In July, I picked 5 great incense fragrances for summer wear, and I followed that in October with 5 perfumes: incense fragrances for fall. Now that we've moved on from "a decent chill" to "polar vortex warning", it's time for the winter version. As always, do add your own picks in the comments!
Comme des Garçons Avignon ~ as I've said here before, Avignon is my gold standard for church incense. Developed by perfumer Mark Buxton, Avignon starts out foreboding but ends up meditative; it's also wearable and makes a great layering agent. If you want something churchy but not quite that churchy, try Bois d'Encens from the Armani Privé line. For the budget version, try Demeter Holy Smoke. If none of those are quite gothic enough for you, try Etro Messe de Minuit. I admire it but don't love it; Victoria at Bois de Jasmin wrote a perfect review here.
Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline ~ if Avignon is too refined for you, do try Black Tourmaline, which ups the ante on the spice, the woods, the smoke, all of it. It's not the easiest fragrance to wear and my bottle (kindly passed on by someone who did not adore it) has a tendency to work its way to the back of the cupboard in warmer months. This time of year, it's perfect.
Amouage Jubilation XXV ~ still, after all these years, my favorite offering from Amouage, this honeyed blend of fruits, spices, woods and resins is both warming and uplifting. It's also expensive, and I still can't believe I didn't buy a cheap travel size years ago when they could be found at several online discounters. Oh well. I collect samples and dig one out every so often.
Donna Karan Black Cashmere ~ long a perfumista favorite, and the reference for spiced sandalwood incense. The lovely stone-shaped bottle is gone (it comes in what looks like a shampoo bottle now) and I have not smelled a recent version (do comment if you have) but at least they still make it; Pink Cashmere, a more typical designer offering, probably outsells it by miles. If you want something cheaper and quieter, try Pacifica's Tibetan Mountain Temple.
Aedes de Venustas Copal Azur ~ Aedes has begun to rival Comme des Garçons and Olivier Durbano as a go-to niche house for incense. Copal Azur is the latest, and while you could probably wear it year-round, its creamy vanillic dry down makes it an ideal cozy-comfort scent for the sort of gloomy winter day that makes you wonder just how many days it is until spring.
Do share your picks!
Note: top image is Bâton d'encens [cropped] by MPhotographe at flickr; some rights reserved.
I need to get Avignon!( and Kyoto)
I do love Jaisalmer, and bought it a few years ago. I also certainly wear Gucci pour Homme (the Tom Ford era original) but my most recent favorite is Amouage’s Interlude Man. It is so rich and smoky! LOVE!!
I sampled Messe de Minuit years ago and found it VERY gothic. I used to call it: “Interview with the Grand Inquisitor”.
Either my tastes have changed or MdM has been through a dramatic reformulation because the bottle that I finally decided to buy last fall could best be described as: “Interview with Mel Brooks”!
It is almost… cheerful! The lemon-bergamot top has been amplified to the point that the incense is almost all gone.
Oh my. I did not love Messe de Minuit but that makes me sad. I hope they have not mucked up Shaal Nur.
It sadly got reformulated around 2010/11 (I think). A bunch of the old bottles showed up at discounters and it was briefly unavailable. The new bottles have little of the chiaroscuro of the old. I like the new stuff okay but is simply one in a crowded field, but there is nothing that I know that fills the spot that old Messe de Minuit filled.
What a shame.
Nothing warms my skin like Josef Statkus/ Juozas Statkevicius edp. I love its facets of amber and vanilla. Incense fragrances sometimes feel too harsh on my astringent skin but this one never does.
That was a great scent. And whatever happened to him — I thought he was slated to be the next big thing!
He must have fallen out of favor with Anna Wintour, who was quite keen on him for awhile. I googled around and it appears that Statkus continues to do quite well in his home country of Lithuania and gets a fair amount of press in Russian and Arab publications. His perfume is still available in the US if you look for it, and his perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin has been doing lots for Diptique, Mugler, and Kilian, but nothing that I like as well as this.
Ah, Pellegrin also made Volutes for Diptyque, I love that one. I wonder how his Incense Suede for Ferragamo is — but I’ll probably never find out.
LOVE Jose Statkus. It is, I agree, a very smooth and warm incense.
I’m a church musician – raised Roman Catholic and worked in Anglo-Catholic parishes, all of which used incense lavishly. I now work in a Lutheran parish, where even the faintest whiff is a huge no-no. My workaround, especially for the high holy days: Avignon. It sits in the happy middle, between the mold note of Messe de Minuit (which, to be fair, can be found in some of the really huge Gothic places), and the diet soda of Cardinal (which smells a bit like a stingy hand has been dosing the thurible). Thank God for all three, though!
Nice division, thanks! Cardinal is earmarked for my spring list
I love your comparisons! Perhaps perversely, I am now intrigued by the “mold note” in Messe de Minuit. I know just what you’re talking about! I can’t recall that note being in any perfume I’ve sniffed thus far, so I’ll search this one out. Thanks!
But do see the comments above about reformulation. Wonder if it’s still got that mildew-y edge.
Yes, thanks Robin! STC just gave me a giggle by asking “did you mean ‘extra mouse de minute?'”
Which is a different perfume altogether
It does not. The musty mildew note is gone.
Thanks — that’s what I figured.
My favorite winter incense TF Safari Noir – I especially love the way it lingers in a wool scarf or sweater. Its also good for layering, although you have to be careful because it tends to overwhelm any other perfume.
By the way, I recently purchased a few single Amouage travel sprays from fragrancenet for a very good price, including Jubilation XXV and Gold Man. So I think you can still find them occasionally if you are willing to obsessively browse the discount sites. ( I like the women’s version of both quite a bit more than the men’s, but they smell good on my husband.)
I’m sure I’m not obsessive enough about it. Right now they have the women’s but not the men’s, and no small sizes. Thanks though!
I have a FB of the current DK Black Cashmere — it’s fabulous. I never smelled the older version, though.
I’d also recommend Sonoma Scent Studios Incense Pure.
And, of course, Norma Kamali Incense (long discontinued) if you want to “share” your incense with the world
Love me some incense. Mmm, smoke, incense, mmmm……
It is too bad the NK line never found a following, those were some great (and yes, intense!) scents.
Incense Pure is another great scent, I put it on the fall list but it works for winter too.
I’m reading your posts backwards, just saw the SSS on your fall list… oops!
I got a sample of the NK Incense from a generous swapper… then bought a few more ml off Ebay… hoarding them!
No need to oops…you are not required to memorize my choices in any case
The NK jasmine was literally incredible…you could probably kill somebody with it.
I definitely agree with you on Avignon. It’s really nice for a walk through the forest on a cold day. I think you featured Timbuktu on your fall list but it’s great for winter too. And of course there’s my beloved Nesti Dante Borghi e Monasteri soap which provides a welcome dose of incense year round. (Sorry I can’t stop mentioning this one. it’s just that good.)
I’m glad you brought up the soap again…I looked around for a good place to buy it online last time but never found anyplace (I want free shipping, among other things) but now I’ll put it on my evernote wish list so I won’t forget.
Luckily for me I found a Canadian supplier with free shipping on $25 but I just checked and their US shipping policy isn’t nearly so generous. A lot of independent gift shops seem to carry this brand so if you have any in your area you might want to give them a call.
I just remembered that some stores list it under the English translation Villages and Monasteries so i did a quick search and turned up the following with free shipping:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/121427680195?nav=SEARCH
Perfect, thanks so much!
No worries. I hope it doesn’t disappoint.
Another shoutout for the ND incense soap. Great stuff!
Gosh, twist my arm
Always thought Black Tourmaline smelled like original Polo without the green notes (and perhaps slightly charred.) As for favorite, probably Jubilation XXV.
Definitely slightly charred, and maybe slightly sweaty too.
This may be cheating but Iris Silver Mist is probably one of the most wintery incense-based scents I can think of.
Definitely cheating but since it’s Iris Silver Mist it’s allowed.
I tried.
For tea, incense, and spices, I like House of Matriarch Devotion. Black Tourmaline was too dark for me, but Devotion has a hint of sweetness (myrrh and vanilla, I think) that Black Tourmaline didn’t, which makes Devotion more wearable for me, but it is definitely a winter fragrance.
Thanks — that’s one I have not tried.
Incense is so strangely beautiful to me. I am not at all surprised to realize I posted a small bottle of Black Tourmaline yesterday in the freebiemeet before I read your incense picks for winter today. Spooky.
Or maybe it’s just the winter weather has got me thinking of lovely, smokey fragrances.
I’m looking forward to spring and more incense fragrance picks.
The freebie has been claimed, so it will be going to a good home very soon. Yay, freebiemeet!
Nice freebie! I am really glad someone passed one on to me.
I love Avignon and in defiance to all good sense, wear it all Australian summer (maybe not on 110F days). Intense and not as cooling as some of the others, but it is remarkably sexy.
It came up in the comments to the summer incense post, so you are not alone!
Gucci Pour Homme is a fabulously warm amber incense to contrast the ice cold incense in Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide. Love the deep raw resins in Tauer Incense Extreme and the gorgeous complexity of CDG Man 2. And the five compositions in CDG’s Series 3 Incense stir the global spirit…
(p.s. LOVE Duchaufour’s J-XXV!)
Nice list, thanks!
Mm, CdG 2 Man. I dig that one.
Ulrich Lang’s Aperture is simply marvelous – curious if anybody else has tried it? (Got it in an Olfactif sampler)
Does DK Chaos count as incense? I’m loving that lately.
Sure, Chaos does! Great scent.
I thought I’d tried Aperture but ack, can’t remember any incense — maybe I missed it.
For head shop incense, there are several brands of Nag Champa perfume oil
I own a bottle, but I don’t wear it. I just sniff it every once and a while.
Monyette Paris used to be big on MakeupAlley, don’t know if it still is! Very sweet though.
Yeah, I’ve heard that Monyette Paris is supposed to have a nag champa note, but I don’t smell it. I will have to re-visit my sample. As I recall, it was mostly white flowers on me.
It’s mostly sugar on me
DSH Perfume Ashram is very much a nag champa incense
An underrated and really cheap incense scent is Jacomo Rouge. I stupidly swapped it off as a newbie, back in 2008, but recently bought a bottle and it seemed exactly the same, not too sweet and with a mild but obvious woody/incense element. Also, if you already enjoy incense fragrances it’s certainly “unisex!”
Ah, another I have not tried, thanks!
Poking my head up from the BWF tsunami that swept me under a couple weeks ago… Oooh, incense! Which, growing up Southern Baptist, I didn’t know I liked. The churchy stuff, I mean. I do much much less well with the Japanese woody type, it’s so austere and sometimes so acrid that I just cringe.
I like Avignon, but I really enjoyed Zagorsk. I know I wouldn’t wear it often, so instead of looking for a bottle I’m looking for a decant. (On SALE. BIG sale.)
DK Black Cashmere, I find, is a wonderfully calming sort of scent, very meditative. So is Neela Vermeire Trayee – I used that sample up and would love another. BTW, I have one of the old “pebble” bottles of BC, and have sampled the new version, and I don’t see an enormous difference between them. The new one is a tad sweeter, maybe.
And I love love SL La Myrrhe. It always feels to me like sunrise on snow, a pink glow over blue-tinged white.
I love my pebble bottle of BC. It is such a perfect fit with the fragrance.
I should revisit Zagorsk, have not smelled it in years. Did not love it at the time.
I love and own a few of the incense frags mentioned above, but I think my favorite is Smell Bent’s Incensed. It’s really good – a dry and spicy beginning, followed by a sweeter and warmer dry down. Incensed Short Fuse is also quite good!
I have a sample of the Short Fuse that I haven’t gotten around to yet. Hmm.
Incensed Short Fuse was the one I originally thought I’d love to death, because of the cardamom. I have a mini and do wear it, but I find the original Incensed has more clarity. If you find you like the Short Fused, I think you’d like the Incensed, as well.
Another I have not tried, thanks!
I adore Black Cashmere; for many years it was my signature and it certainly was my “gateway perfume” into the wonderland that is fragrance fanaticism. Now that I have a little one, I use it sparingly because it is potent stuff. Happily, this will make my little pebble bottle (a 1.7 oz, I think?) last longer!
I have been longing for Copal Azur since I read the first reviews that cropped up last year for it; now I must add Avignon, Bois d’Encens, Jubilation XXV, and a few others to the list!
What a great gateway! I started much more “tentatively” than you did
Bit late but – I lucked in on a discount site selling Annick Goutal body products and bought some Encens Flamboyant shower gel – wonderful stuff and it prompted me to dig out my decant – I can quite see Tania’s point when she talks about a smoke in a pine forest in Winter (though I don’t smoke – usually).
Oh, nice! I will have to look for some.
FYI, the Sackler Gallery in DC currently has an interesting exhibit on archeology in Yemen. These sites, at foot of a mountain range bordering the Arabian desert, were part of the incense route, and they have ancient incense burners on display. Here’s the link to a map of the incense trade routes and other information on the exhibit:
http://www.asia.si.edu/unearthingarabia/incense-trade.asp
Nice, thanks!
I love most of your 5 that I have smelled, now I am in the mood to wear Black Cashmere tonight, I neglect my decant.
Favorite Incense of All Time: Serge Noire by Serge Lutens. Burnt hair and all, I love it.
I’m late to this party (crazy work week, lots of travel), but I didn’t see Eau d’Italie Sienne l’hiver mentioned. Memory-wise, to me it’s a fall fragrance (got a great deal on it in Munich during Oktoberfest one year), but I wear it a lot in winter, too. I love the incense (not overwhelming, but very present) and the smell of stone. On a (somewhat) related note, I just got a small sample of mitti attar, and that dry earth note reminds me a bit of the stone note in Sienne l’hiver.
Wearing Montale Incense Full right now. I have most of the ones mentioned so far, being a huge incense fiend. I will add Rundholz 3.April.1968 and Armani Privé Encens Satin to the list.