Description
Luxurious collection Elixir Charnel by the house of Guerlain adds the fourth fragrance to its offer from October 2009. After Chypre Fatal, Gourmand Coquin and Oriental Brulant, they will introduce Le Boise Torride, a feminine fragrance enhanced with masculine nuances of patchouli and cedar.
Composition of this new edition Guerlain Elixir Charnel Le Boise Torride opens with a citrusy wave of bergamot and tangerine with red berries zest. A heart of the composition is characterized with elegant aromas of jasmine and orange blossom, along with airy nuances of sensual white musk. Base notes offer a union of patchouli and cedar which make a finish with courageous warm notes contributing to masculine character.
Flacon of Le Boise Torride has the same design as previous three editions from Guerlain‘s collection Elixir Charnel, and it is available as 75ml edp.
The nose behind this fragrance is Christine Nagel.
forsa19 – :
Thanks to the fragrance buddy who sent me a 5ml decant. It will take me FOREVER to use!
Ok so lets get into this; this is very gourmand. Very. The first thing that hit my nose was straight sugary berries and marshmallows. The 2nd was the cedar. While nearly diabetic coma inducing sweet, the cedar /patch helps this fragrance…a lot.
without it, it was just be….sugar on top of sugar.
I will admit I’m pretty darn overwhelmed on the sweet part of this scent though, and its hard for me to smell anything remotely citrus like…so for those who really want lots of sugar, its here.
Deep into the drydown is where the woodiness really appears as does the musk. but man o man… so much sugar….
Longevity and sillage is really good, of course since I have issues with it, it would be.
sanya7575 – :
The opening is a blast of sugary red berries with a huge cloud of cosmetic/rose powder Guerlainade. Once settled I get a subdued sweetness, like honey – lots of red berries that I want to call raspberries, a hint of bright orange zest and a whole lot of warm cream grounded by a faint woodiness. The berries and sweet powder (marshmallow?) stand at the forefront to me. Dried down it sort of reminds me of bubble gum.
It’s very spring time pleasant. A little bit light wearing but not transparent, though overspraying can be cloying due to the powderiness. Lasts most of the day, but I tend to touch up around 4/5 hours as it seems to fade to a skin scent eventually. I see it as a totally ‘pink’ scent, yet still holds that touch of Guerlain sophistication.
Darinochka – :
Got a decant of this and a disappointed. There is no sillage. Three sprays and I can hardly smell it. No marshmallow either. What I do like is the fruit and wood scents but there is an underlying metallic smell on my skin… Hate to be so negative… I will continue to wear the decant, but at this rate, it is not worth the price. Very sophisticated and pleasant, but not wowing.
77599068142 – :
Had no idea this was supposed to be for women, I generally don’t like Guerlain and don’t like women’s fragrances, but here I am having just bought a bottle of this..,
vammorybearce – :
Addictive! I was using up all of my decant so I got a full bottle. My favorite of all the Elixir Charnels, I even reach for it more than Gourmand Coquin (wonderful as well). I love the marshmallow, fruits, and patchouli together in this. To me it’s a more grown-up version of a lot of those celebrity scents with similar notes. It’s very sweet and tangy without being obnoxious. Entirely wearable. It is realistic to me, like there’s actually a glass bowl of berries and cream in front of me. Like a fruit salad given as dessert at a 5 star restaurant.
Blackfury – :
This is now the sweetest perfume i own. SWEET! Here is the marshmallow I thought I would find in Killian’s Love (don’t be shy). Honestly its a little much – very girly twirly + tooty fruity. Will try in the summer and see what it becomes in the heat, but until I have a 5 year old’s birthday to attend – it’s shelved till then.
spartak73reg – :
At first, it smells like some sort of scratch-n-sniff grape sticker on me. About 5 minutes in, some honey shows up. It’s sort of a cross between doll head, fake grape flavoring and Boytrytis by Ginestet. I like to imagine there are two types of people, ones who think this description sounds delicious and those fighting the urge to dry heave at the thought, lol!
margan56 – :
Please if any one know where to find this heaven in a bottle let me know,,I checked in Paris boutique and they said it was discontinued science last year
ambrek – :
Boise Torride is still not discontinued. There must have been false info going ’round.
ChooksDon – :
OH. MY. FREAKING. WORD.
This is one of the most phenomenal perfumes I have ever beheld in my entire freaking life. This is the perfume I always smell on other women and wonder what on earth they are wearing that smells so amazing. I don’t mean that literally of course, that they are all wearing the same perfume, since I don’t know what they are wearing, but the scent just somehow smells like THAT perfume. The one that got away. The one I’ve always been looking for. My Holy Grail.
The crazy thing is that I can’t put my finger on the particular note that “makes” this perfume. It smells like a brand-new plastic or pleather cosmetics bag that contains makeup as well as a sample of a fruity-floral perfume. It smells like a scented plastic doll’s hair, like some Strawberry Shortcake dolls from the 80’s. Then there is crystallized honey and some kind of fake blueberry. Some amber too? It seems like a woody chypre at first, but then it sweetens as it dries, becoming fairly gourmand. I opened my daughter’s strawberry cereal bar as I wore the perfume, and the scent of her bar wasn’t too far off from the scent of this perfume. But a chypre mixed with a strawberry cereal bar? HOW is this working?
The heart contains this incredible sweet, white, creamy flower. I was thinking jasmine, but it is not easy to decipher. Words almost can’t describe how much I love it mixed with all the plastic going on in here. Like Hawaiian Barbie.
I don’t know what it is. Love? Lust? But it is instantly my signature.
It is ultra-feminine, so chic, so sexy, so girly, so elusive, so unforgettable, so ME!!
Realize: This is *my* Holy Grail, probably not anyone else’s, so take my review and successful blind purchase with a lump of salt. I’m clearly enamored to death by this stuff, and I enjoy sharing my personal thoughts, but please do not go out and buy this based on my 1000% hyped-up, super positive experience that completely slants my review in favor of this perfume, giving it absolutely no objectivity whatsoever.
Edited to add: I knew this perfume reminded me of Une Nuit Magnetique, as they are both fruity-earthy-amber, and now I see they indeed have the same nose. They are obviously not the same perfume, but I would suggest that anyone who likes this try Une Nuit Magnetique and vice versa.
Edited after several more days of wearing: My love is a fleeting love. She starts out with a bang, then she is gone two hours later. Why does my Holy Grail have to do this, booooo! There you have it–objectivity has returned. But I still like the actual fragrance so much that I will keep this one.
(Side note: This is not discontinued as of today)
VOLDEMARR76 – :
Is there an orange-related fruit in every scent with an otherwise great-looking note list nowadays?
And the said notes are always so powerful and dominant.
Medvedka1 – :
My wife picked this out for herself when she purchased a bottle of Songe d’un Bois d’Ete for me as a gift (AWESOME). I absolutely love Elixir Charnel Le Boise Torride. It is so elegant and so soft and feminine. It’s not an over-the-top sweetness. I guess I would agree that it is gourmand but just on the fringes. I think this one is probably very skin chemistry dependent.
On my wife, it is a 10/10.
Den.Za – :
Judging by notes alone, you’d be forgiven for thinking “Le Bois Torride” ought to smell like a 6 year old’s birthday.
But it doesn’t. It manages to be surprisingly sophisticated, veiling its more sugary elements with a fresh zingy orange, airy jasmine, strident cedar and earthy patchouli.
The result is a zesty, sweet and slightly boozy gourmand, which feels to me like a more nuanced and less shrieking version of “Aqua di Zucchero” by Profvmvm Roma.
It’s sparkly and fun, yet reserved enough that a man could wear it to a party and not feel like a total fruitcake. Reminds me a bit of red lemonade.
I wouldn’t advise more than two sprays though. It’s quite potent!
sergei.seregin – :
This is a fragrance that you have to try more than one time because it’s not that simple and foolish as it sounds from the first time you wear. I did this mistake and was very grumpy the first time i reviewed it. Yes, it’s modern and young and pleasant. But it’s not a silly one. It’s fair to say that it’s not linked with Guerlain signature or traditions, so if you are that kind of Guerlain diehard fan, the chances are that you’ll not like it. If not, give a try in this play of Guerlain on the Torrid Kiss. It’s a gourmand, more literal and less cerebral, that tricks you into thinking “Oh, I’m just a silly fruity fragrance!”. It smells like sugarish berries at the opening, but the citrus aromas cut part of the sweetness. My favorite part of this sexy fragrance is the floral heart. If you pay attention on it you’ll see a very, very good orange flower on it with a sexy jasmine. They’ll not always show, it’s more like a hide and seek game. The orange flower has that complex and interesting aroma of sugary sweet nuances over green and slightly rubbish ones. The jasmine, while clean, has its dirtiness very subtle – this lady whisper her dark side on your ears. The base is also interesting too, because somedays it’s more woody, others more musky, others more sweet and camphorated. This is a fragrance that i have wore sometimes and never got the same aroma on me, it seems to trick you, to dare you understand and goes beyond the cover, the superficial image.
arbitonourbap – :
I accidentally posted this review under Oriental Brulant, because I thought that’s what I had, but I looked more closely and it was this one! So here it is…I have to say my impressions make more sense, knowing it is Boise Torride! Haha
Resin and spice with the first spray…a touch of tangerine rind. It almost smells like there is a little patchouli lurking under there somewhere? Five minutes or less later, the orange softens and comes more to the forefront. Call me crazy, but it calls to mind things like Queen by Queen Latifah–that thick boozy vanilla with spices. Boise Torride smells softer, not as thin as Queen, but I think they could be in the same family. This one is much more floral and I do think, more complex. Gorgeous, sophisticated perfume. Not too sweet, but very cozy.
Though amber is not listed as a note, I get a faint medicinal amber or resin in this.
nikita_aleks – :
A very sweet and juicy fragrance. This is definitely a gourmand. When I first smelled it, I got a grape smell out of this. Nice for a women. Very sweet, floral, powdery, and creamy. I was told it has chocolate and rum, go figure. Try it.
hors62 – :
I get no sweetness to this. It does not mix well with my chemistry. I will stick to Angelique Noir and Coquin. The wood notes in this are grody to the max for me. I’m sure on the right person it smells good who goes for these types of smells. I 3/4 a bottle that I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I will give it a try another 2 more times before I totally give up on it.
Edit: It’s not bad, but it’s not me. Will stick to the other three that I have tried so far that work with my chemistry. Shame you can’t get samples of these before you invest in them.
bili – :
An overly sweet fruity florential with a massive marshmellow accord and some woods (?). Cough cough cough…A fragrance that would do great on a “Sweet Sixteen” protagonist. Probably the least successful line by Guerlain.
Rating: 3/10
shackal – :
I found a decant of this lovely juice that I had not given a serious try before. I’m wearing it to work today and it is beautiful in the topnotes, warm and lovely. I love that the greens and woods are present from beginning to end. I do not find it too sweet and I am not a lover of sweet perfumes. It has more of a vanillic fruity tang to me than a syrupy smell like others have described. The only downside I can see is that in the middle notes that decaying, animalic side of jasmine comes through too heavily for my taste for about an hour, 3 hours into my wearing of the scent, but it went away and now the scent is a lovely soft floral, vanillic wood with that lovely Guerlain “je ne sais quoi” vanilla note. Can’t afford the full bottle but I will likely buy another small decant.
kilapoun – :
Very like-able from the start. At first application Boise Torride is almost tingly, there’s a mix of sweet and sour or something that strikes that way, maybe the berries and tangerine. Now a few hours later I can smell subdued marshmallow with cedar and a touch of patchouli, different and pleasant, not sickening sweet, either-I was worried about that marshmallow note but it’s fine, gives it the gourmand quality without the being cloying.
Sillage: does not seem to project much sillage, I am working with a 1ml vial as opposed to a spray and I’ve dabbed it on both wrists, neck, decollage, and a few drops on my shirt. Cannot get a really good whiff of this unless I stick my nose to my wrist.
Would I buy a bottle? Not at retail price, although it’s a lovely scent, there are other fragrances that grab me more than this.
eugz – :
I think Boise Torride is underestimated among the other Elixirs.
For me,this is an exceptional perfume.Very sparkling , elegant with great sillage.The red berries are ripe, that’s why it is really sweet but they give a sour feeling at the same time.It demands however special weather conditions to reveal its real beauty-wet and cold.
weightless – :
This is a good Guerlain submission. How it goes on is how it stays (as compared to Mitsouko, which dances about).
What I really love is hte Cedar note, which is just stunning. OK, I live in the bay area, a cool, foggy climate that makes the perfect frame, but I think others will love this too.
(edit) I put this away and came back to it after a month, and indeed there is a marshmallow note that makes this more of a gourmand. I read that this entire series is geared towards the gourmand genre. When I first tried htis I got Cedar, but today it was marshmallow, and sadly my feelings have changed.