Milestones in order. This is history, not a weekly activity grid.
- Bois des Îles
- Iso E Super
- Féminité du Bois
- Déclaration
- Terre d’Hermès
- Molecule 01
- Tam Dao woods
- Woody haze
- Sandal pressure
- Pencil revival
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
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Quick answers
What is Woody?
Cedar, iso-woods and dry timber — the architecture under most modern bottles.
EDP vs EDT — what changes?
Concentration is oil in alcohol, not a quality score. EDT (about 5–15%) shows more top; EDP (about 15–20%) shows more heart and base. Houses vary; this is not a lab assay.
How should I wear Woody?
One or two sprays on skin or cloth — sternum or hair, not a cloud in a lift. Let it turn an hour before you add more.
Which season fits?
Day to night, all year. Very dry skin can read woods as sawdust.
Does skin chemistry change it?
Yes. Warm, moist skin amplifies sweet and spice; dry or cool skin can turn the same juice woody, soapy or short. Test on your skin, not only a blotter.
What about IFRA and oakmoss?
IFRA sets industry limits on some naturals and synthetics. A reformulation is usually a legal edit, not a betrayal. This atlas is not a safety sheet.
Woody did not arrive as one bottle. The timeline below keeps Grasse, Guerlain, Chanel, Nahéma and IFRA as proper names, not metaphors.
Read the years as a map of trade and reformulation, not as a ranking of beauty.
Timeline
- Bois des Îles
Ernest Beaux / Chanel: sandal, aldehydes, ylang — wood as couture.
- Iso E Super
IFF’s woody-amber molecule; later a genre.
- Féminité du Bois
Lutens / Sheldrake / Bourdon: cedar as a feminine manifesto for Shiseido then Lutens.
- Déclaration
Ellena for Cartier: vetiver-woody spice, watercolor woods.
- Terre d’Hermès
Ellena’s flint-orange-cedar; mineral wood as a bestseller.
- Molecule 01
Geza Schoen’s Iso E Super solinote.
- Tam Dao woods
Diptyque’s sandal-cedar temple woods.
- Woody haze
Every masculine brief asks for Iso E and Ambrox.
- Sandal pressure
Legal woods shift formulas toward cedar and synths.
- Pencil revival
Virginia cedar as a named niche (Comme des Garçons, etc.).
The eras
- Furniture and incense — Wood as material culture, not a “woody family” aisle.
- Couture woods — Bois des Îles and occasional masculines.
- Cedar feminine — Féminité du Bois re-genders the pencil.
- Iso E decade — Molecule 01 and Terre teach haze and flint.
- Ambrox-wood default — Designer masculines as wood-amber uniforms.
Milestones
- Bois des Îles, 1926 — Wood inside Chanel modernism.
- Féminité du Bois, 1992 — Cedar as a woman’s spine.
- Molecule 01, 2006 — Wood reduced to one IFF molecule as a product.
Woody keeps moving; the other six chapters say what one date cannot.
Origins & milestonesNotes & accordsCraft & methodCulture & meaningIcons & legendsHow to wearMarket & bottles