One of four fragrances which launched Giorgio Armani's Privé range in 2004. Each fragrance is encased in a glass-lined wooden (African Kotibe wood) container, with a pebble-like cap. The fragrances aren't designed to be masculine, nor feminine, and will sit on both men's and women's fragrance counters.
Armani Privé Bois d'Encens fragrance notes
- pepper, labdanum, incense, vetiver, cedarwood
Where to buy
Latest Reviews of Armani Privé Bois d'Encens


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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.

Probably one of the best, maybe even the best (in terms of scent).
Unfortunately it has poor performance, unacceptable at that price point, thus a neutral rating.

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

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.


Neutral rating only because of the smell.

What my nose picks up here is simply pepper and cedar - dry, bitter and rather nasty - this is the scent of "burnt" incense, not in the sense of consuming by flames, but in the sense of hard, black, ruined, finished incense, the point at which the censer should be retired to avoid offending the noses of both the congregation and the deity being honored.
It is a poor performance, and a joke considering the price. If you want true and beautiful incense, try Etro's Messe de Minuit, a quarter of the price and four times as good.

The Dry Pepper grabbed me, the Vetiver shook me,and the Frankincense sealed the deal. It was the first Armani, for me, that captured the essence of elegance since the Vintage Eau Pour Homme.
In 2008 I purchased it along with a pair of Black Label Gray Flannels.
It remains as my favourite of the Prive Line.


It's basically a cerebral chin-stroker of a frankincense with cedar facets that are balanced out by what seems to me to be some kind of floral note. Frankincense can be quite bitter, and here it's smoothed over in a way that exalts the material's richness. There are some spices present, but they're really just there for texture rather than flavor. It's a cold scent–not quite as sharp as the similarly-themed Avignon–but chilling all the same. However, it has a calming, meditative quality to it that offsets some of the coldness. It's linear and it winds down to Iso E quite fairly quickly, but it's really all about highlighting the frankincense–and that's what this does well. It feels like a solinote, so if you're looking for a more developed perfume, I'd turn to Clive Christian's V or perhaps Sahara Noir, but this is great for what it is, and it's by far the best thing from the line.