Copal Azur
Aedes de Venustas (2014)

Some incense fragrances are bitter, or sour, which can lend a sort of sophistication. They can smell exotic, or old fashioned.

Copal Azur isn't like that for me. It combines a wonderful copal resin scent with the ozonic salty notes described above. This is where the 'blue' comes from. I normally dislike this note, but it works here, combining with the incense to create a very modern, wearable, but ethereal experience.

The spices are there, adding a bit of warmth, but I find they aren't overly sticky when it dries down. I like that a lot. I find some fragrances end up just being a warm spice sticking to me, and I hate that. I find this one dries down really nicely; the ozone and salt are less prominent, but the sweeter amber and incense notes persist, with a little bitterness and sophistication thrown in.

This is a great concept, in my opinion. It smells very modern to me, yet it also reminds me of a place of worship. It is unlikely to offend, but it also gives you some nice complexity.

I'm new to fragrance, but with my first 20 or so samples, this was a stand-out. Definitely recommend trying it.

Price is high, but performance is good, and the composition is unusual.

I adore this perfume. It's one of the best incense perfumes that I know of. Luminous, bright opening with very crisp and clean incense! Good stuff!

Fire at Night by Francisco Goya 1794

First is a blast of Vick's Vapo-Rub. It then soften's into a quite beautiful incense symphony. More complex than my other incense faves " Cardinal" and "Bois d'Encens". A touch of patchouli interweaves and a most remarkably true camphorous Cardamom dances center stage and then stands back to a canvas of softened Myrrh and Blue Orchid. A dryness that brushes with LADDM.
It is here where it shares a moments exploration similar to Chanel's No. 18.
The "Ozonic" for me emerges later. It strikes me as masterful in composition and very wearable.
If you listen carefully, you can recognize the same structure in Oud Shamash. Bertrand Duchaufour

Wishlist definitely!!!

It smells like a bathroom cleaner, but a really good one. This is an incense fragrance that opens with a bang – a “blue” flame kind of effect carved from a snappy combo of aldehydes that gives it a feel not too far removed from one of those “blue” CdGs. From start to finish, it's clean – like OCD clean – which seems odd against incense, but it does work somehow. What bothers me about it, though, is the slight herbal tinge that seems sage-like – a note that I'm jut not a fan of. Even though I don't think this is something I'd wear by choice, I am impressed by how daring the approach is. I must admit, though, that it's a very poor performer; all the good parts are gone within 20 minutes, and what's left an insipid shadow of what came prior. If I were to sum it up in a just few words, I'd say it smells like someone just mopped the floor of a church with some top-shelf bleach.

When I originally heard the news of Copal Azul, I immediately thought about a cold / bright incense….well, this is not. At least not completely.

It opens with a sparkling and extremely clean incense note joined by a subtle ozonic accord. In this phase it vaguely brings to mind of other similarly themed incenses such as Liquide Imaginaires Sancti, Heeley's Cardinal and, to a lesser extent, Andrea Maack Craft or even Comme Des Garcons Blue Encens. This phase doesn't last long though and the fragrance morphes pretty quickly into a competent, if not completely deja-vu, sweet ambery incense middle-phase and drydown which are both comforting and boring at the same time.

Not bad after all. It's absolutely pleasant and well done but, in my opinion, also redundant and kind of formulaic too.