Bois de Mysore

A dreamy interpretation of the mythical Mysore sandalwood, Mizensir’s Bois de Mysore captures the attractively doughy character of real Mysore oil by fusing a spicy green cardamom with the raw lumber wholesomeness of Sri Lankan sandalwood. The initial effect is of a thick, intense woodiness that, like Mysore sandalwood itself, is dusty and creamy in equal measure. This central accord – a golden bread pudding flecked with wood grit – is monolithic and almost completely linear. Of course, when wood smells this good, you want it to sing out, uninterrupted, in one long, single chord that goes on forever. And this does. But if it stopped there, Bois de Mysore would be no different from any other modern Mysore sandalwood interpretation. Thankfully for us, Alberto Morillas is not content to simply give us a pretty smell. The twist comes in the form of a sharp violet leaf note, which when combined with the mandarin, sluices the dense wood with a watery, metallic freshness. This strange minerality is volumized even further by a powerfully earthy and “wet” musk, Vulcanolide, a Firmenich captive that Morillas used to famously brilliant effect in CK One, whipping the citrus notes into a perfect storm of shiny musk molecules. The outcome in Bois de Mysore is a thick, creamy sandal accord that becomes brighter and airier as time goes on, like bubbles of salt air expanding inside one of those Kouign-Amann butter puff pastries when exposed to the blistering heat of the oven.