Though I was dragged to church every Sunday as a child and young adult, it wasn't the kind of church that had showy rituals or used incense as part of the proceedings, so I find myself speaking a different language than someone who grew up Catholic or Greek Orthodox when the topic of incense perfumes is mentioned, which is where Bois d'Encens by Armani Prive comes into the picture.
When I think incense, I get a clear memory of heavy amber, frankincense and sandalwood fragrances from the numerous new-age boutiques I used to frequent in my twenty-something years: boutiques full of shelves of quartz crystals, numerous iterations on the tarot deck, little vials of homeopathic potions and stacks of self-help books designed to free the mind and cleanse the spirit -- this is the incense of turquoise stone necklaces and copper bracelets, but this is not the incense of Bois d'Encens.
Giorgio Armani is clearly of the orthodox church incense camp, for Bois d'Encens is a dose of dry cedar and light, meditative smoke; a sage and pepper perfume that references religious faith rather than new-age mysticism -- and like religious faith, it stresses simplicity over an anything-goes multitude of layers, for Bois d'Encens is nothing if not bracingly straight-forward: the cedar and smoke is present from beginning to end, with a no-nonsense mossy, earthen tone that emerges only when the dusty woods and peppery spices have taken their time to stretch out and relax.
Strangely enough, I tested this out on a hot, sunny day in the tropical climate of Maui. I thought it would certainly be too sharp and smoky a fragrance to wear for the climate, but with my toes in the swimming pool and a gin and tonic in one hand, the dry cedar of Bois d'Encens mingled perfectly with the potent, resinous scent of the thousands of Norfolk Pines bending in the stiff Kapalua winds.
Incense -- it's not just for winter anymore.
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