Consider this: burning wood chips and incense resins so they emit their fragrance is an ancient practice, and explains the etymology of the word perfume: through smoke. Perfume began with an act of fumigation, as beautiful scented smoke imparts a fragrance to atmospheres, fabrics, and skin. Heeley’s exquisite Agarwoud bring us to this image – a return to this ritual – as agarwood (oud) sits on ambery embers, and the heat of these resins send exquisite smoke and incense to the heavens. The smell is pure, crystalline, substantial yet fine, as is typical of agarwood, slinking into a resinous form and joined with rose to add body and flesh to this smell. Oud takes on many forms, but here it is unencumbered and allowed to breathe – Heeley respects its natural and mysterious form.
In a similar vein, FZOTIC’s Feu Secret works with this image of smoke and feeds the flame. Tendrils of flame from birch and cedar wood flicker in the cold and camphor-tinged forest air, pulsing against the blackness of night. Feu Secret is earthy and dusty, cleverly drawing upon iris root and turmeric root to deepen and complexify the earthy-woody sensations of the scent. 1828 by Histoires de Parfums brings light to this forest in the form of citrus notes, breathing its bright aroma like a marine breeze over a wild heath. It celebrates the vertical sturdiness and power of pine, reinforced with eucalyptus, cedar, vetiver, nutmeg, and pepper.
Wood notes are conducive to a play of textures as well as light and dark contrasts. Tiger (Zoologist) embraces the vetiver note’s naturally oscillating tendency. It embraces the slight dirtiness of the extract, merging impressions of smoke, grass, and unctuousness with a surprisingly zesty freshness. Indeed, vetiver is not technically a wood, but a root. This goes through a wash of kumquat, cardamom, saffron, and jasmine, producing a vetiver fragrance with character – it prowls, lurks, and haunts. Tiger moves through citrus, leather, and wood sensations in an impressive instant. Similarly, Orange x Santal by Essential Parfums leans on the chypric elements of oakmoss and cypress to coat rich and seductive Australian sandalwood in shadows. A double dose of bitter orange offers temporary reprieve, tweaked with the crunchy snap of basil, always operating within an umbrous frame of dark and rich woody effects.
The final perfume in this selection embraces contemporary perfumery techniques to the fullest, utilising impressive woody synthetics to transform what is possible of the category. Bois Imperial (Essential Parfums) begins with a sizzling opening of Thai basil, timut pepper, and sparkling grapefruit, which fuses with a woody heart of Georgywood, an amber-cedar molecule with a powerful freshness, not at all unrelated to the endearingly popular Iso-E Super molecule much loved today. Further, the spicy-woody cross of Akigalawood signs the tenacious and enduring body of this fragrance, which offers the best of patchouli, oud, and pepper notes without the expense of clarity. Bois Imperial is a long and vertical fragrance – potent and extraordinary. It offers characteristic woodiness in a new and innovative way.
