Welcome to Robb Recommends, a regular series in which our editors and contributors endorse something they’ve tried and loved—and think will change your life for the better.
Lapsed as my own faith may be, my Catholic upbringing has forever shaped my appreciation of the aesthetic and the sensual. I thrill at the sight of anything cardinal red or Tyrian purple, and when in Italy, must be physically restrained from visiting every church in my path. As a child, my first expressed career aspiration was to be a Swiss Guard—yes, because of the uniform—and I can recall the crushing disappointment I felt when my mother told me that being born Swiss was a prerequisite. (As a consolation prize, I later became an altar boy).
All of which is to say that Incenso, a new eau du parfum by Santa Maria Novella, feels as if it were made by the 804-year-old Florentine perfumer expressly for me. It’s among the latest entries in the maker’s “I Giardini Medicei” collection, which draws inspiration from the gardens that flourished during Florence’s Renaissance heyday. In comparison to some of the series’ other scents, lncenso is a decidedly deeper and darker affair, in keeping with its conception as a winter garden brought within the Medici court.
It begins with a sweet, searing rush of pink peppercorn, which cleanses the olfactory palate before dive into that smoky, resiny, wood-spiced sweetness that is its nom de fragrance. It’s about as clear a transmutation of incense as I’ve experienced, and a single inhale was enough to conjure up those other church smells in true Proustian fashion: the ashy whiff of a freshly extinguished candle that’s been lit hundreds of times before; the cold wood of creaking pews; the dusty papyrus scent of wrinkled hymnals with dry, yellow pages.
All told, it’s a reminder of the transportive power of incense, and why it has been used in religious ceremonies for millennia. One spray of Incenso took me right back to altar serving in my small-town, boyhood church—which was not exactly St. Peter’s—but could be transformed into a sacred, ethereal space if only for a moment with a swing of the priest’s censer.
Yes, Incenso is… intense upon first application. But it mellows out pleasantly as the day continues, fading in smokiness and sweetness but never disappearing entirely. What lingers more prominently are its undercurrents of woody vetiver, parchment, and ash, building a longer-lasting profile that’s dry, spiced, and sophisticated.
Incenso is not an everyday scent, for sure, but something I’d apply when I’m feeling dressy, and dare I say, mysterious. Or just wish to experience the sensation of sitting alone in a quiet church—whether that’s one tucked away in my own memory banks or on the streets of Rome today—and recalling the feeling of closeness to the divine that continues to bring believers through the doors today.
Authors
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Eric Twardzik