To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
baitson075 – :
Testing this today from a decanted sample sent by trabuquera, who has reviewed it far more thoroughly than I (see below).
Many of my favourite notes are in Larmes du Desert (Tears of the Desert). If its price were not way above that of my blind buy limit, I may have been tempted.
To my nose, LdD is a light, airy incense supported by dry, dusty (predominantly cedar) woods. Usually benzoin and amber impart a sweetness to perfumes on my skin, but there is barely a hint on my skin.
I am not sure why this perfume is called “Tears of the Desert”; it’s a very dry, acrid scent, but perhaps the name is an allusion to the lack of water in the desert.
Larmes du Desert has taken me back to my childhood. I am standing in my dad’s workshop in early autumn, sun streaming through the windows and lighting the dust motes dancing in the air. I can smell sawdust and wood shavings, and there’s a hint of smoke, from where the action of the tools has heated the wood.
While LdD is intensely evocative and has been a journey into my past, I do not want to smell like this.
Sillage is soft. I can’t comment on longevity, as I scrubbed it off.
Evgenii8891 – :
Note to editors:
The resin “myrrh” is mentioned in the description, but is not included in the “perfume pyramid” list of notes.
About the fragrance: A variety of woods with a sweet guiac (maybe burned palo santo) leading the pack. A smoked and candied orange peel in the base further sweetens things up. To my nose, there may be honey/vanilla and benzoin in the “amber” accord. There is a nostalgic soapiness, as opposed to an incense smokiness, on my skin. I may have had some soap that smelled like this decades ago. For those that like churchy frankincense fragrances, this one is not of that particular variety, but inadvertently is in the same “familia”. This is more of a woody-amber scent, pleasant, with some coniferous overtones, but as I mentioned earlier, with a soapy quality (I guess from the addition of the various resins). It verges into the category of a sports scent, as there is a “freshness” about it.
Tatalizator – :
Elemi incense at max.
It’s mostly elemi cardamom with hints of incense. I believe they are trying to capture the dessert scene with the Arabian coffee but instead of adding the Arabian spices they added some other spices which caused it to be something bit far from dessert.
It’s a fair blend, but this is not supposed to be named “tears of the dessert” it’s most probably should be “before night in dessert”. It’s fair tho.
Уткин Женя – :
Sharp, clean, spare, ascetic aromatic that’s much lighter and airier than many incense-resin scents. If you stumbled into a thicket of thorny scrubby desert bushes, flailed around a little with a stick till the sap flowed, then set fire to a few twigs, this is the sort of smell you’d make. For sniffers accustomed to more spice-rich, rounded, luxey fragrances in its class, then, this one might seem a bit too austere, maybe even thin, maybe even a little harsh. There’s no gentle cinnamon warmth or peppery poke to shade in more shadows among the desert dunes here: Larmes du Desert is pure, minimal, deeply fragrant resins and not much else. Not gentle golden-mellow resins either: the very herbal, almost-bitter poke of cypress is leading the charge, with sweeter benzoin far off in the distance, making the fragrance even sharper and sparer overall.
All that adds up to an unusually dry and restrained scent with plenty of imaginary breezy ’empty space’ in the middle – this, like Wazamba, is one of the few woody-incenses you could easily wear no matter how high the heat or humidity. It has the kind of nearly medicinal, clean, almost antiseptic/cleansing character which doesn’t cloy even when you’re sweating up a tropical storm in the armpit zone yourself.
I (a woman) find it perfectly wearable but it’s definitely on the butcher side of unisex. Those who want their orientals sweet and luxurious probably won’t like this; it’s a spartan dry hike through the dunes of the Empty Quarter, not a five-star stay in the Burj al Dubai*. Sillage is big for the first half hour, then shrinks really dramatically – so much so I thought it had disappeared altogether after no more than 3hrs and was getting ready to rage about poor performance for the price. However – it does cling on and projects longer & stronger on fabric than skin, and in fact it’s still there, pumping out occasional wafts on the breeze, up to 6-8h on me. In my view massively overpriced at full retail, but a truly beautiful scent absolutely worth scooping up if you get a good discount / swap / deal elsewhere. For me, a risky blind buy which paid off big-time.
(* regardless of the flashy gold flakes in the juice! A fun gimmick but nothing more, imho. Box and presentation very beautiful, though, I’ll give them that. )
lexar88 – :
Thanks to a blogger friend, I was able to test a few Atelier des Ors offerings(thank you!). Here are my thoughts on Larmes du Désert:
As its name indicates, Larmes du Désert is all about resins. Olibanum, myrrh, labdanum and benzoin all make an appearance, but most of the time, they’re seamlessly interwoven into each other and merely show a certain facet from time to time.
The fragrance opens with the bracingly cool and stony smoke of olibanum, flankered by the musty sizzles of myrrh and the aromatic woody freshness of cypress. However, Larmes du Désert does not feel as aloof or austere as Avignon or L’Eau Trois for example. Because there is this mild balsamic and fleshly warmth of labdanum and cinnamon-tinged benzoin that soften the overall harshness of incense. There is also a discreet plum-like sweetness lurking in the background, although I don’t know where it stems from. As a result, Larmes du Désert is like a fantasy painting of desert, where one can admire the tawny landscape but doesn’t have to endure the hardship of an actual desert.
Like most Atelier des Ors perfumes, Larmes du Désert is largely linear during its 10-hour longevity, although the sillage is rather soft except for the moderately projecting first hour.
While I personally prefer an incense fragrance with a more stark constrast between its coldness and warmth, Larmes du Désert is nontheless very enjoyable and solid. Its strength actually comes from the unification of the cold incense and warm amber and its smooth execution. If you happen to be looking for an elegant and verstaile incense fragrance, Larmes du Désert might well worth a try.
SlaGAD – :
6/10
Robertinhos – :
It has a strong balsamic vibe in the first phase, which reminds of me something like non-spicy bois marocain? Then it enters a new phase and becomes a lovely airy dry woodsy desert wind smell.
Sutif – :
Very nice clear and delicate fragrance. Intelligent.
kissmiss6 – :
Larmes du Désert is a very dry, woody incense scent, with hints of smoke and a dash of sweetness. The incense to my nose is a mix of olibanum, sweet opoponax and creamy benzoin. I also detect cypress and a lovely warm amber. It’s very well composed and perfectly balanced.
I felt let down by the performance, however. On my skin, sillage was average and longevity on the lighter side. I would have expected much better from such a pricey niche scent – especially one that takes its inspiration from the Middle East, which is famed for its resinous powerhouse scents.
I should add that the bottle and presentation are very, very nice – the radiant sunbursts on the flacon, the golden juice, and the ostentatious gold flecks all feel very luxurious.
indrek – :
This is stunning and like nothing else that I have ever smelled. Miles from any scent at the department store. The moment I put some of my sample on the test strip I said, “Oh my god” and started searching for a bottle online.
On my skin, however, this becomes quite masculine. The cyprus and incense, though beautiful, are just not feminine enough for my tastes (though I tend to go for quite powdery unisex scents, so YMMV). The vibe is decidedly Middle Eastern and quite timeless. I can imagine three generations of tall, dark, and handsome men wearing this quite happily.
SHAITAN4uK – :
Grabbed a decant, spritzed and “holy grail time!” I’ve got bottles of TF Sahara Noir, Guerlain’s Ensense, Andy Tauer, Heeley, and I’ve tried a few others–but this just hits the spot. I looked at my decant and thought, “full bottle.”
This has the acrid “churchy” smoke that I love, with a bit of…not sweetness exactly, but some kind of counter to the bitter-acrid-smoke coming through, most likely the amber, and an “oudh” feel that sexes it up (I find incense sexy). It’s just a pure incense, neither cold, nor too warming with amber (sometimes skewing vanilla)–this is just right.
I love it. I’m also enjoying the cedar (one of my favorite scents when done right) and very slight patch. This is unisex, and as a woman, it works with my skin, but some may find it a bit more masculine, but it depends on your style, your chemistry.
I am on my way to search out a bottle. Incense fans really need to try this–I know so many of us are on that quest for “The One”–and, well, this is the one “Right Now.”
belvlad – :
This is defiantly a unique smell guys. Very smoky and warm resinous scent. I feel it’s something a luxurious gentleman would wear somewhere over seas. It’s got a certain vibe to it. I will be including this in a giveaway lot on my YouTube channel down the road and probably won’t be picking up a full bottle just Bc of the price to love ratio just isn’t there for me, but over all it’s a unique scent that I believe is worth looking in to.
Scent 7.5/10
Longevity 8/10
Uniqueness 8.5/10
zgh124Negeltzex – :
Très aromatique! This is a parade of conifers, with a pungent cypress at the front, a dry cedar in the rear (Cedar? I hardly know ‘er!) and a lovely plume of smoke throughout. My only problem is that it’s misnamed: this is not a desert, this is a forest.
Hierro – :
Extremely dry and pure incense based scent! I got little of other notes – just this church like, screechingly dry scent of other times. It evoked feelings of spirituality, very alluring yet somehow disturbing and weird.
“Larmes du Desert” stays extremely close to skin, but clings strongly – for 12 hours and survived a shower!
If dry and a bit scary incense based scents is your thing – this is surely worth a try, though I can’t say it has a good price/performance ratio…
1maniuo – :
If you’re a fan of M. Micallef’s Guaic Wood, then you’ll likely be fond of this one. With that being said, they smell nothing alike. The reason i compared the 2 is because of the snug nature they both present. Larmes du Desert is a been there done that, Hot and Ready Baker’s Crust of a fragrance. Amber-driven spicy aromas dominate the composition, which offers too little fruit and only a hint of patchouli. Smoky myrrh comes before a glowing woody finish that is absolutely along the lines of Ambre Orient. Given the light, lean body weight of this fragrance, i think this is suited perfectly for the spring time but of course it can be worn in the frigid months.
jurassik – :
The scent is very nice – notes of (golden) amber, cedar, cypress, wood, myrrh and personally for my nose tons of olibanum.
The gold flakes inside the bottle give a nice visual effect but to be honest there is no olfactory advance when doing this.
I agree with mirador – this is definately in the direction of Amouage as they also use a lot of olibanum for their fragrances as well.
greargycelp – :
I’d love to try a sample of this if anyone has some and would like to share..just a drop? It sounds so divine!
malboro – :
Larmes du Desert is very evocative of Amouage Jubilation – they seem to share notes of orange, incense, wood, myrrh, cedar and patchouli. However, I feel Larmes sits more discreetly than Jubilation which is quite confident in it’s expression. The price is something to make you think twice, and the gold a little brash, but the bottle is beautiful to hold. I’m enjoying this one very much, hope to read more reviews.