Larmes du Désert

Sharp, clean, spare, ascetic aromatic that's much lighter and airier than many incense-resin scents. If you stumbled into a thicket of thorny scrubby desert bushes, flailed around a little with a stick till the sap flowed, then set fire to a few twigs, this is the sort of smell you'd make. For sniffers accustomed to more spice-rich, rounded, luxey fragrances in its class, then, this one might seem a bit too austere, maybe even thin, maybe even a little harsh. There's no gentle cinnamon warmth or peppery poke to shade in more shadows among the desert dunes here: Larmes du Desert is pure, minimal, deeply fragrant resins and not much else. Not gentle golden-mellow resins either: the very herbal, almost-bitter poke of cypress is leading the charge, with sweeter benzoin far off in the distance, making the fragrance even sharper and sparer overall. All that adds up to an unusually dry and restrained scent with plenty of imaginary breezy 'empty space' in the middle - this, like Wazamba, is one of the few woody-incenses you could easily wear no matter how high the heat or humidity. It has the kind of nearly medicinal, clean, almost antiseptic/cleansing character which doesn't cloy even when you're sweating up a tropical storm in the armpit zone yourself. I (a woman) find it perfectly wearable but it's definitely on the butcher side of unisex. Those who want their orientals sweet and luxurious probably won't like this; it's a spartan dry hike through the dunes of the Empty Quarter, not a five-star stay in the Burj al Dubai*. Sillage is big for the first half hour, then shrinks really dramatically - so much so I thought it had disappeared altogether after no more than 3hrs and was getting ready to rage about poor performance for the price. However - it does cling on and projects longer & stronger on fabric than skin, and in fact it's still there, pumping out occasional wafts on the breeze, up to 6-8h on me. In my view massively overpriced at full retail, but a truly beautiful scent absolutely worth scooping up if you get a good discount / swap / deal elsewhere. For me, a risky blind buy which paid off big-time. (* regardless of the flashy gold flakes in the juice! A fun gimmick but nothing more, imho. Box and presentation very beautiful, though, I'll give them that. )

"Larmes du Désert" is a dry, woody, resinous, and balsamic fragrance. All the amber, resins, and incense all make a fantastic warming and calming scent, that feels and smells great. I get the cypress in the opening, as a sharp green contrast to all the dark and dense notes. It keeps the heaviest part of the fragrance lively. I get a licorice note in the background, but not at all prominent. It has very little sweetness to it. This as all about the balsamic and resinous notes, backed up with the dry wood and cypress. Although it's got a syrupy-like amber note, it's not a sweet amber. Along with the resins, the amber makes the scent alluring and addicting. There is No citruses here. There is a slight sharpness from the cypress, but no citrus. It wouldn't make sense to put citrus in this either. A date or dried fruit note would make sense if you wanted that style of fragrance. But no citrus. Towards the dry-down, the woods starts to dominate more and more. But still balsamic, ambery, and resinous underneath. The bottle is gorgeous. I could do without the gold flakes. But it's not a negative. I do wish it projected slightly more (but not a lot more). It's not a fragrance i would want to be "beast mode", but a moderate+ projection would have been nice. Longevity is not a problem. These are all long lasting ingredients. Personal score: 9.5/10. I love it, and i've worn it a lot lately. It's intoxicating and alluring in it's way. At first sniff, i didn't like this fragrance much. It's not at all sweet, and very balsamic. But, i gave it a wear. And as the day went on i quickly came around, and now i've worn it 4 out of the last 5 days. Happy to own a bottle, and i will buy it again if i ever run out.

With a couple of sprays on a warmish day, this seems an incomplete fragrance to my nose - although performance is pretty good. There is a farmyard (not fecal) note which I don't personally pick-up, but those around me do. I guess it is the patchouli blending in with the woods and amber creating this. I then tried four sprays on a different, cooler occasion, and the fragrance simply came to life. I could pick up the dry resinous notes immediately, and there was a sweetness in the drydown that really brought the whole fragrance together. My daughter could still smell a bit of the farmyard, but she too picked up on the sweet note, and overall she found it really pleasant. This certainly is a fragrance that is driven by skin chemistry and the outside temperature. It is also one that needs a number of wearings to fully appreciate, and the wearer will need to experiment with different spray amounts to find what is right for them. The presentation is lovely, though I feel that Atelier des Ors needs to pay attention to the overall quality of their bottles. I now have five of their fragrances, and while they all look fabulous with their bottle design and gold leaf "snow globe" effect, the bottom of two of my bottles aren't completely flat. Sure, they still stand up and can be displayed, but when you're buying into the image quality of these fragrances, you expect more attention to detail.

This fragrance is phenomenal, as is this house. I bought my first a few days ago, this is mt second purchase from the house out of 4 in total, all purchased in one week. This is pretty unique and the complete Drydown is nothing like the opening or the mid, they are completely different animals, all of them amazingly gorgeous. It plays indeed on the light and dark, and over 3-4 episodes, which lasts as long as 18-24 hours. Incense and smokey, with the cypress up top, and ends up with an Ambery,smokey and Patchouli long Drydown. Glorious. I'd wear it anytime anyway, and aI'd say more masculine than feminine, highly recommended, might be a little unsafe as a blind buy if at RRP, even discounted might be risky, but well worth it :). The longer deep Drydown is my favourite and well worth the wait. Recommended and not to pass up on, God bless. UPDATE: after about a month of wearing this 3 others from their offering, I find that their projection to start off with is quiete acceptable, then gradually goes down to a skin scent pretty quick, but the skin scent/bubble does last a good 8-12 hours, not sure if it's my skin chemistry or something in their DNA, none the less, apart from Lune Feline I got them all about 50% discounted so that removed the longevity being an issue Vs Pricepoint. Just thought I'd add this for future buyers :)

Strong/enormous votes on projection are simply wrong. It's intimate projector, period (unless you overspray it). Scent itself is great (fantastic resinous, woody incense scent), but I'm underwhelmed because I can't smell it at all on me. //Edit 26.05.23: So I picked up half of a bottle in good price and will see if I will want to keep it or not, because despite intimate sillage I still like this scent a lot. //Edit 27.05.23: After two global wearings when I oversprayed it (8-10 sprays) I finally got reasonable performance; longevity will be around 5-6h in my case and and I can catch occasional whiffs which are delightful. I guess when you really like the scent itself you have to life with it! //Edit 28.06.23: Oh, what an irony - it became my favourite incense scent and I got rid of f.e. Encens Suave (new batches suck) and Tiger's Nest (not my cup of tea). It also looks I don't have to overspray to have great wearing experience. I must say that black collection from Atelier des Ors is something I appreciate overall (got Cuir Sacre and will get Bois Sikar too). //Edit 23.11.23: If you like Larmes du Desert I advice you to try Autumn in Lhoka hima jomo - fantastic incense and birch tar (don't be scared) and much more. Quite different take on incense and probably will be my new favourite one after just two global wearings.