Plume of Incense

[Jenjin]

Tendrils of sandalwood, agarwood, and cypress incense, moss silk, calla lilies, and yellow amber.

[ghoulnextdoor]

The cypress leaps out first - almost tactile in its intensity, a lemony-green sharpness that feels like running your hand along a prickly branch. Then the scent shifts and settles, becoming a soft, languid incense drifting through empty rooms. It transforms into an indolent sphinx of a fragrance, stretched across sun-warmed stone, with delicate wisps of aromatic smoke curling from its enigmatic smile. The agarwood and sandalwood form the creature's body, substantial yet somehow also ethereal, while the yellow amber creates its half-lidded eyes that watch with ancient, unhurried patience. This incense has all the time in the world to gradually enchant you into reverence, each tendril of smoke winding around your senses with the languorous confidence of something that knows eternity is on its side.

[gentle-twig]

Just one plume? I get three wafting together in braided harmony right off the bat. Cypress has the boldest character, but dry and airy sandalwood and denser, nut-bitter agarwood are just as present. The moss silk has a snappy, taut green quality. Those delicate tendrils of incense rise to inflate your green silk hot air balloon (why don’t we take this thing out more?) and carry you miles into the yellow amber sunset to the gentlest eventual moss landing.

 

The yellow amber really is the star on my skin; warm, bright, and smoooooooth. The calla lily comes out after an hour or two and really adds to the smooth, gliding impression of this scent. It’s strange how much the floral and amber feel unified here, warm and yellow yet somehow refreshing. I’m thrilled because many BPAL ambers do not work on my skin, becoming either cloying or dry and scratchy. I’ll have to remember that YELLOW amber is my friend. When I first tested this, the wonderful sandalwood was in the foreground, and even reminded me of the billowing sandalwood of my beloved old favorite Visions of Autumn VII. I think this isn’t going to recreate that magic, but it has magic all its own. 

And always, there is a crackling hum of incense drifting in and out of perception, growing slowly more mossy and terrestrial as that big yellow sun begins to set.

 

I was thinking I was gonna have to pick between a full bottle of this and Lu Zhishen Pulls the Weeping Willow Upside Down, both possessing a frizzly yet meditative cypress opening. But they are settling down so differently ! Lu Zhishen is bracing and active throughout, where Plume of Incense is happy to let you just enjoy the ride. If anything I’ll probably death match with A Cup of Tea in the Veranda from this year’s yules to see which calm but entrancing glowing amber-floral will claim a spot in my cart. 

Edited Monday at 10:32 PM by gentle-twig