Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Montale Full Incense

By Tom Other houses are known for keeping the volume down. They will have an incense scent that has wispy curls of smoke, like something half-remembered. Montale isn't one of those houses. I can't think of any other that would dare put out an incense scent that is this full on: the incense in the opening is so rich, so resiny it's almost eye-watering. It's not just church services, it's the church caught fire and burned to the ground before the local fire department could come to its aid, taking with it hymnals, roof beams, flying buttresses and a ten-year stock of the eponymous ingredient. Two little dabs on my hand were strong enough to be smelled from space and lasted longer than Knots Landing did on TV. Need I state that I adore it? Like the best of Montale, it's just so joyously over-the-top that it's impossible not to smile. Like the best of Montale it's also not so over-the-top that it's impossible to wear: just lightly dabbed and not, unless you are either attending or better yet presiding over a High Catholic Mass sprayed on clothing. The notes from LuckyScent are cedar, labdanum, patchouli, elemi and Somali incense. $120 for 50ML, which applied judiciously (which for the sake of those around you I fervently pray you do..) should last until the second coming. Perhaps even the third. My sample was cadged from ScentBar.