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Resinous & balsamic fragrances

Resin and balsam notes such as frankincense, labdanum and benzoin.

Scentorian assigns these categories for browsing. Fragrances can belong to several families; the house may describe them differently.

25 fragrances

A City on Fire Eau de Parfum

Imaginary Authors — A struck match, sulphur and all, and then the bonfire: wearers describe smoke that gets into hair and clothes, with a hint of dark berries if you go looking.

Arabie Eau de Parfum

Serge Lutens — Dense dried fruit and cumin, with a dark, sticky sweetness and savoury spice.

Blackbird Parfum

Olympic Orchids — Ripe blackberry with dry grass, fir balsam and resinous cedar.

Champaca Parfum

Ormonde Jayne — Moderate, close wear is the usual report for this creamy champaca and freesia on warm, starchy rice, freshened by green tea and bamboo..

Dune

Dior — Dry mineral air, sea breeze and a faint hay-like sweetness, likened by reviewers to pebbles, driftwood and dust.

Fantosmia Eau de Parfum

Jorum Studio — Dense and slightly medicinal to many wearers, drawing closer as it settles: pepper, pimento and fennel, green shiso and mate, over tobacco and leather..

Fat Electrician Eau de Parfum

Etat Libre d'Orange — A vetiver gone soft in the middle: wearers get smoky roots and cedar over chestnut cream, marron glacé and a dusting of vanilla, comfortable rather than austere.

Fille en Aiguilles Eau de Parfum

Serge Lutens — Pine sap and dried fruit in a dense, syrupy weave: wearers describe needles, frankincense and a jammy, Christmas-preserve sweetness, bone-dry and peppery on some skins, like a bitter herbal liqueur to one.

Flower by Kenzo

Kenzo — Lipstick and face powder are the comparisons that come up for this powdery violet and rose on vanilla.

Hwyl

Aesop — Dry thyme and elemi, wood dust and incense.

Karma Perfume

Lush — Straight back in an old head shop is where several wearers land: sweet, syrupy orange oil on pine and a raw, green patchouli, with a thread of incense.

No. 02 L'Air du Désert Marocain

Tauer Perfumes — Heat held in stone is how many owners put it: coriander and cumin over rock rose, cedar and vetiver, drying to incense-like smoke and mineral dust.

Passage d'Enfer

L'Artisan Parfumeur — Cool incense and white lily with an impression of stone.

Rouge Eau de Parfum

Comme des Garçons — Ginger and pink pepper with earthy, faintly sweet beetroot; later on, wearers say, incense and cistus turn it dry and resinous..

Sacred Scarab Extrait de Parfum

Zoologist — Lemon and aldehydes fizz like a freshly opened bottle of wine, then the room goes dark: resins, dried fruit, myrrh and a musky, animal warmth that some wear as ritual incense.

Spicebomb Extreme Eau de Parfum

Viktor&Rolf — Like walking into a freshly made Christmas dinner, one owner writes: pepper and a cumin-edged spice settling into smooth tobacco and a steady hum of vanilla.

Squid Extrait de Parfum

Zoologist — The sea at night rather than the beach by day: ink, salt and incense over a sweet, boozy amber, which one wearer who normally avoids blue-bottle aquatics rates as the real thing.

Sweet Leaf Eau de Parfum

Room 1015 — Grapefruit, eucalyptus and a green, resinous cannabis accord, with a sharp turpentine accent; wearers find wood and patchouli softening it later..

Tank Battle Perfume

Lush — Bubblegum dropped on wet soil: that collision is what nearly everyone reports, with metal, damp concrete and clove turning up often and cola or beetroot now and then.

Tonnerre Eau de Parfum

BeauFort London — Gunpowder, brandy and charred wood after a brief citrus opening, as wearers tell it, with birch tar adding a smoked-meat impression before it settles toward salt and ash..

Woodcut Parfum

Olympic Orchids — Fresh-cut lumber, and specifically so: wearers describe sawn boards, sap, bark and the hot-metal smell of a saw, like a lumber yard or the wood aisle of a hardware store.

Youth-Dew Eau de Parfum

Estée Lauder — Dense cinnamon, clove, dark flowers and balsams, with patchouli giving a spiced-cola effect.