Incense Extrême (2008)
by Tauer

To my untrained nose, this smells like Andy Tauer's LDDM. I therefore give it a thumbs down and recommend L'air Du Desert Marocain instead. This fragrance is redundant in my opinion due to the other fragrance, which does the same thing and better.

14th November, 2011.

I did not like this at first. However, the more I tried it the more I liked it. Also, the more it dries down, the more the pure incense note comes through, and the more I like it. However, early on, there is a "green" note that interferes with the incense note, that I don't care for. This may have been why my initial reaction was negative. Wear this a few times, and let it dry down, before making a judgment.

1st July, 2011.

Should be called Frankincense Extreme. Hard to find anything else going on here but the Frankincense working hard. Boring as dish water but good materials were used. CDG does incense so much better and cheaper. Get 2 Man rather than this.

16th June, 2011.

If Andy Tauer's signature notes (at least in his early perfumes) are coriander and amber, his style can be said to orbit the quality of dryness, of 'dessert air'. Incense Extrême is the starkest and most arid of Andy Tauer's perfumes and is an important contribution to a seam first tapped by Guerlain's now nearing-extinction Djedi.

The scent opens with lashings, and lashes, of frankincense, and a substantial cedar accompaniment. There is a faint spiciness that smells like coriander seeds in a pan on the gas ring, having moved through 'fragrant' to 'smouldering' and now approaching 'charred'. I have trouble detecting the orris mentioned in Tauer's pyramid, but do pick up an increasingly prominent, though nonetheless subdued, ambery sweetness.

For purposes of comparison, I'd skip the Incense Series from CdG, which are overall thinner and less convincing than Tauer's scent, and instead look to the (admittedly much quieter) Armani Privé Bois d'Encens, or go back to the beginning, with Diptyque's L’Eau Trois. In structure, I'd suggest a sideways glance at Oud 27 from Le Labo: both Incense Extrême and Oud 27 have pungent beginnings and both then
compose themselves into far more nuzzling, cedar-based drydowns within an hour or two.

For the meddlers out there, Incense Extrême begs to be layered intelligently; I'd go with a zesty cologne with lots of natural oils and not too many pretensions.

13rd May, 2011.

Cold, metallic incense. Like razor blades dipped in resin. After an hour or two Incense Extreme loses the metallic vibe and gradually gets muskier, creamier. Overall this fragrance is weird, unfriendly, and slightly repulsive.

12nd April, 2011.

This is all about Frankincense. If you are not a big fan then stay away. My girlfriend described it as a Fragrance for someone who likes the way they smell and wants to be left alone. It's purifying and elevating but a little stark to be welcoming. Very natural and resinous. I like it but prefer the Amber note in Tauer's L'Air.

25th March, 2011.