Christian Dior Bois d'Argent




I've known Christian Dior Bois d'Argent for many years now, usually delivered via life-affirming hugs from a couple of my friendliest friends who love wearing the stuff.

Bois d'Argent is a plush beauty streaked with salty tears, a perfume in a minor key.

Ana Karina in Vivre Sa Vie


The sweet, resinous myrrh leans towards the medicinal, and the iris is arid, any former greenness now smoked, petrified wood. The smell is simultaneously comfortable and unnerving.

I was reminded of how familiarity with a perfume can defang its initial impact (and associations shape its appeal) when I rediscovered my notes on Bois d'Argent, jotted back in 2008: "Cloying, musty, with toothpaste sweetness. Smells like an older man with good dental hygiene who lives in his pajamas." Hmm...like I said: simultaneously comfortable and unnerving.

Bois d'Argent is available from Dior.com, Amazon.com, starting at $350 for 250 ml

30 comments:

  1. Dear Katie
    Your description of myrrh as 'milky leather' is quite marvellous.
    The insides of many Roman Catholic churches have a distinct tang if this particular resin, used as it is in holy incense.
    So, for some reason, I always associate it with the colour purple and men in robes... though perhaps that was Ancient Rome or both.
    Any which way, the perfume and your review are just de-lovely.
    Yours ever
    The Perfumed Dandy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't my friend the Dandy delightful? All of that Roman Catholic pageantry does come directly from Ancient Rome. I had an archaeologist tell me that if you wanted to know what the imperial court on the Palatine was like in the time of Hadrian just go to a high Roman Catholic mass. You know they were rocking that myrrh in Rome two thousand years ago.

      Delete
    2. Now that is a FUN fact! Did not know the ancient Roman ways are preserved in a high mass. God I love how glamorous history sneaks into our quotidian lives.

      Delete
    3. Not many things make me laugh when I am by myself you are hysterical Katie, good dental hygiene living in PJ's.

      Delete
  2. oh nice. I'll have to try hypnotic poison although I think I did try it at Sephora one day and my wife gave it a spontaneous thumbs up (if I'm thinking of the right stuff). I'm game for any poison. Bois d'Argent is very lovely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spontaneous thumbs ups are tiny moments of goldenness.

      Delete
  3. I wish we could get together and smell stuff. The only things in my tiny collection with which you wouldn't be familiar are some of the vintage oddities that I've managed to snag in the most unexpected places. But maybe one or two would strike your fancy.

    Hypnotic Poison didn't really grab me, but gourmands seldom do. However Bois d'Argent sounds right up my alley. I like austere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HP and Bois d'A aren't Bobsy Twins or anything, but you can sniff out a family resemblance. Bois d'A ain't gourmand, so you'd be more inclined to like it, Nora.

      Delete
  4. So happy to see you back on screen. WE have all missed your great "live" reviews. And this one was great too. I do love the entire Privee line from Dior and want to own them all! But for now I have the glorious and very limited Mitzah and the amber lush pillow that is Ambre Nuit. I find Bois D'Argent lovely but on the light side for me. It is a great scent to layer with others such as Oud Isphan and Patchouli Imperiale and even Dior Homme. What a fabulous effect that is. ..... Just happy to see you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lanier, glad to be back! Wow, you do love some weight in your perfume, what with all the chunky layering. Bois d'Argent seems plenty full to me, although someone else has just written to me that they find it doesn't last long enough. I'm still cruising on the Bois d'A I applied yesterday, so I guess everyone's factory settings are different, all right.

      Delete
  5. I tried it last winter & what I remember it was dry &smoky, it was on the masculin side for my taste,it was during the same trip when I bought oud Isphan so I think that is why I don't remember much of Bois de Argent. Hessa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hessa, there's a lot of competition for your nasal real estate from Christian Dior's perfumes - there are so many great ones from that house.

      Delete
  6. Katie, you are so funny!!! "Cloying, musty, with toothpaste sweetness. Smells like an older man with good dental hygiene who lives in his pajamas." I love this description, even though I have no idea what that smells like, don't intend to track it down, and pray that it's never me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Randy, weird as it seems, I'm attracted to that "musty older man" smell, because I know I like it when it crops up in Penhaligon's Sartorial and Miller Harris L'Air de Rien, 2 perfumes I like wearing. What's my problem?

      Delete
    2. I'm weirdly into garage smells. I think Comme de Garcon made a perfume called "Garage," and I really liked it. It's oddly comforting for me.

      Delete
    3. I do think it's fascinating how "weird" smells attract us, whether it's the "musty older man" smell, the "garage" smell Nora likes, the smell of gasoline in Knize Ten, the smell of burning rubber in Bulgari Black, and of course your favorite, Katie, Secretions Magnifiques....I suppose the list goes on and on. Katie, I don't think you have a problem that isn't shared by the rest of us!

      Delete
  7. Katie - you've intrigued me. This sounds like a perfect misty morning, damp, foggy day kind of scent.

    As a person likes to wear pajama tops with overalls, I chafe at anyone here who would denigrate such a lifestyle. And good dental hygiene is the mark of a gentleman, not a shut-in.

    I will sample this 'un and comment here afterwards.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Either Bois d'Argent is perfect for you, Stefush, or it'll be too much of a smell-o-graphic duplication of the man wearing it, and as a consequence too matchy-matchy. We all wait to hear which it is.

      Delete
    2. Ha! That's like when I bought Fahrenheit for my husband one year. The first few times he wore it, I didn't smell anything because it was so much like what he already smells like--leather and motorcycle fumes.

      Delete
    3. Okay, just got my sample of Bois D'Argent this evening!

      And I now totally get where Katie's coming from with the toothpaste and the old man in the PJ's thing. There's a lived-in quality to this fragrance that is exactly reminiscent of someone who's slept over at your house and remembered to bring a toothbrush but not a change of clothes.

      This is the slightly stale scent of someone still hard at work after hours. The driven, white-collar worker still at his office desk at 9pm, with a passing hint of a mint ingested after a quick smoke before shutting off the last lonely light on his floor and going home.

      Delete
  8. Hello Katie, I've just read about an analogue odour camera. http://www.amyradcliffe.co.uk/Scent-ography-a-post-visual-past-time-1
    What's your opinion? Eva

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eva, looking at the post and the video...it's make-believe, right? (I feel dumb for asking.) But I want it to be real.

      Delete
  9. I also find Bois d'Argent 'involving' ;-). It feels like a very 'me' scent and I would probably place it in my Top 20 scents if I was ever sadistic enough to draw one up. I get honey and vanilla and iris and that milky leather thing - it is warm and indistinct in that elusive way L'Eau d'Hiver is, if that makes any sense.

    Now I do see a family resemblance with Hypnotic Poison, which I haven't tried in ages, but whose stewed fruit facet won't have been to my taste. I recall it as being a bit 'burnt' smelling, very woody, very vanilla-y and generally a bit loud. But I might like it now, you never know!

    Oh, and FYI I was brought up on the Bobbsey twins, graduating to Nancy Drew when I was a little bit older. My friend Clare has a spaniel called Flossie(!).

    And The Perfume Dandy's comments about church and men in purple robes opened up a familial memory seam, as you might imagine.... ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elusively warm and indistinct sums up Bois d'Argent nicely.

      Chuckling at your ref to your pa loving the ecclesiastical fashion catwalk.

      Delete
  10. Lovely contribution to the Word of Mouth programme on R4 t'other day, Katie. The presenter seemed to surprise himself with how enthusiastically he was embracing his inner fumie by the time you'd done with him!! xoxo Justineantonia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I KNOW, Justineantonia! The presenter got properly engaged with the fumie fun, didn't he?

      I'm going to post the Word of Mouth episode here on KP Smells so people can check it out.

      Delete
    2. Top plan!! Deserves a wider audience.
      I just bought 'Ambre Gris' by Balmain, and it defies my attempts to describe it, it's so delicious. :)
      Justineantonia xoxo

      Delete
  11. I'll have to try Bois D'argent. I'm currently exploring a large decant of Dior's Patchouli Impérial. I'm typically one to ignore gender labels, but I'm on the fence with PI so far as to whether I have the cojones to pull this one off.

    Who am I kidding? Of COURSE I can.

    I've had a long-time torrid affair with Hypnotic Poison, btw. Love it, but haven't worn it in quite a while. I'm ambivalent about reformulations, but it's enough of that amaretto cyanide scent that I can still dig the new incarnation.

    I rather agree with Justineantonia that Ambre Gris from Balmain should have a wider fan base. I think it's very scrummy relative to its accessible price point. It's not a frequent flier in my wardrobe, but it does get trotted out on occasion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a love/meh relationship with Ambre Gris. I adore the bottle, so much that I've almost bought the perfume just for the container! Weird. I agree that it's good value and should have a wider fan base for how accessible it is. But every time I wear it, I find it a little wan. But I think that's because I expect it to be something that it's not. I think of it in the same way as Juliette Has a Gun Calamity J. Spicy/sweet amber, agreeable.

      Delete