Frankincense

Frankincense is the oldest perfume in the world. The tears of the Boswellia tree have been burned in temples for four thousand years, and they still smell as they did then: of light, of lemon, of clean smoke and of something that lifts. In my chapters it is the resin that looks upward.

What frankincense is

Frankincense is the gum resin of Boswellia carterii, a small, tough tree of the dry hills of the Horn of Africa. The bark is scored, the tree weeps a milky sap, and the sap hardens over weeks into the pale golden tears that are collected by hand. Our formula books use the resin in two forms: the steam distilled oil, which is bright, lemony and resinous, and the resinoid, which is deeper, warmer and more balsamic. Together they give the whole tree, the light and the smoke.

Where our frankincense comes from

Ours comes from Somalia, where Boswellia carterii grows on the arid limestone slopes of the north and where the frankincense harvest is a tradition older than written history. The trees grow in almost no soil, in heat and drought, and the resin they produce is prized for its fresh, citrus bright top over a clean resinous body. Somali frankincense is lighter and more lemony than the Omani sacra type, and that brightness is what I wanted for a resin that has to sit beside citrus at the top of a tree.

How frankincense smells

Fresh, woody, resinous and lemony. It opens with a bright, almost citrus sparkle, then settles into a clean, dry, faintly peppery resin with a soft smoke that never becomes heavy. It lasts for hours and gives a base a sense of air.

Frankincense in our chapters

• IHayalThe Crown · in the base

  In Hayal it is the resin of the crown, the bright frankincense beneath the citrus and spices that keeps the base looking upward.

• IIParadis de BleuThe Leaves · in the base

  In Paradis de Bleu a frankincense recorded without a country in our books gives the forest floor a faint sacred smoke.

• IVRosée BlancheThe Climbing Rose · in the base

  In Rosée Blanche it is the clean resin beneath the rose, a light smoke among vetiver and amyris.

• VIIIRoyale OudThe Taproot · in the base

  In Royale Oud it is one of the resins of the taproot, the tears of the tree among the deepest roots.

A note from the atelier

Frankincense is the only base note I own that smells like the top of a mountain. Wherever a chapter needs to end in light rather than in earth, it is there.

Questions about frankincense