Bois des Iles

1926

Aldehydic sandalwood from the Jazz Age — 1926's vision of exotic woods that still smells like the future someone imagined a century ago.

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Sensory Profile

Composition

Concentration Eau de Parfum

Style Classical

Notable Ingredients

aldehydes bergamot neroli jasmine rose iris sandalwood vetiver vanilla benzoin

Olfactory Structure

Family Woody

Evolution Dramatic

Sillage 6/10

Character

Moods

sophisticated nostalgic tender

Season

Autumn Winter

Occasion

Evening

Thematic Territory

A steamer trunk opened after decades — sandalwood, vanilla, and aldehydes preserved in silk tissue paper. The glamour of 1920s transatlantic travel, frozen in amber.

Era & Context

Classical

Ernest Beaux's follow-up to No. 5, applying the same aldehydic abstraction to a woody-oriental framework. Bois des Iles ('Woods of the Islands') evokes the Roaring Twenties' fascination with exotic travel. The aldehydic sandalwood-vanilla structure would influence countless woody orientals for the next century.