Encens Divin

As so far this perfume it's nowhere to be found - in perfume shops and web supliers at least - I asked for help to get any kind of sample. A good french friend sent me a plastic envelope with half a dozen sprays of Encens Divin inside. A lot better than a paper strip. This has not been really a test but it was good enough for me to understand that Encens Divin is really divine. It's a bit "Montalish" - that's means "good" for me - with a very nice "menáge à trois" between the rose, the amber and the oud/woody notes. It's an Oriental Spicy "Oudish" fragrance, and a real good one. For me it's a winner and maybe (just maybe) it may be considered an unisex fragrance although a bit - or several bits - to gourmand. The opening is quite pepperish but it's an enchanting one with the delicacy of the red pepper smothing the black pepper strenght. The heart notes still reveal the enduring pepper notes but a magnific rose makes a superb entrance (Taif rose?) together with the strong two different cedar notes and the smoky amber probably due to labdanun and frankincense existing notes. You can already smell the high quality peaceful oud scent. The evolution is slow enough for you to perceive it. The bottom notes do prepare the long final dry down with an enduring strong sweet amber (it's not only the labdanun and incense any longer; amber and/or amberwood do provide a divine omnipresent sweet and smooth amber background ambience). The rose note does persist for quite a long time and the oud scent becomes stronger as well. There is a sweet smoky aura (tolu, benzoin, vanilla?) around this strong notes. The woody notes also become smoother as the ceder surrenders part of its strenght to the magnific oud, amber wood and amber scents. After opening the envelope, I converted it into a flat open paper to let the dry down fully develop itself. The oud and amber scents do persist till the fragrance becomes a faint skin (plastic envelope) scent. It lasted for 15 hours but this longevity mark has been fooled by the conditions of my empiric test. I may risk an opinion of a skin longevity between 8 and 10 hours. Projection has been above average and quite constant in the first 3 hours. Sillage is average and I rated it as 5~6 feet for the first 3 hours. Again I may have been fooled for not having tested it on skin. When using it on the skin, I forecast the fragrance projection to die after 6 hours and then becoming a skin scent. I first tested Thierry Mugler's Muse the same way and my assumptions were very acurate. Final thoughts: This is a very fine fragrance. It's really a pleaser and a not to miss fragrance for oriental scents lovers. The componments quality must be very high as the perfume does really smell expensive and classy. Performance is above average. Even considering the limitations I had for this empiric test I would globally rate this fragrance with 9/10.

This fragrance is spectacularly good. Truly a gem among a line that is very overlooked in truth. Many brands have these 'private' or 'exclusive' collections and I often thought it was a cash grab or something they must be seen to do, due to the success of TF, Chanel, or Dior's popular privee exclucifs. Namely D&G and Hugo Boss, companies who have fairly established mainstream lines but can't quite drum up the interest in their posh ones...At least that's how it appears to me. I'd say Gucci suffer from this only to a lesser extent, with their 'The alchemist's garden' line framed a bit more cleverly with packaging etc... Anyway...I'd seen a few of these before and tried the Ambre Tigre (which I subsequently tired again and loved despite being hard to get hyped about yet ANOTHER Amber) but an extensive session with all of them gives a picture of a really accomplished and well thought out line which achieves that most difficult thing, perfumery familiarity and skill but avoid cliches and do something new. Are they massively innovative? No... but they do enough and the quality of blend is evident in nearly all of these offerings comparible with Guerlain or something in the fact that they are not made with the intention of quick, easy impact, a leather one, a rose one, etc... So here's the incense one! haha No but seriously as much as I gravitate towards 'incense' I'm actually a bit weary of it's tropes so it's nice to get something like this which avoids them. Opens with a light airness of spice, immediately warm and a light cinnamon edge from tolu balsam and a dense labdanum, this alone sounds like a cliche but it's somehow dry with woods and more sweetness of vanilla which builds and builds until you are left with a base of it. Despite this bezoin/vanilla/labdanum this scent doesn't come off like an amber, it's light and ethereal, wafted smoke and bite from incense but presented with restraint. I thought it was great. Has the magic touch and my seal of approval for sure.

I was lucky enough to have been gifted a bottle of this beautiful creation in late November 2018. I have to admit that the L’Atelier de Givenchy line completely avoided my radar prior to this but I have to say that it completely mesmerised me from the very first spray. I’d often think to myself how incredible it could be if a single fragrance could encompass the beauty of both Dior Privèe’s Oud Ispahan and Ambre Nuit, both of which I absolutely adore, own and often layer together and I think I’ve found it here. Here in the UK, on a chilly autumn evening, going into winter, I easily get 7-8 hours longevity on my skin, with a good 3-4 hours quality sillage and it stays on my clothes for a good couple of days afterwards with a very comforting combination of a boozy rose/amber/incense vibe that I personally find just incredible. I wouldn’t say that it changes a great deal during its longevity but the opening is certainly brighter and the dry down is just pure decadent quality but by no means is this fragrance linear either. If you’re a fan of these rich oriental spicy fragrances then I urge you to seek this out, if only for a spray in store: I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed! I can understand that at this price point, a lot of people will be deterred but the quality of both the blending and the ingredients are truly top-notch and a little really does go a very long way. Three sprays in the morning for me and I’m set for the day. EDIT: I’m currently on holiday in Mauritius and brought this with me to try in the heat. It’s currently 32 degrees and it’s not standing up to well in the heat and humidity. The top notes become a bit confused after 15 minutes and the heart/dry down quite muddled but still very pleasant nonetheless. Sadly, this heat doesn’t allow the fragrance to shine but in fairness, I’m hard pressed to think of a fragrance that would. I’ll still get 2-3 hours of longevity, although on my skin, the sillage is destroyed after an hour.

The opening was a slightly spicy resinous vanilla that reminded me of Ambre Tigré. Rose notes along with wood and incense followed soon afterwards. After a while, amber and treacle (molasses) notes came into play. A very nice olfactory experience. Though I did enjoy Ambre Tigré by Givenchy, I would recommend saving your money and purchase Encens Divin instead as this is Ambre Tigré with a lot more depth. Projection is around 6ft (2m) and is still noticable after 10 hours. Can easily be worn for any occasion - professional, leisure and intimate. During my first day of wearing Encens Divin, I received a few unsolicited compliments from co-workers. Full bottle and signature scent worthy for both men and women. 10/10

i randomly found this scent being offered in a swap and knew i had to try it. it's just absolutely gorgeous. a warm, slightly woody labdanum heavy incense. i am trying it in late autumn and it's just perfect for the season. enveloping and warm, it opens with incense woods and some peppery notes. after about 5-10 minutes on the skin i think i get hints of cedar. the rose never gets very strong, but is probably most prominent after several hours. truly gorgeous.

Certainly beautiful, and much under-known and under-loved. Still a little too discreet for its own good, though. It's a subtle, calming, perfectly unisex and skilfully blended vanilla / balsamic / wood ... a huge field, in which it stands out more for being classy and well-done rather than for being anything exceptionally different or full of character. The spice is all very toned down (a bit too much so for my taste in all honesty), the incense not remotely smoky or acrid to my nose but rather wispy and evanescent. The vanilla, too, is kept pretty dry and not bombastic, the tolu knitting it all together with rich warmth that doesn't get too smothering or chewy-toffee-like. Even the oud is pure cinnamon-and-band-aids comfort zone, nothing stinky or sour or bullying. Find it hard to imagine anyone finding this too weird or challenging to wear, or being really turned off by it; it's a sort of whispering diplomat in liquid form. At different ends it reminds me of a less-spicy, less-assertive Dior Mitzah, or a slightly sweeter and *more* assertive Guerlain Bois d'Armenie, so we are talking very upscale and sophisticated work here. But somehow it doesn't quite bowl me over in the way both of those others do. Performance also seems a tad under-powered on me, with a pretty close sillage (not skin-only, but more like 'halfway arm's length' rather than the full stretch), and only about 3-4 hrs' presence, though a little more tenacious and present on fabric than skin. Like others in the Givenchy specials line (I also have and love Gaiac Mystique), it's all about understatement and restraint rather than making a big impression. More of a soothing background murmur than a daring, distinctive shout into the void - but there's always a time and place for that!

The most elegant unisex fragrance ever formulated and released by the House of Givenchy. Suitable for any time you want to make a truly lasting, mysterious impression! Even if your audience has never been to a haunted forest, they will find memories of having been there when you enter the room. At first note it would feels heavy but then the smell slowly comes delicious with a note of oud and vanilla, it is like you smell a delicious candy in place that has oud smell. I would not recommend it in summer time when it is sunny. Overall, I would give it 8.0/10

Blaringly sweet take on an exhausted genre

It seems like once again i’ve encountered a fragrance where my nose interprets it differently then most fellow fragranticans. I like to make a disclaimer when such things happen because when a majority smells a scent in a particular way, and i perceive it differently, it would take a great deal of arrogance to claim everyone is wrong and i am right. Eighter that, or the sample i have contains something else and im smelling a different perfume (just kidding...?). Encens Divin by Givenchy took me by surprise because it has a duality to it, the kind of duality that i enjoy very much. Im talking yet again about blurring the line between the dirty and the clean. The Yin Yang interplay. There is a very obvious, almost dominant side to the fragrance that reminds me of the Frederic Malle – The Night DNA. It has that barnyardy Oud altho not as heavy handed as The Night. Encens Divin also reminds me of the Francesca Bianchi perfumes i've had the pleasure to sample. The base of her fragrances all have what i would call a “brown hue” that gives them the carnality, the roughness and dirtyness. Its a combination of leather, orris root and musk that she builds her fragrances upon. I get this impression with Encens Divin aswell. The duality i alluded to earlier consists of the fact that despite the OUD-y facet, the perfume in general has a relatively airy nature aswell as a soapy sublayer that makes me think of the fougere family. I don’t get much of the eponymous incense, altho it might act as a “conductor” for the more luminous part of the scent. From upclose, the note structure acts as a reverse pyramid, with the heavy notes being upfront and the airy, lighter notes sitting in the back. Smelt in the air however, they merge together harmoniously. It is a unisex creation, leaning masculine, but im having a hard time thinking what ocassion it would suit best. Perhaps i shouldn’t view it from the point of view of an ocassion but rather the type of person it would match and what category of perfumes it belongs to. I believe what i said about Francesca Bianchi's Etruscan Water applies to Encens Divin too. In the end i would say both perfumes are dark or oriental aromatics, the type of fragrances that match a style and personality rather then a particular ocassion or season.

Let me start by saying that this was not even 1% on my radar. I had never heard of Givenchy's exclusive line, never seen it, also was not at all interested in a "incense" fragrance. Well little old me was strolling through Neiman Marcus doing some sniffing, then the SA hit me. I literally said before entering the store to my husband, I hope no one looks at me, talks to me, or gives me any judgement right now at these counters (mind you, I drove over an hour JUST to go to this store and sniff). So, the pretty lady asks if I need help, I say no and ask where some fragrance house was, and she says "well have you smelled any of the Givenchy exclusive line before?" And I said nope, didn't know it existed. I told her I loved ouds, so she sprayed the oud one of course (which btw smells sooo good too) but then she sprayed this one. Holy moly. This was one of those LOVEs at first sniffs for me. It's mysterious, captivating, alluring, and gorgeous incense. Let me just say that I dream about this smell and now I'm constantly searching for more incense fragrances. I would have already bought this one more than likely, but my husband says I have to leave something for him to get for a special occasion haha. So I must be patient, but oh my, it's dreamy and worth your attention.

Amerwood, tolu balsam, and vanilla... I get myrrh as well, with incense, pepper, amberwood, cypriol, labdanum, ginger, and more vanilla. It's like of sticky then sweet then incense..

Didn't even rate a four. $ 235. Wtf