BLAST FROM THE PAST: Frankincense (2017)

Products: candle and wf bulb
Area used in: bedroom
Time Period: end of November - New Year's

Description: Frankincense, Clove, Amber

With Christmas Day right around the corner, I couldn't think of a better time to talk about this candle.. y'know...birth of Christ (though technically he was born in the spring), Mary and Jospeh hangin out in Bethlehem, gifts from the Three Kings of the Orient following a star... yada, yada,yada.

So this candle came out unceremoniously in the winter edition of the Elements collection back in 2017. Despite it being a new scent (as far I knew/know) and smelling genuine authentic, for whatever reason I completely slept it and its brother Myrrh. I think I was too focused on and enraptured by Peppermint Rosemary and Grapefruit Gin Fizz.  I would eventually pick one up later during the folowing SAS and it sat collecting dust until recently and I thought this Christmastime would be an excellent time to give it a try.

So you may be wondering what exactly is frankincense?

Frankincense, also known as olibanum, comes from the Old French word "franc ensence" meaning high/pure/noble incense. It is a resin tapped from the Boswellia sacra tree. The bark of the tree is tapped over and over until the resin bleeds out and drops are left to harden into solid beads or "tears". Frankincense was used as holy incense in temples and religious ceremonies from the time of Ancient Egyptians til the Middles Ages. Frankincense essential oil is said to have many beneficial holistic properties including a sleep aid, reducing stressing, assisting digestion, heals skin an kills most germs.

Here's a bit of trivia for you - why was frankincense as well as myrrh and gold given to the Christ child by the Magi?

As you can imagine, all 3 items were expensive, highly prized and hard to readily obtain treasures back in the those ancient days.

Those items also served as symbolic and prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus' life

Gold = royal divinity ie Jesus taking his place as "King of the Jews" as a descendant of King David

Frankincense = holy healing properties ie Jesus using his divine power to heal the masses metaphorically and literally

Myrrh = death (myrrh oil was commonly used to annoint the dead) ie Jesus dying for our sins and leaving behind his annointed mortal shell
(btw in many languages including Spanish and Japanese, the word for mummy comes from the word myrrh - mirra)

But enough of that nerdy nonsense, on to the review!

The burn was kinda iffy - the first couple of burns, the flames weren't very high and it took awhile for the wax to pool out. The throw was pretty strong, almost on the cusp of being a knock-out; the wf is pretty strong too. The closer it got to mid-range, it sart to smell a little astrigent and medicinal; I'm ok with that but I thought I'd give a headsup to tose who might find that off-putting. This segues nicely into the smell portion of the review.
 
The candle smells EXACTLY like actual frankincence. I have a bottle of frankincence essential oil so I'm familiar withe fragrance and was able to compare.

What does frankincence smell like? It's beautiful and complex melange of notes, one on top of the other. First you get a sweet almost honey like wood base. Then there's sharp astringent piney vibe, think cypress. And there's lemon peel/zest like citrusiness. And then there's a touch of spice, like black pepper and cinnamon bark. And as far as the candle is concerned, you get the frankincense note and the clove and amber gives the blend a sensual warmth. This is one of those scents that captures you and takes you away on olfactory adventure. It whisks you back to ancient Biblical days; you can imagine yourself returning home from the marketplace and resting on a bevy of silken pillows and you can smell traces of incense from the nearby temple traveling on a nighttime breeze.

Frankincence was/is such a gorgeous scent and soooo overlooked and underappreciated, hence why it has returned. I still kick myself for not taking advantage of it being widely and readily available. It's certainly a lesson learned - don't sleep on a scent that intrigues cuz most likely it will disappear never to return. Hopefully BBW well come to their senses and bring this back at some point; they have been more adventurous with conceptual scents lately and not just catering to the basic masses. Given its significance to Christmas and the story of the birth of Christ, this is a fitting scent to have during the holidays. Fingers crossed, it'll return. If not, there's always Ebay.

I'd like to end this review by wishing all of my readers a happy holiday. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Joyous Kwanzaa!