Les Orientalistes - Encens Flamboyant Annick Goutal for women and men

I just applied this on my skin from a sample I received and it is absolutely heavenly! Incense that is the opposite of acrid. Gorgeous. Light, yet I'm transported into a sweet haze of frankincense. I have always dreamt of this perfume, searching everywhere for the delectable combination of incense with balsam fir. It's beautiful!

I love smelling this from my sample vial. It puts me in an excellent mood and clears my mind! But every time I apply it to my skin, the balsam fir note becomes just a little too pronounced and gives me a slight headache. Everything else about the scent is perfect! The incense note is dominant the whole way through, and combined with the balsam fir, it evokes feelings of being in a winter forest with the smell of wood smoke in the air. It's very grounding and serene.

I didn't find the spices in the composition individually discernable. If they are there, they perform their purpose well in the background.

all I know is that Im a sucker for a note of incense. Ive read enuf reviews of this to indulge in a blind buy, with this frag..

Best Nag Champa perfume out there. Starts out dry and smoky, but dries down to straight up Nag Champa. I LOVE it. Even better than pure Nag Champa oil.

Smelled this on a friend and fell in love; ran out and bought a bottle online for $58!!!! I love it. This is absolutely rich, deep, unique, strong, sultry incense.

This is the smoky/insense frag I've been waiting for. With pine/balsam, too. I loove pine so much-Christmas trees, split saplings in the woods, pine is wonderful.

This linear fragrance is a lot of pine, with a smoky insense all around. It lasts forver for Annick Goutal--2 sprays at 24 hours. Crazy. The morning after I applied, I felt enveloped in clean, fresh air, with a smouldering fire turning to coals next to me--I almost felt as if ash were flying up my nose, mountain wind blowing, pine balsam resins sticking to my hands as I broke down camp.

Balsam fir-smoke-charcoal-peppery insense-great longevity-unique as all get out. Love.

want to smell like you've spent half your day praying in a gothic church?
I do:-)
very holy and well blended incense. and definately oddly sexy.

Very dry incense, fir and pepper. Very nice incense fragrance but sits really soft on my skin. If you like your incense a little softer this might be up your alley.

Now I have three of the precious "Les Orientalistes"
(Ambre Fétiche, Myrrhe Ardente, Encens Flamboyant).
:-) It´s december, we just bought today our Christmas tree, it´s verrrry cold and I´m so much in the mood for these "holy-smoke"-perfumes.. grrrrr :-) I´m totally glad and I make my experiments with mixing them and sometimes a little "sprizz" of "Vanille Exquise"... I have some free-days with my beloved husband, drinking tea, nibbling Christmas cookies, reading or writing new cabaret-texts... that´s the way I like it...mmmmmh! Love from Louve! <3

Just received this one today; already I am impressed- exquisite! Olibanum discreetly surrounded by a shy entourage: I couldn't ask for better!

My favorite Annick Goutal and got a great deal as well. 86.00 for a 100ml edp.:)

I love the opening on this fragrance, as it is spicy and warm incense with lots of depth. Then as it dries down I am left smelling like I was standing downdraft from a campfire. Absolutely horrible. About 30 minutes later the warm incense came back along with the smoke. I am guessing this is just the reaction with my body chemistry, but I would definitely recommend a trying a sample a couple of times before investing in a bottle.

Love it most together with Myrrhe. Sparkling

This is my favorite Annick Goutal hands down. I'd review it but I can't possibly say it better than Yourfoxiness did, scroll down to her review below.

After reading the rewiews below I thought this scent gonna be very strong incense cloud but after the application it's surprized me..:)
One thing is very clear for me: the name of the perfume is totally misguided me:) I really waited a big blast of bright peppery opening and very harsh beginning and something heavy-old church-smell but...not..:)
At the beginning slightly peppered fir notes comes, it's like the impressions of the sun's rays shining through the clouds. The fir very dominant until the end, the last phase is a calming,melancholic but cosy incensed fir smell.Somehow reminds me of campfire and the winter.

Encens Flamboyant is an elegant, quiet, solid ,dark, gothic incense scent.I like it!:)

I really like this scent---it lasts very well on me, which is rare. It's a very seductive incense perfume, with more going on than some others I've tried, like Full Incense (Montale). The incense is there from start to finish, like a bed of coals for the spice & fir. Cardamom adds sweetness to the pepper, and the fir note evokes something oddly ethereal, as if one really were on a hilltop watching smoke rise from the incense offered to an ancient goddess. Poetic, wearable, and sexy in a subtle way. I look forward to my full bottle, and to trying the other offerings in Les Orientalistes.

I put this on and I feel like I just rolled around in a bowl of freshly burnt Frankincense ashes. No different...pure, dark, burnt. I love other AG scents, I will have to leave this one behind.

This is a lovely incense which is less conventional than others in that it smells of the 'ghost' of incense in an ethereal, lingering way, as though you've walked in from a wintry pine forest to a cold stone church which has recently had a mass. That said, it isn't without presence or longevity. Really nice and on my want list!!

Elegant and mysterious. Lasts all day. Unique. Exudes a sophisticated confidence. I save this for special evenings when I want to make an impression - or when I'm dressing up... Definately a favourite.
Great for men and women, I think.

This is one evrybody really talks too much about. Overstimated, baroque and a bit vulgar! If you like dark incense perfumes try Bois D'Encens by or Incense Extreme by Andy Tauer or Avignon by CDG.

Dark-green and smoky frankincense with a citrusy vibe. Not bad but far from being completely successful.

Rating: 6/10

Too much incense is too much for me!
The first few hours were very churchy. I was on constant alert for any thurible swingers I'd need to dodge but half a day in I started enjoying it more and more.
Once the overwhelming part is over it's smoky, soothing and warm. It lasts up to 22 hours on me.

I love sticking my perfumed wrist to unsuspecting people's noses! I love it even more when someone not too closely acquainted with my tastes catches me sniffing myself, demands a whiff, and it happens to be something like AG Encens Flamboyant.
This is one of those fragrances, which while being seemingly demure, speak volumes about their wearer. In fact, since we are now living in an almost oakmoss-free world, this type of fragrances may as well take up the vacated dimension. It's crisp, it's bitter, it's airy, and its slightly eerie darkness is very close to the darkness of those witchy chypres that we've lost. Only those were a fade-to-black type of green and these ones are more of a moonlit sepia.

Encens Flamboyant in particular evokes images of gray chilly mornings, fires burning on vast open terrain, cold stones of medieval churches and a distant tolling of a chapel bell. It starts with warm, slightly smoky cedar wood, goes in its evolution through an almost carbon-like stage and ends with the most beautiful deep tar note. And through all of its development it retains an absolutely unearthly clear feel to it, which lifts it to spiritual heights.

Did i wake up with someone sexy..in a tent in the mountains? Is that great smell me, or him? Or just the mountain air, and last nights fire? This is not for eveyone i believe, but encens flamboyant is a haunting beauty. I get the tingling pepper, incense, evergreen, and a wet, mossy scent that comes and goes. A reapplication after the drydown does beautiful things. Just when i think i smell cozy, last nights dirty incense creeps up my spine, and reminds me of that one.. Haunting. Leaves me wanting more.

I’m now wondering if ‘flamboyant’ means something different in French then it does in English.

Encens Flamboyant smells like Elton John in an Amish church frock.
If there is leather here it is wet and musty; and any incense got beaten by the frumpy stick.

I like a good smokey fragrance so this is disappointing. Maybe my sample was exposed to the elements and altered, but there is nothing here that would catch your attention.

I wish this lasted longer. It fades very quickly on me and is completely gone within about four hours. But while it lasts, it's a warm and lovely powdered incense scent.

Encens Flamboyant is supposed to be the most incensey fragrance in the series, however I'm not feeling it.

This fragrance is much more subtle than Myrrhe Ardente and Ambre Fetiche. Despite its lack of incensey goodness, this fragrance makes up for it with its unique blend of pepper, woods and smoke.

I totally get the 'Christmassy' feel that Veruska mentioned in her review. The combination of spice and fir, is like scent recognition for me, it's Christmas in December all over again with every sniff.

In some ways, Encens Flamboyant is musty, but not in a bad way. Its mustiness is what adds to its mystery, like an old, forgotten room, locked up for decades.

Encens Flamboyant often strikes me as being an aromatic, as I sometimes find myself dazing off into space when I casually smell it every now and then.

Although I do find this fragrance unisex, I'm more likely to recommend this fragrance to men more than women, however I haven't managed to pin-point what makes this fragrance more masculine than feminine to my nose.

Being mostly dry, yet occasionally musty and damp, Encens Flamboyant is a very unique fragrance indeed. It is certainly worth checking out, even if you don't think it would be your type of scent. These Les Orientalistes fragrances are masterpieces that will hopefully be sold for many years to come.

Simply beautiful....it reminds me of visiting the Cathedral of St Catherine in Siena, Tuscany - ancient candles, church insence and a hint of mystery.

Hands down this is one of my favorite scents. I love the smell of incencse so this just fits perfectly. What I love most about it is that it is truly just enough. It is not overpowering like alot of other incencse based scents.

This is a very smokey fragrance: my first impression was as if I was bathing in the ash tray >"< but later it got better and a little bit sweet (in its own way). More suitable for men in my opinion, or smoking women maybe, or someone who just likes these kinds "religious" scents. Incredibly long-lasing on me. A must try for the frankincense lovers =)

To me this scent is very spiritual. The incence reminds me of an old sacred church where you spend time alone in quiet meditation. Its smokey, dry and warm. I agree this would be great in winter when its too cold to go anywhere and all you want to do is feel a sense of peace all around you. Beautiful.

After i try it, i think it's not a fiery gothic or anything dark. Just a warn incense burned with some spice. Pleasant for cold season. Definitely not for me since I live in tropical country. Well, i like smell it.
When i heard incense, i tought it is incense that people use in a death ceremony, you know, when people die and their family burn some incense. well, i hate incense because it scared me to death. But this one is beautiful, i dont know why i like it.
Suit men than women. It worth a try...

i LOVE this!!! If you are craving a dark fragrance with lots of incense...this is the one! Today is the one year anniversary of my grandmother's death, so I feel like wearing this today.

I tried this at the end of the summer and fell in love with it... the second time I put it on. On first try, this didn't seem interesting enough; just plain incense. On second try though it stole my heart. It lingered for hours, a dry incense without a single sweet note, perfectly wearable during the heat of a mediterrenean summer. It was sofisticated and surprisingly cool. I expected something warmer from the 'flamboyant' in the name, but I didn't get any of that. Stays close to the skin but lasts for hours and I never get tired of smelling my wrist. I already bought Ambre Fetiche which I absolutely love, but my next purchase of this line, or any line in fact, will be this one:)

UPDATE: Finally bought this and I'm amazed with it! I feel so confident, so smart when I wear this, I can't get enough of it! And, it is simply amazing for layering with pretty much anything. My best combination so far is with SL Daim Blonde, which is quite breath-taking

Ok, I am understanding that for me, when Annick says for him & her, I will know that it is not the scent for me. Initial blast smelled just like Chloraseptic throat spray mixed w/bactine. Then mid-notes,Ben-Gay. Final notes much too spicey/peppery for me, the burnt odor is quite pleasing though. [Much better than Myrrh Ardente > that is the WORST fragrance I have ever had the misfortune to encounter]. I think this might smell seductive on a man, preferably in cool/cold months.

Encens. Flamboyant means either fiery gothic (architectural term) or more suitable in this situation (and I more likey it) is - fiery incense. Which is true- this is very warm incense fragrance, I can imagine how great it would be to wear this in cold winter days.
Top is very spicy, peppery I think once it settles down this is the thing that makes incense so hot. Incense is dominating, old church smell- you can feel it's sacred character and imagine old benches.

I love this , it's dry and smoky .It's not a patch on Armani's incense but reading Veruska makes me want to try the Myrrhe version . I love old church smells.

This is a nice incense scent from annick goutal a company that is'nt known for her warm or oriental fragrances.It starts with a fantastic fiery and piquant pepper note and it becomes a full incence scent with a distinctive Christmassy balsam fir drydown. Nice but the real star of the collection is MYRRHE ARDENTE.

this really sounds promissing. :) i am looking forward to make an olfactive acquaintance with these three fragrances. and the case looks really great. :)