Tauerama!: Incense Extreme review

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800px-Burning_incense_sticks_at_Wutai_Shan 

The countdown continues for my Tauer perfumes discovery set giveaway. If you are interested, I encourage you to enter the draw here. 578px-Incense

As its name suggests, Incense Extreme is a dry and pleasantly intense incense perfume, straightforward in its intentions, with a brace of bitter herbs at the opening. It then morphs into a very well-composed resinous frankincense and myrrh rounded out with what smell to me like cedar and roses—the immediately recognizable Tauer ones, which are distinct, as far as my nose can tell, from all other roses I have smelled. It takes on an almost tarry, leathery resonance in the drydown—at one point I was asking myself: is this more of  a leather fragrance than an incense one? 

Like all of Tauer’s creation, this is well-crafted, interesting, and long-lasting, with a distinct roundedness I get from all Tauer’s scents—and I lo431px-Påskeprosesjon_Caceres_ (1)ve it very much. It is resinous and woody, but never loses a certain sweet floral note that keeps it approachable. I would heartily recommend Incense Extreme to any incense/aromatics lover, although at times I felt myself wishing for a little darker profile—a little more smolder in this smoke.

One final note: I can’t find the orris root in this composition at all, although the official notes name it—I wonder if this is, in fact, a really cool thing, since, as far as I can tell, orris perhaps should not be detectable when used correctly to give roundness and depth to everything else…..

CREDITS:

Burning incense sticks at Mount Wutai, China, taken by David Wilmot, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Incense burning in Egyptian market, taken by B. Simpson Cairocamels,

Easter procession in Caceres taken by Nina Aldin Thune

courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Comments

  1. MyPerfumeLifeJune 22, 2010 at 4:53 PM

    Lovely post! Andy Tauer is a bit of genius. Reading your post has reminded me that I need to try more of his fragrances. I've tried L'Air du Desert Marocain. I'm looking forward to trying Orange Star in particular. And Incense Extreme is also worth a sniff by the sounds of it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. La Bonne VivanteJune 22, 2010 at 4:55 PM

    you know, I really think he is one. The more I smell, the more impressed I am! Hope you are feeling a little better about the twins situation. It sounds like you have a lovely family. Other people can just get stuffed, I say.

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  3. Katy JosephineJune 22, 2010 at 7:28 PM

    Have not yet tried this perfume, but I'm with you just in general; more smolder, please. A bit bored with incense/smoke/tobacco perfumes with wimpy smolder. Still looking for that 'second hand cigarette smoke outdoors on a cold morning as I drink coffee' perfume. Thanks for the review!

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  4. La Bonne VivanteJune 23, 2010 at 8:12 AM

    I hear you baby; me too. I love anything incense etc., but am still looking for THAT ONE!
    This is nice in other ways though..

    ReplyDelete

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