Vert d'Encens

Vert d’Encens seems to get a lot of criticism and disdain. Maybe that's because it was part of a quartet and never really got the chance to be judged on its own - it certainly didn’t help that it was fast discontinued. Vert des Bois, another of the quartet, got a lot more praise for its more intellectually spurring composition, which probably forced Vert d’Encens into an unfair corner of needing to defend itself. We won’t talk about Vert Boheme here, that was a mess. Then you have the Luca Turin sycophants who read his poor review, decided to smell as he smelled, and add their voices to the echo chamber of their infallible Pope of Perfume. I cannot disagree that Vert des Bois is better composed and more interesting, but I don’t get the smileys when I smell it. In Vert d’Encens, I do - a big ol’ smile. Like Vert des Bois, Vert d’Encens is an exercise in patchouli but it relies heavily on green incense and resins to carry the message. VdB accentuates the softer nuances of patchouli by pushing forward its fruity, gentle floral, green waxy, and leathery facets, whereas Vert d’Encens takes a far more simplistic approach to patchouli and says “here is the green and resinous side of patchouli, full stop.” Myrrh resins, green and aromatic and salty, are accented by plenty of heliotrope that give an unctuous, nutty quality that smells bright, hard, and a bit sticky. As if that wasn’t enough, pine sap and evergreen balsams are thrown in for yet more greens, more resins, more hard stickiness, plus a decent helping of very comfortable sap-sugar sweetness. They lay over a bed of dry yet loamy and fresh patchouli, like dried compost that still has some green flora stuck in it. The notes are sort of jammed together, a bit vague and ill-defined at the edges, which gives a very rustic quality to Vert d'Encens like the smells of a newly-built pine log cabin in a damp forest. It is far from the intellectual and precise delivery of Vert des Bois, a welcome deviation from the typical Tom Ford aesthetic, but Vert d’Encens also doesn’t have the typical Tom Ford aesthetic of loud, sexual, over-the-top, trashiness. So, without that and without intellectual curiosity, what is there to it? - Many perfumistas simply wrote it off. That’s a shame. I think its imprecise, rustic simplicity is its charm. When I walk through a sunlit evergreen forest, the smells of the trees sap, bark, needles, and the earth surrounding me, I don’t think of technical precision, chastising the pine or the soil for their rough aromatic overlaps with each other, instead I smile and say “this smells very nice and I am happy to be here.”

Fascinating, weirdly distinctive, decadent, even a little sinister. For some reason, for me, this conjures the more underworld fringe of Art Nouveau style; despite being as green as you can imagine, it channels the spirit of some of Aubrey Beardsley's darkly depraved black-and-white illustrations. It's all a bit kinky - not animalic or 'smells of sex', but fey and menacing all at once. Very unisex, period-yet-modern, sweet-yet-bracing - and thoroughly odd all the way through. The green is intense - they say boxwood but to me the whole effect, of a giant hopper of freshly-mown grass and freshly-crushed bitter leaves, is so very very green it verges more on galbanum. But really, convincingly, no-compromise green notes if those are your thing. Now for my personal taste the sweeter overlay of heliotrope & incense turns so heady it almost, almost cloys, making me a little uneasy, a little 'is it too much?' (And maybe it's a deliberate tease, that the almond-like sweetness of heliotrope in such a bitter-green setting makes me think yikes, danger, is there arsenic in this shot glass of green herbal madness?). In high heat I think I'd find this fleurs-du-mal, poison-flower charisma of the sweeter top end a bit overwhelming, maybe even obnoxious. But in spring or autumn its intrigue never lets up and the spell doesn't dispel - its very strangeness compels you to sniff and sniff and sniff again throughout the day. Grown-up, sophisticated, not for novices - and may repel some people. Almost creepy. Yet maybe truly great. Overpriced, like all TFs, but certainly close to unique (I can't think of much else like it) and longevity matches its poise and naughty humour, hanging about up to 8-9h on skin and days on fabric. A scary but seductive hissing, jewelled, viperous green mamba in scented form. Wrestle with it!

I've worn this on two occasions and I've enjoyed it each time. When l think seriously about this perfume l cannot shake the LOVELY vintage feel of it... Like it's a simplified and deconstructed female perfume of yore, updated to modern sensibilities. The juice is never harsh,loud, screechy, or conspicuously floral. It's soft, warm and inviting. The Green aspects impart freshness and vaguely of the outdoors. Underneath the crushed, green foliage, there is this lovely Golden almost ambery, Woody base of (pine?) resin with a touch of powder, vanilla and white chocolate. I like that there is no white musk (which screams clean!) in here, the incense notes can quietly persist for quite some time. This isn't a sterile perfume; it radiates and smoulders! As a female, l think l can wear this on any occassion, year round. It's not too heavy, and not too light. It has enough richness and body to it that can be worn on evenings out. I feel like a real classy Dame wearing this. The dry down is downright dreamy, nostalgic and romantic. And delicious. Just mmm.... I wonder if guys will find this too sweet, but in general Tom Ford perfumes can be quite sweet in general and this frag is definitely not a sugar bomb by any means. The Green really tempers the sweet. I think this may be a special occasion perfume for a man. I own Chanel no 19 in copious amounts so l cannot justify a purchase. What can l do? I will just hoard my sample for very special occasions.

I naturally gravitate towards woody aromatic scents and this is now in my top 10. It is in the same camp as Kilian Taste of Heaven. Not a dupe but definitely similar. This opens with aromatic notes and then you pick up the resins and incense. I love what the incense does to the aromatic resin notes. The touch of smokiness. I think I would have liked more incense to recreate the wild windswept Corsican coastline. I'm familiar with the boxwood note and it does a good job of keeping the green aspect going to the end. I'm not sure if it's my chemistry but I do get a good dose of heliotrope. A soft vanilla/almond backdrop. It finally fades as a soft heliotrope scent with a green twist. This is truly a warm green scent. I don't get wild anything! It's more like the scent of Christmas. Although I dont get a snowy forest like I do AG Nuit Etoile. The mint recreating the freezing icy air. I guess I could interpret the aromatic green boxwood note as the herbs you find on Corsica. Some guys might find this a touch too sweet to be comfortable with. I'm sure your ladies will jump at the chance to take it off your hands :) It has decent longevity but the sillage isn't beyond arms length. It actually retracts back to a skin scent after half an hour. A nice scent to wear during the festive season. It has a relaxed casual feel.

Finally got my hands on the genuine article after a few run-ins with fakes. Vert d'Encens is about what I had expected, given my love for Tom Ford Private Blends - deep, green, earthy, and richly resinous, with excellent performance and the distinctive TFPB expensive sillage. Perhaps not as spicy as I would prefer for an incense perfume, but I can spike it with a bit of my go to Myrrh absolute. I also now understand why the replicas I tried were so horrific - VDE goes on ugly. Unlike other Tom Ford scents which seem to take pains with 'whiff appeal,' in the bottle or freshly sprayed, this frag gives strong stale cigarette and pencil shavings notes. Once applied, it settles very quickly to an enjoyable (if one enjoys smoky balsamic type scents) experience, but it seems that in trying to recreate precisely the harsh opening, the replicas have neglected to incorporate the gentle dry down. I'm a layering mixologist of sorts, and I can imagine VDE will make an excellent underpinning for Private Blend florals Champaca Absolute, Black Violet, and perhaps even Noir de Noir.