Frankincense in perfume smells like bright resin. You get lemon-pine air first, then a dry incense, then a warmth that still leaves room to breathe. If you have ever walked into a cold hall and caught smoke that was clean instead of burnt, you are in the neighborhood.
What Does Frankincense Smell Like?
You get peel and pine in the first breath, then a resin that feels dry and a little sweet, then a floor that stays open. It is incense with air in it. It is not a campfire, and it is not a candle that says "church" on the jar.
On some people the lemon-pine stays. On others it steps back fast and you are left with the resin. Either way it sits close. It does not fill the hallway.
When we describe a fragrance note as frankincense, we mean that bright resin holding a room open so the other notes have somewhere to stand.
What Is Frankincense?
The word comes from a resin that runs out of Boswellia trees. That is the natural-world source of the name, the same way oud names a resin in a tree.
The job is the bright, dry incense floor. The name has a history. Those two facts are enough.
People also call it olibanum. Same word family. If a table says one and a story says the other, you are still in this neighborhood.
Is Frankincense the Same as Myrrh?
No. They get named together so often that they start to sound like one smell.
Frankincense is the brighter resin: lemon-pine, dry smoke, and space. Myrrh is usually darker and heavier. A different tree, and a different job.
Temple Smoke is where this mix-up lives in our line. The story talks about burning oud, frankincense, and myrrh. The notes table is quieter. Woodsmoke on top. Palo santo, vanilla, and spice in the heart. Frankincense and patchouli on the floor. Oud and myrrh stay in the story. They are not on the pyramid.
Woodsmoke is a third thing. That is the open of Temple Smoke, the first air, not the resin in the base. If you came hunting for myrrh as a note, you will not find the word on the table.
How Frankincense Is Used in Bandholz Fragrances
On our bottles, frankincense lives in two rooms.
Norse Winter puts it in the heart with amber and opoponax. Bergamot and pimento berry open it. Fir balsam, oak, and leather hold the floor as three separate base notes. The frankincense is the sacred resin in that winter hall. The peel in the open is already taught in What Does Bergamot Smell Like in Perfume?.
Temple Smoke puts it in the base with patchouli. Woodsmoke opens it. The frankincense is the stone-room floor under the sweet and the smoke, so they have weight. Patchouli is the dirt next to that resin, and that leaf is already in What Does Patchouli Smell Like in Perfume?.
Same resin. A snow hall and a chamber you should not have entered. Two jobs.
If you want to smell those rooms, they are here.
Eric Bandholz Founder