Rien Intense Incense

With Rien Intense Incense, Etat Libre d'Orange stages a composition that splits into two contrasting phases. The fragrance opens loudly and demanding with a cold, metallic saffron and clear incense. A subtle, dirty, and opulent soapiness roughens the foundation, creating a certain tension. As it develops, this synthetic sharpness yields to a chalky iris, rendering the physical texture drier. Dirt and soap eventually fade, while a solid block of leather and incense deepens the structure in the base. The initial dissonance surprisingly calms down in the drydown into a self-contained, powdery-leathery coziness, flanked by light patchouli. While this distinct duality makes everyday wear challenging, it demonstrates creativity. The resolute transformation from a piercing chill to a quiet, intimate leather base offers craft-wise excellent friction beyond any pleasing harmony. Not an easy fragrance and certainly not for every day, but well worth a look for lovers of contrasts.

Very strong presence. I would describe it as an extremely smoky, lacquer-like, and dirty-synthetic soap – as if you were trying to scrub something clean that doesn't actually want to be clean at all. As an olfactory experience, it is absolutely worth a sample. An unusual fragrance with a good deal of character.

Resinous all-purpose glue, definitely synthetic ('modern'), leathery, smoky, corpse flower, sweetish. Animalic, but no animal smells like that. That was still okay, certainly innovative twelve years ago. But when later a bicycle inner tube mixed with an oil change, I still wanted to give it a chance. After I then smelled a toy cap gun at the application point in the drydown, it became too much for me. A provocative fragrance, for lovers of provocative fragrances, nothing more. Sorry, Parfinity, for the comment; the sample was a gift, after all.