Eau de Boujee Queen, official brand image

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Pia Long and Nick Gilbert collage photos from Instagram

Entering Esxence 2023, I felt pretty much like Alice, map in my hand, getting lost in the maze of scented madness and adoring every second of it.  One of the brands that I came across, serendipitously, and absolutely fell in love with was Boujee Bougies – the passion project of perfumer Pia Long and creative director Nick Gilbert.

First, there were the candles. Boujee Bougies started off as a candle brand that mixes in all the right amounts of fun, luxury, and glamour with a dash of posh stiff upper lip (with a wink from Dexter’s lab). The idea of taking the scents from the candles and zooming them out gave birth to Eau de Boujee, the line of perfumes that explores and takes the path started with the candles even further (and wider). From one frame of the cinematic story, we are now zoomed out to the bigger picture, and – oh boy – are we in for a fun ride!

Now, the facts. A brand of “post-modern” perfumery that wears its heart on its sleeve, with a clear and upspoken ethos that redefines fragrance creation, welcoming diverse voices and innovative approaches, challenging outdated norms, and embracing a contemporary, inclusive perspective on scent. The scents are artistic, fun, smart, and out of the box and if I had to choose just one word to describe them, that would be cinematic.  Reading the brand’s manifesto, I had a memory flash bringing me to the early 2000s and the first time I heard of Lars von Trier’s “Dogme 95 Manifesto”- a movement aimed to strip away the artifice of traditional filmmaking and return to a raw and authentic style, with an emphasis on storytelling, characters, and emotions over technical perfection, to “take back power for the directors as artists, as opposed to the studio.”  A circle closes, and the credits roll for the four new episodes:

Eau de Boujee collection, Midjourney images, collage by Nicoleta©

Verdant: a post-apocalyptic world, where vegetation took over the city. A zombie-free landscape, but with new dangers lurking in plain daylight. Directed by Ari Aster

Cast: pepper, cactus, tomato leaf, vetiver, concrete accord

Soundtrack brief: moody ambiental, but make it majestic.

Gilded: a prayer room, inside a generational spaceship. Catholic rites, dying suns, incense resins dipped in gold. Directed by Franck Gérard.

Cast: lemon, saffron, frankincense, leather, myrrh

Soundtrack brief: dark synth-wave, but make it Gregorian.

Quir: a Tarantino-esque bonanza with an overdose of drama, action, and adventure. Rough leather, subversive tobacco, and someone looking at you like the best snack they’ve ever seen. Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: pink pepper, rose, leather, tobacco, and labdanum

Soundtrack brief: southern gothic, but make it surf.

Queen – a neon-pastel goth rose, delicious and thorny. Moody yet fun, bright eyed but with Victorian paleness, kinetic yet with dream-like slow moving frames. Gunpowder, rose gelatine, dynamite with berry beams. Guaranteed to blow your mind. Directed by: Tim Burton

Cast: rhubarb, rose, iris, and black tea

Soundtrack brief: dark academia, but get jiggy with it.

The entire line is composed by Pia Long, a Finnish-born, UK-based perfumer, best known for the epic Terror & Magnificence by Beaufort London and the furry ‘lil beast Chipmunk from Zoologist. The Eau de Boujee line showcases her talent for composing scents that are alive, complex, and have a unique blend of punk-rock avant-garde flair and luxurious -Scandinavian- watchmaker obsession for detail. But above all – they are all made with the type of contagious passion that draws my storyteller soul in, pupils dilated in the shape of a heart, nostrils fluttering, floating mid-air.

AI generated Scandinavian queen jam, made in Midjourney

Boujee Bougies Eau de Boujee Queen is what I imagine a scent directed by Tim Burton would smell like – saturated contrasts, wide intricate landscapes filled with shadows, jagged edges, and rounded lights, and a distinct sense of heightened reality that made me addicted to this line, really bad, really fast.

Queen starts off with a mouthwatering blast of rhubarb and bergamot, juicy, slightly tart, like a basket of fruits that have been freshly picked up from a whimsical forest (against the good witch’s warnings). The berries are slowly melted into a jam, with rose petals added to the mix, all in preparation for the Mad Hatter tea party. Rounded up with powdery violets, cold iris, black tea, and a subversive dark undercurrent beneath it all, this will be forever embedded in my nostrils as the benchmark for the perfect pastel goth scent. The scene zooms out, even wider, leaving the tea party behind, capturing the edge of the forest, the rabbit hole in the ground, the earthy mossy soil, the darkened red roots, and a delicious and unnerving sense of corrupted fairytale.

Eau de Boujee Queen by Nicoleta

*Description (via website)

Alice stepped through the looking glass and was made Queen, and now she’s thrown a tantrum and there are jam tarts everywhere. The sweetness of Victoriana is set to the soundtrack of a hallucinogenic dream. Honeyed black tea is spilled. Red and white roses dance around a mushroom.

Scent impressions: Rose jam, flowers and a tea party as viewed from a rabbit hole

Top Notes: Rhubarb, Bergamot, Nutmeg, Carrot seed; Heart Notes: Rose, Violet, Raspberry leaf, Geranium, Iris, Black tea; Base Notes: Benzoin, Opoponax, Myrrh, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Earthy notes, Musk

Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor

Disclosure: Travel kit kindly offered by the brand; opinions are my own.

Editor’s Note: Nick Gilbert is a former ÇaFleureBon contributor from our very first year. Read his April 7, 2010 article: Tales from Behind the Counter-A Perfumisto in Hell

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebonofficial@nicoleta.tomsa @boujeebougies @perfumer.pia @nickrgilbert

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