Bois d'Ascese

I ended up getting a decant of this because its not something I'd wear daily, or even weekly, but it is something I crave from time to time. Ive tried many of the other "campfire" offerings (sensationseeker below lists most of them). Bois d'Ascese I would say is more of a fireplace in a rustic hunting lodge lobby feeling, with the woods, tobacco and whisky. I'm a big olibinum fan so there's that delicious frankincense note as well. Fireplace is the keyword though, so one must be mindful about where this would be appropriate to wear in public. Oftentimes, I wear fragrances just for me, and at home.

Bois d'Ascese is a smoke scent, of the "literally smells like a bonfire" variety. Like vetivers, smoke scents smell good but they basically all smell alike, and they've become very popular in niche perfume, so there's not much to say about each one; the points of difference are minuscule. Bois d'Ascese stands out for having a little bit of ambery warmth alongside the pitch-black smoke. Other good smoke scents include Apoteker Tepe Brother Night (autumn leaf bonfire), Comme des Garcons Man 2 (friendly bonfire), Imaginary Authors A City On Fire (bonfire with jatamansi), Salvatore Ferragamo Incense Suede (elegant modern bonfire), Jorum Studio Arborist (turpentine-y bonfire), Bruno Fazzolari Lampblack (smoke and bright citrus), and many many more.

probably one of the purest straight smoke/incense perfumes ive tried. more of very churchy smoke than actual incense at first but i picked up on it after it dried down. you could most likely get something with similar notes but a more interesting profile for much less money.

Tried this at least 3 separate times, everytime it started clear and sharp but instantly fades into a old-fashioned grandpa smell. I can see the appeal of wanting to smell vintage though. I think you can find plenty others that uses Labdanum if that's what this smell is from, like ELd'O Attaquer le Soleil. Either way, expensive but not the best.

Ok, so I reviewed this last year, but I tried it again and wanted to leave my new thoughts. At first spray, it is LOUD and smells like bacon. But, it grew on me, and became less bacon-y. It would a thousand percent be hot on someone else. Over time, the incense comes through. And crazy enough, I could still faintly smell it on my wrists the next day. So it has awesome longevity. It's interesting and intense.

I like woody scents, I like smoky scents, I should like this. I don't. I never got incense from it, just smoke, but not an honest smoke, it smelled like "liquid smoke" that you'd grill with. It doesn't smell like a campfire, it smells like its trying to smell like a campfire. That may be ungenerous but after a full day that's how I felt.

Minimalist, yet made with care, precision and clever nuances, Bois d'Ascese is a personal fragrance rendition of Diptyque's famous Feu de Bois candle. It's charred woods, basically, which to me reads as pure comfort. I don't get the "barbeque" association some ppl below mention. It's smoked, yes, but not sausagey. Due to the unfortunate demise of Bois d'Encens, which sb decided to ruin with amberwoods, this is my go-to meditative, restrained, smoky masterpiece.

I made the mistake of wearing this after having a slight hangover and it made me want to vomit. Thankfully I didn’t but I couldn’t stomach this smell after. Unfortunately I had to let this scent go since it made me feel queasy everytime I wore it lol

This is incredible. Superb even. Lol I fall deeper and deeper in love every day. It was an immediate love when I got the sample set for the brand. Which are all magnificent btw. Nuit de Bakelite was to me at the time the break out star of this boy band and yeah I’d say they’re all kinda masculine. But not sooo much that women would smell like they’re wearing a man’s cologne. This scent was tied for second with corpus equus and cuir velours tbh all three really impressed me. But this one has truly outshone them over time. Maybe even NdB but lemme not go there just yet. The thing is I’m a frankincense fanatic. If you are Somali it is just a part of you. Before I got into perfume I was unemployed and a bum but I still wanted to smell beautiful and Sophisticated so I would burn unsi under my clothes in my closet and the fumes would seep into the fabric. I still do it from time to time to later it with something without having to mix chemicals on my skin. But this scent smells just like that. The only problem with the method I used was that sometimes the burning smell was too intense and it overpowers most of my perfumes. This is just much more balanced and retains a lot of the piney aspects of frankincense compared to the smoke I’d seep into my clothes. Which would smell different on the clothes than in the air. This is it in the air and its transforms throughout the day getting sweeter in the heart before making a full circle back to warm golden mossy frankincense. In my review for Goutal’s Encens Flamboyant I said it was the most Somali scent I’ve ever tried and I find them to be cousin scents. That one’s just drier and much more green. If you can try layering them you will not regret it because their compatibility is astounding. 10/10 there’s really nothing I can say about this scent that isn’t praise. It’s definitely in my top 10 and inching towards that top 5

Powerful fragrant woodsmoke, which dries down to incense late into the game. You have to love smoke to love this.

The forest is blackening and the tall trees stand guard like sentinels at Nature’s chapel. They surround the campsite where a large bonfire crackles and hisses. There is the driest of black smoke, and the scent of charred trees with an almost tarry, leathered edge. From the ground to the trees, the drought has struck; everything is so dry, there is fear that an errant spark would set the whole forest ablaze. Yet, amidst the scent of a forest burnt to a cinder, there is a subtle ambered sweetness underlying the dry smoke. It’s subtle, but it’s there — a tiny, golden ember at the heart of the forest’s smokiest bonfire. Bois d’Ascese opens on my skin with smoked cade and charred wood, infused with dry incense. It’s the scent of campfires taken to the extreme, with singed trees about to go up in flames or that have already burnt to the ground. Cade is an interesting note; it has an intensely dark, smoky, and tarry aroma, due to something called phenols and creosol. Here it is austere, intense, blackened, tarry, stark, and with a smoky nature that is underscored even more by the dry incense. Underneath the burning cade, there is a tinge of dry sweetness, but it’s infinitesimal in the opening minutes. Also lurking in the base are light flickers of tobacco, though they feel charred like everything else. After about five minutes, there is a subtle touch of burnt wax which I assume stems from the labdanum, infused by the burning campfire smoke, but it quickly fades away. Eventually, after about forty minutes, the fragrance turns a little less severe. The tobacco grows a tiny bit stronger, the ambered warmth starts to rise to the surface, and Bois d’Ascese feels a little richer. Bois d'Ascese is a bleak, stark, barren, desiccated beauty. The dark severity of an aesthete’s harshness, almost medieval in nature and quite evocative of a monk. if you enjoy woody scents that skew somewhat masculine and that are completely dominated by a very elegantly severe, austere, dark, tarry smokiness, you definitely should give it a sniff IG @alexolympia6

The opening is a strong smokey vibe, and by that I don't mean pleasant - it smells like a campfire. Unfortunately as time went on I started smelling like a cathedral, which I was less of a fan of.

Pure Oman incense supported by several smoldering oak embers with their typical slightly oily aroma rounded by tad touch of amber, nothing more nothing less, grand but a bit flat, definitely unique approach have to try!

This is my perfect winter scent. It is so rich, sensual, smoky, and reverent. It smells like an ancient cathedral, with lingering incense and classical hardwood furniture. It's close and very intimate, deeply warming, almost dusty- but in an 'old Scottish library' type of way. It is the perfect "smoky/incense/amber" fragrance, to me. I find that "smoke" scents so easily smell cheap and unrefined, but Bois d'Ascese is anything but. There's enough layers to keep it interesting and thought-provoking. An absolutely stunning fragrance and one of my all time faves.

I asked the people at my preferred perfume shop for their recommendation for something as smoky as it possibly gets, and this was one of their three picks (next to Burning Barbershop by D.S. & Durga, and City on Fire by Imaginary Authors). Indeed, the opening reminds me of a campfire - if you've ever been out in the woods when it's time to haul lumber and burn the cuttings, drink whisky from flasks and watch the older men light pipes, this is what it smells like. That resinous, gorgeous smoke that seeps into your clothing and hair. It dries down into something softer, more wearable, still with that smoky note but now with more amber, like coming back inside the warm house from your time spent in the forest. A beautiful, more masculine leaning scent that is both unique and enticing.

The opening smells like getting floored by a rubber tire in an auto shop that definitely has incense burning somewhere in the back...This is honestly what I imagine Santa smells like after his little chimney marathon. Sooty, smoky, vaguely divine. But give it a minute and it softens into the most gorgeous ambery, guaiac-wood, incensey glow. I wore a tiny bit to the office (a bold, perhaps reckless decision), and spent the entire day compulsively smelling my wrists because it was that addictive lol. The dry down lands very close to Encens Suave by Matière Première: cozy, resinous, and impossible to stop sniffing.

I just got transported into a cathedral... I am in disbelief in how this is just clear liquid.. Instead of black ash and soot...

Smells like charcoal and bacon

The below review was literally ripped from one of my instagram posts... It doesn't even make sense as a review. Thanks mrvu0288

Fog settles between the trees, softening distance and sound alike. The cold air is just above freezing, enough to slow everything down Trunks disappear into grey, branches hover without urgency This is a small preview of tomorrow video, a new format for this channel. SOTD: Naomi Goodsir Bois d'Ascese Smoky and unapologetic, bitter and natural. Smoke and wood held in still air, quiet, contemplative, deeply present. A smell to be understood. Quiet, intact

Opens woody, smoky, in an outdoor fireplace sense, followed by a woody accords. The wood lumber has been put out, smelling the charcoal emanating from the woods post burn, next to freshly cut wood. This is like Red Colorado/Black Lacquer but more complex, and woods-focused...you can tell the incense is bringing the burnt smell, but the unburnt cedar is still there. There is a tinge of dirtiness from the amber here… +1 * - Smoke -> 66/100 A nostalgic olfactory experience, yet it’s so neutral that you could imagine layering this with whatever else you wanted to, if you wanted to change the scenery. I didn’t click completely with Corpus Equus (but only as a matter of personal taste, the frag was wonderfully done), but this is a phenomenal smoky, woody frag that is so photorealistic yet universal to use. Definitely FB worthy, and a breathtaking work of art by Julien Rasquinet.

It smells like a campfire into which a fresh fir branch has been thrown. It envelops you in a pleasant, piney smoke. The perfume is neither long-lasting nor does it have much sillage, but does that really matter?

The friend you fall in love with without even knowing. Strikingly smoky, but surprisingly soft and creamy underneath. Excellently balanced!

Cedar and smoke. It brings me back to a memory of camping in the cascades, wet forest and moss, so much mist, holding my jacket over the smoke of a fire to capture some of it for later. If I wore this fragrance there it would be entirely redundant, I would not expect anyone to even notice I had it on.

The opening punches you right in the nose, medicinal, dark, woody, and smoky. After about 40 minutes, it mellows out and dries down to a warm, amber, resinous scent. It's okay, but definitely unique.

Wearing this scent I imagine myself sitting by smoldering embers in a cabin, alone in the deep woods, perhaps sipping whisky. The smoke is initially quite intense, with an almost salty quality to it, but it softens quickly, leaving behind a distant whiff of bonfire. Bois d’Ascèse is not an in-your-face smoky assault, but a multi-faceted, woody thing of beauty—incense burned in a cathedral made of nature itself. I just wish the longevity were better on my skin, it became very intimate after only a few hours.

Absolutely blown away by this fragrance. I've not smelled anything quite like it before or since, but it is one I'm absolutely looking to add to my collection. From the Naomi Goodsir website, its about $175 which is an absolute steal for a fragrance as complex and unique as this one. It brings me back to high school bonfires, smoking stale cigars stolen from parents, deep in the misty woods. It is comforting and edgy at the same time, walking that line perfectly. It has a dreamy, surreal quality but is grounded in some very earthy scents. Love love love.

Starts off as a raging bonfire and settles into sweet, smoky comfort. I've owned this for almost 10 years. Lasts all day on a few sprays.

Burnt birch, extinguished with whiskey Gorgeous!

I own and I love it, one of my favorite buys in the past year. I get no smoked meat/bbq. The commonality here is likely charcoal briquette. It is photorealistic burning incense charcoal with the ending notes of spent raw incense as they release their last molecules, long after the top notes have burned off. Smoke is a spectrum of scents, with a top middle and base. I get only the basest of base notes here and I love it for that. Smoldering, dry heat. In a sauna the cedar keeps releasing its beautiful, subtle scent, year after year as it breaks down. The campfire is slowly waning, glowing red embers beneath the ash. Very modest projection, and does not last forever as I wish it would, but I am happy to reapply to bring the fire back to life.