Jacarandá
Fueguia 1833 (2011)

This is like getting up close and personal with universal wood—intimately smelling it while admiring its grain, whiffs of varnish that has polished its surface. It could be a red cedar, it could be knotty pine, maybe its cherry or mahogany, spruce or rosewood. Perhaps it could be all of them, an ode to all the sharp and briskly fragrant woods of the world, distilled and lacquered into a polished monolith.

The intrigue here is in the overtones of licorice root and sweet balsam that temper the sharp, terpenic pungency of its wooden core. I will agree with others that have smelled this that it evokes dry saunas, mills, carpentry, guitars and violins and such. It is truly satisfying as the ultimate "timber as object" sort of smell—wood that has been cut, carved, molded, and made into something. It is a delight.

I find the notes listing here on BaseNotes for Jacaranda interesting. Bergamot, Patchouli, Cedar, Moss. I find it interesting because the notes listed for Jacaranda on the Fueguia 1833 website lists the notes as, Rosewood, Mahogany, and Spruce, which seems more in line with what I experienced in wearing this fragrance. I wonder if there was a reformulation or something? Anyway, this is a nice woody, aromatic with some excellent wood notes.

It starts out with a strong varnished woods presence. It is quite potent, but has been thoroughly enjoyable to me. There is a sweetness along with the varnished wood notes in the opening that makes it different than the varnished smells of D.S. & Durga's Bowmakers. Jacaranda has strong projection for the first few hours. My wife and I went to a basketball game this evening, and she complained that my fragrance was too strong. I disagreed with that assessment, as it smelled wonderful, but she said it had a sweet note she didn't appreciate and it was too strong. I didn't find it too strong, however, I did apply from my sample quite liberally, so perhaps it's best to sample this one in smaller doses than I did tonight. The opening is nice, but the dry down is what I enjoyed the most. It becomes quite coniferous in the dry down and the spruce really ahh..."spruces" thing up quite a bit! It is really nice for someone who loves coniferous notes and fragrances...like me! I was pleasantly surprised by that wonderful dry down. Now I've found another coniferous fragrance that's on my list of must haves! It's so exciting!