parfums*PARFUMS Series 3 Incense: Avignon

House: Comme des Garçons

Perfumer: Bertrand Duchaufour

Release: 2002

Fragrance Notes

Roman Chamomile, Cistus, Elemi, Incense, Vanilla, Patchouli, Palisander

Review

This is a signature work for perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour and a reference point for many trying to find their own signature incense perfumer.

In our wear of a 2020 decant, we found that Avignon lives up to the hype as a transformative treatment of incense, but confounds an easy description. The opening of Avignon has a remarkable similarity to the scent of fossilized amber purchased from Eden Botanicals. There is a bright fruity, leathery, phenolic note that is a unified scent. It could be the fruit from the Roman chamomile combined with the peppery, lemony brightness of the elemi resting on the deeper cistus and vanilla. A blend of different myrrh oils and resinoids could also support this. Still, it goes beyond our understanding.

The characteristic frankincense note comes through after the opening and remains fairly linear. This is a dry, powdery incense sitting on a warm and welcoming benzoin/vanilla. This does not read as a straight-up frankincense scent as much as it is a subtle myrrh vehicle. Patchouli pokes a funky, slightly off head through all this and presages the descent into a dry woody finish.

For all of the positive aspects of this perfume, we are not fans of the woody musk finish, which lasted well over 12 hours on our skin. It is enough to make us not want to wear this with any regularity, but we have a generally stronger aversion to this kind of sandalwood aromachemical/musk finish than others.

This has moderate projection, limited sillage, and good longevity.