Woodhue
Fragrances of France (1944)

A warm vanilla amber scent with a touch of spice.

This was my first adult scent, the iconic bottle with the wooden top.

The warm base of sandalwood, cedar, vetiver, myrhh, amber and civet support the vanilla and opoponax, allowing the floral notes of jasmine, ylang, orris, clove and violet to hover sweetly in the background.

One of the truly great unisex scents of its era and one of the great ambers of all time.

Reviewing the original vintage Parfum from Fabergé:

The opening blast combines a slightly orange-loaded citrus top note and a decent dose of bergamot with a wood note. The woodnote forms the centerpiece, whilst the citrus and bergamot form the backgound of this olfactory orchestra. This wood is clearly a cedar note, which over time develops a slightly boozy undertone. Of note is that on my skin this cedarwood is devoid of the pencil-shavings characteristics that one encounters quite frequently in other scents that contain cedar notes.

And the overall impression of this vintage opening blast? Absolutely drop-dead gorgeous! And the subsequent rise of a delightful rich jasmine adds additional floral depth and a nice twist.

After the first few hours the scent withdraws to be close to my skin, but soon it recovers its intensity and vividness to enter the next stage.

Further down the development trajectory of this creation a lovely vanilla enters the stage, that in all its well-contained sweetness blends in beautifully with the rest. Towards the base the vanilla impression grows stronger and together with the cedarwood - now adopting sandal vibes - forms and woodsy-vanilla base. Throughout the last hours this base dyad is enhanced by a very soft dark musky undertone that takes on a gently powdery shade. This powderiness is a touch dark, but never overwhelming, with very little barbershop-like reminiscences in it. It is more a modernised and slimmed-down boudoir powderiness.

The performance is convincing: moderate - initially quite strong - sillage, excellent projection and a splendid eleven hours of longevity on my skin.

This is a beauty. In all its focus on a limited number of high-quality ingredients that a beautifully blended, this autumnal composition hits the nail on the fragrant head: the components are enhanced whilst mutually enriching each other. Superb. 4.25/5.

Like everyone else here, I just frickin' LOVED this stuff as a teenager. If I can ever find and afford some of the original, you'Il have no trouble recognizing me: I'll be the happy and good-smellin' old broad in jeans and a sweater, looking like the cat that ate the canary. :-)

Found a small bottle of this at a thrift store. Assumed it was a masculine due to the downright lumberjackiness of the bottle. And I do think it's rather unisex. It's really excellent too. Powdery cedar, as though you spilled some Johnson's talc in an old trunk. Smells really high end too, which I wasn't quite expecting from this mass market house. 8.5 out of 10.

I was absolutely gaga over this scent in High School. So much so that I would douse myself with it and became a social outcast for a brief period. It was a lesson well learned, that economy is good with some things - especially strong perfumes! I so loved the woodiness of the fragrance. I think it led to my love affair with chypres. I haven't smelled this scent in years and quite frankly only resently found out it's still in production. Maybe I should give it another try!

Just received a bottle of the Faberge original, and it is wonderful--warm, spicy and perfect for the coming cooler fall/winter weather.