Olibanum

This is my favourite of Mark's scents that I have in my wardrobe. Opening sharp and resinous, pine like.. juniper and cypress, then as the frankincense note emerges it is softened by iris. For a natural perfume it has great sillage and remains a closer skin scent after the intial hour or two. This beautiful scent actually worked for me on a therapeutic level as it was the only fragrance I could wear after a lengthy illness this year. I found it wonderfully uplifting.

I received this in a sample set from Evocative perfumes. At first I wasn't blown away by it, as there were several other Evocative scents I preferred, but I keep coming back to this one. It has such a distinctive scent unlike any other perfume and it is strangely linear, the scent lasts all day and well into the night with only a drop. I think it's the ash that makes it so unusual and distinctive. Love love love.

This is beautiful, it smells completely natural. The woody resinous opening is refreshing, calming with an air of mystique, blended seamlessly it progesses into a perfect skin scent, the Iris and Olibanum together is a perfect match. I Love this one!

Evocative Perfumes is an independent perfumery run by Mark Evans, located in Adelaide, Australia. He offers a line of scents that are appropriate for wearing in all seasons, in both concentrated perfume oils and eau de toilettes. I was thrown for a loop when I first smelled olibanum, so I wanted to share this one with you first. Have you ever watched or read a perfume review, encountered the word “olibanum,” glazed over a bit at the prospect of having to learn a new word, and moved merrily on with your life? Well, olibanum (and by the way, it’s oLIBanum – emphasis on the second syllable, not the third) is just the Latin name for frankincense. It happens to be the name that is preferred when it’s listed in a perfume, though you do sometimes see it referred to more commonly as plain old “frankincense” or “incense.” Frankincense is a highly aromatic resin extract taken from the genus Boswellia, especially the species known as Boswellia sacra. Notes in Olibanum include cypress, juniper, olibanum, iris, with a base note of soft ash. Note: Olibanum comes in a perfume oil and an eau de toilette spray. This review only discusses the perfume oil. The word “frankincense” may well evoke the thurible of the Catholic church. It certainly has a reputation for being a smoky, dark, resinous ingredient. For those of you anticipating anything of the kind, this will definitely surprise you. This is not your grandfather’s churchy incense. In Olibanum, Mark has blended four different species of Boswellia to create a scent that will almost certainly change your mind about what frankincense is and how it can perform in a perfume. It starts off with the smell completely indistinct from freshly mowed lawn: it’s all cut grass with perhaps the faint sweetness of berries. The heart turns into a dominantly woody scent with overtones of a powdery iris. It dies on my skin, just as the notes suggest, as a soft ashy scent. To my nose, there’s really nothing resinous or dark here, which makes this take on olibanum a really interesting one. This would be a perfect frankincense for spring and summer. Anyone who thinks that olibanum can only be smoky, woody, and pungent has to try this. For an oil, this has better-than-average longevity on my skin at around four or five hours. Only a couple of drops dribbled up your inner wrist with the dabber (the oil does with a dabber, not a sprayer) will do nicely. While I haven’t had the chance to do it, I imagine being able layer the oil and the EDT together would be the ideal wearing experience. Olibanum is available in a 12 ml perfume oil for $30 USD or a 50 ml EDT spray for $53 USD. Mark can’t ship the EDT overseas, and shipping the oil to the states is about an extra $10 USD or so. If Olibanum doesn’t tickle your fancy, I’ve also found some of his work really interesting. A few of my favorites include Nirvana (a self-proclaimed funky oud – but not off-puttingly so), and Sacred Spaces (another fragrance containing olibanum, but completely different from the eponymous creation reviewed above). I hope to review a few other oils in the near future just to give a more rounded version of what Evocative Perfumes has to offer.

Olibanum is a fragrance that singularly focuses on the powdery, coniferous scent of olibanum / frankincense. The scent itself can also be found in other fragrances, like L'Air du Desert Moroccain from Andy Tauer, but has never been done in such a pristine manner. The dustiness doesn't come across as something that would cause a headache, regardless of the fact that it lasts a good 15 or so hours and is fairly linear in progression. Having never smelt ash in another fragrance before today, the ash note reminds me of Myths Man. Really interesting. I'd buy it. It seems worth it and Mark's prices are more than competitive.