Borneo 1834 by Serge Lutens

kittykati

oh my. this scent is definitely very interesting, and lot more on a masculine side. yes, there’s the initial blast of alcohol, and patchouli, mingling with white flowers (i really don’t know why it invokes ‘daisies’ for me! – kind of some white flowers with no real scent to speak of), cocoa powder and cardamom, some woodsy notes, and resins, with a killing camphor note (which, i guess, really kills this for me). throughout, the scent’s very dry, earthy, smokey, and dirty. it doesn’t change or evolve much, but gradually settles and mellows so that after an hour or two, i don’t feel like fainting any more, just curiously sniff at my wrist, thinking it’s really ‘different’, but there’s no way to actually WEAR this. far from evoking some olfactory idea of a tropical island, it makes me think of mouldy caves with water dripping from the walls in the dark corners. in my opinion, this would be an excellent choice for someone who likes spending his/her time in dungeons, whatever the reasons for this would be.
now, i like strange things, i really do, and heavy smoky orientals just as much. however, there’s really a fine line between smelling ‘heady’, and smelling ‘kinky’ – and NOT in a ‘curious and unconventional’ way. i don’t hate it, but it’s just TOO S&M, and personally i find it a bit too much – but if you can handle that persistent camphor smell, then borneo1834 is the scent of the darkest of the dark desires.

Doc Elly

Today was the first test run for this sample and I have to say that it was a pleasant surprise. The first thing that I noticed was a strong aura of patchouli floating all around, not where I had applied the perfume, but in the remote part of the sillage. I really hadn't read anything about the perfume, so was surprised by the patchouli, which was actually nice and light, not the head-shop kind that I try to avoid. Closer to the skin there were other things not at all related to patchouli, probably some flowers and coriander. The first couple of minutes were a little rough, but the scent quickly settled down into a pleasant spicy-flowery scent with the patchouli somewhere off in another dimension. As the patchouli and flowers subsided, they were gradually replaced by a powerful, sweet vanilla note intensified by the cacao that I now see is supposed to be in the mix. About 8 hours later the drydown has pretty much come back to a nice, muted slightly floral patchouli. I like this scent a lot, even if it doesn't transport me to the wilds of Borneo. It has a lot of complexity and surprising whiffs of different things appearing in the sillage, almost as if they're drifting in from some remote location. Maybe the best image would be standing on the deck of a ship out at sea, with breezes from the land bringing hints of all the different fragrant things that are on an island somewhere just over the horizon. Borneo will get another wearing before too long.

tessture

An interesting journey. It goes on my skin as a blast of alcohol and patchouli, that immediately fades to patchouli and cocoa. The patchouli, which I generally abhore, is soft and sweet and woody, not oily and sour, and the cocoa is dry instead of sweet. It never smells like chocolate on me, only dry cocoa. As the scent warms, cardamom creeps in in the faintest of whiffs, softening the woody cocoa still further into what is almost but not quite a gourmand scent. Galbanum makes a brief appearance as wet wood or green forest floor, but it fades fairly quickly, which is good for me as galbanum can be abrasive and sharp on my skin. At about 45 minutes, a faint but distinct plastic note shows up,generally the sign of a synthetic smoke scent on me. Still, it isn't so intrusive to ruin the fragrance completely. Overall, this is warm woods, sweet patchouli in it's best Sunday clothes and dry, ground cocoa bean. Lovely.

bhean_sidhe

I was given this with a comment "please wear only in winter, better never". But now I wear it every day (it's winter though) and I can't get enough of it. I feel that is suits me perfectly and that no other perfume reflects my personality as well as this one. Btw, I think it's the best fragrance for a Scorpio you could ever think of.

At fist it's really sharp, alomost like a fist in your face, straightforward so and so. Then it settles down, gets close to to the skin and you start feeling the cocoa. It reminds me of our house in the countriside in August - the smell of the earth, wood. You're wearing a warm jumper and eating a chocolate bar. Somehow many Lutens fragrances bring back childhood memories.

Robert White

Well, I'm too damn beaten down by life right now for the usual clowning around and weekly biography (lost another job for NO GOOD DAMN REASON)so I'll stick with the juice. Borneo 1834 is an acceptable substitute for my forbidden alcohol abuse, as it smells like something really really expensive that I'd like to drink instead of something really really expensive that I love to wear. Sort of reminds me of Annick Goutal's SABLES -is there immortelle in there?- opens up with a head clearing blast of patchouli, cigar tobacco, utterly bitter chocolate, and goes on fron there. Seems almost like a lateral scent to me - I don't notice a lot of change or evolution- but my head is so fucked up lateley my sensory perceptions may be a bit out of whack. Whatever. This is GREAT. I can't really see a woman wearing this....but the woman with the personality and style to pull it off would be pretty damn attractive to me - like a woman who looks goo in a Tuxedo...I guess it's the whole Helmut Newton thing, after all, I did sexually come of age in the 1970's ya know. Anyway, it's one of those Lutens that doesn't clobber you over the head with his trademark cedarwood accord - not that I'm knocking that, but in some of his stuff (Cedre and Chypre Rouge, and a few others), it's just, well, almost nauseating. In the case of Cedre, it IS just plain nauseating...the staff at Barney's agree with me. I can't say enough nice things about the perfume staff at Barney's in Boston - when Lutens released Muscs Koublai Khan in the USA, I stopped in at the store (didn't know it was out yet) and the manager had one with my name on it and was distressed because she didn't have my phone number. (Jeanette, if you ever read this, YOU can have my number - or anything else you want - ANY TIME) I also find that this smells great if you spray on the timiest bit of Muscs koublai Khan afterwards - although I usually refrain from mixing my perfumes because the result is usually an unmitigated, hard to wash off disaster.
By the way...I'm willing to be friends with any of you out there that do the FACEBOOK thing...just look for the guy with the monocle. (I'm not really a big FACEBOOK kind of guy, but most of my friends who do it are old rock and roll buddies, so a few perfume foolks would be a welcome change...)

mellybee

I premise that it will be a negative review or at any rate not a positive one.
My first impression about Borneo was: "Oh, my, this is the clone of Le Baiser du Dragon by Cartier!" (at least on my skin) There is the same dirty, wet, earthy type of pathouli in both of them in common, which does not seem the most refined and wearable at all. The patchouli is very dominant (and so is the cocoa in the Borneo - which, by the way, made me discover that I do not like cocoa bean as a perfume note) and I find it difficult to harmonize with my own personal style or mood.
I have to admit that I admire both fragrances but mostly as something valuables for their contribution to the olfactory discourse rather than to my personal scentrobe.

Lorilavira

I'm really impressed,it's funny to wear it but, for me this is more a scent for men.It smells so hot/smoky and like inscense but not the chemical stuff in some standard fragrances this smells real!
It smells like you're in the church(the inscense smells are different because every priest use other Balm for it,and this is a other one i think it's the galbanum)and it smells dry(patchoulie) and woody/spicy(cardamom).
This is definitive a unique and special scent with love made.And the scent is deep and mysterious.
The Bottle and the colour of the liquid fits really really good to the scent, and also the name it's like Borneo,itself.
This fragrance is good for the nighttime,and for colder day's and it last very long,it's a elixir.

pimentosugars

Wow. My introduction to Serge Lutens and I find myself in Borneo. Straight out of the bottle the top notes welcome with the most delicious melange of warm spices and a chord of rum and raisin running through, this is an astonishing perfume; 1834? Well yes, I can feel it. We are 19th Century explorers; I'm the girl dressed as a boy, pith helmet at the ready; we traded spices from Zanzibar via Madagascar to Mandalay, and now we have come to a land of heavy scented woods, of jungles and mysteries and strange flowers, of beasts and beings unknown, a land time forgot. I half expected to see a pterodactyl circling above Harrods.

Borneo 1834 has impressive longevity, I put it on at 5 in the afternoon and could still smell it on me at 2 in the morning, albeit witout the delectable top notes. What remains is a fascinating and rather dry condensation of spices. My criticism? I think it is too masculine for my skin. It lacks a certain kind of sexiness, and I like my perfumes to beguile. But a very interesting perfume indeed.