Through ten fragrances released under the Huitieme Art Parfums line perfumer Pierre Guillaume has stayed true to form. His original concept was to make simply constructed fragrances which highlight a specific raw material or ingredient. By choosing a few complementary notes he would expose some hidden nuances of the central note. In the best cases these really allowed the wearer to divine all there was to find with a specific note. I have been a big fan of this approach since its inception in 2010 and have enjoyed this form of exploration by M. Guillaume. The eleventh entry has just been released and it is called Monsieur. For the first time, in the Huitieme Art Parfums series, I think M. Guillaume changes things up a bit. It leads to Monsieur being more of an exploration of all that woody notes have to offer.

Pierre Guillaume

Monsieur takes the approach that there is never enough of a good thing and in this case that good thing is woody notes. M. Guillaume this time is really painting a picture over exploring a single note. In the press materials he says Monsieur is meant to evoke the woods surrounding the mountains in Auvergne. This is definitely a forest next to a mountain as it is a bit drier than a rainforest, for example. The wood notes in Monsieur feel older more massive. Monsieur develops from lightly woody with papyrus and poplar through another six woody notes each one adding another layer. This is where Monsieur differs from the previous Huitieme Art Parfums as each layer of new notes transforms the development to allow one to really appreciate each component before the next one alters the mix.

M. Guillaume uses poplar and papyrus to start Monsieur. The papyrus has green and aquatic facets to go along with the light woodiness and those help reinforce the mountainous milieu. Oakmoss, cedar, and vetiver make up the heart. The vetiver again provides the green but it also provides the wood underpinning as well. Cedar is as close to a standard note as we get in perfumery and along with the oakmoss provide a familiar accord. Sandalwood, patchouli, and bois d’encens make up the base trio. The patchouli M. Guillaume uses does a really nice job of transforming the early notes as it makes the cedar less clean, the oakmoss deeper, and the vetiver loses all pretense of green. As the patchouli works its transformative magic the sandalwood and bois d’encens provide a sweetly resinous resting place for all the woods to rest.

Monsieur has all day longevity and average sillage.

Monsieur is a departure for the Huitieme Art Parfums line but perhaps this is where M. Guillaume starts to explore groupings of similar notes. If that is the case then I really look forward to that as this grouping of woods provided new insight into each note used. I know the perfume is named Monsieur and certainly a fragrance this full of woods almost screams out to be for men but M. Guillaume has created a fragrance much lighter than you might think and even if you’re a Madame you might want to give Monsieur a try.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Huitieme Art Parfums.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

Editor's Note: Monsieur will make its debut at Pitti Fragranze in Florence, Italy September 13-15, 2013.