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.
Cape Heartache (Imaginary Authors) smiles with a wild strawberry note - green and red, sweet and sour - that infuses the sturdy body of pine and fir. Its picture is the great American outdoors, freshly lumbered wood and sunlight filtering through pine needles. 1828 by Histoires de Parfums shifts the emphasis here onto cedarwood, and 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 mighty trees, reinforced with eucalyptus, vetiver, nutmeg, and pepper.
Milky Musk (Parle Moi de Parfum) relies on sandalwood to achieve its milky effect, and the result is manifest as it clings to the skin. It has a fluid texture - this powerful wood turns into a caress. Tangy, soft, and intimate, it respects the nuance of sandalwood, carried on clouds of musk. While Vetiver Bourbon (Parfum d’Empire) draws its aroma from earth and soil, to the roots of vetiver, angelica, and orris to produce a distinctive woodiness. The result is full-bodied and authentic, a beloved style revisited with intention and rigour. It makes little concession to sweetness or roundedness (unlike sandalwood), and is angular and textured.
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.
