Night Veils : La Botte
Byredo (2016)

‘La Botte' is a stiletto boot. Plush leather, dirty jasmine, violet accomplice, and an insistent background pulse of a rubber-like note. The first Byredo that has worked for me or that I like. When violet is used like this, in the company of notes that have gone dark or petroleum, it creates an impression of ‘willing to play dark, but pure at heart'. An affecting contrast. The notes in this fragrance don't settle in to a compromise, but play their separate sounds all night, sweet jasmine dirge in a minor key. It really speaks to the feminine soul that is yearning for something beyond or below. Love it.

Edit: And then one day it turned on me, and in the next three wearings was almost smelly. What a bummer. How does this happen? Reformulation? Going vegan? But I can't wear it anymore.

The name says it: this is a leather scent, like Le Gant, another one of Byredo's Night Veil series, but La Botte represents a very different style of leather.

On me the opening blast transports me in the leather realm almost immediately. This is a dark, rough and harsh used old car seat or boot leather, and it has a strong gasoline-garage component to it.

In the drydown a jasmine notes arises temporarily, and later in the base the leather core, which is always present, is given additional rough edges by a dark musky undertone. Towards the end some woodsiness is present too.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection and eight hours of longevity on my skin.

This lovely dark and wintery leather scent is not very multifaceted, but is is designed and executed well as what it is - harsh leather and gasoline Think Knize Ten and Fahrenheit but less complex and refined than the former. 3.5/5.

On paper it appears as Fahrenheit-ish,with in-your-face leather and a very gasoline-ish violet that will never show its floral side. On skin, it veers into a raspberry'leather accord (you know, that usual thing), with a rresult in between Tuscan Leather and My Heroine... Ultra synthetic.
Leans slightly feminine, imo. Hard pass for me, and the price is (was) a joke.

Genre: Leather

I'll be the first to admit that I'm unfairly predisposed to like a fragrance whose name translates as “The Boot.” Yet La Botte really is quite nice. As befits Byredo's pricing, this is a plush, luxurious leather in the tradition of Chanel's Cuir de Russie. The boot in question is Prada or Ferragamo, straight out of the box and shiny-new. The leather accord is rich, natural-feeling, and layered, with what smells like plenty of birch tar in the mix. Once established, La Botte's leathery heart is both lasting and linear, with more than adequate projection, considerable sillage, and several hours' duration. Unless you're a leather completist, you probably don't need this if you've already got the Chanel. But if you don't, and you're looking for a cushy, expensive leather that smells like what it cost you, then La Botte is definitely worth sampling.