La Cérémonie de l'Encens

Surprisingly, for me this perfume is all about merriment, but in a rather unusual context, if I may say so. How to put it.... What if — maybe in a dream, or maybe for some creepier reason — I ended up in an old, ancient cemetery swallowed by twilight. I’d be walking over the moss-covered ground, breathing in the gothic dampness — quite confidently, actually — even though I didn't have a single clue where I came from or where I was headed. And then, of course, I’d take that one step — and oh! — the ground would cave in and I’d plunge right into the oldest crypt in the graveyard. But there, instead of darkness and tombstone horror, I’d find a bizarre spectacle, like something out of Andersen's fairy tale "The Elfin Mound". In the light of thousands of will-o'-the-wisps, trolls, elves, and dryads would be dancing, and the air would be steeped in the strange sounds of subterranean music. Instead of regular food, on the tables — fried frogs' legs drenched in snail sauce, salads of wild mushroom seeds, and fresh rain collected in crystal goblets. And that’s when it would dawn on me: my lovely La Cérémonie de l'Encens is nothing but an invitation to this gala.

Well i have to disagree with most of the overall thoughts about it, i absolutely love it. I have to admit that when i first tried it, it was just ok and simple, and performance wise i was a bit disappointed. Then it settled for some weeks and wow, the game changed. The incense is so beautiful and natural smelling, i'm from southern Spain and the smell reminds me so much of the streets of Seville and the holy week. The pepper and cedar make this so so wonderful and not like you're a walking censer, to me this wears more masculine because of those woody aromatic and spicy background. And yes, the performance changed so much after some weeks, it's really well done and to me this is the best incense based perfume i've tried so far. They told me at L'AP this is the first of its own new collection which will feature other incense fragrances, i'm looking 4wd to see what they will do next. If Bertrand Duchaufour makes one, i could die 😍 Last but not least, if you layer it with Seville a l'Aube is just to die for, as well as some neroli or some vanilla.

I got this one recently - it’s a really wonderful scent. The incense note is beautiful and very natural smelling. It’s supported by pepper and cedar. I find the projection weak but quite long lasting on my skin. Overall, amazing IMO!

I thought this was going to be perfect and the scent really is but on my skin or to my nose it is so damn light. Even after multiple sprays I have to bring my nose close to my skin to get some of the scent. First it is a genuine high quality olibanum with a little black pepper. This opening I love the most but I wish it was a bit stronger. Then for hours it is a soft dry woody skin scent. What remains in the end is a somewhat boring cedar scent. Is it meditative and serene as it is advertized? Yes, it is. It has the vibe of unbleached linnen, early morning sunlight, colors of soft yellow and dark and light brown, empty spaces, stillness.. looking at it like that then the scent should not be much louder to not ruin this effect to be honest, I think. I hope to read more reviews here soon. La Cérémonie de l'Encens might also appear too light to me because I have been wearing some heavy olibanum/woody Fueguia scents, Misiones and Manglar, for the last two years. Perhaps that and I am quite noseblind to cedar by now anyway. Probably because cedar is in so many fragrances. I don’t get much hinoki. I willl give it and my nose a rest. Somehow I think I will appreciate La Cérémonie de l'Encens more and more over time. What I do appreciate a lot is that the scent is very natural. I cannot detect any harsh chemicals. This for example not like Encens Roi by HdP where the olibanum is put on steroids by ugly synthetics. This scent goes with every season, day and night. It is understated elegance, wabi sabi and unisex. It is less suitable for a party but a safe choice for a dinner or an easy Sunday morning concert. One week later: I tested again and my opinion remains unchanged. It is a light meditative scent. It will stay on the skin for long though. It is mainly an olibanum.

The pepper top note was sharp, and initially I had unpleasant smoke - burnt a pan so badly it can't be saved smoke. However, after about 30 minutes it dried down into a lovely smoky incense and the hinoki began to come through. It was incredible from then on. Unfortunately, it didn't last nearly as long as I had hoped for an EDP. Usually these fragrances linger on me, but by five hours it was all but undetectable. Will try it another day when I'll be out in the heat rather than in the AC to see if it lingers longer.

I have and like this. It isn't very elaborate but what it does I really like. My only wish was that it lasted longer.

This is one of those fragrance that toes the line of being terrible and great at the same time. The combination of elemi, pepper and cedar smell fantastic, but there is a note in this that smells so off putting, stuffy, old fashioned and cheap. I recognize a similar note in Hermes Poirve Samarcande and Bentley Intense For Men. That note calms down eventually after an hour or so and it's somewhat pleasant for the rest of the wear, but that first hour completely ruins it for me. It has arms length projection during that time and eventually becomes a good and noticeable skin scent for 4 or 5 more hours. The performance is exactly what I want from this type of fragrance. The bottle and packaging are also incredible as usual with L'Artisan Parfumeur. Unfortunately this is a pass for me. I will go back to my sample every now and then to so see if things change, but I'll be on the lookout for something similar without that harsh wood varnish like note.

Incense and cypress ("Hinoki"). I'm very happy that I have added this composition to my incense fragrance collection. The cypress dominates at the outset and as it drowns down the incense starts to push everything else out. It's punchy incense and if you love incense like I do, it's a safe blind buy. 8+/10

Smells like the seat of a smoker’s taxi, or clothes and hair after spending time in a smokehouse. Especially nauseating on a warm day. Not really wearable. Really mid for what L’Artisan Parfumeur is capable of in terms of incense.

Dull and rather banal, does not develop much, does not last either.

Gentle, woody, smokey incense. I don't get any amber; not even some sweet resins. It really just smells like sitting near a Buddhist temple, and getting whiffs of burning incense, or the smell of incense on clothes after you've been to the Sunday mass. The name is fitting. It smells ceremonial and for me, melancholic.

Smells like an exact copy of CdG Hinoki which I adore, but seems to have a slightly better performance. I'm definitely getting a full bottle in the future

Smells exactly like Honour Man to me, but has way worse performance. Just get Honour Man for the ultimate pepper and incense scent.