parfums*PARFUMS Series 3 Incense: Ouarzazate (2002)
by Comme des Garçons

When I first tried Ouarzazate, it was cold weather, and I got a sort of minty vibe from it that didn't sit right on my skin. Happily, I suspected it would sing in the hot weather, and it does! Not opera, but more like one of those favorite tunes with no words you find yourself humming _sotto voce_ when you're feeling quietly content. Mark Buxton apparently wanted Ouarzazate to emulate the smell of the interior of the Kasbah. I have no idea if he's succeeded, I just know I find this to be an strangely cooling incense, paler and lighter than one might otherwise expect, but which warms gradually (and delightfully!) on the skin, as if the sun were moving through. I think what smelled "minty" to me initially was the combination of the wispy aspect of the incense, the clary sage and labdanum. Very lovely.

[b]Ouarzazate Notes:[/b] Incense, pepper, nutmeg, clary sage, wenge, musk, vanilla, labdanum absolute, Kashmir wood.

Ouarzazate (pronounced WAR Jzah Jzaht) opens with the aforementioned burst of pepper, sage and some incense. After the hot blast, a lovely leather begins to emerge and persists for a while in what can best be described as amazing - sexy, mysterious and deep. The drydown is slow and eventually the musk and light vanilla join the wenge to form a very woody, masculine and yes, sexy base. My roommate was thrown off and quite grossed out at what he called "a spit smell." Yes, it slightly resembles saliva on the skin, but little does he know (his nose is not sophisticated enough) that he was sniffin some very fine musk. I think this is an oft overlooked quality to this scent, as the other notes are so busy and mesmerizing that the musk is only mentioned as a complement to the other notes in the drydown. When i first smelled this, I was entranced with how sexy it was. Yeah, musk is pretty awesome like that. I think the musk here was a beautiful touch that really is what distinguishes Ouarzazate from the others in the line. It adds an animalic dirty sexiness (in a clean way) that persists for hours. It stays close to the skin, which is another beautiful quality because I have been told by many girls who love this scent on me that the subtlety of it only enhances the sex appeal. In sum, this is a badass mother of a fragrance and absolutely sets itself apart from the other incenses in the series because, as others have pointed out, this is rich, dense, slightly sweet and as I will now add, very very sexy (masculine).
Recommended for cool nights out and those special times when you want to hypnotize your significant other, or whoever you bring home that night. Go get em, stud.

Whoa someone put a woody incense in a bottle of Mugler Cologne.

“Raisinous” incense.

Ouarzazate’s opening is redolent of dried fruit, sweet spices, and leather, with a mildly astringent frankincense emerging slowly over time. The incense and raisin accord that coalesces out of these is deep, dark, and compelling. As Ouarzazate continues to develop, its balance tips farther and farther toward the incense, and while the dried fruit subsides, a salty-sweet amber, rich in labdanum, rises to take its place.

The incense, dried fruit, and amber structure that nose Mark Buxton built for Ouarzazate foreshadows that of colleague Bertrand Duchaufour’s Jubilation XXV for Amouage, though leaner and cleaner in texture, and without the later scent’s baroque honeyed floral flourishes. It dries down into the smoky-woody territory explored since in kindred scents like Dzongkha and Timbuktu.

Ouarzazate assumes its own place in the Comme des Garçons incense series. If Avignon is liturgical incense, Kyoto Shinto temple incense, and Zagorsk incense burning in an icy fir grove, Ouarzazate is spiced fruit incense that flirts coyly with the culinary. It is the sweetest, densest, and thickest of these, but also the most rounded, sensuous, and approachable of the lot. No gothic austerity here, but instead a warm, enveloping, (if also decidedly exotic,) olfactory blanket. To wit, a fine recommendation for anyone first exploring the ever-expanding universe of incense-themed niche fragrances.

This scent is spicy, warm, and slightly sweet. It reminds me quite a bit of the "earthy-yet-modern" smells I've encountered in Aveda salons. In fact, it is very reminiscent of the the colognes my gay hairstylist friend used to wear that would always leave me envious. This has much more depth than the Avignon or Zagorsk perfumes from the same series, and it has much more staying power -- so much so that I grew tired of it by the end of the day. Don't consider that a complaint, however.

Hot, muted incense herbal sage with a sweet spicy note running through it. Smells jut like an afternoon hike in Sedona, Arizona