Review: Heritage – Fragrance du Bois

I recently purchased a sample of Heritage* by Fragrance du Bois, as I had heard great things about this House in general. I was not to be disappointed…well, apart from the itsy-bitsy sample size (which I should clarify did not come directly from the perfumer) but I’ll take what I can get way down here in the Southern Hemisphere!
Immediately upon application I was hit with a wave of sparkly aldehydic notes with an undercurrent of incense.

Digression: I am only a recent convert to aldehydes, traditionally I have not been able to tolerate them…or perhaps my nose was not sophisticated enough to appreciate them. Either way, I avoided them. Chanel No.5 was a definite no-go for me from a young age, I thought it smelled like dirty ol’ socks or something.
Then, a few weeks ago, to my surprise I was walking past a Chanel counter and I glimpsed the iconic bottle and figured, what the heck, I’ll give it another shot. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I loved the result, but I will say that I wasn’t appalled by the aromas wafting up from my arm. A few days later I found myself in the Guerlain section and after disclosing this revelation to the sales assistant, I was immediately presented with a sample of Liu to try. And try it I did. And I liked it!

So, this brings me to my choice of Heritage as a sample to try from Fragrance Du Bois, and I was equally pleasantly surprised by my reaction to it, knowing that there were aldehydes in amongst the top notes. Although, I did expect them to fade into obscurity against the middle and base notes of jasmine, incense, sandalwood and vanilla, but they didn’t. In fact what I really got from this fragrance on my skin was clean soapy aldehydes, some floral notes, incense and a slight hint of the woody base.

This fragrance is a bit of an odd one out it would seem for this House as well, given they specialise in Oud (sustainably sourced, I might add), but Oud appears to only be present in minority format for this one. In fact, were it not for the mention of it in the description on the perfumer’s website, I would not have noticed that it was present at all. From reading the notes I also expected it to be warm and smooth in the dry down but there is a sharpness to this fragrance. It isn’t offensive at all, but it made its presence known. Much like a stern parent letting a child know that they are keeping an eye on them, but at the same time, not being too overbearing.

Overall, what I smelled upon opening the vial is pretty much what I got on my skin, and it was fairly linear. Although, in the dry down I did find the woody notes more prominent, I certainly never found them to jump out at me. At times I really had to search for them. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all, I like linear fragrances, I am not always wanting super complicated “guess what comes next” fragrances. That said, I feel this is a complex fragrance, but it is so well balanced, you just never really notice its complexity unless you really sniff and concentrate hard!

This did morph into a skin scent fairly quickly (30-60mins) …or at least I assume it was, it was a tiny sample. I didn’t feel like it was projecting up at me, or lingering in the air.. but I also didn’t have anyone else around at the time to inform me if I was leaving a trail or if they could smell me from a few feet away.
All in all, I really do rate this as a classy, clean and beautifully balanced perfume. It smells expensive (and *ahem* so it should, just saying!). I will most likely add this to my watch list for the summer months, although I would happily rock this all year round.

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