Freakincense

Right away this opens up with a peppery, incense-y and balsamic resinous woodiness that blend super well together. The lime does feel like it's 'there', but is very underplayed on my skin. Kind of like pepsi tbh - it's on the label, but you could probably fool me by just not having it there. If I had to describe the lime, it would be more akin to the white pith and not lime as you'd normally smell it in the juice or the zest. With my complaints of the missing lime made, I want to note that the incense and elemi is just beautiful together, a slightly sticky woodiness which gets added dimensions thanks to the insense. Something I really want to highlight too, is that the dry-down becomes a bit deeper in terms of the elemi and resin, as the vetiver starts to show up, and usually when I smell things like oud, it has two aspects to it; the deep, dark wood, and the damp, farty rotten-ness. This fragrance, in the drydown gets that deep, and dark woodiness without the fartiness of oud-heavy fragrances and instead, that dampness is replaced with a balsamic overtone. Theoretically, technicaly unisex, although it's a kind of woodiness I don't think will appeal to most women.

The opening is very sharp and spicy, there's something in it that reminds me of old-fashioned herbal medicines, like an impression of a XIXth century apothecary, but the smell is more refined. After 15-20 minutes opening notes are gone, and warm, very smoky and slightly 'scratchy' incense starts to grab the attention, and it's beautifully blended with elemi. The scent feels like it's straight out a medieval gothic cathedral, furnished with centuries old dark wood - but it's warm and kind of cozy, not cold - and it recalls impressions of the 'Eyes Wide Shut' masonic sex rituals in old mansion more than of a mass in church. There's something sensual about it. I love it. After around 6 hours the scent is still strong on my skin, and it developed into rich, woody blend of vetiver and patchouli. Scent is strong and noticeable, but far from overwhelming, it's long-lasting, but very intimate, it keeps very close to my skin, I don't feel it at all when my nose is further than 10 centimeters from my wrist, and I kind of like that - you must come very very close to feel it.

I often times think people see a bottle, packaging incense, and they associated with this deep wintry fragrance. This is in that same world of Serge lutens l’orphaline its cold skin like... a summer ghost. I’m someone who struggles to find summer fragrances because I love sticky Amber earthy deep, sensual things that get cloying in the summer and to me this is my perfect summer fragrance. The Violet is perfect. The incense is cold almost refreshing. A lot of people say they don’t get lime, but it kinda has that slight clean citrus frankincense. To me 10/10

#1766 in my “Tour de Fragrance” Given my addiction to incense scents it was inevitable that I’d give “Freakincense” a try, and I do enjoy it. I don’t run into lime and incense in combination very often, but when I do I find it refreshing. Sospiro “Dolce Sonata”, Daniel Josier “Quetzaly”, Polo "Blue Gold Blend”, Armaf "Ombre D’Or,” and especially Amouage “Lyric Man,” all work for me because of that combination. Lime lightens up an incense scent in a way that the more commonplace bergamot does not. This scent holds up till lunch on the skin. Silage is arm’s length for a couple of hours. So I find the quality okay, but not impressive, which is why I think the $200 price tag I’m seeing is excessive. This one should be $85-$100 range at most. So, it’s a nice scent, but not worth the price to me. Good Luck and Good Hunting!

Straight outta 1969. It's nearly identical to the little bottles of Frankincense the Body Shop (in the SF Bay Area) used to sell around Christmas. This means it's a good thing, although I doubt the Body Shop sold that many of them. You have to love frankincense for this one. It's a sharp scent, brittle almost, and not much like all those frankincense and myrrhe soaps you see online. "Church incense" doesn't really cover it as a description. Don't blind buy a whole bottle if you've never smelled just frankincense. I'd buy a whole bottle if the price was more reasonable.