Encens Japonais

I have been crushing on incense perfumes and have Encens Suave and Encens Asakusa, both of which I love greatly. The idea of japanese incense was therefore very high in my esteem when I discovered that Aedes had produced a fragrance called Encens Japonais. Add to this the powerful fragrant storyteller, Bertrand Duchaufour and I was reeled in immediately. It’s a balmy night, my skin has cooled from the overhead fan, a fine mist sprays from the bottle into the crook of my arm. I can feel the contrast of my warm cheek against my upper arm as I lean in to inhale. Some of the fragrance is dispersed by the fan, into the surrounding air. Its a wondrous experience. The fresh and cool juxtaposed with the warm and spicy. Creating a captivating curiosity. It is sweet, cool, spiced, lightly incensed. Everything is participating in the story. I love smelling this on my skin. It leaves me with the same impression as drinking a delicate refreshing tea. I love its elegance and ease of wear. This one leads you to serenity.

This is a fantastic fragrance, and Bertrand Duchaufour is easily one of my favorite perfumers of all time. That said, I don’t want my admiration for his work to overshadow why I genuinely love this scent. Incense typically doesn’t work for me, as it often turns sour on my skin, but not here. This one stays beautifully balanced, and that’s a big part of why I enjoy it so much. Lately, I’ve been gravitating toward fruity fragrances, especially those that highlight plum or currants. While I wish this scent featured a plum note that evolved into something darker, earthier, or more jammy as it dried down, that’s just me nitpicking at this point. It’s already so well done. Aedes is a house I’m excited to explore further. I own a bottle of their signature fragrance, and I recently sampled Encens Japonais, which has only deepened my interest in their offerings.

The opening is awesome. My brain immediately went to "great signature scent". It's warm, spicy, a little herbally. Definitely reminds me of Jubilation from Amouage, but only in the beginning. This thing goes its own way in the dry down. In the dry down you get this sort of warm, woody incense that is just perfection. I'm kind of obsessed with this to be honest! It's very addictive, soothing, and reminescent of just. . .joy? Nostolgia? I'm not sure haha but it's great.

A beautiful scent. The opening immediately wins you over - I could smell the spices, the incense and woody notes, and some sweetness coming from the orange. Then it settles into a warmer woody incense. It is perfectly unisex in my opinion. The sillage will not be big, but I find that with some scents that is exactly what you need. This fragrance doesn't scream but why would you want that? A very classy fragrance.

Love at first sniff for me. It became my new signature scent. I would describe it as smoky, woody and dark but in a femme fatale way. Definitely for nighttime use. The smell is very refined and quite seductive. The longevity is good but the sillage is very intimate.

It's a great incense frag. However, it's too similar to Lutens' L'orpheline, which I already own. Before I run out of l'orpheline, I'm not going to buy a full bottle of this one.

- High-brow . That's the word. If I have to use one word to describe the brand Aedes de Venustas (Latin for "Shrine of Beauty", or "Temple of Beauty"? ), that's what I'm gonna use. I've tried almost all of their perfumes, all top-notch works; they either have a very unusual taste (e.g. the rhubarb in their eponymous signature —— but why would anyone pick rhubarb as their signature scent? why?? ), or ultra-refined ingredients (e.g. award-winning Iris Nazarena); NONE of them smell compellingly beautiful (well...maybe one or two exceptions), some even quite challenging, but they all definitely smell well-made, so you kind of get a feeling that they're making it unpleasant intentionally —— which is the key to keep high-brow: Being too pleasant is distasteful. - Encens Japonais is no exception. Incense is never pleasant, it's more about calmness, meditativeness, inner peace, forget-the-fucking-pandemic-and-just-chill-ness etc. etc. This scent does precisely that. It opens with an inseparable mix of light, clear woody tone and an unspoken pink pepper , then a bit of sour woody fiber hint appears but gone quickly. Moving to a bitter direction —— the characteristic bitterness of incense (frankincense?), it reminds me of both dried fibrous roots and a dry, puckery , extremely bitter type of tea , so bitter that my mouth starts to have an imaginary sweet aftertaste. Then that bitterness is tinted with a hint of dried pickled prune (梅子干) —— now here comes the "Japonais" part of Encens Japonais. If we translate it back to English, perhaps it's composed of the most subtle touch of sweet balsamics and maybe labdanum, sprinkled with a pinch of dried cinnamon and clove powder? The bitterness, woody tone, and pickled prune danced for a while, before everything dries down, it somehow start to glisten with a shimmering mentholated thyme -like herbal coolness. - Compare with Copal Azur (a hard-er core bitter incense by the same brand), this one has a more woody tone —— a soft, smoothened, somewhat "boiled" woody texture and less of that indescribable vibe of pink pepper. A soft incense delight for softer-core incense (frankincense?) lovers.

I really like this. It reminds me of a combo of CDG Rouge and Exaltatum Ruby Wood-if you like either of those, I think you'd enjoy this. To my nose this is mostly rose, pink pepper, incense and woods. The far dry down is mostly a myrrh-dominant incense, which is slightly churchy. Performance is good- this lasts all day on me, but I wish it projected a bit more. Strong like for me! Unisex IMO, maybe slightly feminine due to the pink pepper and rose combo. I saw another reviewer describe this as a femme fatale fragrance, and I can totally see that.

There is a line between quiet and understated yet interesting, and insipid and wan perhaps even derivative. New perfume releases and new formulation releases from Aedes de Venustas inform us that within the last decade or so the brand struggles to stay on the correct side of the line. Look to new formulations of Signature and Iris Nazarena, as well as the newer releases/formulations of Copal Azur and Corfu Kumquat, for some examples and evidence. Encens Japonais stays more on the correct side of the line, perhaps because they learned their lesson to trust the hands of the legend Bertrand Duchaufour more so than they did when they had him create Copal Azur (the new formulation, at any rate). Encens Japonais is quiet and understated, yet interesting - not the other side of the line. It presents incense in a meditative state, and most interestingly seems to actually try to capture real Japanese incense. Visit a Kyoto incense shop and marvel at the truly exotic smells that are unique to Japanese incense. There is quite a bit of overlap in the more famous varieties with oud: fruity medicinal, fungal, resinous, smoky, woody, animalic qualities, floral and musk qualities of barnyards and hay, but far smoother and less "challenging" than Arabian ouds. The rainbow pepper and orange at the top of EJ give a round, tight, fruity medicinal quality that quickly gives way to resinous and smoky incense notes partnered with an animal energy from castoreum, while orris and a pink rose add a dried and starchy floral quality fairly close to hay. Encens Japonais feels driven and focused, a well-disciplined energy running through it, while also being calmly collected and thoughtful. Dare I say zen? Yes, I do, I dare say it, as the feeling of everything-in-the-correct-place comes as the perfumes settles, like a monk postured on a prayer mat, with the dry, brown, down-to-earth aromas of patchouli, and the balsams and light vanillics of opoponax and benzoin, giving a grounded, relaxed, and satisfied sensation. A touch of soap musk adds a light and fresh feeling, a soul cleansed. Typical of the new-ish AdV style, this all happens rather quickly. If you're expecting an intensive hours-long meditation in the still silence of an ancient temple that transforms your person, well that's not what you're going to get. This is more like a long rest break in your new-age company's employee meditation room where they stock some nice but rather commercial incense. However, don't take that to mean this is simply paying lip service to Japanese incense and its use, the room set up by your company is actually quite nice and capable of giving you a pleasant experience. But I doubt that you, as I didn't, will find a spiritual awakening while the faint buzzes and hums and chimes of computers, email and chat alerts, and phones continue to sound outside the door. But it's a pleasant break from the din, nonetheless.

Well rounded incense with a mildly sweet undertone painted on a canvas of extremely dry hinoki. I think the pepper notes emphasize the dryness of the hinoki wood. I don't love hinoki notes/accords, I find them irritating to my nose (Hinoki in Hinoki was unwearable for me). It helps that this one has more going on and the florals and incense soften the composition, but overall not for me. I don't get the coffee note. It's also pretty soft, without aggressive projection. Very very wearable and elegant if you like this type of perfume. I also think it would be good in any season.

I'm a huge fan of this house and incense notes are my absolute favorite. I had sky high expectations for this, but I must say I'm not crazy about it. Incense has been done better by other houses (Tom Ford, Ferragamo and Commes des Garcon to name a few) and this one comes across less smokey and quite bitter. Maybe the orange and pink pepper is stealing the attention from the incense or maybe the coffee note is giving off a that strange bitter vibe. Definitely test before investing in a full bottle.

This is one of the most stomach-turning fragrances I’ve ever smelled. I usually love Aedes de Venustas; enough to own two bottles; but this one completely overwhelmed me. I suspect the pairing of strawflower and opoponax is the main culprit. First and foremost, it’s intensely spicy, but not in a warm way; the spices feel savory and sour, and there’s a persistent damp, musty undertone that follows the scent throughout its life. The leathery facet is quite pronounced as well, yet when combined with those acidic spices, it simply doesn’t come together for me. Given the name, I was expecting a smoky aspect; and it is present; but not in a dramatic or defining way. Toward the drydown it becomes slightly more tolerable... and then, suddenly; poof! It disappears entirely. Very strange. Tag(s): savory spices, sour, musty, leathery, challenging, polarizing

There is something unpleasant about this that reminds me of naphthalene. Not for me.

Tested on strip from a dabber vial. Opened with sweet powdery smoky incense but then the rose peeks through and honestly the scent makes me nauseous. There is something about the rose note that just does not work for me. I liked some roses. But not this one.

Update: I’ve compared Encens Japonais to the original L’Artisan — one on each wrist. To my nose, on my skin, the Encens version has a lovely, skanky undertone (musk note) that was absent for me in the original. The cardamom is gone in Encens, and I loved it very much in the original. The citrus brightness is still here, but the cardamom... it was just special. Overall, they’re very much the same in most ways!

A flat woody amber with to much black pepper. Lays flat, has no movement and is dull. Not Bertrand's best work. I also agree with the reviewer below. There is some kind of strange vegetable type of note running through this perfume. Weird and boring at the same time.

@SeaElle, thank you for the confirmation! Edit: I have both but I agree with your review above that there is some difference (maybe 80% similar). I prefer the original version and feel it was considerably better.

On paper, I should love everything about this fragrance! However, for me, there is an inescapable funky vegetable-like green note that distracts from the other more pleasant notes. Close, but no cigar!

The incense only lingered for about 10mins for me, after that it was just Bois Imperial all the way to the drydown. Not a bad scent, but not his best that's for sure.

@akovarikcam23 Yes, this is the same as the L’Artisan. I reached out to Aedes via email and was advised that this is the new iteration of the original L’Artisan!

The notes seem very similar to Aedes de Venustas by L’Artisan Perfumeur. Duchaufor was also the parfumeur for that. Are they the same perfume?