Larmes du Désert
Atelier Des Ors (2015)

"Where deep in the desert twilight
Sand melts in pools of the sky
Darkness lays her crimson cloak
Your lamps will call, call me home..."

Atelier des Ors Larmes du Desert is a 2015 release my very first try from this house, and it's instantly a sweet, resinous, slightly spicy and even seemingly slightly fruity mix that's both fun and a bit intriguing. The resinous quality leans toward incense, albeit not heavily smoky, with some contribution from guaiac wood, and some punchy, spicy bits from cypress and patchouli, but I feel like I'm missing something sweet in the mix, or perhaps the benzoin is just that sweet in this case.

It's an easy winner for fans of resinous fragrances, especially those that like their fragrances to lean more toward incense or sweet instead of animalic. It's not at all an animalic amber, in my opinion, even if there are spicier and woodier aspects of it, and in total, it's decently sweet on my skin, which I love.

It performs reasonably well, albeit slightly less than I would've expected, given the prominence of resins in the description and note breakdown, but surely still satisfactory. It comes in EDP concentration and is sold at $275 for 100ml at Luckyscent.

Overall, I love it, and would love to have a bottle.

8 out of 10

Wow what a beautiful take on the Desert themed amber that is a genre now starting to gather pace in the niche world after LADDM . Atelier des ors version tho has literally blown me away, it is so well thought out from top to bottom and brimming with luxury, if you have tried jubilation 25 then you'll be in a similar ballpark with this, Larmes tho is a touch brighter with the citrus notes adding great elevation in the early stages and it performs better, incense isn't overly pronounced but definitely there and obvious, it blends into the composition with the other woods and flickers of Cypress to bring a touch of masculinity to the fragrance, I really don't feel any dryness in this as many people have been reporting, on my skin the amber tones and the resins add a delicate sweetness that keeps it very approachable but at the same time royal and luxurious. This has been my most favourite incense and amber discovery to date, mainly due to my love of cypress and galbanum, Larmes appears to have bridged two separate genres into one fragrance perfectly.

Amouage-like in its desert-y, resinous dryness, Larmes du Desert smells like a hunk of desiccated wood studded with calcified pine sap that someone's thrown onto a dying campfire. The coniferous element lends a pleasantly masculine bitterness; it's actually kind of aftershavey in parts. The amber is not the sweet and unctuous kind, but the tinder-dry austerity of desert-style ambers like Opus VI and LADDM. I almost dislike this brutal dryness (its rubbery smoke magnified by a hefty dose of Ambrocenide,a powerful woody amber made by Symrise) but for two things. First, there are no real hard edges to the labdanum, myrrh, benzoin, and other resins here - they are buffed so seamlessly into each other that all you perceive is one smooth, warm resinous mass. Very enjoyable. Second, Larmes du Desert develops a rather interestingly cool, earthy facet midway through that's not just foresty-earthy but soil-earthy. This honest-to-goodness bit of clean dirt elevates the smooth nugget of ambery resin to something a little more special. Think of that flattish, mineralic soil note from Journey Man but more ethereal. Not bad, overall! Due to the spiky woody ambers powering its engines, Larmes du Desert wouldn't be my personal choice in the resin-amber genre. But if you're the market for this - money to spend, like the haute luxe niche end of things, want something flashier and smoother than indie renditions of the resin genre - then this would be a good choice.

i spent the morning trying to recreate this fragrance with my arsenal of oils and absolutes. experimentation is my favorite form of learning. i pulled out all my resins to match this fragrance. frankincense, styrax, cedarwood, elemi, guiacwood, oponax, myrrh, sandalwood, balsam of peru, tonka bean and labdanum. arctander desribes many of these essences as having a balsamic essence and or being used in powder type perfumes. i added a smidgen of patchouli, cardamon and clove to add spice. a bit of bergamot and orange to bring up the sweetness. i get a decidedly powdery-soft smell from larmes du desert. it smells to me like an imagined sandalwood. my creation is no match. whatsoever. i am going to stash this blend and smell again in a month.

voila the missing ingredient is ambrocenide. i kept on smelling larme du desert and it finally dawned on me that the powdery smell was ambergis. i am not a fan of synthetics but i now know that this may be what makes many commercial fragrances impossible to replicate using natural materials.

Incense & cypress blend well for an uplifting beginning. Dry. Piercing. My good friend patchouli is here in spades. The woods here are sublime. Well integrated. Smooth. Resinous. Sweetly balsamic. It reminds me of a combo of Sahara Noir and one of the Guerlain Les Desert d'Orient releases.

This is an alluring, calming fragrance. No choppiness at all, in its composition. The incense is not overdone. Expertly mixed. No complaints. Lasts and lasts.