Incense fragrances

Incense, or frankincense (olibanum), is the dried resin of trees of the genus Boswellia. When burned it gives the smoky, sacred scent anyone who's ever walked into a church knows — but in a fragrance it behaves differently than you'd expect. It isn't warm. Incense is a cool, dry, slightly citrusy-turpentine note with a bitter edge, and that coolness is exactly why perfumers use it to break sweetness: vanilla with incense stops being a sweet and becomes a ritual. It's one of the oldest perfume materials of all — in Arabian tradition as bakhoor, in Christian tradition as church incense, in both cases millennia before the first fragrance in a bottle. In modern perfumery it plays two roles: as the main motif carrying the whole composition, or as a smoky shadow in the base that you only notice after a few hours.

Electimuss Puritas: If you want incense as the main theme rather than decoration, this is the one. Incense is its first listed accord and sits in the heart beside tuberose and jasmine — sacred but floral, not dark. Extrait concentration; a 5 ml decant for €25, a full bottle €340.
Amouage Outlands: Incense twice — up top with elemi and cardamom, then again in the base with benzoin and labdanum. The Omani house on home ground and the most expensive incense fragrance in our range. Before you pay €430, take 2 ml for €20.
Stephan Humbert Lucas Taklamakan: Incense in the base, under iris and patchouli — dry, desert-like, without church heaviness. The most balanced way into the category if the sacred tone puts you off.
Boss Bottled Absolu: A rarity: incense and myrrh in the same composition, and at a mainstream price. A great chance to smell the difference between them on one skin. A 5 ml decant for €15.
Essential Parfums Divine Vanille: A textbook example of what incense does to vanilla — it takes away the sweetness and leaves the warmth. The cheapest way to hear this note: 5 ml for €13.

Do incense fragrances smell like a church?

It depends on where in the pyramid the incense sits. In the heart, as in Electimuss Puritas, it really is sacred and polarising. In the base — Taklamakan, Divine Vanille — it works as a smoky shadow under other notes, and most people don't recognise it as incense at all. They just notice the fragrance is dry and somehow serious.

Is incense a masculine or feminine note?

Incense is unisex — Arabian tradition assigns it no gender. In Western perfumery it appears more often in men's fragrances, but Electimuss Puritas places it beside tuberose and jasmine, a classically feminine combination. The note itself is neutral; what stands next to it gives it a gender.

Is incense the same as myrrh?

No. Incense is the resin of the Boswellia tree, myrrh the resin of the Commiphora tree. Both are resinous, but incense is citrusy-smoky and cool, myrrh denser, earthy and slightly medicinal. If you want to compare them, Boss Bottled Absolu has both in the same composition, and Spiritica Lynch has myrrh without incense.

What does incense pair best with?

Three things. With vanilla and benzoin, because it takes away their sweetness. With oud and wood, because together they build a dry, serious character. And with citrus — bergamot, lemon — where incense's bitter edge links up with the citrus up top and the fragrance sounds more unified. That's exactly why so many incense fragrances open with citrus.

Which season is right for incense?

Autumn and winter. Incense is a dry, smoky note that turns sharp and smoky in the heat, while in cold air it opens up nicely and stays close to the skin. If you want to wear it in summer, choose a fragrance where the incense is in the base rather than the heart.