Encens Mythique D'Orient

Scent I have tried many so-called aquatic fragrances in the hope that they would genuinely remind me of the sea. Not one came close. If anything, they remind me of artificial melon flavour. The ambergris in Encens Mythique is the dark saltiness I was craving. This is no pool party for clean-cut poster children, this is the real deal, meditative and complex, as if standing on the rocky shore of a northern sea at dusk. Expect leviathans. The ambergris really comes out in the second half of the fragrance; at the beginning, the main scent is a luminous rose. After a few hours, the tentacles of the ambergris begin to lace around and finally overwhelm it. There is a rare and inedible sweetness at the heart of every phase of this fragrance which saves it from being a Lovecraftian horror, and transforms the experience to one of beauty and elegance. The tone is one of mystery and majesty. Say you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries- stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever . - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick Performance Unlike other perfumes, Encens Mythique does not open with a blast, especially if you use the splash bottle option (which I highly recommend). Instead, the strength of what you smell on first sniff is about what you will get for the next 1-3 hours, after which it will soften a little and carry on tirelessly for another 6+. Since it does not open with a direct slap to the nose, many people seem to panic. That accounts for the the weak juice reviews you read here, which I can say from my experience are nonsense. People can convince themselves of anything when it comes to the realm of fragrance. I bought EMDO from a brick-and-mortar store in Canada. It is one of the few perfumes I get compliments on. It does not really radiate at one steady rate, but arrives at the nose of oneself and others in ethereal drifts. This is another characteristic which I deem excellent which likely throws others into a panic. When wearing EMDO, accept the ebb and flow; trust that in a few moments, your rose and ambergris will return to you of their own free will. Overall Gorgeous, high-quality, long-lasting. Nothing like it. Edit: I love this more and more. The downside (or upside, from a Marie Kondo perspective) is that most of the other fragrances I have (and the vast majority of what I sample) just do not measure up anymore. The new bar any fragrance must meet for me is: is it worth NOT wearing EMDO for a day?

Usually I love those balsamic, oriental ambers. This is anything but. I have lived right on the Pacific coast most of my life (literally the ocean is across the street and I can see it from my window), and this perfume reminds me of the salty air on a summer afternoon. The ambergris sparkles and shimmers the way the ocean water glistens off of a dancing whale's back. I have had the pleasure of going whale watching on a small boat and have been totally surrounded by dancing whales. At times I think the ambergris in this perfume is so good that I imagine it smells just like a whale's breath, when it exhales and sprays a fine mist of salt water. How magical! The perfume does not seem to match the pyramid. I think the translucent ambergris is the highlight of the perfume, and there may be a lot of synthetic notes surrounding it, giving it an ethereal feel. When I first spray, it smells vaguely floral and pleasantly sweet. As it developed the ambergris became dominant to the point of seemingly eradicating every other note. It is salty and just slightly barnyard-fecal but very easy to olfactorilly embrace. Because the initial scent is so sheer, it seemed that sillage would not be great. I simply maintain patience and resist the urge to sniff my wrists up close. The scent of ambergris floats up to my nose all day long, easily 12 hours, so my body heat really amps it up. I also receive compliments when I wear it, so I know people around me can smell it--and it's nice! Thank you again to my pal for this sweet, twinkling sea treasure! Update: I had to buy a bottle. I wore it again recently. The next day I smelled the sweater I was wearing, and I thought I was going to die from pure pleasure. This stuff is worth every single penny. Just wanted to add that they used real ambergris here. Ambergris was burned for incense in ancient times, and this is the Encens they are referring to. It’s “Mythical” because it originates from whales in a way we are still not 100% sure of today. If you’re looking for church incense or a headshop, this is not a good choice, but it’s the best example of natural ambergris I’ve ever smelled. A perfumer once told me that ambergris is the “easiest note to recreate synthetically”. From my experience that’s totally false. I have to wonder if he’s ever smelled the real thing. There are a great many fragrances containing “ambergris” as a note, the vast majority being synthetic, and I have never smelled a fragrance with synthetic ambergris that smelled anything like the real thing. Another fragrance containing natural ambergris is Driftwood by Mirus.

Encens Mythique D'Orient is Thierry Wasser at his most sexual. For indeed, it is not the mere collection of exotic notes one has come to expect from creations with a Middle Eastern theme. You may be led in that direction by glancing over its note breakdown, and you would be forgiven for it. Encens Mythique D'Orient Itself would forgive you for it. It is also not a scent for naive amateurs to offer their vulgar noses in the hopes of putting to the test their ability to identify individual notes. Many have tried, all have failed. A few, it is said, have died trying. They will be forgiven for it. Encens Mythique D'Orient Itself will forgive them for it. Nay, this chef-d'œuvre is much more than that. You see, Encens Mythique D'Orient isn't a perfume in the traditional or conventional sense. It is not a boring creation whose notes all stand idly in line like inmates preparing for a head count, or disciplined children before being led into the classroom that will shatter their hopes and dreams. Instead, Encens Mythique D'Orient's notes blend together like the bodies of an intoxicated young couple making love for the first time. However, we as the puny smellers of this Beast are not the witnesses of any normal love-making; no. God forbid Encens Mythique D'Orient ever be compared to such a mundane act. We are witnessing a couple whose coital embrace is as old as the Universe. And just when we think we have finally understood Encens Mythique D'Orient, cracked Its code, just as the tiny slit into the Beast's world we have been peering through expands ever so slightly, we realize how wrong we were. And Encens Mythique D'Orient overwhelms us again. We were not forgiven. For only then do we realize that we are not looking at a couple. How simple of us to ever think so... In spite of our inability to fathom the very thought, Encens Mythique D'Orient reveals a World in which all members of the Human Race have been copulating with each other since Creation itself. Simultaneously. And finally, as we begin to question our very existence, as our worldview collapses, we realize that we too are part of the Universal Orgy that is Encens Mythique D'Orient's blend of notes. So yeah, worth the price.

I had to review this since I recently discovered it (I know I know... I'm wayyyyyy late to this party)... Leave it to me to fall in love with a newly discontinued beauty... And before you say either A) it was discontinued AGES ago or B) The Absolus Orient version took its place, A) I realize that and B) THAT one just got the Guerlain axe just like... 2 weeks ago.... Which is TRAGIC because THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERFUMES I'VE EVER WORN.... I am not equipped to describe this because I'm too emotionally involved... I wouldn't describe it as incensey AT ALL.... it may have some frankincense but it's dosed very elegantly and, thankfully, there's NO SMOKE... The rose is there but it's more like.... A perfume trick to make you think of a rose without necessarily actually smelling one... I know that makes no sense but neither does this gorgeous perfume... Then... There's AMBERGRIS... People will argue to the last breath whether it's ACTUALLY ambergris or some synthetic version, but I've seen more than one interview with Thierry Wasser talk about a specific trip to New Zealand just to pick up a chunk of the real deal which he claims to have used in this (as well as Ambre Eternel) perfume... And it's stunning... I have never encountered an animalic scent like this... I LOVE very strong and prominent animalics in my fragrances: Amouage Gold Man; Paco Rabanne La Nuit; Patou JOY extrait; Diaghilev by Roja; Furyo by Jacques Bogart; Salome by Papillon; Musc Tonkin by Parfum d'Empire; Bal à Versailles... But this is totally unlike ANY of those... I'm not saying better or worse, but a very new animalic sensation blended PERFECTLY with every other note to carry you off to a magic place in your own mind... A beautiful and serene place... I haven't felt this kind of power from a scent in many many years... I hope you can wear it even just one time... It will feel like reading a great book while you can detect it on your skin. ENJOY IT!

Dear God, have I pulled a 180 on this one! Months ago, a fragrance friend sent me a small decant of Encens Mythique d’Orient. I dabbed a little on my wrists but quickly concluded it was nothing special, leaning more toward dislike than neutral. I’d also gotten a decant of Songe d’un Bois d’Été at the same time. That left me transfixed—so I blame Songe for my casting aside Encens Mythique! Anyway, I’ve been on a dark rose kick lately, traveling from Rose de Nuit, Nombre Noir, Rose Barbare, Velvet Rose & Oud (you get the picture) over the past several weeks. Then I remembered that little decant of Encens Mythique, a scent memory of dusty rose. Again, I dug it out, dabbed on my wrists, but now—heavenly. Masterful, even. This scent is difficult to describe. It’s truly a unique experience. Sure, I could say there’s a dark, dusty rose shrouding a hint of incense, then saturated with ambergris. But that doesn’t really do the perfume justice. More than its smell, Encens Mythique is about texture. You know that feeling you have when going to sleep or awakening in the morning? Your mind is hazy as you straddle states of consciousness. Encens Mythique is a little like that. Not literally, of course—but it’s as though these notes have become abstract and unreachable, like you have retained a small fragment of a dream but understand you’ll never recall it in full. Everything here is cloaked in an ambergris fog, granting the composition an unusual musky texture. Encens Mythique exists in a cloud around you rather than on the skin. Long ago, I heard someone describe wearing the scent as an immersive sensation of static electricity. Absolutely. So, yeah. Beautiful—and that’s a serious understatement. My collection will soon welcome a full bottle.