LES NUITS DE BALI

Les Nuits de Bali, the most vociferous of the perfumes from Chapter 2, producing a thick, sweet, luxurious fragrance at a steady cadence and volume. Its component parts are all attention-seekers (earthy patchouli, spicy saffron, rich and woody oud, deep and sweet vanilla, concentrated sandalwood, and a dark red rose.) In this grouping, they are much more like an elixir or attar and could easily operate as a heady perfume oil that radiates slowly, penetratingly from the skin.

Much like the pull of Christian Dior’s oud perfumes like Oud Rosewood, we find yet another face of this very complex smell, its very sweet and almost fruity side. Rose and saffron combine in a thick, humid, semi-opaque magenta that moves from the intensity of a profound oud accord to a more soothing but dense sandalwood. The intermingling of patchouli and vanilla with these sweeter notes gives an impression of a liqueur or a sweet plum wine; a nice added sensation that is most evident at the beginning of the wearing experience. Because Les Nuits de Bali is so powerful, this easily lasts well into the evening on skin, and wears its life slowly, revealing the darker side of the base sandalwood and vanilla for many hours.

Appropriately so, Les Nuits de Bali grows less sweet over the night, but increases in depth, and so its mystery multiplies. This is another unusual metamorphosis for a fragrance, where our usual expectation is to find that our fragrances simplify or grow more linear. It’s the opposite here, as bits of spice and flowers grow fainter, woods and resins steam against skin, and the reflections of a moon against the sea act as a concentrated source of heat in a restless, balmy night.

— John Biebel
Editor at Fragrantica