Armani Privé Bois d'Encens 
Giorgio Armani (2004)

This fragrance features frankincense and woods, making it one of the best from the Prive Line, and possibly worth the money if you're a big fan of frankincense. Luca Turin gives it a four-star rating, but describes it as "incense animalic." While I do get the incense note, I don't find it to be animalic. It's wearable and slightly cozy, thanks to the sweetness from the labdanum. It's not a boozy or densely sweet scent, as it doesn't lean in that direction.

The Prive Line may be hard to find, but it should be available at retailers like Holts, Saks, or Nordstrom. It's definitely worth trying a sample.

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.