By Redolia · Published September 25, 2026
Incense perfumes are built on resins that smoke when burned — olibanum (frankincense), myrrh, palo santo and opoponax — and they are having a genuine moment in late 2026 as the market turns away from dessert gourmands. This guide covers six incense fragrances we stock at Redolia, from Nasomatto Black Afgano at $130 to Clive Christian V Amber Fougère at $430, with real note pyramids, the perfumer behind each, and which register of smoke each one actually belongs to.
What counts as an incense perfume?
Four materials do most of the work, and they are worth knowing apart because they smell genuinely different. Olibanum is the resin of the Boswellia tree and the technical name for frankincense; it is dry, peppery and slightly citric, the cold smoke of a stone church. Myrrh is darker and sweeter, closer to balsam with a bitter, almost medicinal edge. Palo santo is a South American wood — the name means "holy wood" — burned as incense, milkier and sweeter than frankincense. Opoponax, sometimes called sweet myrrh, is the warmest of the four, closer to honeyed balsam.
That range is why "incense perfume" is a nearly useless search term on its own: a fragrance built on cold olibanum and one built on opoponax share a category and almost nothing else. The six below run warm to cold, so you can find your register rather than your note.
Six incense perfumes worth wearing in 2026
Nasomatto Black Afgano — $130 / 30 ml extrait
Notes: cannabis, green notes, saffron · resins, tobacco, coffee · oud, incense, amber, guaiac wood. Perfumer: Alessandro Gualtieri. Released: 2009.
The most famous fragrance on this page and the cheapest. Nasomatto's own product page describes it plainly: "The fragrance aims to evoke the best quality of hashish. It is the result of a quest to arouse the effects of temporary bliss." What that means on skin is a wall of dark resin — coffee, tobacco and oud pressed together until the incense reads almost tarry. It is not a church; it is a room where something has been burning for a while.
Seventeen years on it still outprojects most things at three times the price, which is why it has never left cult status. Against everything below it is the least refined and the most immediate. Shop Black Afgano.
Lorenzo Pazzaglia Incenso Notturno — $159 / 50 ml extrait
Notes: white pepper, elemi, lemon, bergamot · black pepper, patchouli, oud, cinnamon, rose · incense, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla, amber, musk. Perfumer: Lorenzo Pazzaglia. Released: 2024.
Night incense, and it behaves like it. Elemi and two peppers open it sharp and resinous — elemi is itself a resin, closer to lemon peel and pine than smoke — before patchouli, oud and a thread of rose warm the middle. The incense proper arrives in the base with cedar and sandalwood.
This is the warm end of the family: sweeter than the D'ORSAY, far less confrontational than the Nasomatto, and at $159 for 50 ml of extrait it is the value pick of the six. Shop Incenso Notturno.
Bon Parfumeur 403 Myrrh Shadow — $220 / 100 ml extrait
Notes: bitter orange, grapefruit, blackcurrant bud · basil, cinnamon, timut pepper, cypress · myrrh, benzoin, vanilla, akigalawood, patchouli, Atlas cedar. Perfumers: Quentin Bisch and Amélie Jacquin. Released: 2025.
The best starting point if you have never worn incense. The first ten minutes are citrus and blackcurrant bud, so nothing about the opening announces resin. Myrrh builds underneath, benzoin and vanilla soften its medicinal edge, and timut pepper — a Nepalese pepper with a grapefruit facet — keeps the middle lively.
Quentin Bisch is among the most in-demand perfumers working, and at 100 ml this is the best value per millilitre here. Shop 403 Myrrh Shadow.
D'ORSAY Incense Crush — $315 / 90 ml extrait
Notes: clove, cardamom · leather accord, creamy accord · olibanum, cedarwood, oakwood, vetiver. Perfumer: Julien Rasquinet. Released: 2024.
The purest olibanum here, and the most polarising after the Nasomatto. The opening is incense ash thrown at you — clove and cardamom over frankincense, dry and smoky from the first second. A creamy accord and soft leather eventually round it off, and cedar, oakwood and vetiver keep the base dry.
It belongs to Les Extraits, the line D'ORSAY launched in September 2024 at 35% concentration — high even for an extrait, which explains the density. The house calls it "imagined as a love potion by Julien Rasquinet". More on the house in our complete D'ORSAY guide. Shop Incense Crush.
Mind Games Sans Voir — $395 / 100 ml extrait
Notes: salt, grapefruit, cypress · rose, incense, freesia · palo santo, guaiac wood, musk. Perfumer: Christelle Laprade. Released: 2023.
The coldest of the six. Salt and cypress open it mineral and green, incense sits in the heart alongside rose and freesia rather than dominating, and palo santo with guaiac wood dries the base out completely. There is no vanilla anywhere in it, which is unusual here and the reason it stays austere.
Sans Voir means playing blindfolded; Mind Games names everything after chess. It is the most wearable incense here for warm weather and the office, where the Nasomatto and the D'ORSAY are both too much. Shop Sans Voir.
Clive Christian V Amber Fougère — $430 / 50 ml perfume
Notes: black pepper, bergamot · olibanum · vetiver, smoke, amber. Perfumer: Christian Provenzano. Released: 2017.
Six materials, and that is the most interesting thing about it. Where the others build incense into a crowd of notes, this puts olibanum alone in the heart with pepper and bergamot above and vetiver, smoke and amber below. Nothing competes with the resin, so what you smell is frankincense itself.
At $430 for 50 ml it is the dearest per millilitre here by a wide margin. Worth it if minimalism is the point; skip it if you want complexity for your money. House background in our Clive Christian guide. Shop V Amber Fougère.
Incense perfumes compared
| Fragrance | Incense material | Register | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasomatto Black Afgano | Incense + oud, resins | Dark, tarry, loud | Cold weather, evenings | $130 / 30 ml |
| Lorenzo Pazzaglia Incenso Notturno | Incense in the base | Warm, sweet, resinous | Cold weather, date night | $159 / 50 ml |
| Bon Parfumeur 403 Myrrh Shadow | Myrrh | Bright top, soft smoke | First incense, everyday | $220 / 100 ml |
| D'ORSAY Incense Crush | Olibanum | Dry ash, church | Evenings, sample first | $315 / 90 ml |
| Mind Games Sans Voir | Incense + palo santo | Cold, mineral, austere | Office, warm weather | $395 / 100 ml |
| Clive Christian V Amber Fougère | Olibanum, alone | Minimal, peppery, smoky | Occasions, minimalists | $430 / 50 ml |
Which incense perfume should you buy?
Start with Bon Parfumeur 403 Myrrh Shadow if this is your first. The citrus opening gives you somewhere familiar to stand, and 100 ml at $220 is the lowest risk per millilitre on the page.
Buy Mind Games Sans Voir for cold church rather than warm resin, and for something wearable at a desk. Buy Lorenzo Pazzaglia Incenso Notturno if you want incense that behaves like a cosy winter fragrance.
Sample Black Afgano and Incense Crush before buying. Both are excellent and both are arguments — the Nasomatto for its density, the D'ORSAY for its dryness — and people decide about them in under a minute.
All six live on our incense collection, and if you are near central New Jersey they are open on the counter at our Somerville boutique. Questions: info@redolia.com.
Frequently asked questions
What is an incense perfume?
An incense perfume is built on resins that smoke when burned — olibanum (frankincense), myrrh, palo santo or opoponax. The character runs from cold and mineral, the smell of a stone church, to warm and sweet. It is a note family rather than one material, which is why two incense fragrances can smell nothing alike.
What is the difference between frankincense and myrrh in perfume?
Frankincense, listed on note pyramids as olibanum, is the brighter of the two: dry, peppery, slightly citric, with a cold smoke that reads clean. Myrrh is darker, sweeter and more medicinal, closer to balsam, and sits lower in a composition. Bon Parfumeur 403 Myrrh Shadow is our clearest myrrh; D'ORSAY Incense Crush our clearest olibanum.
Is Nasomatto Black Afgano worth it?
At $130 for 30 ml of extrait it is the cheapest entry here and the most famous. Launched in 2009 by Alessandro Gualtieri, it is a dense resin-and-oud composition that projects hard for hours and is genuinely polarising. Sample before buying; almost nobody is neutral about it.
Which incense perfume smells most like a church?
Mind Games Sans Voir, because of what sits around the incense rather than the incense itself. Salt, grapefruit and cypress open it cold, and palo santo with guaiac wood keeps the drydown dry rather than sweet. If your reference is stone and cold air rather than a warm resin market, that is the one.
Does incense perfume last long?
Generally yes, because resins are heavy materials that evaporate slowly. The extraits here run a full working day, and Nasomatto Black Afgano is the strongest projector of the six. Watch for fragrances where incense sits in the top notes rather than the base — there the smoke burns off early.
Is incense perfume unisex?
Yes. Every fragrance here is sold unisex, and incense is among the least gender-coded families in perfumery because it comes from ceremonial use rather than cosmetics. Sweeter ambery incenses read more traditionally feminine and drier smokier ones more masculine, but that is convention, not composition.
What is palo santo in fragrance?
Palo santo is a South American wood, literally 'holy wood', burned as incense in the same way frankincense is in Europe. In perfume it smells sweeter and milkier than frankincense, with a resinous, slightly minty edge. Mind Games Sans Voir uses it in the base, and House of Bō Oro Verde is built around it.
What should I try first if I have never worn incense?
Bon Parfumeur 403 Myrrh Shadow at $220 for 100 ml. It opens on bitter orange and grapefruit, so the first ten minutes are bright rather than smoky, and the myrrh arrives underneath with benzoin and vanilla softening it. It is the least confrontational way in — the opposite of starting with Black Afgano.
Updated September 2026.