Armani Privé Bois d'Encens 
Giorgio Armani (2004)

Armani Prive Bois d'Encens is yet another solid offering in the Prive line, understandably a staple in the line since its 2004 inception as it offers a bold, mostly-wintery, mostly-masculine contribution to the line that seems otherwise slightly lacking in the current line-up.

It's extremely spicy at its onset with lots of pepper and woods, and then almost immediately begins to calm down to be only very spicy, but still quite spicy and woody, as a resinous, semi-sweet base starts to unfold. It feels like the sweet rather than the animalic side of resins, though, nothing too untamed, the pepper perhaps being the wildest aspect of the whole risk.

The result is a masculine winter fragrance that's elegant for formal and nighttime wear but still has the air of being a men's anytime signature scent for cold weather, especially.

Performance is solid, well above average on projection and great on longevity.

I definitely recommend trying this out. I waited far too long to try my sample.

8 out of 10

Initially green, dry, unsweetly resinous, like a cracked branch of cypress. For me this makes it much more wearable than Heeley's Cardinal, vividly close as I find that one to neat frankincense smoke.
Unfortunately have to agree with others about the low mileage from this, especially for something as inherently tenacious as frankincense.
Thumbs up while it lasts.

Safe bet for fans of incense. Definitely doesn't shy away from showing it's synthetic-smelling mechanics, but they combine with piney, churchy frankincense for an amped up, long-lasting, arid, fuzzy incense extravagnza for a good 6-8 hours. Fits into the genre with Avignon, Full Incense, Lavs etc. but I have found it to be the most satisfying for an incense fix. I recently gutted my perfume collection to narrow it down to favorite essentials and Bois d'Encens isn't going anywhere, it'll be on my shelf for the rest of my life.