 65% concentration of Iso E Super synthetic which imparts a cedary feel, while the synthetic candy violet doesn't impress either. Overall its a mildly pleasant woody violet fragrance but newer violet-iris fragrance leave this one far behind.

I'm wearing it today for the first time and love it. It starts like a sharp pine forest and then the wood warms up, and the the soft floral musk emerges after while. It's not a candied violet sweetness, but almost a gourmand sweet after a few hours, like soft fruity wood.

I loved the rich, plush Dolce Vita at first sniff, and so was excited to try its "cousin" Bois de Violette. Earlier in the day, I was testing another violet scent (Violets and Rainwater, from indie perfume house Soivohle') and was happy to find that lovely deep-purple violet note right away. There's no powdery, opaque, wimpy flower here; the violets are huge, dewy and luscious, and backed with that rich wood. This is very nice.

I already own Dolce Vita (and to be honest, prefer its jammy fruitiness), so I won't purchase this similar fragrance with my limited perfume budget. However, I highly recommend trying it; it's well worth loving.

First it´s like fight between violet and wood and you can´t really decide what is this fragrance about. just wait few minutes when everything settles down and you appreciate the delicacy of violets,not owerwhelming floral smell but violets in wooden vase.So unusual, like everything from Serge Lutens,and must have for me.
I have a feeling that Serge Lutens is becoming love of my life, a bit pricey lover but definitely worth it!

Violets getting dirty. Something in this turns just a bit foul and ruins the beauty of the violets.

I will be saving up my pennies for this one. It's interesting that it's billed as "for men and women" - I always thought most men thought of violets as something that grandma wore. Well, I love violets; I used to eat violet scented candy when I was a kid. And this is a fine amalgamation of scents, like a huge violet patch that has sprung up in the midst of an oak forest, beaded with fresh summer morning dew, befor it gets hot.