Tom Ford’s Corsica-inspired green incense of 2016: pine resin, fir balsam and sap, and the 2017 Men’s Luxury award.
At a glance
Vert d’Encens is a green resinous eau de parfum from Tom Ford’s Private Blend collection, released in 2016 as one of Les Extraits Verts. It sets incense, pine resin, tree sap and fir balsam against a fresh top of lavender, lemon and cardamom, softened by heliotrope and woods.
Fragrantica and Parfumo both credit it to Yann Vasnier, Antoine Maisondieu and Shyamala Maisondieu. In 2017 it won the Fragrance Foundation’s Fragrance of the Year award in the Men’s Luxury category.
Creation and context
Now Smell This reported Les Extraits Verts in August 2016: Vert d’Encens, Vert des Bois, Vert Bohème and Vert de Fleur, presented as “daring and intoxicating interpretations of perfumery’s classic ‘green’ note”. The Tom Ford house page dates the set to the same year.
Tom Ford tied Vert d’Encens to a place. Its launch copy, via Now Smell This, called it “inspired by the rugged Mediterranean coastlines of Corsica”, and the brand’s website, as quoted by Kafkaesque, described “the unbridled nature of the Corsican Coast, known as ‘The Perfumed Isle’”, with smoky incense, pine resin and fir balsam evoking “the dense forest and rugged peaks”. The launch copy also presented it as a new idea for incense, away from “austere, church-y scents or lavish Middle Eastern fantasias”.
It sold in 50 ml and 250 ml eau de parfum at $225 and $595, according to Now Smell This and Kafkaesque.
The composition
The structure below uses materials named by at least two of the brand list (via Now Smell This and Kafkaesque), a GQ description quoted by Kafkaesque, Fragrantica and Parfumo.
Reviewers agree it is less smoky than the name suggests. Kafkaesque found aromatic pine and fresh sap, “a crisp, sunny day in December” rather than a dark, smoky forest, with small touches of chocolate and a vanilla-like heliotrope. Memory of Scent heard a green accord joined to an amber and cumin accord and did not get “a lot of incense”, calling it the shiniest green of the three.
Why it matters
Vert d’Encens was the most successful of Les Extraits Verts. The Fragrance Foundation’s own awards archive, WWD and Now Smell This all record it as the 2017 Fragrance of the Year in Men’s Luxury, the same night Tom Ford’s Soleil Blanc won the women’s luxury category. Parfumo carries the same award, and it has far more ratings there than Vert des Bois or Vert Bohème, a rough sign of how widely it was worn.
It also shows how incense changed in the 2010s. Resins burned in temples are among the oldest uses of frankincense and myrrh; Vert d’Encens keeps the resin but frames it with conifers, sap and herbs, so it reads as outdoors rather than ecclesiastical.
Reformulation and editions
Vert d’Encens was sold as an eau de parfum in 50 and 250 ml. No flanker or concentration change has been documented.
Fragrantica lists it as discontinued, and its reviewers describe hunting for remaining bottles and decants. No reformulation has been reported before that.
Wearing it today
Expect a bright lavender-and-citrus opening, a green heart of pine, sap and fir, and a soft heliotrope and woody base with only a light haze of incense. Parfumo users rate its longevity above average, so two or three sprays are enough.
It suits autumn and winter, and Fragrantica and Parfumo both class it as unisex despite the men’s award. Because it is discontinued, sample a decant first and check batch codes when buying from resellers.