OK, shoot me now.

Evil puns merit that, hands down.

 

 

A month or so ago, Basenotes had a New England meet-up here in Boston.

 

At the end of a loooong day of sniffing and sampling, we smelled the three new Chantecaille exclusives- one of which was Kalimantan.

While I felt it was very pretty, I immediately sensed a powerful similarity to Bois 1920 Real Patchouly …

 

 

Little did I realize how spot on that observation was.

 

Or that I’d want to own them both, either.

 

 

Let’s compare !

 

Real Patchouly:                              Kalimantan :

 

Top : lemon, mandarin orange,           Top : thyme, bergamot, rosemary

Celery seed, caraway, cedar,

thyme, artemisia.

 

Heart : patchouli, sandalwood,           Heart : incense, ciste absolute, Indonesian patchouli

eucalyptus, French labdanum .

 

Base : tobacco, vanilla, benzoin,         Base : cedar., styrax, vanilla, agarwood,

 musk.                                                   sandalwood.

 

 

Ciste absolute = labdanum.

Styrax = benzoin.

 

 

The Bois 1920 line was released in 2005;  Kalimantan has just hit the shelves….

 

 

What Sylvie Chantecaille desired was to capture the ’wild and sensual’ quality of Indonesia during the Victorian era.

 

 

Kalimantan, in Indonesian- refers to the entire island of Borneo; but in English, it represents the Indonesian part of the island itself.

Upon further scrutiny, my bet would be that the lion’s share of these heavenly substances hails from South Kalimantan, which produces most of the island’s woods.

[Central and West Kalimantan are very swampy; East Kalimantan is devoted to fishing and industry]

 

 

 

Bottom line:

 

These are two exquisite fragrances.

Your nose will be enthralled by the delectably resinous, woody, vanillic nature of these.

There is no win or lose.

They are intoxicatingly divine.

 

 

Each is exotic, with magnificent longevity and sillage, a journey to tropical climes and gentler times.

 

 

In the drydown, they are markedly alike; Real Patchouly is slightly less sweet, with the patchouli being more prominent, and the celery seed / artemisia lending their own oddness and charm.

 

Kalimantan proves the sweeter, more candied-

But with the rosemary lending an almost marijuana-like hue to the whole affair.

 

 

 

I couldn’t choose between them, in the end.

Do try, and tell us what you find !

 

[Please note that  the Real Patchouly list comes from perfume.com; the Kalimantan is per Neiman Marcus’s website.]

 

 

 

Photo Credits: perfume.com and neimanmarcus.com

Fool: vagabond.com

Patchouli: thymeafterthyme.com

Greed: cordiebw.com

Sylvie Chantecaille: chantecaille.com

South Kalimantan: travelmongabay.com, jalan2asia.com.indotravel.net, indonesia-tourism.com, mikejkt.livejournal.com

Map: komodotours.com

Swooning of Queen Esther: baroque-in-art.org

Marijuana: earthhopenetwork.net

The Garden of Allah: Maxfield Parrish painting

 

–Ida Meister, Senior Editor