Incensi
Lorenzo Villoresi (1997)

Incense-laced top notes with bright, sheer citrus. Fuzzy green notes. A slice of apple, tho' brief. Strong elemi. The top mellows in no time.

The heart is soft. The spices are silky smooth as they are tamed by mimosa. I get hints of pepper & juniper but, not tons like I had hoped.

Incense is a lot tamer than I thought it would be, considering the name. It is like the "idea" of incense; not enough substance.

The base is a recipe of oriental-styled proportions. Mixed, mingled, mashed together. Styrax and opoponax stand out for me. Perhaps I got a bad sample - this frag is just not very strong on me. I wanted more.

Bright incense creation touched by pine and juniper – there's a brisk after shave or gentlemen's hairdresser quality about its opening. This is likely to do with its overall clean and crisp feel, despite the deployment of a battery of resins and some serious spicing. Straddles two camps – the incense one that demands focus, passion and a degree of singlemindedness to convey the usual austere/spiritual associations and the much more workmanlike efficiencies of the woody-spicy man cologne – awkwardly. The drydown is a whiny, sour and spicy incense that has little tonal variation and drones on interminably.

The opening introduces us to incense firm the worked "go" - but this in not the usual type in incense: neither dark nor ceremonial, it is bright - citrus notes with a large splash of ginger carry the bright freshness, supported by a lovely bergamot. Later on, this freshness is tampered by the restrained sweetness of a cinnamon impression, with a good labdanum adding touches of tangy crispness. At times, a whiffs of a leathery smokiness are in the air.

After some hours it takes a turn towards the harsher side of things: with a nigh burning leathery harshness that reminds me of the eternal Cuir de Russie by Creed, which also combines this with citrus top notes. Woodsy undertone with opoponax and a styrax that, surprisingly, lack a significant waxy component are fleshing out the base further, to slowly peter out under a gently woodsy veil until the end.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection and a stupendous longevity of fourteen hours on my skin.

This is a complex autumnal creation of high beauty, exceeding well blended of high-quality ingredients and quite original - an incense composition that is bright and elegant whilst being complex and colourful. 3.75

A quality scent with quality ingredients no doubt about that, but it didn't wow me enough to buy a full bottle.

It just doesn't have that bite or character that i like to have in my resinous/incense scents.

Basically a resinous woody slightly cinnamon-spicy scent that smells very natural...and that's where it ends really.

The drydown is a faint predictable semi-sweet bright incense accord hovering very politely close to the skin.

For someone who is a hardcore resins/incense freak, this sits rightfully in the "deja vu" ordinary category.

But for someone who is looking to add along his Avignon bottle something more interesting, this would be a choice worthy of consideration.

Genre: Oriental

Incensi does not start out promising. The top notes are a harsh, scrambled brew of soapy (unlisted) lavender, bitter greens and spices, and it takes several minutes for the scent to sort itself out. Once it does, it lays down a warm cinnamon, woody incense, and benzoin accord that's as smooth and serene as the opening is hectic. Ginger lurks quietly in the background, but it's much quieter here than in Bvlgari's ginger bomb Blv. It's to Villoresi's credit that the ginger, cinnamon, and benzoin don't turn Incensi into a comfort food desert. I believe that it's the firm and mildly astringent combination of myrrh and labdanum that does the trick.

The leathery labdanum note blooms as Incensi evolves, but the sweet spices and a powdery-soapy undercurrent prevent it from behaving like a "leather" scent. Cinnamon becomes more and more dominant the longer I wear Incensi, but it never manages to overwhelm the incense at the foundation. The scent lasts reasonably well and projects powerfully. You'll most certainly know you're wearing it, and if you use too much, so will everybody else in the room.

When I consider Incensi, it strikes me as a very likeable, warm, and complex winter scent. I recommend it especially to anyone who enjoys cinnamon in a personal fragrance. You just need to give it some time to put its house in order.

Incensi is one of the famous fragrances of the renowned italian creator Lorenzo Villoresi and in my opinion is basically an incense and cinnamon based fragrance with a partial dusty, slightly dissonant, gassy evolution (ginger, cumin and stirax) and a floral light flying kind of sophistication. It's more properly feminine than unisex in my opinion. The surfacing note of mimose is dreamy, subtle and velvety. Incensi becomes smoother (almost gassy/rare rather than properly powery) after a very severe and aggressive herbal, citrusy and spicy opening supported by pepper, gummy-mossy galbanum and cardamom that is misleading, almost off-putting and stark. In this initial phase i was on the point to scrub it off, the note of elemi seemed (ostensibly) overwhelmed, the incenses somewhat disguised and the cumin was just pungent and stuck. In a few time a dusty and incensey olibanum/labdanum "tumult" keeps exaling smokey and gassy, pushed up by steaming styrax and projecting cumin. That's the cloud of incenses that gives the name and the foundation to Incensi although, as well as many reviewers had to write, this spicy fragrance is for real more strictly an homage to my beloved note of cinnamon. The concoction anyway is named Incensi (at plural) and in a certain sense the spice of cinnamon with its fair level of sweet dustiness could be linked to the incensey sphere by the co-influence aroused at once by olibanum and mossy/resinous labdanum, all in a sort of holy spicy type of bliss inducing dustiness. What is the responsible of the moderate mildness in the body of this restrained fragrance? Well the duo cinnamon-ginger under my nose which, whirling perfectly in the general dust, provides a unique kind of prickly, mineral, sparkling, almost edible and resinous sort of mildness and pushes up the floral sophisticated note of delicate mimose. The fragrance is mostly spicy-powdery-gassy for the main part of its development and what gives a final touch of consistency and structure in absence of an heavy patchouli woods presencr (anyway i think that a not listed sandalwood is faintly included) are the well calibrated balmy/soapy balsams (benzoin, opoponax, tolu) and the woodsy resins that tame a bit the dust and support the mildness. In the final phase of the journey the smell is incensey and resinous with subtle and sophisticated whiffs of florals and soapy-mineral ginger, milk and cinnamon. The extremely balanced aroma is close to the skin, evocative but contemporary contemplative, avergely dry, cool, peaceful and boise. Artistry in perfumery.

Judging from the listed notes alone, I'd have expected to find INCENSI enjoyable. Wearing it however tells me a different story. What started off rather attractively as dry bitter galbanum quickly turned into a weirdly unpleasant concoction that conjured up the image of a sweat-drenched laborer hauling fish at the fishery. Repeated wearings failed to improve matters. I'm inclined to blame it on the styrax & cumin as the 'combo from hell' that sends me reeling with a one-two punch.

The shock is thankfully, transient, with the fragrance settling down to a more palatable blend of dry resins and salty leather. Unfortunately for me, the smelly fish dude still haunts my memories long after the drydown is gone.

Notes:
pepper, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, elemi, galbanum, cinnamon, labdanum, ginger, incense, benzoin, myrrh, styrax, frankincense, tolu.

A very interesting perfume! One of the driest and bitter Incense around. I really love this one as it's completely different if worn by somebody else, it totally morphes mantaining its own characteristics. It's quite hard to describe it but when I first tasted it on paper I almost got disturbed by its tremendous harshness and severity. I tried it on my skin anyway as it's not so easy, nowadays, to find something really capturing you attention (whether in a good or bad way). Everything seems to get levelled and I got sick of sport-perfumes. Incensi is another world, a very special one made of cinnamon, ginger and mimose (I totally get mimose in this one just like I get Camomille in Avignon) surroundend by an immense dose of dark incense and labdanum. Not an everyday fragrance, but absolutely great to wear once in a while. If you'll have the chance to taste Incensi, make sure to try it on your skin and don't be scared about the opening...let it works!

I have given this scent several tries since I received the samples. I sprayed it a few times on my skin and each time it smelled like crushed black pepper mixed with shower gel or bath soap. It was an atrocious smell that I'm sure non-perfume afficionados would hate. It only became tolerable when the basenotes came into play and I could smell the frankincense and myrrh, scents that I find comforting. I was going to give this one a thumbs down, but after spraying it on a card I realised it's my chemistry with the fragrance that's all wrong, not the fragrance itself. On the card it smells softer and the cinnamon becomes noticeable. When I smell it on the card it reminds me of a cinnamon croissant. If only it smelled more like this on my skin. Ah well.

Of my three Villoresi samples I saved this one for last, because my 'sniff test' (a dab on the back of the finger) told me this was the best.If you put bergamot and galbanum in the opening i'm going to like it, and this opens with a big 'wow' for me. However...When i put it on my decollete and took it for a hike it deteriorated, and quickly, into a hyper sweet mess. This definitey comes down to skin chemistry. For me, the only house that can put tolu balsam and opoponax (and benzoin a to boot) in the base and still make it wearable is Guerlain. In the hands of anyone else this turns into a flat out mess on me. How much of a mess? Succinctly: on my hike I preferred my own sweaty smell to this. With my chemistry this would have popped had the base been kept dry and resinous. Incense should never play second fiddle to sweet myrrh and friends. It was the base that ruined it for me; the opening was wonderful.

Good well done homage to Cinnamon. But a very hard to find a new bottle. been to London, and Milan, and they do not carry it. Easy to fall in like-love with this.

Different from many other incense fragrances, this is not about top-note shimmering frankincense oil but instead a deep, resinous, woody accord of various balsams including frankincense, myrrh, benzoin and more.Incensi opens with LV's signature rosewood/herbal top accord, supported by a little sweet ambery labdanum. Out of this a rich incense unfurls. The balance here is perfect, like a smokeless effect of the best burning brazier. It is powerful but not overwhelming like a middle-distance view of a large snow capped mountain.Some spices add continuity through the heart but incensi is dominated top to bottom by resins and tree notes.A very subtle and excellent creation, I find the incense is very prominent and potent. Refreshing, uplifting, balanced, grounding. This has it all.I could wear it every day.