Thurible

[Thurible] ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️ Soft incense and clary sage. Picture your local church in the winter; icy flint walls and marble floors. The experience parallels the sensation of walking into a medieval cathedral. A sense of awe overcomes you and despite your religious affiliation, an enchanting sense of a greater power. Labdanum feels like the material I pick up the most. The green and mossy faucets of Labdanum are accentuated by the use of oakmoss and a green rose note. Ambergris is certainly creating the waxy texture I get when I wear Thurible. It’s a bit of an unsung hero I feel as Incense and Ash seem to be the most present notes perceived by other reviewers. I don’t get any patchouli to my nose, however I’m sure it’s adding to the depth of the fragrance and maybe assisting in the green herbaceous side of the perfume with the moss and clary sage. Again, I’m in love with the whole Rook line and I’m not ashamed in the slightest. Beautiful creations, a very transparent and friendly perfumer and a dash of great value for money means Rook Perfumes is a winner.

Just had this for Valentines day and am delighted with it! It is not a linear incense such as Cardinal or Avignon, it twists and turns and is quite enchanting to my nose. It starts off as a cool aroma which made me think it was more a warmer weather scent but not long afterwards it begins its magic. It is now 6 hours later (6 hours!) and is now smokier and deeper but as I turn my head I get a whiff of the cool topnote. I am going to get a sample set to try the others. I have become disenchanted with my Lutens and Malles lately and am so glad I hinted about this for Valentines. I am also working my way through Francesca Bianchi samples and feel these are my new loves.

Probably my favorite incense fragrance just in terms of how good this smells. The rose and spices highlight the nuances of incense really well. It opens with a sort of cola candy smell in a good way, before settling down to a light rose and airy incense. Performance is pretty good too. Leans slightly masculine in the opening and fairly feminine in the mid notes. Overall more towards a mature woman scent. It's in the same ballpark in terms of gender as Portrait of a Lady by Frederic Malle. I don't think I could pull off wearing this myself, but if you have a gothic/old school style guy or girl or an older, sophisticated woman this would probably suit you well.

One of my top three from this house (along with Faqqua Iris and Forest). Really a beautiful scent. Mysterious, sexy, sacred. Put it on today at 11 am, it’s now almost 11pm and it’s not as strong but still definitely noticeable on my skin. Edit: this one has been sitting on my shelf for maybe two years and is starting to have some particles floating in it. I’m layering it with Liam Grey today so it’s hard to tell how much the scent has changed. Great layer, though. I shook the bottle up and that seemed to help mix it back together. I’d hate it if this one went bad, especially after only a couple years.

Spot-on re-creation of the smoke from the ornate siver thurible used at the High Anglican church I attended growing up. I was in the choir, and one of the highlights of hanging about in the vestry waiting to go on was watching the thurifer light up the disc of charcoal that sat in the base, blow on it until it glowed red, and then put some incense on top.The ash note makes this totally photorealistic for me. Same sort of school of thought as CdG Avignon, but less aromatic and ethereal.

I bought a Rook perfumes discovery set and this was by far my favourite. it does have a slightly medicinal edge when you first spray but for me the dry down is beautiful. It's quite a soapy scent, but I think it's gorgeous and makes me feel clean. I will definitely be adding this to my full bottle wish list

I really pick up the rose in this, and it’s the most original take on rose I’ve smelled in a long time. Absolutely gorgeous. Rose-incense is my absolute favorite genre, and this is a new favorite in the genre.

So several months later, I've picked up this sample again. I feel like my description of this as an old lady potpourri scent isn't really right at all. In fact it was what I remembered of this scent, so it baffled me when I tried it again and got something completely different. So the opening of this one is a bit strange to me, as there is a note in this that goes very industrial. It reminds me of my dad's old workshop, where they would use wood lacquers and methylated spirits. As it calms down and that starts to dissipate I take a deep sniff of my arm and I'm somehow transported back to my childhood, standing in an English Heritage gift shop in an old castle. This scent creates a world that feels very much lived in. It smells established and settled, which gives it a sense of ease and comfort to it. I feel like I've been here before. It makes me feel like a child again. The guide books sit on the shelves of the gift shop, slowly starting to age and gather dust. The paper starting to take on the scent of old smoky church incense that has wafted in from inside the castle. A light smell of wax from the branded candles on sale. Decorative dried herbs fill the gaps on the shelves. They've been there a while and their colour is starting to fade away. The old lady tour guide's perfume tries to break through everything else, but instead just fills the remaining gaps in the air, completing the olfactory scene. One thing I've noticed with some of Rook's perfumes is their ability to transport me back to smells I've experienced as a child. Perhaps it's a British thing. Rook manages to have an identity that makes every one of it's perfumes smell distinctly British. It's a fun scent to indulge in, but it's not something I would personally get a full bottle for as a 32 year old man, but I shall keep my sample to bring me back to this moment in time, bottled for eternity.

I really enjoy the scent, it's a like spicey smokey pachouli incense that sits on my skin. Fair warning that until it dries on my skin it smells horribly alcoholic, yes more so than other perfumes, but it doesn't last (and the bottle itself also doesn't smell like that). HOWEVER. Everlasting doesn't even begin to describe this scent. it is quite strong and just stays that way for what feels like eternity. Took a shower? Well. Guess what. You still smell like thurible. Exercised? Thurible and sweat. Slept over it? You and your bedsheets both smell like thurible now. At least on my skin, this is a scent i have to really commit to for at least two days.

Like Amber, Thurible's opening was so strong that I thought I hated it. On the first spray, it overwhelmed me the scent of Sharpies. But, also like the others from Rook, I tried it again and it became fairly enjoyable. I get the smoky incense, a sweet floral rose, and also something like petrichor. It's unique, definitely, and conjures up a very specific memory of hiking through the forest of a local state park at dusk. If this came as a candle, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but I don't think I'd get much use of out a perfume.

This to me is the most overtly feminine scent in Rook's range, and definitely feels suited to an older woman specifically. It's very rose and sage heavy with a powdery backbone. The clove adds a sharpness to the florals that to me gives it a potpourri vibe. My first thought was it reminded me of the bathroom of my auntie's house from the 90s. It instantly appeared in my head, and I cannot shake it. Absolutely not for me, but if you want a powdery potpourri vibe then this could be for you.

I'd recommend a sampler set because describing these Rook scents concisely is difficult. It's a deep, spiced fairy tale woods. But the Hansel and Gretel woods, not Sleeping Beauty. It feels a touch more feminine than the others from this house. Not in a sultry way though.

Very artistic and multifaceted. Winter/nighttime incense fragrance. I like it, but would like it more if not for the concomitant quasi-nursing home vibe.

When I first sprayed Thurible I got fiery gobstopper vibes. As it dried down it smelt more like a soapy, spicy floral.

Can’t get my head round this one - initially I disliked it, but now it is growing on me, although not sure the best time to wear it. Quite unique - nearest I can get to it is Chypre-Siam from Rogue Perfumery.

I've sprayed Thurible first onto a tester strip. Fucking hell - nasal bomb reminiscent (initially) of Star Child in Glastonbury. Sage, amber, cloves, rose.... it's very floral, and pungent/spiky, feminine leaning. Smoke/Incense probably used olibanum resinoid / incense accords, rather than birch tar, cade or guaiacol. So resinous incense rather than smoke. 2 hours in. It smells like cheap toiletries and perfumes from the 70s. Soapy almost waxy soap, metallic top edge, pot-pourri (sage, lavender) = very powdery now. Zero smoke. Final verdict: "Bewildered Saga coach trip doused in Revlon's Charlie, lost in the Monastery gift shop". This isn't going on skin.

This is a weird smell. Ashy, spicy floral, earthy/ mossy, mixed in a weird an unpleasant way. I'll pass

In my discovery set it was undergrowth and thurible that stood out to me. Rook’s fragrances are incredibly unique and a great house to experience niche offerings and what that term truly encapsulates. They were definitely an experience for me personally. Initially smelling everything it was definitely hard to grasp them. Artistic instead of trying to please the masses, painting images in your mind. I’ve found coming back later to ones that you found tolerable initially will help, and it did with Thurible for me. Wearing it tonight months after sampling the first time, it’s such an amazing incense fragrance. It’s beautiful!! Same with Undergrowth and it’s earthy soily mintiness. Rook’s scents can be a little challenging but that’s my advice! As I’m wearing it its impressing me more and more, it’s definitely unisex, but such a realistic and stunningly gorgeous incense. It’s smokey/ashy but non-offensive. Has incredible body and richness with the incense supported miraculously, I was sleeping on this one. I will be grabbing it among others from Rook in time. Great job Edit: smelled a womens fragrance from Estée Lauder called Desert Eden, released 2021. It shares many qualities with this offering from Rook, maybe a little lighter, but the rosy woody realistic incense is unmistakable. If you like incense try both 👍

I had previously tried one from Rook Perfumes--Undergrowth--which I didn’t love, but I held out hope because their offerings just seemed to evoke a sort the quiet drama and weird theatricality that I am very into. And so I think I found my gateway into their world with Thurible. I don’t smell the swinging sacramental censer of aromatic embers and worshipful smoke, but rather an abbess in her holy house working with the incense ingredients in their raw forms. Moss gathered from the lee of a stone, the earthy herbaceous poetry of crushed sage, the gunpowder floral of black pepper that dances frenzied confetti fragments of dark matter under a sturdy stone pestle’s grinding, all bound in the sticky shadows of leathery labdanum and musky amber honey. I don’t know if you light this for ritual descent into the twilight of the underworld or if you smear a fingerful across your tongue at night before navigating the dark corridors of dreams, but whatever its use it feels of disruptive eeriness and unreality where you learn of the things behind the things.

Bought some Rook samples only to discover that there may be no smoke without fire but there's definitely no Rook without smoke. In Thurible the note that hits me straight away is quite sharp, clove I think; it leaps out of the home doctor's cabinet, shakes its fist at the sky and leaps back in again, while the key fragrance reveals itself as rose, familiar to us all. Yes, incense is there for a while, but on my skin the combination becomes almost immediately very soapy, very clean. There is a tiny animalic whiff, which is almost impossible to detect constantly. This perfume doesn't suit my personality at all ( I was hoping it would evoke ancient churches and manuscripts, candles, Gregorian chants and whack loads of frankincense/myrrh) but it is far more restrained, modern, easy to wear, dare I say... Uncontroversial?

I got a Rook discovery set, and like another reviewer below, I love Thurible and Undergrowth the most. A thurible is the vessel used for burning and diffusing church incense- something I regularly use- and to me, this fragrance captures burning incense (including the ash, but not much smoke) and the waxy, woody, stone scents of an old church. I love it, and find it atmospheric, powerful and craveable, but definitely wouldn’t wear it every day. As other reviewers have said, despite the ash, wax and woods, this is more of a feminine scent as it has some pronounced floral notes.

I got a sample set from Rook, and this is one of my favorites (fair warning--of the 7 I ordered, there are 3 I LOVE, 1 that's meh, and 3 I hated so much I had to scrub them off; not a lot of in-between with this house). There's definitely incense, but this isn't a gothic cathedral. The opening is heavy on clove, cinnamon and smoke, then dries down to a warm Sunday afternoon by the fireplace with a bouquet of roses on the table--where you can still smell the scent of morning Mass' incense and candles on your clothes.

Imagine entering an ancient Buddist rock tample covered with green damp algae. That's Thurible.