La Cérémonie de l'Encens

La Cérémonie de l'Encens, composed by Mathilde Bijaoui for L'Artisan Parfumeur and released in 2025, is a dry incense-and-wood scent worn by anyone. Everyone who describes it calls it woody, and about half add spicy, resinous and amber.

Pepper opens it with a dry, sharp tingle that clears the way for the resin. Frankincense, listed as olibanum, is the centre: lemony, smoky and slightly cool, the smell of resin smouldering rather than burning. Around it sit two woods: hinoki, the Japanese cypress, with a clean, slightly lemony, almost mineral freshness, and cedar, dry and pencil-like. Together they keep the incense bright and airy rather than heavy or sweet.

With only a handful of notes and nothing sweet among them, it is a spare, meditative scent. It suits any season and daytime or evening, and should appeal to people who like incense in its clean, woody, Japanese-leaning form rather than the dense, ambery Eastern style.

La Cérémonie de l'Encens — unisex fragrance by L'Artisan Parfumeur (released 2025). Notes: Cedar, Cedarwood, Frankincense, Hinoki Wood, Olibanum (Frankincense), Pepper. — Parfica open fragrance database