Originally released as Le15, a one-time limited offering to celebrate The Different Company’s 15-year anniversary of distinguished creations, Santo Incensio – Sillage Sacré is exactly the same formulation released under a new name for a new life. Described as “A sacred perfume that draws its secret from shamanic stances, like a prayer to the sky, ” it showcases the supreme holy wood rarely used in perfumery, palo santo.
The opening spark is a bright flame, both tart and smoky, invoking the beginning of ritual. Fizzy orbs of bergamot and petitgrain crackle with delicate shavings of nutmeg, fragrant and spicy. At the same time, a vetiver-infused plume of smoke rises, and palo santo makes its entrance. This is the sacred wood elevated to high chic, a far cry from rustic bundles of wood - more like a glowing, elegant veil with meditative grounding.
Here, the enchanting, contradictory facets of palo santo are deftly highlighted – the citric effervescence, piney cool, and minty lightness. A supporting note of balsamic Atlas cedar adds to the creamy-yet-shimmering wood. A wood that releases its healing, cleansing scent when burned, it is unlike any other, with pale smoke tendrils rising in subtle shades of incense and myrrh. As this soothing scent develops, you can really feel the mastery of Alexandra Monet, who’s devised a way to approximate the feel of a holy incense that burns to clean white ash - leaving just a wisp of sacred smoke on the skin. Mystical, yet contemporary and wholly fresh.
