Naomi Goodsir Iris Cendre Eau de Parfum is a soft, buttery iris that is lightly powdery, creamy, and accentuated by hints of smoky incense.

Iris Cendre Notes

It is described as being inspired by “memories of orris ashes.” It is “a floral tone, fresh, led by bergamot, tangerine, and spices” with “rich incense and powdery heart of violet and iris” that is “enhanced by cistus, tobacco, and amber.”

• top notes: bergamot, tangerine, spices
• heart notes: iris, violet, incense
• base notes: amber, cistus labdanum, tobacco

What does Iris Cendre Smell Like?

It opened with fresh, but soft, hints of lemon and orange followed by smooth, creamy iris and subtle, smoky incense. The perfume had a soft, airy feel to it, not at all heavy or intense in any way. There was a green note that enveloped the iris that appeared about 15 minutes in, while the citrus notes died down. The perfume became slightly smokier, more filled with incense tendrils after a half hour of wear. It was slightly smoky and woody with creamy, buttery iris.

The scent ended up progressing more linearly overall with subtle changes over the next four hours. I noticed more of a honeyed, resinous facet that sweetened against the iris after three hours of wear with dry, piney incense smoke in the background. In the drydown, around the sixth hour, it remained a honeyed iris with slight powderiness and a hint of woodiness.

Longevity

It lasted for six hours until it was a skin-scent and about 10 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were both on the lighter side to begin with.

Testing Methodology

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

I purchased my sample in February 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime, so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Availability

Iris Cendre is available for $187/50ml.

If possible, I highly recommend trying a fragrance before purchasing a full bottle because fragrance can wear differently just because of skin chemistry. Skin chemistry can effect not just the longevity of a fragrance but also what notes are prominent or hidden.

Iris Cendre Samples

We recommend the following retailers for purchasing decanted samples (typically 0.7ml to 2ml in size). This is a fuller list, so individual availability may depend on inventory.

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent
• Scent Split
• Twisted Lily

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Naomi Goodsir Iris Cendre Perfume Review

Naomi Goodsir Iris Cendre Perfume Review

Naomi Goodsir Bois d’Ascese Eau de Parfum is a more bonfire-like scent–the smoke is darker, almost charred, full of flaming cedar, pipe tobacco, and smoky, somewhat peaty scotch whiskey. Compared to some other whiskey scents, this wasn’t nearly so peaty and felt almost “golden” in comparison (less blackened). You have to love fairly smoky scents, and not ones that are just spiced incense kind of smoke, but smoke that runs the gamut from ashy to tarry to campfire.

Throughout the first few hours, there was a subtle hint of spice, from cinnamon and the cedar, and plenty of dry, aged leather that added to the dry feel of the fragrance. In the drydown, the cedar becomes the star and is accentuated by subtle smokiness and spice from incense.

Bois d’Ascese Notes

It is described as being inspired by a “wooden church” with the “surrounding countryside ablaze.” It includes notes of: tobacco, whisky, Somalian incense, cade wood, amber, and cistus labdanum. But here’s a list from retailers:

• top notes: tobacco, whiskey
• heart notes: labdanum, amber, cinnamon
• base notes: incense, cedar, oakmoss

What does Bois d’Ascese Smell Like?

It was incredibly dry, smoky whiskey in aged wood barrels, smoky tobacco, and aged leather. For all the smoke, though, it wasn’t nearly as blackened and ashy as I anticipated. By no means a “light” sense of smoke, but compared to some others I’ve experienced, it felt more translucent in its appearance–more like I would expect from a campfire.

Given five minutes to settle, a touch of cinnamon spiced the composition with wafts of cedar under all the smoke; it started to smell a little like a bonfire made entirely out of cedarwood.

There was no letting up of the smoky tobacco, dry, cracked leather, and charred cedar until the beginning of the third hour, when spiced incense started to mix with the drier, ashier smoke and the cedarwood came through more clearly–think the bonfire at the close, smoldering but winding down.

The drydown was marked around the fifth hour for me, and it was primarily a dry, cedar-chest kind of perfume that was slightly spiced but hints of amber but fairly dry, mostly woody and a little smoke.

Longevity

It lasted for eight hours until it was a skin-scent and about 14 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate for the first four hours and started to pull closer from there.

Personal Notes

For me, it was significantly more wearable and enjoyable than other whiskey-based scents that are often too “black” in their smoke for me to enjoy–too charred, too much like burning everything, rather than just lots of aromatic wood ablaze. I definitely have gotten to understand my preferences enough to know that this is still too much of a smoke show for me to gravitate toward, though.

These are more subjective feelings based on what I like (or don’t like) in a perfume as well as considering the fragrance against other perfumes I own and love.

Testing Methodology

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

I purchased my sample in February 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime, so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Availability

Bois d’Ascese is available for $187/50ml.

If possible, I highly recommend trying a fragrance before purchasing a full bottle because fragrance can wear differently just because of skin chemistry. Skin chemistry can effect not just the longevity of a fragrance but also what notes are prominent or hidden.

Bois d’Ascese Samples

We recommend the following retailers for purchasing decanted samples (typically 0.7ml to 2ml in size). This is a fuller list, so individual availability may depend on inventory.

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent
• Scent Split
• Twisted Lily

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Naomi Goodsir Bois d'Ascese Perfume Review

Naomi Goodsir Bois d'Ascese Perfume Review

Naomi Goodsir Or du Serail Eau de Parfum opens with ripened, fresh fruits that were juicy and crisp with mango and davana as the standouts in the bouquet. There was some booziness that ran through it, but it was short-lived. Sweet tobacco and a honeyed aspect soon emerged, but everything started to blur together after two hours of wear and became difficult to really tease out nuances by the fourth hour. It seemed to live primarily as a honeyed fruit fragrance with a hint of tobacco, then musk, and then woodiness at the end.

Or du Serail Notes

It is inspired by “a rich, voluptuous, and facetted tobacco” and described as a “gourmand and textured perfume, evocative of a golden tobacco” and is an “ambery, woody, musky, and greedy composition.” The brand doesn’t list many notes, but retailers include the following notes:

• top notes: cistus, apple and red fruits, mango, rum, sweet orange, davana, sage
• heart notes: beeswax, coco, geranium, ylang-ylang, Turkish tobacco, amber
• base notes: labdanum, oak tree, cedarwood, musk, vanilla, mate

What does Or du Serail Smell Like?

The orange was the first fruit in what slowly became a well-blended bouquet of fruity notes; a slightly crisp, red apple and the juicy sweetness of mango soon followed with davana diffusing and bringing the fruits together. The davana did such a stellar job of blending fruity notes together without adding sweetness and gave them a great backdrop. There was an undercurrent of boozy rum that gave the bouquet of fruit more body.

Sweet tobacco and a subtle honeyed facet seeped through the boozy bouquet of lush fruit, drenching it with golden syrup, while the tobacco intensified and helped to tamp down the additional sweetness the honeyed facet brought with it. It remained ripened with fruit, honeyed, with the tobacco hitting its greatest strength at the two-hour mark and then dying down by the fourth hour, which was when there was an undercurrent of musk, sort of blurring everything together, with oak tones.

Longevity

It lasted for five hours until it was a skin-scent and about eight hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were light from the beginning.

Personal Notes

I’m always fascinated by how a perfume can have so many notes and then they get lost on my skin at times, or you wonder how they end up interacting in the ways that you don’t pick up, because surely they are there, even if not distinctive! This ran a little too sweet for my personal tastes, and if it was my kind of perfume profile, I would have liked to have seen greater longevity to be purchase-worthy.

These are more subjective feelings based on what I like (or don’t like) in a perfume as well as considering the fragrance against other perfumes I own and love.

Testing Methodology

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

I purchased my sample in February 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime, so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Availability

Or du Serail is available for $187/50ml.

If possible, I highly recommend trying a fragrance before purchasing a full bottle because fragrance can wear differently just because of skin chemistry. Skin chemistry can effect not just the longevity of a fragrance but also what notes are prominent or hidden.

Or du Serail Samples

We recommend the following retailers for purchasing decanted samples (typically 0.7ml to 2ml in size). This is a fuller list, so individual availability may depend on inventory.

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent
• Scent Split
• Twisted Lily

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Naomi Goodsir Or du Serail Perfume Review

Naomi Goodsir Or du Serail Perfume Review

Naomi Goodsir Cuir Velours Eau de Parfum opens with sweet, almost fruity florals, with boozy rum and tendrils of tobacco smoke all spread over soft, supple leather. On my skin, this particular fragrance started to blur together within an hour and only became gauzier over time, but it tended to appear like a soft, honeyed floral scent with a hint of leather. It was also shorter-wearing than is typical for my skin!

Cuir Velours Notes

It is inspired by the softness of a leather glove, and it is described as a “tobacco atmosphere supported by notes of rum, cistus labdanum, incense, and immortelle.” Retailers list the notes as: leather, tobacco, rum, cistus labdanum, incense, and fleur d’immortelle.

• top notes: fleur d’immortelle
• heart notes: tobacco, rum, incense
• base notes: leather, labdanum

What does Cuir Velours Smell Like?

It opened with sweet florals that felt almost fruity initially but developed a booziness as the rum came through with wafts of tobacco smoke that brought in a subtle gray ashiness, which all served to cut back on some of the fruity sweetness. Then soft, supple leather emerged under the fruity-floral note, which as plush as it was, seemed to give the perfume a slight dry edge (but not dry outright, truly).

After 20 minutes, the notes seemed to harmonize with soft, honeyed florals accented by rum over smoky, smooth leather. The changes were minimal through the next three hours; it remained closer-wearing, soft and hazy with golden immortelle, soft leather, and light tobacco–everything was blended together, which made individual facets harder to tease out.

At the top of the fifth hour, more spiced incense came through over the leather with less floral sweetness. The drydown was quite blurred on me, due to it weakening in overall strength, and seemed like lightly spiced florals.

Longevity

It lasted for three hours until it was a skin-scent and about six hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate for the first half hour and then dropped significantly closer from there.

Personal Notes

I expected the tobacco and leather facets to come through much more than they ended up translating on my skin, and I’d go as far as to say this ended up more of a honeyed floral fragrance on me, which is less my style, though certainly pleasant enough to wear and would appeal to those who lean into floral fragrances.

These are more subjective feelings based on what I like (or don’t like) in a perfume as well as considering the fragrance against other perfumes I own and love.

Testing Methodology

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

I purchased my sample in February 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime, so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Availability

Cuir Velours is available for $187/50ml.

If possible, I highly recommend trying a fragrance before purchasing a full bottle because fragrance can wear differently just because of skin chemistry. Skin chemistry can effect not just the longevity of a fragrance but also what notes are prominent or hidden.

Cuir Velours Samples

We recommend the following retailers for purchasing decanted samples (typically 0.7ml to 2ml in size). This is a fuller list, so individual availability may depend on inventory.

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent
• Scent Split
• Twisted Lily

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Naomi Goodsir Cuir Velours Perfume Review

Naomi Goodsir Cuir Velours Perfume Review