Oliban

Chic, urban incense. Oliban is a very elegant and understated fragrance. It's not at all a heavy church-incense, nor is it overtly aldehydic or a sweetened vanillic amber. It is a much more abstract concept. More perfumey than other niche incenses but nothing designer-like either. Balanced, lightweight, airy and versatile. The star player in Oliban is frankincense, but it is rendered in a way which is not as straight forward as one would think. The incense here is 60% waxy and 40% aromatic. It's rests on a base of an abstract and airy tobacco, outlined by an almost invisible ambergris. The bottle in the store had a prominent raspberry-rose side note which was lovely, but somhow not present in my bottle, or on my skin. The waxy feel of the incense is a bit unusual to me, it is sort of honeyed but without sweetness, it "reminds me of" - "without smelling like" beeswax. Oliban feels gentle and effortless. it never shouts, it's never a demanding wear. Perfect for those winter days when you put a nice coat on but you dont want to dress up too much, but you do want to smell sophisticated and elegant. Oliban references the sacred resin of Frankincense without taking you to church. It's an easy reach for the holidays when you need something inbetween those grand scents for the more important days. I really enjoy this little charmer!

I’m a sucker for anything with incense in it, regardless of its setting. Put incense together with the sensual, soft, rosy, plummy, honeyed woody base that Keiko Mecheri uses and the result is magic, at least for a little while. Oliban starts off with a strong, almost smoky olibanum, aka frankincense, accompanied by a sweet plum note. The first half hour had me convinced that I need a large decant of this perfume. As the drydown progresses, the scent starts to stick close to the skin. The incense notes fuse into the whole so that it becomes a skin scent in the best possible sense of the term. Somehow, many of Keiko Mecheri’s perfumes have a drydown that is exactly the way I would like my skin to smell - velvety soft suede, dewy rose petals, Japanese plums, musk that hovers just between clean and animalic, and just a touch of incense. This drydown phase lasts for a few hours, but at the end it transforms into a dry, soapy note, the dregs of the tobacco accord, and what I could swear is sandalwood. The sillage is moderate in the beginning and low toward the end. The whole progression from start to finish takes about 5-7 hours. I do like this perfume, but I would like it better if the opening lasted longer and if the drydown at the end were not so stark. I'll stick with my sample for now.

This may be my favorite incense fragrance ever. Perfectly unisex, slightly sweet, smoky and spicy, with great longevity and silage. Most importantly, it's not too "churchy", quite the feat given the heavy oliban. You can grasp something sacred,, but I don't feel like I'm sitting in mass! Nope - too sensuous for that! I definitely oversprayed but my husband isn't complaining. He said he could smell it on his shirt from when I hugged him and he loved it. Now my 6th Keiko, it has knocked Myrrhe et Merveilles out of the #1 position out of the ones I own from her collection. Never been so happy to see the cool weather coming!! EDIT 9/23/2023 - While still at the top of my favorite incense scents, it's been knocked off the top stop by Ford's cruelly discontinued "Sahara Noir". "Oliban" is a not so distant second.

Very much a rose-focused incense fragrance: half Russian Orthodox church; half Japanese tea house. Gorgeous opening and a very subtle, slow drydown, sending out waves of rose and woodsy scent with a soapy rather than cloying sweetness. Unfortunately this fragrance is overpriced and I had problems with Keiko Mecheri's US website. Having sent me a link to purchase a full bottle they repeatedly ignored my subsequent requests for a sample. Then I stumbled across the excellent KlipShop site (based I think in Lithuania) which offered a decant at a great price. Mmmmm ... this is very much a new Love.

Fantastic masculine/unisex woody and smoky rose. Warm, balanced, and attractive smell. Yum. Very smooth, soft, without any sharp edges. Perfect composition, simple but right to the point. The rose isn't obvious here, anyone can pull it off. Soft insence, woods (slightly sandalwood-y), a touch of tonka (for a warm fluffy feel), a touch of slightly salty ambergris. There's a considerable amount of cedarwood, which creates a masculine edge, however, Oliban might bloom on women's skin as well. I'd love if my significant other would wear it as his evening perfume. It's irresistible

Oliban opens with a warm, peppery note typical of olibanum--not the sticky, smoky incense that some might expect. Cedar infuses to deliver a dry, camphorous clarity, bonding with olibanum to create a wonderful, clean, sweet woody accord. I don't pick up a lot of tobacco, but a little smoky, honeyed hay. The rose in this composition is velvety and waxy which contributes to the soapy, spiced drydown. Exotic and unusual with a light, balmy and piquant personality that I find appealing. Oliban is my third encounter with Keiko Mecheri which so far is consistently compelling.

A spectacular cult worthy composition. A sweet yet natural smelling rose blended in the most superb fashion with frankincense, slightly smokey ceder, honey, sweet tabacco, and rosewood while the tonka and amber seem to sit in the back and keep everything in order. I must sample the rest of this line. Back up bottle worthy! An absolute must have for female and male incense fanatics alike. Keiko Mecheri deserves a standing ovation for this masterpiece! Scent: 10/10 Longevity 7/10 Sillage 7/10

Keiko Mecheri's Oliban is so perfect to me, I wish I could pen an ode to profess my love. Oliban is a point on a line between SL Ambre Sultan and TF Plum Japonais, and yet it is so much more. Oliban skips the indolic butt-crack note of Ambre Sultan which is sometimes a little too edgy. And while the incense of Plum Japonais can veer toward smoked rubber tires - not necessarily a bad thing - the namesake olibanum in Mecheri's masterpiece is rich and alluring. This is true love for me.

This is the first time when I don't like the 50% of fragrance notes (cedar, amber, rose), but I LOVE the final composition. It's really great perfume: mysterious, long lasting and attractive.

Rose and frankincense. Be still, my heart! Too beautiful for words.

I'd like to say this is an Oriental Spicy, because that's where itś at in this scent, lots of long lasting kick. I really like the tobacco here, itś herbal and spicy. The amber is creamy and resinous at the same time. I can't accurately describe the notes because of the linear construction, and because the whole composition all together is just fantastic. Definetely a nice linear. This IS a great scent, but, it lacks something for me. It lacks a bit more depth, a bit more fullness. It stops making my mind swirl with awe...after about...hhhmmm....a half an hour. It really loses it's charm and force after a short while. It is however longer lasting than a Serge Lutens scent or an Annick Goutal scent. The longevity was 3 to 5 hours. It softened quite a bit at 3 hours but lasted a good 5 hours, and I could smell it in the shower washing away the next morning, and even that smelled good! Also, the sillage is excellent after application for one hour. It reminds me of a stronger and drier, simpler Coco Chanel and a much better Kenzo Power (minus the typical aftershave / masculine notes).

Oliban starts off w/ a blast of powerful frankincense after it sits on the skin for a minute or 2 a hay like quality, probably from the tobacco comes in. This perfume reminds me of the Redman chewing tobacco my father used to use until he after many, many tries finally gave it up. A dry dusty tonka bean is here as well w/ a distant rose, the rose is somewhere far away. The woody notes here for me are very nicely done and do not overpower the composition. This perfume is really about the holy smoke of incense. It actually reminds me of the smell of a Catholic church during mass. The priest is filling the church w/ holy smoke, there is the smell of tobacco on the men's suits from the smoking of a past cigar, the women there dusted themselves w/ rose powder to smell pretty, and demure for the service. All of that combines w/ a very powerful incense. Oliban would be a great perfume for the holidays. It reminds of church services that we have attended during that time. Peaceful, reverent, contemplative. Perfectly unisex. Best in cold weather.

In contrast to the notes listed, this is a very light perfume. I didn't get much out of it when I wore it in colder weather, but in the warm summer temperatures, when my skin is heated up, it works a lot better. The rose here is really fruity and only slightly waxy. It's not a deep smouldering rose at all. The tobacco aspect is light--maybe a hint of fresh, cold, aromatic pipe tobacco. The incense and woods are well blended and wear pretty lightly too. Now for the Olibanum--I only detect it after I've had it on my skin for over an hour, it is a deep grounding base note. It's one of those things that stop you--What smells so good? So resinous and a little sweet--oh it's me, it's my perfume. So it's not a super obvious, churchy frankincense note, but it anchors all the other notes down. Don't shoot me but I find a lot in common with Chanel Coco Noir--the sweet rose, incense, olibanum, and woody notes working nicely together with nothing wearing too loud at all. If you want a subtle rose, tobacco, and resin/wood perfume this is beautiful.

"Olibanum" is another name for frankincense, and Keiko Mecheri OLIBAN is a seductive frankincense perfume. Not that there was any need to go out on a fact-finding mission to be able to report that incense is by far the central note of OLIBAN... Tobacco and rose mingle playfully with the deep amber smokiness, but this perfume is mostly about incense embellished. Upon application, I thought that this was going to be one of a handful of pretty good incense compositions (two of which I already own). However, OLIBAN becomes deeper and more ambery as it dries down, offering a much more sensual and addictive elixir in the end. Oriental lovers should definitely give OLIBAN a big sniff! This is my favorite so far of the Keiko Mecheri collection, the perfumes of which I'm finding use notes of extremely high quality. It is also quite clear that this house (unlike some unnamed niche houses...) takes sillage and longevity seriously--as well they should! I heartily recommend OLIBAN to men and women alike for wintertime wear.

Is this supposed to be just pure Olibanum (frankincense)? At first I'm surprised how floral and yet not super-feminine it is, almost like a spiced Gendarme scent. I really like the combination of spices, but then if this is just a single note, that means I like frankincense, and have liked it all along as part of my "just right" spice / resin mix. The middle is a bit too rootbeery for me after the florals fade, but also has an intriguing orange peel aspect that redeems it. As I smell the basenotes on the fingers I used to open the vial, it seems so familiar. It reminds me more of Santa Fe for Men than anything else (very sweet spiced wood), but most of my spicy wood scents obviously owe a lot of their character to this stuff. By itself, it's quiet and delicate, but I'm still not sure I'd call it feminine because it's too pointed for that. I also don't know what to make of it in terms of treating it like a soliflore or a composition. Fairly nice though.

I don’t have much to say about this gorgeous fragrance. It’s very straightforward, well balanced, as-advertised. Rose, frankincense, tobacco, and ambergris are the main players here and are all detectable virtually the whole time, although they give the impression of a merry-go-round or twirling dancers at a ball, with each coming to the fore and then making way for another. I never really detect the woods but they may have the subtle effect of drying things down and keeping this fragrance from becoming too cloying at its most tobacco-forward moments. The ambergris on my skin offers a little bit of titillating skank to what could otherwise have read as clean or even soapy. To me, a perfect, versatile fragrance for our mild California winters.

I ordered a decant on the internet, and it's nice. I really liked the initial spritz, but it's been on for about ten minutes and it went from love to "meh" in that time. I don't think it's supposed to smell like pure olibanum, but more of an impression of it. I don't get any of the bright notes people have mentioned, just more of a dusty rose at this point. Tonka is my favorite note, so I was hoping for some of that, but no. I think I would like it better on a man, it leans masculine on me. Update: after a couple of hours this goes kind of "old lady" on me...so it's become a definite no. Glad I got to try it because it was on my want list at one point.

Oh what a surprise, a skilled and stable and technically good composition by Keiko Mecheri? Oh ok... in fact it's by M. Vasnier , I suppose it's why it's not a bland base sprinkelled with a bit of taste like the other ones. The contrast of skill is astonishing. Sour rose and incense on a delicat base of charming rosewood and salty skin-like ambergris. It's mouth wathering and also elevating...a simple composition but with a great result, from a sparkling opening like a spiritual revelation evolving to a more carnal resolution. I like it, it's enchanting. PS: the dry down is very similar to the beautiful Ambre Noir by Sonoma Scent

Nice take on frankincense--not what I expected at all. There is this waxy scent, like the thick air of candles burning in church, and it wafts all the way up from my forearm to my nose. Sillage is big. But the waxy and slightly smoky scent is mixed with honey and velvety red roses, making this perfume quite sweet and aromatic in comparison to other frankincentric (a word I think I made up) perfumes I have encountered. The effect is heavy and thick, like a black hooded cloak, a night-time perfume with a similar mood/ambiance to Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille. I really like this one!

incense, a touch powdery, quite sweet. a rose, layered with tart, fizzy woodiness? the last stage is so honeyed, it's my favourite. images: a dimly lit second-hand bookstore, shadow play, a red leather couch. intelligent seduction.