When Guerlain introduced Encens Mythique d’Orient in 2012, the house was reaffirming its deep connection to Orientalism — a theme that had defined much of its creative identity since the 19th century. The early 2010s were marked by a renewed fascination with luxury craftsmanship and exotic materials, as Western perfume houses sought to engage the growing Middle Eastern market. This period, often described as the “resurgence of artisanal perfumery,” emphasized richness, longevity, and opulent raw ingredients. Fashion, too, reflected this taste for the sumptuous and global — designers like Elie Saab, Balmain, and Valentino explored ornate embroidery, flowing silhouettes, and jewel-toned palettes that mirrored the lush complexity of Eastern aesthetics. Guerlain’s Les Déserts d’Orient collection arrived perfectly within this cultural moment, bridging French refinement with the region’s deep-rooted love of perfumed storytelling.
To a woman (or man) of that era, a fragrance named Encens Mythique d’Orient would have carried a sense of discovery and reverence. It spoke of luxury that transcended the material — of spirituality expressed through scent. The name suggested not a fleeting trend, but an eternal idea: incense as the universal language of devotion. It would have appealed to those drawn to fragrances that lingered like memory — elegant, introspective, and quietly powerful.
In olfactory interpretation, Encens Mythique d’Orient transformed its name into an experience that balanced the sacred with the sensual. Thierry Wasser built the perfume around frankincense, the age-old resin that embodies spiritual purity, and rose, the eternal symbol of love and beauty. Yet, at its core lies ambergris, one of perfumery’s rarest treasures, sourced from the waters surrounding New Zealand. Wasser’s innovative approach to this material — blending various ambergris blocks distinguished by their marine, warm, and animalic nuances — allowed him to create a “communelle” of extraordinary depth and smoothness. The result was not simply a perfume, but an olfactory composition that conveyed both majesty and intimacy.
Within the context of contemporary perfumery, Encens Mythique d’Orient stood apart from the minimalism that dominated much of Western fragrance design in the early 2010s. While many brands pursued sheer, clean compositions, Guerlain instead offered something unapologetically opulent — a fragrance that celebrated the raw materials themselves and the artistry of blending. It was modern in its polish, yet ancient in spirit, proving that the allure of the mythical East still held the power to enchant a new generation of perfume lovers.
Fragrance Composition:
So what does it smell like? Encens Mythique d'Orient is classified as a musky oriental fragrance for men and women.
- Top notes: rose, aldehyde, saffron note.
- Middle notes: pink pepper, vetiver, patchouli.
- Base notes: forest floor notes, ambergris, frankincense.
Scent Profile:
At first breath, Encens Mythique d’Orient opens with a whisper of rose, a bloom that feels at once ancient and eternal. This is not a tender garden rose, but rather a lush, honeyed variety — most likely the Damask rose from Bulgaria, famed for its voluptuous depth and naturally high concentration of citronellol and geraniol, compounds that lend an exquisite blend of freshness and warmth. The rose here feels liquid and luminous, its dewy sweetness tempered by the shimmer of aldehydes. These aldehydes — synthetic molecules prized since the early 20th century — lift the floral heart like sunlight refracting through crystal, imparting an almost effervescent quality. They magnify the rose’s radiance, making it feel more airy, more celestial, as though the petals themselves were infused with starlight.
Threaded through this light is the golden, leathery strand of saffron, the “red gold” of perfumery. Likely drawn from Iranian or Kashmiri crocus stigmas — among the finest in the world — this note offers a duality of dry spice and soft warmth. The key molecule, safranal, contributes its distinctive metallic-hay tone, while traces of picrocrocin add a delicate bitterness that prevents the scent from turning overly sweet. In Encens Mythique d’Orient, the saffron serves as both bridge and contrast: it anchors the airy rose in something more tactile, more human — a whisper of skin and sun-drenched spice that hints at mystery and heat.
As the fragrance deepens, the heart reveals a composition of pink pepper, vetiver, and patchouli, each chosen for its ability to both contrast and complement. The pink pepper from Réunion or Madagascar brings a lively, rosé-like sparkle — a gentle bite of limonene and β-pinene that tingles on the skin, brightening the composition’s edges. Beneath it lies vetiver, almost certainly Haitian, celebrated for its dry, woody elegance and its remarkably high vetiverol content, which imparts that noble smokiness Guerlain so often weaves into its orientals. The vetiver’s earthy rootiness harmonizes with the patchouli, whose Indonesian origin ensures a smoother, less camphorous profile — rich in patchoulol and norpatchoulenol, molecules that create a velvety, shadowed depth. Here, the natural patchouli is softened by subtle synthetic modifiers, perhaps Iso E Super or similar molecules, which add translucence and allow the richness to diffuse gracefully, like incense smoke in an airy hall.
Then comes the descent into the base — an atmosphere of forest floor, ambergris, and frankincense. The forest accord feels dark and damp, an evocation of moss and earth tinged with resin, likely supported by notes of oakmoss absolute or synthetic Evernyl, which reproduce the cool, leathery green facets of lichen without overpowering the composition. Ambergris, sourced from the coasts of New Zealand as Guerlain has described, brings an almost paradoxical duality — salty yet warm, marine yet animalic. Its primary component, ambrein, yields upon oxidation the ethereal, radiant tones of ambery and musky sweetness, wrapping the skin like sun-warmed silk.
Finally, frankincense rises — silvery and sacred. Extracted from Boswellia trees of Oman or Somalia, this resin contains α-pinene and limonene, which lend brightness, while incensole acetate provides the meditative, balsamic calm at the core of incense smoke. In Encens Mythique d’Orient, the frankincense does not burn; it smolders softly, mingling with the ambergris to create an illusion of divine stillness.
Altogether, the fragrance breathes like an ancient cathedral illuminated by desert light — rose petals scattered on stone, curls of incense winding upward through golden air. The synthesis of natural and synthetic elements is masterful: the aldehydes expand the rose, the synthetics refine the earthiness, and the ambergris accord amplifies the resins into something timeless. Encens Mythique d’Orient is not merely a scent but a reverie — a meditation on the meeting of heaven and earth, light and shadow, the seen and the unseen.
Bottle:
The Déserts d’Orient fragrances are housed in simple, streamlined bottles gorgeously illuminated by a shower of gold, like a symbol of riches: a sign of belonging to a world in which this precious material has always been given pride of place. Available as: 75ml eau de parfum
Fate of the Fragrance:
Guerlain's original "Encens Mythique d'Orient" from the Les Déserts d'Orient collection was discontinued and reformulated in 2019 into a new fragrance, Les Absolus d'Orient Encens Mythique.
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