The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Forbidden Incense arrived in 2022 from Mahsam Raza, the nose behind The Dua Brand's catalogue of inspired compositions. The fragrance sits inside the house's Inspired Expression collection, a line built around reimagining the architecture of established scents at a price that doesn't gatekeep. The composition draws on an aromatic structure shared with Chris Collins' Sweet Taboo, listed in The Dua Brand's catalogue under an 'Inspired by' notation, with Parfumo's fragrance similarity data also linking the two profiles. Raza's version pulls the shared resinous, sweet-spice blueprint further into gourmand territory, layering coffee and cacao into the incense backbone and letting the warmer notes dominate.
Cardamom and cinnamon crack the opening with a confident spice hit, the kind of warmth that fills a small room without announcing itself. Clary sage moves through the heart with a green, slightly bitter edge, an herbal counterweight to the sweetness that gathers underneath. Geranium sits close to the sage, adding a faint floral-aromatic lift that keeps the middle phase from drifting. Coffee arrives next, dark and rounded rather than sharp or bitter, and cacao folds in beneath it with that dusty, warm-cocoa quality. Incense registers as a low, resinous undertone, present but never dominant.
The evolution
The opening carries the most immediate energy, with cardamom and cinnamon taking the lead while clary sage adds a green, aromatic lift that softens the initial heat. As the composition moves past its first phase, the spice recedes and the gourmand elements take over. Coffee and cacao settle in alongside the resinous incense, creating a warmer, sweeter profile. The incense behaves more as a textural backdrop than a lead note, a constant hum beneath the sweeter layers. In the base, tonka bean, vanilla, and benzoin combine with the musk to produce a resinous warmth that feels close to skin. The clary sage tends to linger longer than expected, reappearing in faint green flickers even after the sweet notes have settled.
Cultural impact
Forbidden Incense wears like a late-evening scent, the kind of thing you reach for when the plan involves staying in one place for a while. The combination of incense with coffee and cacao gives it a recognizable warmth, the sort of profile that feels at home in colder months or dimmer rooms. The sweetness sits closer to confection than smoke, and the spice keeps the whole composition from going soft. It's a fragrance for someone who wants the resinous depth of an incense-led scent without committing to the heavier, more austere territory that the note usually implies.
