Our 2014 series of holiday gift posts continues with home fragrance items.
For more gift ideas, check out The Scented Hound’s Holiday Gift Guide.
From Acqua di Parma, the limited edition hand-blown Murano glass candle collection…
Aedes de Venustas Copal Azur ~ fragrance review
When Aedes de Venustas sent me a sample of their new Copal Azur fragrance, I immediately sent it to Kevin. Kevin (who some of you old-timers might remember used to review home fragrance here, including lots of incense) was not impressed. It did not, he said, smell like real copal. I wouldn’t know from real copal; my experience is pretty much limited to Demeter Incense, which is advertised as having “a unique core of Copal”. Send it back, I said, I think it smells great.
I include that story only to warn you that while it does, to me, smell great, Copal Azur might or might not meet any expectations you might have about a copal fragrance — remember our recent discussion of “realism” vis-à-vis the gardenia in Tauer Perfumes Sotto La Luna Gardenia?1 If you love incense in general, though, or if you’ve been a fan of the three Aedes fragrances that preceded this one (Oeillet Bengale, Iris Nazarena and Aedes de Venustas Signature), do give Copal Azur a try…
5 perfumes: incense fragrances for fall
In late July, I picked 5 great incense fragrances for summer wear. Now that we’ve got a decent chill in the air here on the East Coast, it’s time for the fall version. As always, do add your own picks in the comments!
L’Artisan Parfumeur Timbuktu ~ A number of people mentioned Timbuktu in the comments to my summer incense post, and I know some people feel Timbuktu really blooms in the heat. Some other people (including me) find Timbuktu a bit much in hot and humid weather. Whatever season you prefer, it’s a distinctive fragrance that smells as much like dirt and old paper and spices (with a touch of sour mango) as it does like incense…
Phaedon Rouge Avignon ~ fragrance review
After having smelled hundreds — if not thousands — of perfume samples, sometimes it feels that many fragrances give in to the same tropes. Rightly or wrongly, it’s easy to dismiss them with a “been there, done that” cursory sniff. If I say “white floral,” you probably mentally sniff gardenia, tuberose and musk. Or, to get more specific, “beachy white floral,” “innocent white floral” and “glamorous white floral” bring to mind particular fragrance types. If you’ve smelled one, you can assume you’ve smelled them all.
So, when Phaedon Rouge Avignon was presented to me as a “rose incense,” I figured I knew what I’d smell next. After all, I’ve spent time with samples of Tauer Perfumes Incense Rosé, Terry de Gunzburg Rose Infernale and others. What I didn’t count on was a good-enough-to-eat infusion of raspberry and cocoa along with the rose and incense. It makes for an unexpected — and if you’re in the mood for it — appealing twist…
5 perfumes: incense fragrances for summer
It’s almost August…for many of us, the really hot summer weather is just around the corner. Citrus fragrances often carry me much of the way through the humid late summers typical of the East Coast of the US, but last month I looked at some spicy fragrances suitable for summer wear, and today I’ve got five incense fragrances that work well on steamy days when anything too heavy will make you wilt before lunch. Do add your own picks in the comments!
L’Artisan Passage d’Enfer ~ arguably the quintessential summer incense…