The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
WD/18 was composed by Patricia Bilodeau, and the result reads like a brief made visible: a woody-fruity-spicy hybrid that draws structure from its trees and personality from pear. Green pear sits at the front of the composition, lifted by violet leaf and a thread of cardamom that cuts clean through any sweetness, while cypress, iris, and amyris shape the middle, and sandalwood, Madagascan vetiver, and cedar carry the base. The juice itself carries the name, an alphanumeric tag rather than a mythology or a mood-board narrative. WD/18 reads as its own creative project, a single composition built around its material rather than a variation on a broader signature.
What's notable is the note architecture itself. Most woody-fruity compositions lean either into the gourmand sweetness of the fruit or the dark resinous pull of the wood. WD/18 refuses both extremes. The pear stays bright and almost edible without tipping into syrup, the cardamom adds a green peppery lift instead of baked-warmth, and the base trio of sandalwood, Madagascan vetiver, and cedar builds a dry, almost architectural platform that keeps the sweetness in check. Iris at the heart does the quiet bridging work, powdering the edges between fruit and wood without adding its usual lipstick-and-velvet associations.
The evolution
On skin, WD/18 opens with a quick, sharp burst of green pear laced with violet leaf and a thread of cardamom that cuts clean through the sweetness. The first twenty minutes feel almost like a cologne, bright and slightly austere, more about lift than depth. Then the cypress and iris arrive together, and the composition shifts key. The fruit recedes, the woods tighten, and there's a brief phase where the fragrance reads more aromatic, more herbal, with a dry amyris warmth that smells faintly of cedar shavings and clean linen. By the two-hour mark, sandalwood and Madagascan vetiver settle in for the long haul. The pear ghosts in and out, occasionally surfacing like a memory, but the base is now the architecture: creamy sandalwood over a mineral, slightly smoky vetiver, with cedar holding the whole thing upright.
Cultural impact
WD/18 belongs to a quiet current of modern woody perfumery that has favored material clarity over ornament, a current visible in compositions built around sandalwood, vetiver, and cedar with little narrative weight attached. Reviewers have reached for Le Labo's Santal 33 as a reference point when describing the kind of sandalwood register WD/18 occupies, even where that comparison is hedged. The pear at the top is the distinguishing move, a green, almost mineral fruit note that lifts the composition before the base takes hold.
