The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The name says it all, a walk in the forest, translated into scent. Serge de Oliveira created Une Balade En Forêt for Beauty Pie in 2022 with a clear brief: capture the experience of stepping into cool woodland air, not just the idea of it. No forests were harmed in the making. Just the feeling of one.
What makes this composition interesting is the tension between brightness and earth. Bergamot opens with the sharp clarity of morning light through pine canopy, that first breath of cool air that makes you stand straighter. Then the heart arrives: balsam fir absolute brings the resinous, almost medicinal green of pine needles, while gentian absolute adds a bitter, mineral quality that grounds the whole thing in actual earth, not the abstract concept of it. Cashmere wood and amberwood in the base don't overpower, they soften, like light filtering through branches hours after sunrise.
The evolution
The bergamot arrives first, bright, immediate, almost shocking against cool air. Thirty minutes in, the fir takes over. Not the sharp Christmas-tree fir, but something rounder, warmer, with the balsamic quality that gives it presence without aggression. The gentian sits underneath, a quiet bitter note that stops the whole thing from becoming a stereotype. The drydown is where this fragrance earns its name. Cashmere wood and amberwood settle into skin warmth, the kind that lasts 4-6 hours on most. On clothing, it lingers into the next day, faint, woody, almost like the ghost of a walk you took months ago.
Cultural impact
Une Balade En Forêt sits in a space that used to belong almost entirely to niche houses: the sophisticated forest walk, cool and earthy without being masc. What Beauty Pie did with this 2022 release was make that territory accessible, the same sensory experience at a fraction of what it would cost elsewhere. Wearers describe it as what they wanted Tam Dao to be, which tells you everything about where it sits in the fragrance landscape.
