the beautiful devotee - Andy Tauer's Incense Rose

caveat: it's a long story before you get to the review. I had a hard time making my impressions contextual without it.

People all around the world seek spiritual meaning in many different ways. This is the reason why Scientology flourishes, and why Kabbalah is so popular, and why many in the Western world switch from Christianity to Buddhism or vice versa. Imposing reason and pattern on our lives is a common journey in the selfhood of so many - it's an intrinsic part of humanity's desire to make sense of the story.

Back in my early 20s, I was on the verge of losing the faith I'd assembled for myself, and was casting about for something to fill the growing unease. My roommate was, at the time, very interested in the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba. I went with her on several occasions to observe and participate in the Hindu rituals focused on this man, and while I never had any particular spiritual feelings for him, I definitely enjoyed sitting and singing with these lovely and gentle people.

During the rituals, it was common to bring flowers and fruit to place on the altar. Roses were the most common flower brought, and some of the roses were exquisitely perfumed. Also, Nag Champa incense was burned - for those who don't know, the Nag Champa incense in the blue box, which many Western people burn, is from Sai Baba's ashram. My roommate and I had a friendship with a particular woman from this group, and so would frequently sit with her. She nearly always brought blood oranges to offer, and wore rose oil of a kind that matched yet never blended with the altar flowers. She had the faintest smell of neem in her hair but never in an unpleasant way. During the singing, she would sway back and forth with her eyes closed, and I always remembered how wonderful she looked and smelled, even while sweating in the summer heat.

This olfactory image is what Incense Rose brings to me. The beautiful woman, anointed and surrounded by incense, unaware of anything else but her devotion.

The clementine and rose in this composition state themselves clearly, but are never overbearing because the notes of cedar and frankincense measure themselves out over the entire life of the fragrance like clapping hands marking time. The orris is incredibly subtle on me, and the bergamot burning I'm so used to does come across on me like that faint whiff of neem. The sweetness of the labdanum is barely detectable, but if you breathe deeply, you can smell it limning the boughs of the cedar.

Incense Rose lasts for a good 10 hours on me, and doesn't change all that much over time. However, I have to remind everyone that my skin pulls cedar out and turns bergamot into burning, so on another's skin it would develop differently.

This is a very strong, lingering scent, but it isn't fierce - it has the serenity of a voice contributing to a chorus. The volume of the voice isn't as important as the fact that it harmonizes in such a spiritual fashion with everything around it.