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.

Atelier des Ors Larmes du Desert is a 2015 release my very first try from this house, and it’s instantly a sweet, resinous, slightly spicy and even seemingly slightly fruity mix that’s both fun and a bit intriguing. The resinous quality leans toward incense, albeit not heavily smoky, with some contribution from guaiac wood, and some punchy, spicy bits from cypress and patchouli, but I feel like I’m missing something sweet in the mix, or perhaps the benzoin is just that sweet in this case. It’s an easy winner for fans of resinous fragrances, especially those that like their fragrances to lean more toward incense or sweet instead of animalic. It’s not at all an animalic amber, in my opinion, even if there are spicier and woodier aspects of it, and in total, it’s decently sweet on my skin, which I love. It performs reasonably well, albeit slightly less than I would’ve expected, given the prominence of resins in the description and note breakdown, but surely still satisfactory. It comes in EDP concentration and is sold at $275 for 100ml at Luckyscent. Overall, I love it, and would love to have a bottle. 8 out of 10

Grabbed a decant, spritzed and "holy grail time!" I've got bottles of TF Sahara Noir, Guerlain's Ensense, Andy Tauer, Heeley, and I've tried a few others--but this just hits the spot. I looked at my decant and thought, "full bottle." This has the acrid "churchy" smoke that I love, with a bit of...not sweetness exactly, but some kind of counter to the bitter-acrid-smoke coming through, most likely the amber, and an "oudh" feel that sexes it up (I find incense sexy). It's just a pure incense, neither cold, nor too warming with amber (sometimes skewing vanilla)--this is just right. I love it. I'm also enjoying the cedar (one of my favorite scents when done right) and very slight patch. This is unisex, and as a woman, it works with my skin, but some may find it a bit more masculine, but it depends on your style, your chemistry. I am on my way to search out a bottle. Incense fans really need to try this--I know so many of us are on that quest for "The One"--and, well, this is the one "Right Now."

Beautiful ambery incensy oriental. The presentation is ultra luxorious and pleasure to look at. Atelier des Ors bottles are real gem and the golden flakes may sound just as a snoby gimmick (which they are), but in combination with the golden color of the juice it feels like a magic potion. The smell itself is high quality amber with piny incense (not smoky, more like unlit luban). It reminds me a lot Amouage's Jubilation XXV. I only wish projection and duration was a bit amped up, but Amouage suffers of the same drawback, perhaps it is not easy to make this type of perfume a beast mode frag. There are no challenging notes, very crowd pleasing, expensive smelling and well blended high quality oriental is what you get. The price tag is high, but if you are a fan of incense orientals, you wear things like LADDM or Amouage, you cannot go wrong with this royal jewel.

A real winner for me it mixes some of my favorite sets of notes in sweet resins, green fir notes and incense. This one is kind of like Tom Ford Vert D'Encens but far less dark and has a warmer and tiny bit sweet much more "open" kind of smell. If it was music the Tom Ford would be a deep thumping bass track, whereas this is more dynamic and brightly toned. It is different than something like CdG Zagorsk and Kyoto too which have this cypress and incense type of mix, by nature of its heavy use of sweet resins. Recommended for anyone that loves forest scents. This is poorly named imho, unless the "tears"/Larmes are trees on the edge the desert (I dunno what the thinking is here) or perhaps the resins are the tears that drop from trees and resins invoke the sahara? Anyway, presentation is rather stunning but the juice is the star here. Beautiful fragrance.

#1354 in my "Tour de Fragrance" I'm a fan of Atelier des Ors. Greats scents. I got this for a girlfriend a couple of years ago and she loved it. Smells amazing on her so finally got a bottle for myself. It immediately puts me in mind of Aesop's "HWYL", Comme de Garcons "Wonderwood", and the very strong patchouli note conjures Nobile 1942 "Patchouli Nobile." I'd add in Franck Boclet "Ashes" except for the strong clove note in that one. You gotta be cray-cray not to love any of these scents. This one is long lasting, moderate projecting. Smells better on the skin that on the test paper. Unisex and sexy. Works in any setting, any weather.

After my first spray of this, I instantly loved it, but I also really like incense and resins. I wasn't expecting it to be SO incensey, which isn't a bad thing, but that's definitely dominant over the cypress and woods for me. There's a subtle warmth and earthiness under it that keeps the incense from being too shrill (though definitely give it a few minutes to calm down after spraying). It seems like it would project a lot, seems like it would last, but I haven't worn it around. On a side note, something not being your taste doesn't make it trash. It's okay to just say "I didn't like it," without being insulting.

This is stunning and like nothing else that I have ever smelled. Miles from any scent at the department store. The moment I put some of my sample on the test strip I said, "Oh my god" and started searching for a bottle online. On my skin, however, this becomes quite masculine. The cyprus and incense, though beautiful, are just not feminine enough for my tastes (though I tend to go for quite powdery unisex scents, so YMMV). The vibe is decidedly Middle Eastern and quite timeless. I can imagine three generations of tall, dark, and handsome men wearing this quite happily.

This is absolutely delicious. Warm and spicy, full of baking smells and spices. Will give a lift to your nose - and your mood. The incense adds a touch of ceremony to the cozy, just baked, carrot cake of the background smell. It had me reaching for an Espresso to drink with it. As it dries becomes a bit more flakes of newly broken cinnamon sticks, less baked good, and ends in a warm woody smell. Projection is strong for first 40 minutes or so and it sits as a skin scent on me for 6 or more hours. Totally gorgeous - on my Christmas list.

This is defiantly a unique smell guys. Very smoky and warm resinous scent. I feel it's something a luxurious gentleman would wear somewhere over seas. It's got a certain vibe to it. I will be including this in a giveaway lot on my YouTube channel down the road and probably won't be picking up a full bottle just Bc of the price to love ratio just isn't there for me, but over all it's a unique scent that I believe is worth looking in to. Scent 7.5/10 Longevity 8/10 Uniqueness 8.5/10

Larmes du Desert is my first from this house and it is beautiful. It is very "niche", created with little effort made to appeal to the masses. That isn’t to say that it is off-putting or offensive. Indeed it is finely crafted and beautiful. It smells like dry desert woods, sunbaked rocks, and vaguely honeyed resins wafting on the breeze. Overall, it is a parched, golden scent. It is very long lasting and has decent sillage. Unisex.

The scent is very nice - notes of (golden) amber, cedar, cypress, wood, myrrh and personally for my nose tons of olibanum. The gold flakes inside the bottle give a nice visual effect but to be honest there is no olfactory advance when doing this. I agree with mirador - this is definately in the direction of Amouage as they also use a lot of olibanum for their fragrances as well.

I find the dominant note of Larmes du Désert is honey, with the subnote cypress. It smells sweet and clean to me; it is absolutely delightful. This is the first time I've felt compelled to make a review, because this fragrance evidently smells very different to/on me than to most other reviewers. I have only a small sample—perhaps it is mislabeled!

A great cheaper replacement for Armani - Bois d Encens which is my favourite frag ever

Purified L' Air du Desert Marocain

Thanks to a blogger friend, I was able to test a few Atelier des Ors offerings(thank you!). Here are my thoughts on Larmes du Désert: As its name indicates, Larmes du Désert is all about resins. Olibanum, myrrh, labdanum and benzoin all make an appearance, but most of the time, they're seamlessly interwoven into each other and merely show a certain facet from time to time. The fragrance opens with the bracingly cool and stony smoke of olibanum, flankered by the musty sizzles of myrrh and the aromatic woody freshness of cypress. However, Larmes du Désert does not feel as aloof or austere as Avignon or L'Eau Trois for example. Because there is this mild balsamic and fleshly warmth of labdanum and cinnamon-tinged benzoin that soften the overall harshness of incense. There is also a discreet plum-like sweetness lurking in the background, although I don't know where it stems from. As a result, Larmes du Désert is like a fantasy painting of desert, where one can admire the tawny landscape but doesn't have to endure the hardship of an actual desert. Like most Atelier des Ors perfumes, Larmes du Désert is largely linear during its 10-hour longevity, although the sillage is rather soft except for the moderately projecting first hour. While I personally prefer an incense fragrance with a more stark constrast between its coldness and warmth, Larmes du Désert is nontheless very enjoyable and solid. Its strength actually comes from the unification of the cold incense and warm amber and its smooth execution. If you happen to be looking for an elegant and verstaile incense fragrance, Larmes du Désert might well worth a try.