–Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense: Avignon–

Hello there you awesome reader, hope your days are going well and also we really hope that you enjoyed our last chapter about the gems we found last year 2020.

Now we share with you a third chapter so sit back relax and we hope you will have fun with this post.

So during last year we took much more time to explore some literature about about perfumery and their creators. We have learned a little bit more about the process and the story behind some of the most renowned olfactory artists in the business  and one that caught our attention was the master perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour. Why him in particular?, simple, he was the one that brought to our stash the greatest creation ever Jubilation XXV (sorry, that sound a bit biased but we will come to that topic another time soon)

So one day we were at our go to niche fragrance place in Ljubljana, and while looking at the comme des Garcon stand, we spotted few bottles from the “Series 3 Incense”, 2 of them  happened to be created by  Mr Duchaufour (We had written a list with his highly rated creations)We also knew that these particular series of perfumes were made by few different master perfumers to represent the aspects of the beautiful note of Incense in different religious setups, means that each one of the fragrances in that collection would represent a different temple and religion.
In that collection there is a fragrance that evokes Hinduism, another the Orthodox Christianity religion, Islam, Buddhism and Shintoism too.So we picked as a blind buy “Incense Avignon” (it was the last bottle and no testers were available that day so we didn’t try it until we bought it) This particular perfume represents Catholicism, but to be honest, we actually wanted a bottle of “Kyoto Incense” but it was sold out that same day, and we are so glad we ended up getting Incense Avignon , because that perfume is so amazingly good, a smokey and almost spiritual fragrance. This creation really nailed the concept of an old catholic church, if you have been in one though.

Mr. Duchaufour managed to encapsulate a very realistic feeling of being surrounded by wooden old benches while incense is being burned. We are 80’s kids and the memory of going with grandma to church on a Sunday morning is quite the perfect example to compare with what you get after spraying this stuff. It’s truly remarkable.

The scent profile is listed as an oriental woody fragrance.

For us, at the very opening and for few minutes, it smells like incense and other resins (not smokey  yet), a very soft flowery component can be detected. A natural chamomile note is very clear, giving it an almost bright and fresh touch that quickly dissipates, letting the woody and smokey facet come and stay for what is left in the life of the fragrance.
About pin pointing the other listed notes, what can we say, this experience doesn’t last too long to identify more things in it…the patchouli is there, but not loud, spices can also be felt and at the end of it all, there is a subtle vanilla aura…that’s allThis fragrance feels better if taken and interpreted as a realistic scenic experience, it works very well that way.

This one is kind of affordable, but that depends if your wish is to spend your hard earned money in a fragrance that wont last too long by today’s expectations. We are talking 4/5 hours until it becomes a skin scent, so you will have to get your nose very close  to the area where you applied this juice to actually feel the second part of the dry down.

This perfume only comes in a 50ml format at 80EUR if you wonder.

About the presentation, it comes in a shiny black flimsy carton box that nobody cares about. The bottle feels like metal, but it isn’t  so be careful because if it falls it’ll break. The sprayer it’s a bit narrow but gets the job done.

We got this one in Ikona store in old part of Ljubljana Slovenia (Ikona art-perfumery department to be exact)

So if you are interested to see how Mr Douchafour handled the note of Incense in the most beautiful way, creating a religious liquid experience, then look no further and check Comme de Garcon’s Series 3: Incense Avignon (or Kyoto if you are lucky to find one) Otherwise, you can see if your jam is with the other remaining creators and their blends from that particular collection.

-D&M-