It’s officially autumn here. It hasn’t really felt like it, but it is. I’m so ready to stop wearing summer clothes and my summer fragrances. I’m ready for amber and incense. Atelier des Ors Larmes du Désert is an amber and incense perfume that is satisfying all my olfactory cravings.
Larmes du Désert (“tears of the desert”¹) is a resinous fragrance. It opens with frankincense and myrrh with a hint of evergreen sap. It’s dry and balsamic with a glimmer of citrus. Under all of this there’s a warm patchouli that sort of comes across like dry, bitter cocoa. The heart is a resinous incense with a dry cedar. At this stage, it smells even more warm and radiant…I guess this is where the “desert” appears. As it wears, it becomes less of a desert and more of a Levantine forest. There’s dry woods (cedar, cypress, juniper) and balsamic resins. It’s faintly smoky. The dry-down is a woodsy amber. It’s dry, sweet (but not too sweet) and “hazy”/diffused.
Overall, Larmes du Désert is a linear fragrance. It mostly wears as warm resins with woods commonly used in incense. If you like frankincense or incense perfumes, this is one worth sampling. It’s not overly acrid or overly sweet. It’s a wonderfully balanced incense perfume that stands out even in a world where there are plenty of incense perfumes.
Notes listed include incense, cypress, patchouli, gaiacwood, cedar, citrus, amber and myrrh. Launched in 2015. PERFUMER – Marie Salamange
Give Larmes du Desert a try if you like incense perfumes or frankincense perfumes. Or if you like perfumes like Tom Ford Sahara Noir, Olfactive Studio Autoportrait, Aedes de Venustas Pelargonium, Ava Luxe Olibanum, Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure and/or Les Liquides Imaginaires Sancti.
Projection is average. Longevity is above average (I get about 12 hours of wear). It also has gold flakes floating around in the bottle. That’s fancy.
The 3.4 oz retails for $275 at Osswald. Samples are also available for purchase.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Warm, radiant frankincense and myrrh. It’s exactly what I’m craving right now.
¹The clumps of the hardened resins of frankincense are sometimes referred to as “tears”. In the harvested process, the trees are slashed (in a process known as “striping“). It makes it look like the trees are “crying” resinous tears. How delightfully emo is that?
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*Disclaimer – Sample provided by the brand. I am not financially compensated for my reviews. My opinions are my own. Product pic from Fragrantica. Iman for Mugler circa 1986 from <>
Ooooh…I came across this brand last summer at Individual Parfums, Tel Aviv’s first niche perfumery! Loved it, especially this fragrance. After having spent an August weekend in the Negev I was eager to experience an olfactory interpretation of the desert in an air conditioned environment 🙂
I bet! I’m sure the desert is gorgeous but it’s not comfortable 🙂
I’ve sampled the entire line and it’s really solid. The iris one is gorgeous too.
This sounds right up my alley, other than the mention of bitter cocoa. I do not appreciate chocolate notes in perfume. Resins do really well with my skin chemistry so hopefully they’d knock out all signs of Cocoa!
When I say cocoa, it’s not really chocolate but like that of bitter earth. It’s not a note listed, just a nuance, probably from something like patchouli. Trust me, it’s not chocolate-y 🙂 This is a resinous incense fragrance.