Bois d'Ascèse
Naomi Goodsir (2012)

This is simply wonderful. I love smoky scents, frankincense and birch and this one is all three to perfection. You have to be in love with intense fragrances, so certainly not for men only, I wear it but not just anywhere anytime. True, it turns into a skin event, but an astonishing one. Not office friendly, no first-date wear either. This reminds me of a walk in the forest, of a campfire at night, feeling drowsy next to one after drinking a sip of whisky. On my skin I get the slightest tobacco. To me it is charred wood, smoke, incense. That's creativity I highly praise Julien Rasquinet for. It's an amazing, first-rate discovery of 2022 for me.

Starts out pretty smokey, but morphs into an amazing incense and amber fragrance that is warm and inviting in all the best ways. The slightest boozy note comes through in that warm amber along with a hint of tobacco leaf. I'm not a fan of smokey fragrances per se, but I definitely am of this one. Classy and cosy...an excellent combination right there. FB worthy for sure in my book.

To me Bois d'Ascese smells like a campfire (made purely of cedarwood) made in the middle of the sawmill. Very prominent factors I can smell are: ash (whole a lot of ash actually!), cedarwood (which is a solid backbone, background to it) and an incense smoke. It opens up very ash-y and when it dries down it becomes more and more woody and the smoke transforms strictly into frankincense smoke.

What I really like is a fact, that Bois d'Ascese is a relatively dry scent on my skin. It sticks pretty close to the skin and does not make a scent cloud, maybe just a little bubble.

Longevity on my skin is 10+ hours and the sillage is very big at the beginning, but it mutes itself a little bit. This is potent so one or two sprays from a decanter are good for me.

I think all lovers of smoked scotch whisky should sniff this.

Charcoal, whiskey, bourbon, cigars, and the scent in the air of a crackling fragrant campfire.... all of which are baked into your clothing, then whiffed the morning thereafter.
Arguably the best rendition of smoke in all of niche perfumery. Our latest camping adventures have made a profound impact on my appreciation for this accord. LOVE this scent!

Rub a black dress with a balsam and soak it in a smokey scotch whiskey then throw it onto the embers of a dying camp fire.that's about as close as i can get using words.a dark, brooding,smokey, masculine,sexy beast of scent.this fragrance is extremely dry and smokey, almost bitter,like a pile of dead,dry leaves that was ingited by a lighting bolt.

The opening is a punch in the face with boozy whiskey and tobacco once it sits on the skin for a hour,the burnt ruberry ham smell disappears,the smoke and incense die down a bit and the amber makes it's debut appearance.after about 3 hours the scent is a nice balance of amber, woody,smokey incense tobacco.i can't imagine it being worn by a woman. the performance is great.

“It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history."
- Ray Bradbury

My girlfriend freaked out when I wore this one for the first time. She called it "coconut campfire." It's definitely more tobacco than campfire. There is a prune/raisin thing happening that I like a lot. One day I splashed way too much on my neck and it smelled a very clearly defined almond liquor. I will be buying a bottle of this eventually for drinks and dinner. Not as versatile as I would want my every day scent to be. I'm not a very manly guy and this is a pretty darn masculine scent.

Is Jeke by Slumberhouse not smoky enough for you? Is Hyde by Hiram Greene too friendly? Does Le Labo's Patchouli 24 seem like a root beer float?

Then Bois D'ascese might be made for you. Almost laughably masculine. It smells like a bonfire. With a bottle of whisky sitting open next to it. Maybe someone is smoking a pipe? Hard to say. At a bonfire you notice one thing: the blaze.

Jump in!

The Goodsir website describes it as "RADICAL / MYSTICAL / STATEMENT" - wow, that sounds exciting!

Eh. None of the above.

Okay, maybe it smells a touch mystical, but in the way the apartment of that chick you know who claims to be a wiccan priestess (but by day she's an office assistant for a cosmetic dentist) smells.

Incense, a little campfire smoke, sweet booze and amber... You've smelled it before, even if you've never smelled it before. Perfectly nice, I guess, but perfectly uninteresting. Far more more commonplace than it thinks it is, just like the wiccan priestess.

the definitive scent of whiskey, wood smoke, tobacco and cedar wood.
very alcoholic in the opening. then I imagine myself and my girlfriend eating in the mountain hut with the fireplace lit. at the end of dinner our clothes smell of burnt wood smoke and cedar wood that comes from outside. all while I sip a whiskey and a friend next to me and I smoke a cigar.
some notes of amber, labdanum and oak moss.
excellent perfume but I would not buy it. too extreme for me. but I admit it's really good. 8/10
excellent performance.

Tobacco right from the start.
Cigar tobacco.
Whiskey, on the rocks.
Ultra light cinnamon.
Something dark underneath; woody, smoky, incense-like.
Mostly, I smell tobacco.
Manly.

This is lovely.

I don't get the leather / tobacco that other reviews mention - on me this is just a relatively linear smoke. That said, it's a lovely smoke - campfire rather than fireplace and not all acrid.

Good longevity - over time a sweet, powdery soapy note emerges which slides the overall impression over to an incense.

Tested in high summer - it'd be interesting to see how this works in colder weather.