Eau de Toilette

Series 3: Incense

Avignon is named after the city in the south of France, the Provance region. It was a very influential Catholic centre in the 14th century. This is a smell of gothic cathedrals, their vast and high halls, gobelins and tapestries that have absorbed the sacred frankincense smell for centuries.

The top notes open in distinguishing frankincense and myrrh, which lead to a solemn, smoky and balsamic heart. The dry vanilla and soft French (Roman) chamomile notes tame and bring this inscrutable mystery closer to us.

“Exceptionally beautiful, fresh and fizzy frankincense [...] which is somehow cool, green and aerated, as well as golden, honeyed and resinous. This might be the smell of an old stone church but there’s not a whisper of damp or rot: it may seem dark and hallowed but it’s dry too, dry as dust. And it also has that usual Duchaufour magic of letting the air and the light in. Somehow you can sense the sunbeams, slanting in through scriptorium windows, which allows even this apparently heavy and “thick” atmosphere of resins to open up and sing, like the choir invisible. — trabuquera, Fragrantica

NOTES

incense
myrrh
olibanum
virginia cedar
french labdanum
chamomile
elemi
brazilian rosewood
spices
patchouli
ambrette
musk mallow
oak moss
vanilla
musk

NOSE — Bertrand Duchaufour

France, 2002

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