It’s primarily rose + incense + sandalwood. The rose is prominent right out of the gate (if you dislike rose in perfumery, this is not the scent for you!) and I read it as jammy, tinged with what I feel are nuances of raspberries, but no more than a tiny bit sweet, and feels dark, as opposed to being pink and lighthearted. The incense gives the fragrance a lemony, yet lightly smoky lift and the entire thing is grounded by a gentle, modern woody amber and sandalwood. The rose never completely fades away, as one can sense it clearly, even as it it moves through all its scene changes and dries down. As others have stated Or Encens is probably best suited for days or nights, during the fall and winter weather. However, I can see wearing Or Encens during the cooler spring weather as well. Due to the fragrances wearing a tad bit thin. Women that enjoy dark/resinous/incense focused fragrances could easily wear Or Encens. Despite Or Encens being more masculine leaning and focused. Fragheads and guys 35+ with seasoned noses will likely be more inclined to enjoy Or Encens -- as the fragrances doesn't have the "sweet/fresh/playful/blue" mainstream mass appeal. Wow, wow, wow. Blown away by this. This is a special fragrance. The rose is very prominent here, so if you don't like rose, you most likely won't like this. Next I get incense, along with some smokiness and leather, but the rose dominates throughout; almost delving into unisex territory, but the smoke and leather keep it firmly masculine. The sweetness from the rose and incense is perfectly balanced by the smoke, leather, and woods behind it. If you like rose and incense, this is a must have. I am from Saudi Arabia, so I'd like to think that I know a thing or two about Oriental perfumes and this is definitely one, and although beautiful, it's not unique by any stretch of the imagination.

Curious, which one? You’ll find near the end of this review. Bottomline: Or Encens is a golden creation, indeed, The Golden. This is an interesting fragrance. Strangely, the only others in my experience that I can compare this with happen to have "Oud" in their names. This one claims no oud, but yet there is something about its combination of cedar/sandalwood, leather and rose that really evokes a clean, modern oud style. By the 15-20 minutes mark, the bittersweet milky bubbles halted to just a certain still while the leather is catching up. Not a fury one because the essence of smoothness from amber and woods (sandalwood-cedar) are playing central. Plus, the musk stirs along with them just to create an aromatic and balsamic fluidity, like silk. The overall vibe of this one is 'special'. You can't just throw it on. It's really fine stuff and demands a suitable occasion! Overall, I’m thrilled with this scent. It’s for sure a winter scent - and it’s for sure different from anything else on the Macy’s counter.Just to clarify: the vague resemblance is just at the dry down to close to skin. Not exact smell, just a vague resemblance for curiosity sake.

Overall, it’s robust but fairly agreeable as resinous fragrances go, and I could easily see it being a cold weather unisex staple, though it is of course part of the men’s collection. Speaking of Gucci pour homme - that’s what came to mind during the dry down - and while it’s not going to replace the beloved, discontinued GPH, it definitely plays in the same territory. This is the kind of fragrance that is meant for special occasions, dates, or any time you want to impress other people. Because as other reviewers mentioned, it definitely smells expensive and of high quality. I would only see myself wearing this in fall, winter, and possibly a cool spring evening. Definitely not summer, it would be way too cloying.My only complaint (and this isn't even a complaint about the fragrance itself) is that they don't offer it in a smaller bottle. From what I've seen, it's only available in 100ml, but that will last me a lifetime. Because like I said before, this will be reserved for special occasions. Either way, this should have a place in everyone's collection. Blind buy: if you are under 30 just don't even bother, this is dark stuff for "mature" men, not a playful or sexy scent, but rather a classy upscale one, still better to test first, although beautiful this is an acquired taste that is not for everyone.

Then the second act is like the olfactory memory of the first act, plesant rasiny echo of it, until it fade completely. I received an Or Encens full bottle last week as a blind buy. Yeah, my scent journey relies on blind buying. I rarely buy samples as I live in a National Park, away from the city and malls. Performance for Or Encens is best described as average. I suspect most people will yield 6 decent hours. After which, the fragrance will begin to sit very close to the skin and fade away. In the event you're curious the batch number I have is 8113EM which has a production date of 2018-04-23 not sure if the 2017 batches of Or Encens has better performance and projection.As the very long-lived, rose-heavy opening fades into its base, Or Encens takes quite a turn -- rose and leather give way to a brighter and almost effervescent cedar/pink pepper, combined with a spicy accord that takes it right into Creed Royal Oud territory. Wow! Thinking across all designers - is there a house who has had better releases than issey miyake over the last few years? The are making a strong argument for best designer house, in my opinion. Now I don't know if this was a special tester or something, but Or Encens stayed on my skin for a DAY, yes you read that right, a whole day where I could reach to my inner elbow and still get a whiff of it, silage was monstrous as well. Or Encens on 3 sprays but less is best. Mysterious, magnetic, sensual, bittersweet, engulfing, complex yet smooth after half an hour. Formal and date. Never for summer, not even it’s night. From Monday's Scent of the day which was something I initial liked but has fallen out of favour to something which perhaps has done the complete reverse of that, in Issey Miyake's L'eau d'Issey pour homme Or Encens.