Terre de L'Encens
Cloon Keen Atelier (2012)

Top notes of "fresh masculine aquatic" + something rainforesty

Heart notes of something floral + headache

Base notes of incense sticks + "masculine woody note"

Pass.

Stardate 20170713:

A great opening - incense,smoke,woods mixed with some make-up iris. Very similar to CdG Man2 or GPH76 (I guess it must be C-10,C-12) with dash of Iris.
Unfortunately, the CdGM2 part fades very soon and the Floral-Iris becomes more prominent throwing the composition off balance. I am not a fan of this part of the development(which is basically whole mid and base notes)
A different take on iris and a nice effort.
A mild thumbs up

Terre de L'Encens is nice, but not very exciting, for my tastes. It's a great fragrance for someone who wants a light frankincense. It has nice development, and some of the best moments come a couple hours after application, when it turns somewhat soapy.

An unexpected beauty.

I was admittedly confounded by the concept of the fragrance...how would it actually work? A cool incense? How? And would it fall apart?

I had passed up this hidden gem two, maybe three times in a trade with a friend. I was not familiar with the brand, and everything I read was a "yin and yang" of sorts. It certainly held a fascination, but did I really want it?

This time, I was ready for an unusual take on Frankincense. I love the stuff, and a recent purchase of some orris butter as well as some nice Frankincense had me wondering back to this little bottle.

Upon application, it smelled sorta average. I was racing out the door, and decided to try it, and thought "well, at least it's not bad". That was that, at least for about 30 minutes.

But then something really beautiful happened. I caught a hint of something that reminded me of walking on the beach in the fall or winter. At first, I didn't even think about the fragrance I had sprayed on, because honestly, it did not seem to have any relationship to the initial spray, plus I was moving some things around in my office, and I have several items that still have sea salt/mineralization on them for decor, so I assumed I had simply smelled those in movement.

When my first client came in, I reached over to grab my water, and my wrist went close to my nose - AHA! That is the winter beach scent! It's the fragrance I am testing! I was delighted...and excited to see how it would develop.

By the end of the last client, I learned that this would be a fairly linear, but incredibly realistic winter beach scent. I still do not comprehend how these notes combine to manifest that memory and imagery for me, but I like it. I love that for me, this is a skin scent after four hours. Sometimes I want more, sometimes less. This is PERFECT for those days I want a bit less.

I am very glad I did not pass up this gem, this time.

A lovely dry, church-like incense...

A very nice and intriguing fragrance from Cloon Keen Atelier. Ireland is not known for perfume making, but this is a lovely small niche house with a positive attitude and I'm impressed by this creation of theirs: Terre de L'Encens.

Terre de L'Encens could be translated as "Earth Incense" but I think the creators meant "Land of Incense", and they mention how this was inspired by the use of it in Eastern cultures. I can see what they mean here, because the smell of this reminds me of the incense I have smelt in an old Greek church!

For me this perfume contains a combination of two notes which I love: Frankincense (Olibanum) and Iris (Orris root). It comes across as a powdery but dry incense fragrance. It's kind of beautiful... and I see it almost like a spiritual type of incense. Not in any way a strong one, more like a subtle, delicate one. I do appreciate delicate fragrances (like Jean-Claude Ellena's work for Hermès). This one is not too strong, it stays on the skin and gives the feeling of a warm, dry place. A lot like the inside of an old church, with incense in the background, but not a strong, burning incense. It's more like visiting the church at the end of the day before the doors are closed and you can still smell the incense in the air from the whole day, mixed with the smell of the perfume of all the people who have visited there. It's very evocative, and I like it very much. Great for trying.

The opening of Terre d'Encens is undoubtedly beautiful, surprising and almost breathtaking in its simplicity: luminous, translucent, slightly aquatic, clean and citric, between green-citrus and floral (rooty and powdery), on a synthetic incense base which initially smells quite woody – the "pencil sharpener" cedar effect. Rarefied, thin like morning fog, surely "artificial" and almost abstract, but terrifically good, calm, peaceful, invigorating, heavenly. Sadly, this remarkable opening is soon followed by a more disappointing and ordinary evolution mostly comprising pepper, incense and rooty notes of iris: always minimalist and transparent, but "switched off" and pale, without the lively, vibrant, airy and bright mood of the opening. Still nice, just not as much as the opening promised.

6,5/10