The Lowdown on Incense & Resin - The Best Recommendations

[parrot_suspect]

In the general catalog, Cathedral is probably your best bet.

 

There was also a Yule limited edition scent called Midnight Mass that many people felt captured the scent of incense at a Catholic Church. You might be able to find this on eBay or the swaps board.

[northatlantic]

Does anyone know of a scent that smells like the incense that they use in a Catholic funeral rite?

 

All Saint's or Midnight Mass are probably most like what you're looking for; they were limited editions, but you may be able to swap for them on the forums. In the general catalog, try Penitence, Hymn or Cathedral.

[portalkat]

Yup, what parrot_suspect and northatlantic said. I think that Midnight Mass comes closest, but nothing is exactly like the incense in the Catholic church. I love that smell and have hoarded bottles of the 2005 Midnight Mass because of that. The 2006 version is close, but has a bit more wood notes. I noticed both 2005 and 2006 in the sales/swaps section last night

[curlykitty]

Thanks for the suggestions. It would prolly be easier if I knew what made up the incense. I just remember loving the scent when they used it at my grandfathers funeral. At the time I asked my dad if he knew but he didn't. /sigh. I will have to try the ones you guys recommended. I actually thought Cathedral might work when I was putting together my first order but decided on another scent that I wanted to try more. Thanks again!

[fiddledragon]

Definitely Cathedral and Midnight Mass...I'm not that familiar with the incense as it's used in Catholic churches, but I also found Penitence to be very close to Midnight Mass, especially when both are aged.

[portalkat]

Thanks for the suggestions. It would prolly be easier if I knew what made up the incense.

It is primarily Frankincense and Myrrh and I have seen other ingredients added as well - sometimes benzoin and styrax and also copal.

[Lupelele]

i would like to *bump* this up

i´m in need of a incense that isn´t too strong.

i´m catholic & strong incense blends remind me too much of my childhood when - for a while - i was more or less forced to go to church...once i fainted - this happened to quite a few people in our church - because of the strong incense smell...

the incense blend i´m searching for should be:

an incense/resin blend without fruits or florals. but it should have a sweet quality.

does something like this exists?

Edited October 21, 2007 by Lupelele

[cranberry]

Maybe Al-Azif. It's quite sweet, with incense but not the OMG INCENSE like Midnight Mass, Cathedral or Pit and the Pendulum. It's a great blend.

 

Shub Niggurath also has a fantastic incense once the ginger and/or lemon (depending on the age of the oil) recedes. It's not a real strong incense blend though, but just enough to make it really special.

 

Tezcatlipoca is also an amazing incense blend behind the patchouli, leather and cocoa. The incense gets stronger the longer it wears and it becomes mainly an incense-patchouli blend. Yum!

[portalkat]

This year's All Souls has a stronger incense note than in the past. I also agree with Cranberry about Al-Azif.

[Lupelele]

thank you for your recommendations !

 

cranberry, i put al-azif on my wishlist!

imps of shub & tezcatlipoca are already on the way to me, so i should be able to test them pretty soon.

 

portalkat, i didn´t pay enough attention to all souls, it seems. now it´s on my wishlist as well!

Edited October 22, 2007 by Lupelele

[tartchef]

Hey, Lupele, there's something in your package that might just fit the bill On a whim, I threw in a partial of Strangler Fig - I just don't wear it anymore, and had a hunch you might like it... On me, the fig isn't terribly fruity, more of a honeyed richness lurking in the back. At the forefront, however, is this incredible incense... it's like the leftover ash that collects in my burner, dry & smoky & close... Applied lightly, it's not overly strong - slathered, though, and I see where the namesake comes in Hope you like it!

[Lupelele]

tartchef now i´m awaiting your package(s) even more!

[parrot_suspect]

the incense blend i´m searching for should be:

an incense/resin blend without fruits or florals. but it should have a sweet quality.

does something like this exists?

 

Jacob's Ladder definitely fits that bill. It's sweet but not at all fruity or floral. It's amber-y.

Also check out Snake Oil and Temple Viper, and Scherezade.

[Fishwomon]

I just got a decant of The Lurid Library in the mail today, and I have my face pressed to my wrist. I think this may fit the bill of incensey but not churchy. It smells like the page of an old book that's soaked up the smell of incense. It's delicious, definitely more occult book store than high church.

[Lupelele]

parrot_suspect,

today, my lacob´s ladder 05 was in the mail i already own jacob´s ladder 06 which i like, but don´t find ambery enough. i didn´t have the time to test the 05 version, but from the bottle it smells "fuller" than 06 - might be due to aging as well.

 

i´m already in love with snake oil & i´ve also a bottle of scherezade, but i´m not sure what to think about it. very musky, not bad, but...oh well, needs further testing, i guess.

 

temple viper was awful on me - sickly sweet, i didn´t get any frankincense at all, only sugar cane.

 

 

Fishwomon,

i´m waiting for a decant of the lurid library to arrive. i´ve high hopes in that one & your description tempted me even more!

[donnatron]

I've read the thread and I've seen the Caterpillar thrown out as a suggestion for incense, but haven't seen any recs stemming from the Caterpillar. I ordered it on a whim in my last order and have fallen in love. It's a big, gregarious (if that makes sense) scent and it makes me think of road trips through British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. It smells like those little roadside log cabin gift shops you can buy turquoise jewelry and dream catchers in.

 

Does anyone have any recs from that description? I'm not looking for a dusty or serious smelling incense blend, I'd like something that is similar to the wet, woodsy/mossy, dramatic scent the Caterpillar brings.

[wstphal]

Merry Meet!

 

I'm another newbie. Launched on this by a friend (a/k/a enabler) who gifted me with an imp of Fenris Wolf. I *LOVE* it. So much so within a day I'd ordered a bottle. It came with an imp of Katherine & something else I can't remember.

 

Anyway, I go to the BPAL website & I'm hopelessly lost in the poetic descriptions. I'm hoping somebody will take pity on me. This thread looked like the place to add my questions because of what I like.

 

I love Fenris Wolf. LUV LUV LUV.

 

Commercial perfumes that work well on me: Youth Dew, Opium, the Opium knockoff called Ninja (actually I think it is better than the original, but alas, no longer available), Emeraude, Magie Noir, Ciara & Red. The theme here is orientals. Not florientals, I don't care for floral notes much, but orientals.

 

Single-ish notes I like: musks, vanilla, spices, woods, incenses, resins, particularly amber resin & dragon's blood. I don't like most food-ish scents other than spices & vanilla.

 

I'd like to order some imps, and I'd like to keep it down to no more than 12 because my budget is busted due to a sick cat. Any and all suggestions would be gladly received.

 

Merry Part & Merry Meet Again,

Betsy

[northatlantic]

I love Fenris Wolf. LUV LUV LUV.

 

Commercial perfumes that work well on me: Youth Dew, Opium, the Opium knockoff called Ninja (actually I think it is better than the original, but alas, no longer available), Emeraude, Magie Noir, Ciara & Red. The theme here is orientals. Not florientals, I don't care for floral notes much, but orientals.

 

Single-ish notes I like: musks, vanilla, spices, woods, incenses, resins, particularly amber resin & dragon's blood. I don't like most food-ish scents other than spices & vanilla.

 

Definitely check out Blood Amber and Anne Bonny in Bewitching Brews, Bastet in Excolo, Shub-Niggurath in Picnic in Arkham, and Bengal and Morocco in Wanderlust (don't be afraid of the carnation, most people interpret that as a spicy note, not floral), and there is an entire section of scents with a large component of dragon's blood, Ars Draconis. Also, how do you feel about tea notes? If you like/don't mind tea, check out Plunder in Bewitching Brews, Kumiho in Diabolus, and Silk Road in Wanderlust.

[ImperatrixMundi]

Merry Meet!

 

I'm another newbie. Launched on this by a friend (a/k/a enabler) who gifted me with an imp of Fenris Wolf. I *LOVE* it. So much so within a day I'd ordered a bottle. It came with an imp of Katherine & something else I can't remember.

 

Anyway, I go to the BPAL website & I'm hopelessly lost in the poetic descriptions. I'm hoping somebody will take pity on me. This thread looked like the place to add my questions because of what I like.

 

I love Fenris Wolf. LUV LUV LUV.

 

Commercial perfumes that work well on me: Youth Dew, Opium, the Opium knockoff called Ninja (actually I think it is better than the original, but alas, no longer available), Emeraude, Magie Noir, Ciara & Red. The theme here is orientals. Not florientals, I don't care for floral notes much, but orientals.

 

Single-ish notes I like: musks, vanilla, spices, woods, incenses, resins, particularly amber resin & dragon's blood. I don't like most food-ish scents other than spices & vanilla.

 

I'd like to order some imps, and I'd like to keep it down to no more than 12 because my budget is busted due to a sick cat. Any and all suggestions would be gladly received.

 

Merry Part & Merry Meet Again,

Betsy

 

Hi! Have fun exploring BPAL!

You might also like to try Al Azif from the Picknick in Arkham series and probably the number one popular BPAL - Snake Oil. And Ars Draconis is definitely worth looking into. Golden Priapus is a nice amber scent.

[wstphal]

Merry Meet,

 

Thanks for the replies. My wish list is up to about 30 items, but I've pared it down to 6 for now and more later. I'm ordering imps of:

 

Debauchery

Scherezade

Blood Amber

Golden Priapus

Bastet

Morocco

 

Some of these are based on my surfing of the BPAL site, some on recommendations here, and especially from the replies. I'll have plenty of material for future orders...

 

Merry Part & Merry Meet Again,

Betsy

[Trish]

Single-ish notes I like: musks, vanilla, spices, woods, incenses, resins, particularly amber resin & dragon's blood. I don't like most food-ish scents other than spices & vanilla.

 

Woah you could be my scent twin! Except for the amber (which I like but it hates me) your likes are identical to mine, and I don't go much on florals either. Schezerade is the first thing I'd recommend, followed by Morroco, and I see they're already on your list. I also second Snake Oil and it's spiced vanilla (and if you don't like it at first - I didn't - age it for a bit and try again). Also Plunder which I am wearing right now. I don't get tea from it, just dried spices with a little sandalwood behind it. It smells like a spice rack! Oh and Chimera! It doesn't have vanilla listed, but it has that feel. Sweet cinnamon, warm smooth and sticky. It is foody, but it's good spicy foody!

 

As far as Ars Draconis the ones that immediately spring to mind are:

Dragon's Milk - dragon's blood and honeyed vanilla. It's not foody at all but is beautiful.

Dragon's Claw - dragon's blood and sandalwood. A very nice combo of two of my three favourite notes.

Dragon's Musk - db and musks

Dragon's Heart - db, musks, fig, blackcurrant (I think, going by memory here). Similiar to Dragon's Musk on me but a little sweeter. It's sexy as hell imho.

 

That's probably enough to go on with for now

[wstphal]

OK, my imp order arrived. Right now I smell like Scherezade. My whole office smells vaguely of BPAL in general (one of the frimps, Shadow Witch Orchid, is really aggressive). I'm psyched, next thing to try (probably tomorrow because the Scherezade is really lasting) is Debauchery. Morocco smells really, really carnation-y in the bottle but I'll get to that sooner or later. It isn't what I expected but that's OK, I am not going to condemn it until I've tried it. Several perfumes over the years that I didn't like much in the bottle turned out wonderful on dry-down so that's OK. On the other hand, does anybody want a frimp of Shadow Witch Orchid? It is *SO* not my thing.

 

Blessed be,

Betsy

[wstphal]

Me again! A friend of mine is feeling down-ish. I had her go thru my imps sniffing, just to see if it would cheer her up. She kind of liked Blood Amber, but said that woody scents are her thing. I *know* there's a link somewhere here that goes to a list of some of those but I *can't* find it. Can anybody help? I think a box of imps would cheer her up.

 

Blessed be,

Betsy

[donnatron]

Me again! A friend of mine is feeling down-ish. I had her go thru my imps sniffing, just to see if it would cheer her up. She kind of liked Blood Amber, but said that woody scents are her thing. I *know* there's a link somewhere here that goes to a list of some of those but I *can't* find it. Can anybody help? I think a box of imps would cheer her up.

 

Blessed be,

Betsy

 

Hi Betsy,

 

There's a Forest and Woods thread here and a general non-sweet perfume thread.

 

Cheers,

PaperRose

Edited March 9, 2008 by paperrose

[303marlena]

Maybe I'm just overly literal... but I bifurcate the incense/resin conundrum along tactile/sensory lines:

 

Incense - airy, smokey, dry

Resin - rich, sticky, wet

 

And that probably only makes sense to me.

 

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODE. I could not have said that better myself. There is a HUUUUUUUUGE difference between resiny goodness and incens-y goodness. Especially the tactile-ness of the smellness. Sometimes I want to smell smokey and mysterious, othertimes I want to smell sweetness and sticky-icky-icky.

 

That being said, here is my compilation of the ULTIMATE Incense*/Resin** scents after reviewing this thread (and it was a doozy) minus any that were too pansy-fansy floral plus adding a few of my own:

 

Crossroads*

Dia De Los Muertos*

Hexemmacht*

Les Infortunes...*

Djinn*

Midnight on the Midway*

RoseCross

Old Cairo*

Cathedral

the World*

Dragon's Heart*

Tears*

Greed*

Al Azif*

Penitence*

Tombstone*

Tushmaynatay*

Faustus*

Omen*

Sri Lanka*

Lear*

Titus Andronicus*

Coiled Serpent*

Medea**

Lust**

Malediction**

Fenris Wolf**

 

 

Those were the minor leaguers

These are the ALL STARS...

 

The Caterpillar (unless you amp jasmine)*

Anne Bonny*

Anubis*

Philosopher in Meditation*

Aureus*

Morgause*

Penthus*

Tezcatlipoca*

Witch Queen*

Jacob's Ladder*

Carfax Abbey*

Scales of Deprivation*

Cracked Bell*

Lex Talonis**

Xiuhtechutli**

Nyarlathotep**

Al Shairan**

 

ANd the GrandDaddy Macs of each category:

 

Incensey Grand-daddyMackie: Midnight Mass!

 

Resin-y Grand-daddyMackie: Shub Niggurath!!!!