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?

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

My Japanese Incense Acquisitions

I’d like to say that every single thing I bought was unavailable in the United States, but that wasn’t the case. Given my limited budget, I couldn’t afford to buy stuff up willy-nilly. A marked difference in price from the US-available stock was also a major factor for me, if it was something I wanted to try or to acquire. That’s not to say I didn’t make some random purchases, but they were usually in the 500-700 yen range. At any rate, I’m fairly pleased with what I purchased so far. Here’s my list, and I’m still working on my impressions of a few of them, so I’ll leave longer reviews and details till later. (I’ll probably start with the Kyukyodos at that point; I’ve been burning them a great deal lately.)

• Kunjudo Karin Hien (Swallows in Flight) – awesome, will need to burn more.
• Kunjudo Karin Zuitou (Golden Waves) – awesome, love love love!
• Kunjudo Hachijuuhachi-Ya – real green tea incense
• Kyukyodo Ryuhinkou – so cheap, who could resist?
• Kyukyodo Higashiyama – aloeswood, sandalwood, and Chinese herbs – I love this
• Kyukyodo Chitose – Old Mountain sandalwood, benzoin, camphor, other ingredients
• Kyukyodo Umegaka – sticks with the scent of nerikou (kneaded incense)
• Kyukyodo Ikaruga – this has been out of stock at Essence of Ages longer than I’m willing to wait ^_^
• Shoyeido Horikawa
• Shoyeido unnamed incense (or name in kanji) from Daisen-in temple in Kyoto
• Baieido Imagine Hinoki
• Gyokushodo Jinko Hoen
• Kyukyodo’s bunny incense stand

Again, details forthcoming.

BONUS!
Things that I badly wanted to buy and that may remain on my “to try” list till my next trip to Japan, in no order:

• Kyukyodo Miyuki
• Kyukyodo Seigetsu
• Kyukyodo Kinbato
• Kyukyodo Shin’nyo
• Kyukyodo Zuifuu
• Kyokyodo everything (let’s just face it)
• Kunjudo Hougetsu (Encens du Monde Guiding Light)
• Kunjudo Matsurankou (Encens du Monde Pine and Orchid Wedding)

And the biggest three White Whales of all, which are easily caught in the States for more $$ (I’ll elaborate next time):

• Koukando Shouchikubai (Encens du Monde Whispering Bamboo)
• Koukando Sennenkou (Encens du Monde 1000 Years of Wisdom)
• Awaji-Baikundo everything

Shroff Channabasappa Green Durbar

I’ve been suffering from allergies and work these past few weeks, if you’ve been wondering where I’ve gone.  Because of the allergies, my incense intake has been quite reduced lately.

But I’d like to share some thoughts on Green Durbar, my current favorite of the Shroff line.  (Hopefully I will be able to take part in the Shroff lovefest happening now, but it looks doubtful due to several factors. <sigh>)

On the stick, Green Durbar smells earthy and herbal, as does patchouli.  The herbal or “green” aspect seems amped up beyond patchouli, though, into something approaching a Mediterranean herb–maybe thyme?  My first impression was that it smelled a lot like honey as well.  Perhaps there’s a good amount of benzoin in the mix to sweeten it?

Burning, the scent remains earthy, but gains a sweet, green floral tone–almost like clover.  The smoke still reminds me of clover honey, which smells sweet with an overtone of green flowers. (As a major tangent, if you’ve never tried different types of honey, it’s amazing what you’ll discover about their differences once you do.)

As with the other Shroffs I’ve got (Sandal Flora, Amber 707), the scent intensity is strong but not overpowering.  There’s a decent amount of smoke compared to Japanese incense, but not as much as other Indian or Tibetan incenses.  The after-scent does not stick around for days.

Hippie Scents

Continuing where I left off in my discussion of summer scents:

“Hippie scents” are generally earthy, woody scents that I buy at the local whole foods grocery or the local bath and body store, or make at home with essential oils.  Or commercial fragrances that smell like these, although I haven’t found any cheap enough for my budget.  My favorite summer 2008 scent was Aura Cacia patchouli and orange oils diluted in  jojoba oil.  I remember wearing a similar diluted patchouli oil concoction to the local Fourth of July fireworks display, and not getting bitten by any bugs.  (you decide if it was the patchouli or the cloud of Off! wafting from others)  I’ve asked other people, and the sillage (the cloud of fragrance extending from myself) from such homemade perfumes is minimal.

I’ve also been enjoying a nag champa body spray I had custom-scented at the Soap Opera (the aforementioned local bath and body store).  It’s fairly dead-on (DH asks, “Are you burning incense?”) but occasionally smells like cola drinks.

I’m not sure where the appeal of earthy scents in the summertime comes from.  Perhaps it’s a path of least resistance rather than an attempt to mask body odor?  It certainly does invoke outdoor playtime, digging around in the mud or dirt while gardening, etc.  I’m curious to try body incenses, and perhaps I’ll get a chance sometime.

Baieido Koh / Sawayaka Kobunboku

Baieido’s Koh and Sawayaka Kobunboku are the same incense in different packaging.  It’s interesting that Baieido would present Sawayaka (“fresh and clean”) Kobunboku as the lone example of traditional Japanese incense/”koh” in their Imagine series.   It is pretty user-friendly, though.  I could see this as a gateway incense from the modern Imagine line into traditional Japanese incense.

On the flip side, the Imagine line, being modern, might attract incense users not wanting a traditional scent–whereas Koh seems traditional but also friendly.  I digress.

Also interesting, to my American nose, is the descriptor of this Kobunboku entry as “fresh and clean.”  On a blind smell test where I’m being introduced to the Kobunboku series for the first time, I think I would say that I would label the original or Byakudan Kobunboku with “sawayaka.”

And yet, Koh/Sawayaka Kobunboku is fresh and clean.

The cinnamon is warm but not hot like Red Hots or like some of the cinnamon-dominant candles I’ve smelled.  Instead the effect is gentle, like roasted cinnamon.  The comparison to cinnamon toast is fitting.

It seems to have a coolness underlying the spice that might otherwise come from a cool aloeswood.  The same high quality sandalwood as in the original Kobunboku is present.  Koh/Sawayaka Kobunboku shows same restraint as the original but with more spice–but it’s not “in your face” about it.

I’d say if you’re in the mood for a quiet, spicy wood that tends towards coziness, this would be a good choice for you.

Thoughts on Eau de Cartier

Since this is an all-encompassing fragrance blog, I thought I’d post about some fragrance I’ve been wearing recently.

Eau de Cartier was one of the first full bottles I bought in my early days of fragrance appreciation. (I make it sound like a long time ago, but actually the starting date would be November 2007.)

It starts with a bright burst of yuzu (Japanese grapefruit) and white pepper, morphing to a long drydown (on me at least) of yuzu (!) and violet leaves.  Perhaps a touch of white musk as well.

While violet flowers’ sweetness is amped up on my skin, violet leaves have a similar cool, powdery scent but with a touch of greenness.  The greenness really cuts the sweetness for me.

In summer, I begin graviatating towards scents that I would describe as “eaux” and “hippie scents”.  Eaux would be fragrances composed primarily of citrus and herbal notes — a classic eau de cologne would be an example.  I’ll write about “hippie scents” another time, and if you can think of a better category name, leave a comment. (I call them that mostly because they’re the kind of inexpensive oils you’d pick up at a health food store or new age shop.)

Eau de Cartier is one of the few fragrances that I can wear on muggy summer days, since doesn’t make me feel queasy and doesn’t invade the space of others–without smelling like soap.

Baieido Kobunboku

Incense helps me wake up in good spirits in the morning.  Usually I reach for something spicy, but some mornings I’m not quite in the mood.

This morning, I’m burning Baieido’s Kobunboku.  The sandalwood dominates the composition, and as far as I can tell, the sandalwood is high quality.  It’s rather dry, with warmth provided by the cassia.  In other compositions, the cassia or cinnamon will dominate–very invigorating for the morning–but here it plays a minor role, complimenting the sandalwood.

The incense is supposed to invoke the image of plum blossoms in the spring.  I’m still investigating the commonalities of “plum blossom” incense, but Kobunboku certainly has a freshness and a light airiness to it.  Not in the sense of “white musk,” “green,” or “herbal” fresh, but instead a crispness of character that doesn’t forbid warmth–especially when compared with other incenses.  Very elegant.

Old Thoughts on Hermes Un Jardin en Mediterranee

I think my opinion has changed since I wrote this a year ago, but I’ll share it with you nonetheless:

“Top: Stemmy, woody green with an herbaceousness.  Then a touch of coconut emerges, and some kind of flower that’s making my head hurt.

Later: Flowers dominate the rest of the composition.  Could there be pepper?  The tree is in bloom.  Later, flowers recede to reveal milky coconutty fruit.”

Fig notes generally project from my skin as leaf green and coconut (and maybe woods).  The various fig perfumes on the market today emphasize different aspects of this composition.