Fragrances for Autumn / Fall, Part One: Incense

Today marks the Autumnal Equinox, when the days begin their slow descent into winter darkness.  It also marks one of the first cool days we’ve had since July in my part of the world (US Midwest).  The sky outside is an even, pale gray.  Rain has been predicted, but none has fallen.  My tomato plants haven’t wilted yet, but the first average frost date is rapidly approaching.  The corn field I can see from my deck has gone past the gold of harvest into the brown of decay.  The leaves have not started to turn yet, but I anticipate they will soon enough.  It’s a perfect time to start talking about scents that help one start cocooning against the elements.

Incense:

I think spicy scents form a good bridge between the lighter woods of summer and the richer scents of winter. Shoyeido’s Kyoto Autumn Leaves is an obvious choice, featuring a spicy, rich blend of sandalwood, cinnamon, patchouli, and benzoin.  Shoyeido’s Golden Pavilion is similarly spicy, but adds the pervasive note of cloves to Kyoto Autumn Leaves’ blend.  Baieido’s Sawayaka Kobunboku / Imagine series Koh serves cinnamon lovers well with its toasty blend of aloeswood, cinnamon, and Chinese herbs.  Shoyeido’s Incense Road series may also appeal to spice-lovers, especially its Spicy Chai scent.

I don’t usually pay any attention to Martha Stewart, but she seems to love Halloween just as much as I do.  She’s got an interesting project for a “pumpkin incense burner” that allows one to fill one’s living space with the scent of spiced, baking pumpkin–specifically, pumpkin pie, for those readers who are familiar with this autumn treat.  I’m curious about how the project would turn out, but the amount of time needed to complete it gives me pause.

Autumn is also time to be outside amongst the falling leaves and chill breeze.  Scents that evoke earthy loam and bonfires are perfect for autumn.  Mermade Magickal’s Pan’s Earth is awesomely earthy and slightly musky, bringing together aloeswood, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla, labdanum, Hougary frankincense, and Himalayan juniper wood.  Mermade Magickal’s Sacred Grove and Earth Church both evoke the scent of the wild woods and nighttime bonfires.  Both feature a good proportion of fragrant woods and evergreen wood and resins.  They bring the scent of the ideal bonfire to your house.

(Sacred Grove’s ingredients: Hougary and Oman Frankincense, Turkish Storax, Labdanum, Fir Balsam Essential Oil, Western Red Cedar Wood, Powdered Grand Fir Tips, Himalayan Juniper Wood, Pinon Pine Resin, Copal Elemi Resin)

(Earth Church’s ingredients:  Poplar Buds, Fir Needles, Port Orford Cedar, Juniper, Oman Frankincense, Pine Resin, Salupati, Rose Petals, Bay Laurel, Cedar, Labdanum , Ylang Ylang)

Part Two to come: Autumnal Perfumes and Colognes

Cold-Be-Gone

My household has been sick for the past two weeks.  DH had either generic or H1N1 flu for a week (with a fever), and I came down with some sort of respiratory demon (sans fever) that has been living in my sinuses and chest for the past week.

For the first few days, I had the unpleasant experience of living without a sense of smell.  I can vouch that chocolate and ice cream are not very yummy without a sense of smell.  Forget incense or perfume!

The only thing I could smell (because I was practically stuffing it up my nose) was an essential oil mix I came up with called Cold-Be-Gone.  Feel free to try it out at home.  (Please attribute me as the original author if you want to share the recipe with others.)

DON’T actually stuff it up your nose.  Doing so will make you cry or worse.  I used a heated essential oil diffuser that I put next to the bed at night, which generated an intense sphere of scent that expanded to fill the bedroom.

Cold-Be-Gone Blend

12 drops peppermint essential oil
12 drops lavender essential oil
12 drops tea tree essential oil
12 drops eucalyptus essential oil
6 drops lemon essential oil

Depending on how much stock you take in aromatherapy, the above essential oils are either powerful antivirals working in midair, or will provide a pleasant, strongly medicinal-smelling placebo based on your past experience with strong-smelling vaporous balms and medicines.  YMMV.

Peppermint - chosen to sweeten up the blend – also supposed to help suppress coughs.
Lavender - chosen because I like it, also has floral and herbal components that work well with strong herbal scents – also supposed to calm and generally cure all ills.
Tea Tree – chosen because of its smell – very mentholated – used topically for skin problems, considered an antiviral, etc.
Eucalyptus - chosen because of its smell – supposed to help with chest congestion, considered antiviral, etc.
Lemon - chosen to brighten the blend a bit, could be eliminated – supposed to invigorate the senses and have a cheering effect.

Like I said, your mileage may vary.  But it helped me sleep a bit better, and seemed to keep DH from coughing so much.  And it smelled like it should be doing something. That’s a major part of the fun, right?

My Japanese Scent Shopping Adventure, Last Part

Daisen-In Incense:

While in Kyoto, we visited Daisen-In, the head temple of the temple complex Daitoku-ji.  I highly recommend a visit if you’re into zen gardens at all.  At the end of our visit, I bought some lovely incense made by Shoyeido labelled solely in kanji.

After buying it my husband and I were blessed by a cheerful monk who was there doing custom calligraphy for visitors: “Be Happy Always!”

The Daisen-In incense is very very similar to Shoyeido’s Nokiba, and someone has told me that he found someplace that said it was Nokiba.  (Thanks, Paul!)  I think they may be different, but I plan a couple of smell tests to see.  The color is very different, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.  Both certainly have the same lovely cottony benzoin sweetness tempered with the earthy aspects of patchouli.

I will post close-ups of the box and materials in another post, in the hopes that someone may be able to read them!  (I know that the kanji at the bottom of the front says “Daisen-In”)  The script that Shoyeido likes to use on all their boxes throws me off.

Kyukyodo at Keio Department Store:

It turns out that the Keio department store attached to Shinjuku Station (as I wrote about earlier) has a wonderful Kyukyodo counter if you’re not wanting to travel to the head store in the Ginza district of Tokyo.  (It’s not the only other department store counter Kyukyodo possesses in Tokyo.)  It’s located straight across from the elevators on the 6^th floor, which is why we missed it on our first trip to Keio.  I visited the counter to make my follow-up purchases after having mulled over my choices in the Kyukyodo catalog I got in Kyoto.  I believe that the Keio counter boasted all of the incense available at the Kyoto head branch.  I didn’t see the less expensive incense stands in Kyoto, but I may have missed them.

I ended up just purchasing a bulk box of Ikaruga (1100 yen) and a rabbit incense stand/holder (850 yen) that I couldn’t find at the Kyoto branch.

On my previous trip (on let’s say, Tuesday), there was also an extensive selection of Awaji-Baikundo incense for sale down the aisle.  A young man dressed in traditional clothing demonstrated the various choices to the few passers-by shopping on a Tuesday night.  Not knowing what was going on at first, I approached the tatami-covered platform he and an older woman were occupying, and suddenly realized that it was Awaji-Baikundo.  Bulk boxes from 850 yen to 1500 yen.  I hadn’t expected to find any there, and so I couldn’t remember which kinds were the ones I wanted to try.  He showed me a few sticks, but I needed to get home.  I vowed to myself to research and come back as soon as possible.

Wednesday and Thursday passed (our trip to Kyoto), as did Friday (a return trip to Akihabara and several bookstores).  So Saturday rolls around, and the Awaji-Baikundo stand was gone!!

It turns out that the section next to the Kyukyodo counter carries regional goods that rotate on a weekly basis.  In Awaji-Baikundo’s place was someone selling amber jewelry of some sort.  So that’s my story of the Awaji-Baikundo that got away.

Narita Airport:

I managed to squeak in one last incense purchase at the airport of all places—a box of Baieido’s Imagine series Hinoki.  They were selling it in the Fa-So-La across from a food court.  Eh, why not?

And so my incense adventures ended way too quickly.  I can say that I expected to have to open my backpack up for inspection, but I got through security just fine.

New Shorindo Incenses and their Inspirations

Essence of the Ages has announced three new “perfume-inspired” incenses from Shorindo scented with interpretations of two Etro fragrances and one Chanel fragrance.

Shorindo Koibana series

The fragrances featured include Etro Magot, Etro Anice, and Chanel Chance.  I find their choices interesting, given that Etro is a relatively smaller and more niche fragrance house than Chanel.  Both have excellent fragrance offerings.

I suspect that the incense will be different from the originals, if they’re true to the fragrances, specifically because incense tends to deliver its blend of notes all at once.  Alcoholic fragrances, on the other hand, take advantage of the volatility of their chemical components to stage a progression of notes as time passes.  (Now, non-progression in incense is arguable, since with incense we get the entire experience, from smelling the stick, to smelling during burning, to experiencing different concentrations of scent in different parts of the room, to smelling the after-scent in the air and on clothes.)

I just love fragrance ad copy for its unreflexive awe and breathlessness about the fragrances, so here you go!

Etro Magot (from Aedes de Venustas): “A spicy fragrance with warm, sensual tones. Mysterious. Magot is the name of a statue that represents the the Chinese God of happiness and abundance. Aura: it carries you into the mysterious universe in which any seduction is possible. Its pungent and intense aromas evoke the lust of concubine’s rooms. Its languor should be felt on the skin. The citrus chases off depression; the lavender is seductive; patchouli is an aphrodisiac.”

Etro Anice (from Aedes de Venustas): “Anice, which comes from the Latin word anisum and the Greek word anayo (meaning, I burn, I excite), is an incredibly alluring fragrance, seemingly born out of the cold light of the night star with an everchanging face. If you wear it, you change with it: you’re visible and invisible. Anice expresses ethereal, tender fiminity. It reflects the Yin present in each man who is able to love and desire. It is a unisex fragrance that moves sensually and gently like waves upon the body of a woman and man, capturing their magic: an ethereal moment of infinite sensuality. Anice captures that instant pulsing with life. Starting out with the distinctive, spicy aroma of Anise, the luminous scent of bergamot and rosewood it is followed by the heady scent of jasmine, vivacious hints of fennel and caraway and theintense notes of iris. The warm bottom notes of vanilla, musk and amber linger on the skin.”

Chanel Chance (from Chanel): “A decidedly young scent . . . for those who dare to dream. Waves of freshness collide with floral notes and merge with sensual, sweet and spicy elements. It’s your chance . . . TAKE IT!”   (Notes [from osmoz.com]: Pink pepper, Lemon,  Hyacinth, Jasmine, Iris, Amber, Patchouli, Vetiver, White Musk)

For access to a smell of the perfumes, Chance can be found in just about any department store in the United States and elsewhere where Chanel fragrances are found.  Being recent and “popular,” they don’t hide it behind the counter.  Magot and Anice, on the other hand, should be available at  Aedes de Venustas in New York City,  The Perfume Shoppe in Vancouver, or Senteurs d’Ailleurs in Brussels.  Note that the Perfume Shoppe and Aedes de Venustas both boast excellent sample programs for those who can’t visit the shop.  The other, I’m not sure.  Wouldn’t hurt to ask!  The Perfumed Court also ships samples in the US and internationally.

Car Incense Burner

Wow, look at this crazy eBay item:

Car Incense Burner

I don’t know, it looks a bit dangerous to me.

Well.

Things have been busy around here.  I’ve been teaching a new class, which means a new prep and oodles of time spent on that.  Not to mention that I’ve got to finish my dissertation draft by December.  I managed to get the last post of the travelogue written, and posted it…but somehow it never made it, and it’s completely gone.  So please bear with me a bit longer, and I will rewrite the last installment.  I hope you find it worth the wait.

Kyukyodo in Kyoto

On our day trip to Kyoto, we stopped by the Kyoto branch of Kyukyodo. It is located in a fun covered shopping arcade in downtown Kyoto.  Open-front shops line the arcade’s walkways, making the façade of the store the more impressive.  The store takes up at least twice the width of the other shops, and features dark woodwork that creates a sense of age befitting the incense house.  (I wish I had thought to take pictures, but I was steeling myself for my first major incense mission.)  Kyukyodo’s web site has info on where to find it, as well as a picture of the shop I visited (on the left).

Stationary and calligraphy supplies takes up most of the shop space.  Most of the customers that day were browsing the selection of decorative cards and fans, so I had free access to the incense counter.  The incense was located on one end of the central counter, a glass case surrounding the cash registers and gift wrapping, which contained the high-end incense and better incense accessories.  On the surface of the counter, one could find the bulk incenses open and waiting for customers  to sample them, which I did.  Thanks to the research I had done online, I had a list of items to smell before making a purchase.  A sales associate helped me out by lighting individual sticks, to better get a sense of the scent.  (For future visitors’ reference, she spoke no English. That doesn’t necessarily mean that no one speaks English, however.)  Unfortunately, it usually takes me a few tries to get a handle on a scent, so that didn’t help me too much.  But this was no fault of theirs.

I hemmed and hawed over the selections, and finally decided that I’d pick up a few of the ones I definitely wanted as a souvenir of Kyoto, and visit the Kyukyodo counter at Keio department store in Tokyo to get the others.  What I got in Kyoto: Ryuhinko / Ryuhinkou roll (1155 yen), Umegaka roll (840 yen), Higashi-Yama bulk box (1365 yen), and Chitose bulk box (1365 yen).

Ryuhinko is available in the US, but at this price, I couldn’t resist.  I find it a refreshingly dry aloeswood that’s a nice change from the brighter, lighter aloeswood of Shiun.  At this stage of my olfactory journey, I can’t tell enough of a difference between this and higher-end Kyukyodo aloeswood scents.  I opted for the less expensive route instead of trying out the Miyuki, Kinbato, Beni-Zakura, Seigetsu, or other aloeswoods.

Umegaka is not one I’ve burned much, so I’m writing from memory.  It’s the stick form of Kyukyodo’s “house” nerikou (kneaded incense). It’s slightly creamy and slightly woody with a spicy fruit overtone.  Having never smelled nerikou, I have no basis to compare.  Umegaka comes in a roll and two sizes of bulk boxes, in addition to the several different sizes of containers of nerikou balls or pastilles.  I consider it a must-try, at least for this reason.

Higashi-Yama is lovely, a blend of aloeswood, sandalwood, and Chinese herbs with a refreshing vegetal aspect to it.  It’s almost like Shiun in the respect that you’ve got these musky overtones coming from the aloeswood, yet it’s light, with additional nuances.  In Higashi-Yama’s case, the nuances are sweet and greenish or herbal instead of cherry-ish.

Chitose is a blend of Old Mountain sandalwood, benzoin, camphor, and other scents.  This has been my least favorite of the purchases, not because it’s a bad scent, but because it’s too much like Yumemachi.  Yumemachi’s ingredient list is identical, with I’m guessing a higher percentage of the fine sandalwood.  Chitose is very much like a lighter version of Yumemachi, with less of a citrusy overtone.  That said, if you’re in need of a good sandalwood incense and you’re in Japan, consider Chitose.  It comes in two sizes, the larger bulk box and a bulk box of mini-sticks (840 yen).

I’ll post pictures of the incenses after I find the charger for my camera batteries.

Also, I plan on putting more info up about Kyukyodo’s non-export incenses after I’ve finished my travelogue.

Next time: Kyukyodo at Keio department store and tying up loose ends.

Top 4 Fragrances for July 2009

After a short break from perfumes, I’m back to my original olfactory obsession.   After the Japan trip, I started dipping into my shoeboxes of samples again.  This time, I’m on a quest for something that reminds me of Japanese incense, so my Top 4 reflects that.  No particular order.

1. Comme des Garçons   Series 3: Incense Kyoto – The Comme des Garçons Incense series is supposed to reflect the incense traditions of five major “religious capitals” around the world.   That said, as in most perfumes, there’s quite a bit of poetic license at play.  Kyoto does not, as you might expect in a traditional Japanese incense, display the usual blend of sandalwood/aloeswood, cassia, camphor, etc.  Instead, the notes are incense (probably meaning frankincense), cypress oil, coffee, teak wood, vetiver, patchouli, amber, everlasting flower, Virginian cedar.  The overall effect is one of slightly smoky hinoki and earthy cedar incense at first, drying down to a somewhat musky smoked cedar smell that reminds me of a dry sauna.  (Note: It does not smell like Baieido’s Imagine Hinoki, Nippon Kodo’s Ka-Fuh Hinoki, or Mermade Magickal Arts Sacred Grove).  Note: This is the fragrance series that I mentioned in an earlier post.  More reviews of Kyoto.
2. Comme des Garçons Series 3: Incense Avignon – From the same series.  My appreciation for this went up 100% after having smelled Mermade Magickal Arts’ Golden Bough.  (Side note: I highly recommend smelling good examples of individual raw materials in order to pick out notes in perfumes–whether they be burnable or sprayable perfumes.)  I swear that the top notes smell just like Golden Bough.  Avignon then dries down to a very similar base to the Kyoto, somewhat muted earth and smoke but close to the skin. (Not surprising, since both are creations by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour.)  Notes: Roman chamomile, cistus oil, elemi, incense, vanilla, patchouli, palisander, ambrette seeds.  More reviews of Avignon.
3. Shiseido/Serge Lutens Féminité du Bois – Blends cedar with plum and violet notes to create a more wood-dominant that goes beyond the usual masculine accords involving wood, without falling back on the usual “add a bunch of vanilla or candy” that’s used nowadays to make woods “more feminine.”  I don’t detect any vanilla at all, just a silky, slightly powdery, slightly fruity cedar.  The fruitiness recedes on me as time passes, but the cedar stays prominent throughout its progression.
   I mainly mention the masculine/feminine dichotomy because it’s in the name–I’m all for finding perfumes based on how they suit me, rather than on who the target audience is supposed to be.  Notes: Ginger, cinnamon, clove, plum, peach, orange blossom, violet, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla, benzoin.   More reviews of Féminité du Bois.
4. Diptyque Tam Dao - A sandalwood-dominant fragrance.  I wasn’t terribly impressed by this, and only wore it once.  At the outset, it smells like decent Australian sandalwood oil.  As it progresses, however, I find the drydown rather on the cloying side, or perhaps a little too close to the Sandalwood body spray I’m able to buy for a song locally.  Notes: Goa sandalwood, rosewood, cypress, ambergris.   More reviews of Tam Dao.

Overview:  I think you can detect my fandom for Japanese perfume houses coming out in this list.

I’ve got more samples coming in the mail, so next month should be interesting.

All lists of notes are taken from LuckyScent.

Féminité

Nenjudo in Tokyo

Nenjudo is a Buddhist altar supply shop just down the street from Sensou-ji temple in the Asakusa district of Tokyo.  We were able to find our way there by using the somewhat helpful photo tour located on their web site (entitled “is Asakusa at the top of a Mountain?” because you have to climb so many stairs to get to ground level from the subway).

Directions: Basically, when you arrive at Asakusa Station via Tokyo Metro’s Ginza line, leave the station from Exit 2 and turn left down the first street you come to.  Or just find Exit 2 once you’re above ground.  As this map shows, Exit 2 is right down the street from the outer gate Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate) of the Sensou-ji temple. (The walking tour on the left is for the Toei Subway’s Asakusa Line, the tour on the right is for Tokyo Metro’s Ginza Line.) There are grayish air conditioning units on the wall, as shown in the walking tour pictures in the right column.  Nenjudo is not far down this street, on the right. (Note: when I visited, the façade looked different thanks to some sidewalk-sale style carts parked in the entryway.)

The store stocks just about all the whole Kunjudo range, as well as Baieido, Nippon Kodo, Kokando, Minorien, Seikado, Okuno Seimeido, Daihatsu, Shoyeido, Tenkundo, Gyokushodo, and so on.  If you’re looking for other altar supplies or pilgrimage supplies, they seemed well-stocked.

I orbited the central counter about 100 times before finally just getting what I had originally come to the store for: bulk boxes of Kunjudo’s Karin Hien (Swallows in Flight) and Karin Zuitou (Golden Waves), for 3200 yen and 5300 yen.  Pricey for me, but they will last at least until my next trip to Japan.  Well worth it, since they’re both exquisite aloeswood scents.

The person who rang me up also threw a free box of Gyokushodo Jinko Hoen into the bag, yay!

I had been looking for the Kokando incenses that Encens du Monde exports, especially Whispering Bamboo and 1000 Years of Wisdom (Shouchikubai and Sennenkou, respectively) but they were located outside the entrance, and so I didn’t see them until I had finished checking out.  They were around 1100 yen each for a bulk box, so my overly frugal side was kicking me for having missed out on a deal.  On the other hand, one can easily buy them in the United States, with the Encens du Monde repackaging.  For that price, though, I was hoping to share with other people.

While you’re in Asakusa, be sure to also check out Kappabashi-dori, where you can find all manner of culinary items, from food itself to cookware to dishes to plastic food.  I also spotted some of the air-purifying Baieido Imagine scents at the door of one store.

Next to come: Kyukyodo in Kyoto, more Kyukyodo in Tokyo, and tying up loose ends!

Kyukyodo in Tokyo

I realized after posting that I was a little terse on the information for actually finding the Ginza branch for Kyukyodo.  Needless to say, I’m not sure exactly how to get there, but if you can get yourself to Ginza (the megashopping district of Tokyo), you should be able to find it.  They provide a map, so someone could help you if you can’t find it once you’re nearby.

Man, I wish I had had time to figure this out while on the trip.  Oh well!

Here’s info on all of the Kyukyodo locations, both in Tokyo and Kyoto.  Pictures of the head offices are at the top, in black and white.  Here’s the map to the Tokyo head branch as well.  The light blue rectangle at the top of the map appears to be Yuurakuchou Station on the Yamanote line (the train line that goes through all the hot Tokyo districts), so it may be the closest station to the store.

In future installments of my shopping adventures saga, I’ll talk about my very pleasant, positive experiences at other branches of Kyukyodo.