• Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant EDP Perfume Review

    Date: 2012.01.26 | Category: fragrance | Tags: ,,,,,,,

    Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant is a perfume that is meant to conjure up Eastern Orthodox churches – icons lining the walls, colorful hues on your skin from sunlight and stained glass; churches filled with incense smoke and chants. This fragrance does conjure up this environment, but as a person that associates this environment with when someone dies, I find this scent too emotional for me to wear.

    Encens Flamboyant opens with a smoky, anesthetizing, spicy, dry black pepper. The fragrance starts to reminds me of freshly blown out candles. It’s waxy and smoky…and very somber. The incense smoke appears and it’s slightly metallic. It does smell like incense  and charcoal in a chain censer. The smoke in Encens Flamboyant is sheerer than other smoky scents. It isn’t heavy. The dry-down is a balsamic incense with dried evergreen needles. It’s very balmy. And at the base is when Encens Flamboyant starts to “lighten up”.

    To me, the overall feel of Encens Flamboyant is somber and melancholic. It isn’t one of those gothic or vampy incense fragrances that makes “dark” irresistibly sexy and filled with a sexual energy. Encens Flamboyant is resting and morose. The scent reminds me of extinguished candles. Light is a symbol of life. The light is gone and I’m left with a trail of smoke. Encens Flamboyant is so mortal. I think it is very well done. Your personal experiences will determine if this is one you consider wearable or not.

    church candles

    Notes listed include frankinsence, pepper, roseberry, frankinsence resin, cardamom, sage, nutmeg, “old church” incense, mastic tree, and balsam fir.

    Give Encens Flamboyant a try if you are looking for something that reminds you of church candles or incense or if you like perfumes like CdG Zagorsk, Heeley Cardinal, Profumum Olibanum and/or Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline. Encens Flamboyant is a unisex scent and for a smoky scent, it is sheer. I think it does well as a fragrance for layering.

    I find projection of this scent below average. The scent is long wearing for an Annick Goutal. However, it wears softly.

    The  3.4 oz. of Encens Flamboyant goes for $175 at Luckyscent and Harrods (UK).

    Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Blown out candles, hot wax and frankincense in a censer. This fragrance reminds me of a vigil. I like it but it isn’t my favorite out of Les Orientalistes (see personal reasons above) but I think it is well done.

    Want more reviews? Try…

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    The Non-Blonde

    *Sample purchased by me. Product pic from Luckyscent. Chruch pic from www.thecandledepot.com