Oriza L. Legrand
Oriza L. Legrand
216 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Frankincense hits first with its piney-citric brightness, immediately tempered by maritime pine's aggressive turpentine character and a whisper of salt air. The elemi resin adds a sharp, almost camphorous edge whilst cinnamon dusts everything with its woody, medicinal spice—this is incense at its most raw and unpolished.
The composition thickens considerably as opoponax and benzoin emerge, their sweet-musty, balsamic richness wrapping around the smoke like amber-coloured velvet. Gaiac wood brings its peculiar rose-meets-diesel character whilst labdanum adds a leathery, slightly animalic depth that borders on feral; the tonka bean provides just enough coumarin sweetness to soften the edges without domesticating them.
What remains is a close-to-skin haze of smoky amber and labdanum, the resins having melted into something honeyed yet tarry. Sandalwood and musk create a soft, powdery backdrop whilst the leather accord persists as phantom whiffs of old books and incense-saturated fabric, quietly ecclesiastical and impossibly tender.
Rêve d'Ossian is cathedral incense meets tarry sea wreckage, a resinous meditation that smells of ancient ritual and storm-battered coastline. The frankincense arrives not as clean church smoke but as something earthier, its lemonic brightness smothered by maritime pine's turpentine bite and salty, green-black density. This is incense that's been left to smoulder in damp wood, the smoke thick with opoponax's sweet-musty depth and benzoin's vanilla-tinged warmth. Cinnamon cuts through with its dusty, almost medicinal spice—not the red-hot sweetness of bakeries but the woody, camphoraceous edge you find in old apothecary jars. The elemi adds a peppery, lemon-pine sharpness that keeps the composition from drowning in its own richness, whilst gaiac wood and labdanum build a foundation that's simultaneously leathery, animalic, and faintly faecal in that way only aged resins can achieve.
There's something Ossianic about it indeed—mythic, melancholic, shrouded in Celtic mist and peat smoke. The leather accord emerges not as supple hide but as the tarred ropes and weathered saddles of warriors, whilst the tonka and amber lend just enough sweetness to suggest ritual offerings rather than confectionery. This is for those who want their incense complex and uncompromising, who appreciate fragrance that smells of something rather than simply pleasant. Wear it when the weather turns cold and introspective, when you want to smell like you've been conducting ceremonies in stone circles or reading medieval manuscripts by candlelight. Unapologetically dense, radiantly dark.
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3.8/5 (121)