Nancy Meiland Sous Bois Review – Nancy Meiland; 2019

If memory serves, I received my tiny sample vial of the subject of today’s review – Nancy Meiland Sous Bois – towards the end of 2019. My interest was aroused from the very first sniff — this was a composition to which I knew I had to return. But then, December turned into January, the Fates intervened, other priorities demanded my attention… and now, here we are, almost in the middle of March. ‘Better late than never’ is a mantra I’ve been repeating to myself for several weeks. Mind you, I wonder if ‘Better late than on time’ might be more appropriate in this particular case. Because the delay in writing about this delightful new scent has given me time to compare it with – of all things – the new Dior Homme.

Allow me to explain. As many of you will now be aware, Dior have renamed Dior Homme (ie the Olivier Polge iris composition) as Dior Homme Original and have restricted its availability to certain markets. The scent currently being sold as Dior Homme is an entirely different formula, authored by Francois Demachy. The decision to remove the iris version from the main catalogue has prompted me – on more than one occasion – to think about where a similarly-minded piece of work might be found. Tangentially, this led me to conclude that, contrary to popular belief, there are a few mainstream brands out there doing interesting things with masculine releases (again, if time permits, I may be able to write a few words about the new Givenchy Gentleman EDP Boisee in this regard, but for now I’ll just say: check it out). And it also reminded me of Nancy Meiland Sous Bois, because somewhere in its winter-loving sharpness lies the soul of Polge’s Dior Homme. 

Meiland’s own site calls this a “mystical” fougere with notes of “bell heather … scots primrose, black hemlock and moss campion,” none of which I can relate to at all. But that doesn’t matter. The point, as I understand it, was to compose a scent that would capture the crisp beauty of unsullied air, and in that sense, Meiland has largely succeeded. In place of her heathers and hemlocks, I get carrot seed, iris and green apple, but somehow the effect remains the same: dark, windswept coastlines picked out by the beam of a distant lighthouse. It is of course, the iris + apple combo that calls to mind Dior Homme, although here, the accord has been made cooler and haughtier. The ‘sugar baked’ gourmand feel has been replaced with a base of dry – perhaps even overly harsh – woods. And there’s a green facet at work as well, which is largely absent from Homme.

I suspect Meiland couldn’t have had the Dior further from her mind when composing Sous Bois: but there we are. The same fates that prevented me from writing about the scent until today also ensured that she released it at almost exactly the same time as Polge’s masterpiece was removed from mainstream circulation. Now we just have to hope that Meiland’s work attracts an audience as large as Dior’s!

[Review based on a sample provided by Nancy Meiland in 2019.]

Persolaise

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