Kemenyan Sumatra
resin · vanilla · incense
Kemenyan · benzoin resin · Tapanuli, North Sumatra
Soft resin, quiet sweetness and incense.
On skin.
Cold air crosses pale resin in the opening. Benzoin then grows warmer and more enveloping, with incense and old wood beneath it; the sweetness stays quiet, held in a cool balsamic glow.
- 01Opening
Cold air · pale resin
- 02Heart
Benzoin · incense
- 03Trace
Warm wood · quiet sweetness
What is a resin, before it is incense?
A tree answering a cut. Kemenyan is gathered after the bark of a Styrax tree is tapped and its aromatic exudate hardens into pale tears. Extraction turns those tears into a warm, balsamic perfumery material.
This fragrance is also being developed for candles, dupa incense and body & hair oil.
Tapanuli, North Sumatra.
An imagined scent scene
In the highland forests above Lake Toba, kemenyan resin hardens into pale tears against the bark. It comes down the mountain in sacks toward the market. By the lake, incense drifts through cold morning air and across the water.
An imagined scent scene, not a documented visit or harvest record.
In development. These notes describe the intended direction; final composition and release details will follow.