BOIS D’ASCESE

6/29/15

Tobacco. Whiskey. Cinnamon. Amber. Labdanum. Oakmoss. Cedar. Incense.

Your nostrils widen beside a campfire.  Your jacket turns peaty and warm in the smoke. Your eyes crackle and squint from a sipping whiskey, ash and the sudden popping from the flames. You use the open-mouthed tumbler to cool your forehead and smell something both mannish and subtle, cozy and confident, female and contemplative. Bois d’ascese may take a gutsy wearer, but sometimes a little daring can go a long way.  Comforting and robust, it bursts open with a blazing crackle of notes. A long pour of whiskey hits the glass as cinnamon woods and spicy incense.  The amber hue of the liquid raises your internal body heat a notch or two.  Worn on a colder day, this gives you an enveloping ‘glowing-from-within’ swagger that settles and comforts.  The arc of wearability lasts about eight hours, during which time you can muse on the swaying and flicker of the kindled notes, right back down to the dying embers as it comes full circle. Bois d’ascese is a beautiful full-bodied fire-dance that is never performed in the same way twice and it is this uniqueness that trumps other more conventional tobacco fragrances.

Rating: 5 lashes of flame against the star-bright sky.