The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Laurie Erickson created Incense Pure around a single question: what if incense captured the tree, not the smoke? As a perfumer who built her craft from hobbyist curiosity, she approached frankincense not as a familiar material but as something still worth exploring. The challenge was extracting the green, almost saline quality of living sap rather than the dark smoke of burned resin. She worked with a frankincense CO2 extract known for preserving brighter, more vegetal characteristics, the kind of detail that separates a fragrance that smells like a forest from one that smells like a meditation room. Incense Pure was the result of that exploration, launched in 2010 as a quiet statement about what incense could be when the perfumer trusted her own nose over convention.
The use of CO2 extraction for the frankincense is the technical detail that makes this fragrance work differently. Standard steam distillation pulls more of the smoky, balsamic character from frankincense resin. CO2 extraction, used here in generous quantity, preserves the bright, almost green molecules, the ones that smell like sap weeping from a wound in the bark, not like votive candles. This green quality is then supported by elemi, a resin with a fresh, citrusy, almost pine-like character, and angelica root, which adds a subtle vegetable-spice that keeps everything grounded in the natural world rather than the ritual one. The result is incense that smells alive, not incense that smells like memory.
The evolution
The opening is frankincense in its most transparent state, green, slightly saline, with the sticky quality of fresh labdanum sap rather than the dark smoke of burned resin. Cedar and elemi provide a wiry, fresh undertone, with angelica root adding a subtle earthy spice. This bright, resinous beginning holds for the first thirty to forty minutes, then hands off to the heart as the green notes begin to deepen. The heart settles into a warm, powdery register, iris and orris root bringing a soft floral quality that feels almost violet-like, wrapped around sandalwood's creamy warmth and patchouli's earthy depth. The frankincense doesn't disappear but transforms, becoming more contemplative as the incense DNA integrates with the powdery florals. The drydown is where Incense Pure earns its reputation. Vanilla absolute arrives quietly, adding a soft sweetness that tempers the resins without sweetening them. Cedar and sandalwood persist, their woody warmth threading through the entire composition.
Cultural impact
Incense Pure occupies a specific niche in the incense genre, not the dark, smoky territory of Middle Eastern oud-based compositions, nor the clean, minimal approach of modern woody fragrances. Instead, it appeals to a wearer who wants incense's contemplative quality without its associated smoke, church associations, or projection. The fragrance has developed a quiet following among those who appreciate Erickson's approach to material selection and her willingness to spend years refining a single composition. It performs best in cooler months and evening wear, not because it lacks versatility, but because its meditative quality benefits from the right context to fully reveal itself.
