Incense

Bright, resinous and smoky, with a lemony freshness and a sacred coolness.

Frankincense is the resin of small, gnarled trees growing on the barren limestone soils of southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa. Frankincense from the Dhofar region of Oman is considered particularly fine.

The bark is scored with a small knife. A milky sap seeps out and hardens in the air into pale “tears”. These are collected by hand and distilled or extracted for perfumery. Pale, almost translucent tears are considered the best.

Frankincense brings light and smoke at once: fresh and resinous, lemony, with a cool, sacred depth. In our range it appears on all three levels – in the base of 73 out of 148 fragrances, in the heart of 50 and even in the opening of 32.

Resinous-woody, with a fresh, lemony side.

Harvesting takes place mainly in the hot, dry season. The trees are scored several times in succession; each time the resin needs a few days to weeks to harden in the air.

In our fragrances, it often appears alongside Patchouli, bergamot, cedarwood, vanilla, myrrh, coriander, osmanthus.

In antiquity frankincense was one of the most precious trade goods of all. Caravans travelled the Incense Route from southern Arabia to the Mediterranean; in the Gospel of Matthew, frankincense is one of the gifts of the Magi, alongside gold and myrrh.

• The resin is obtained by making shallow cuts in the bark – mainly in Oman, Yemen and Somalia.
• The ancient frankincense sites of Oman have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the “Land of Frankincense”, since 2000.
• The name olibanum probably goes back to the Arabic al-lubān – after the milky sap of the resin.

The fresh tone comes mainly from α-pinene, along with other monoterpenes.