Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Nancy Meiland Sous Bois perfume review by award-winning perfume critic Persolaise, 2019, 2020

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


If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider supporting my work
by ‘buying me a coffee’ using the panel below.

Thanks very much indeed.


Discover more from

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

I love hearing from my readers, so please feel free to write a comment or ask a question.