The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Incubus arrived in 2017 as part of Ikiryō's Cœurs Sombres series, a three-piece collection centered on vanilla. The series includes Magie Sexualle, Succubus, and Incubus, each presenting a different perspective through its name and composition. Incubus draws on the folklore of a male demon said to visit women in their sleep and seduce them in dreams. Rather than functioning as a literal mythological treatment, the name establishes an emotional premise built around sleep, desire, intrusion, and consequence. The fragrance was packaged with a photo storybook, binding scent to image and giving the release the form of a small narrative object to explore.
The compositional bet here is restraint disguised as indulgence. Caramel and maple would normally pull a fragrance toward dessert-fluffy territory, but the clove and benzoin keep it anchored in something resinous and a little threatening. Copaiba balsam and Iso E Super work the underside, giving the sweetness a woody, almost mineral backbone. Cashmeran does what cashmeran does, wrapping the whole thing in that soft, skin-warm haze that reads as personal rather than projected. The result is gourmand-adjacent without the toothache.
The evolution
Cloves bring a sharp, almost medicinal spice to the composition, while caramel and maple introduce rounded sweetness and soften its harder edges. Benzoin moves into the middle with a resinous glow that recalls amber lit from within. The interaction between these materials gives the fragrance its defining tension: a dark, warming sweetness shaped by clove and resin rather than a simple vanilla sweetness. As the composition develops, caramel, maple, benzoin, and vanilla remain linked in a rich accord, with the woody character of cashmeran and Iso E Super providing a soft foundation beneath the warmer notes. The result is a fragrance that can be read through its contrasts, from clove's pointed spice to benzoin's creamier depth and vanilla's gentle sweetness.
Cultural impact
Incubus belongs to the Cœurs Sombres trilogy, a vanilla-focused collection by Ikiryō alongside Magie Sexualle and Succubus. Each release is accompanied by a photo storybook, giving the collection a visual and narrative dimension beyond the fragrance bottle alone. In Incubus, that presentation meets a composition built around contrasts: clove introduces pointed spice, caramel and maple add warmth, benzoin brings resinous depth, and vanilla supplies a creamy sweetness. Cashmeran and Iso E Super settle the later structure with a soft woody character.
The House
IkiryōIkiryō is an independent perfume house based in San Francisco, founded by Vincent Dreamhouse. The brand takes its name from the Japanese concept of ikiryō: a spirit that leaves the body during sleep, wandering between worlds while the physical form rests. This haunting imagery infuses the entire collection, where each fragrance functions as a kind of olfactory double, capturing emotional states and narrative moments rather than simple ingredient assemblies. Ikiryō has released roughly a dozen perfumes since its debut, including Desdemona, Miscegenation, Succubus, Incubus, Damn Hippie, Ame Torturée, Lucidité, Fugue, Continuum, and Beija-Flor. The house occupies a distinctive position within American artisan perfumery, blending theatrical conceptualization with materials drawn from the broader fragrance supply chain. Vincent Dreamhouse brings a background in costume and visual design for opera companies to his work in fragrance, translating a sense of character, narrative, and stagecraft into liquid form. The result is a collection that tends toward atmospheric, emotionally layered compositions with names borrowed from literature, mythology, and cultural archetypes.
The Creator
Vincent of DreamhouseVincent's aesthetic remains somewhat opaque from available information, as neither specific fragrance compositions nor signature ingredients have been documented in sources reviewed. His Japanese-influenced brand naming suggests cultural curiosity and a willingness to draw fro…
