French Lover / Bois d'Orage 
Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle (2007)

A perfume, yet another, of the Malle house that gives me the feeling of incompleteness. As I have already said for Musc Ravageur, the scent is also beautiful in this case, not a little, but it lacks in performance for me. Low persistence, immediately very ethereal scent, minimal wake. What a great pity ... That said, it is a great male perfume, with a bitter and fresh green opening and a beautiful woody evolution. Heart and base I prefer them to the opening notes. I would like to add it to the collection but boh, as much as I like it, I am afraid that I would end up preferring other more performing perfumes and that allow me to feel them on for the duration of the working day.

Very interesting ''old school'' perfume.

Frederic Malle asked JC Ellena for a stronger and more intense version of Angelique Sous La Pluie. JCE worked on the formula for several months and he almost finished it - however at the time he signed the contract to be the exclusive nose for Hermes. So he was not allowed to give his formula to Frederic or to work with Frederic anymore.
Malle called JCE and asked him if he could advise him on who could do the job instead of him and JCE recommended Malle's longtime family friend - Pierre Bourdon. Malle asked JCE to share the initial idea and concept of the formula with Bourdon so that he could complete it and put his “final touch”. And here we are... we've got the French Lover.
It's not a secret that French Lover was kind of a collaboration and that the inspiration was ASLP. The story is verified from a Frederic Malle book I bought in Paris.

If you are in the USA, you will find French Lover under the name "Bois D'Orage".

Another interesting fact is that this is the last perfume that Pierre Bourdon created.

French Lover might be one of the safest picks from the house.
Woody, slightly spicy, wet and cold smell of the forest after the rain - when the aromas start to evaporate from the soil. It is quite green and vegetal. It’s not a classic woody perfume you'd expect to smell when you see the notes.
Very natural scent of cedar wood.
Quality should not be mentioned when it comes to Frederic Malle. It's always top notch.

Projection and longevity are probably one of the weakest from the house.
It projects for an hour or two, very moderate...
Longevity is solid, definitely over 10-12h. But just slightly stronger than a skin scent.

But if you want your perfume to "dominate" from you - then you might need to skip this perfume.

An entirely pleasant surprise. For me, it's about the gossamer interplay between the vetiver, iris, and incense, but the patchouli manages to impart a delicately sweet vibrance without adding significant weight. I chanced this sample for the Friday Summer Solstice sync, and it couldn't have been more perfect. Bourdon at his best.

I love it... and then I can't smell it anymore. I was told a certain synthetic ingredient in it causes anosmia. Whether or not that's the case, after about 15 minutes I can't smell this on myself. A shame, because it's stunning.

Wow! If I were to commission my own scent it would end up very much like this (which I suppose is the whole point of the Malle Line). Classy but not too try-hard, fresh yet unique. Masculine and effortlessly stylish.

Opening with a bracing G&T accord. U get the Angelica and other green, clean botanicals such as juniper. This is a very fresh, green, leafy G&T. The green feel becomes gradually more damp and very slightly dirtied (musk) and darker (woods, Vetiver) - like foraging in a lush green woodland, precipitation in the air. It's not so much the woodland floor but more the leafy layers around eye level. It's quite herbal and borders on medicinal, almost bringing to mind notes of lovage, dill and the piquant pimento. Some ultra-Clean incense adds to the development.

If you want to 'picture' the smell look up images of Angelica because this smells exactly what that looks like!

This really shines in all seasons. When worn in Spring it feels made for Spring: ditto Summer, Autumn etc. There is some family resemblance to Coolwater, GIT and Malle's GPM - this one almost has a minty freshness without the overdose of mint found in GPM. Surely one of Bourdon's very best.

90/100 (and no I didn't deduct marks for the silly name - there's nothing particularly French here. If it must be placed geographically how about Nordic Lover).