Pillar of Flame

[Franny]

Labdanum incense, wild plum, and pink pepper with smoky vetiver, red clover honey, and saffron.

On me this smells like dark and beautiful plum incense. It's not too dark but couldn't rightly be qualified as sweet either. It feels so balanced. I'm not familiar enough with vetiver or labdinum to pick out which is which, but they don't feel too dark or grungy like I was worried they would. The pink pepper and saffron and red clover honey balance it all out.
What results is something just about perfect. It's another scent that I love and is going to age beautifully. I'm very happy with my bottle purchase.

[Blood onmy hands]

This is a warm, glowing, peppery incense scent with a nice, honeyed sweetness to it. The red clover honey smells clean and sweet to me, which mixes nicely with the darker incense and spicy tones. I'm not getting much vetiver from it at all, and the smokiness here isn't a sharp woodsmoke, but more of a sweet, plush, incense smokiness. I have so many great incense blends that I don't know if this one is going to be a keeper, but I do like it.

[zankoku_zen]

Warm, peppery incense with a touch of honey. I definitely get pink pepper, smoky vetiver, incense with just a touch of plum and honey. It's like a nice manly incense blend. Very mellow. Low throw, good wearlength. This is such a warm blend.

[theseagrows]

this starts off with a dry incense mixed with some pepper, honey and labdanum. later on i get hints of plum but it's not super fruity. i don't seem to get any vetiver here, or it's just extremely subtle. i like this but there is something in this that's a bit too animalic on me, other than that it has nice elements, and i do like some animalic notes but whatever is giving that impression here is just a little too funky for me.

[oh_the_horror]

I had to jump in and review this because there are so few here. This is such a nicely balanced perfume. So sexy in a way that isn't giving itself away.

 

It starts as a dark brown incense, which is kept fresh with the plum and spicy with the pink pepper. I love pink pepper. It dries to a really interesting musk, it reminds me of an old church, the secrets contained in religious texts. The contrast of formal rituals and how you get so close to the workings of earthly life in those moments. Dang it's good.

 

I get a dry dark brown beeswax thing, some really good resiny vetivery powder, but in the best way. Powder can become cloying and this is not. The throw is strong and gorgeous. More incensey in the air, up close almost sticky.

 

It needed some time to settle down and age, I wasn't too interested when I first got it. This is going to be great this winter, wear under layers of black fabrics and long skirts. I may track down a bottle of this. I want to see this age over the years, I think it's going to be phenomenal as time goes on. Nice to have something special to reach for other than snake oil or Bakeneko.