Smoke without incense: six indie perfumes that burn wood, not resin

Most writing about smoky perfume is really writing about incense: frankincense, myrrh, copal, resin warmed until it gives off a sweet grey cloud. Wood burns too, and so does bark distilled into tar, sandalwood scorched rather than shaved, and gunpowder when it goes off. The six below take their smoke from combustion rather than a censer, and the difference is legible in the note list before anything reaches skin.

Two kinds of smoke

The camps smell related because they share chemistry. Birch tar is the clearest case: made by dry distillation of birch bark, it reads as smoky in the manner of a campfire or smouldering wood, with a dry tanned-hide quality and a phenolic edge of tar or rubber. Guaiac wood is the quieter version, sweet and creamy woody with a subtle smokiness and an odd tarmac facet beneath it. Neither needs an altar.

The resin camp usually announces itself on the label. Feu Follet from Glasgow house Crow & Pebble prints Church Incense in writing, beside cypress and Spanish moss, and is currently out of stock. Salty as Fuck by Sucreabeille lists Thick Incense and Burning Candles among its salt-crusted stones. Witchy Shoppe runs Copal Smoke and frankincense over graveyard dirt. All worth knowing, none of them the subject here.

Fires, indoors and out

Watching the Sun Glow is the outdoor one. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, founded in 2000 by Elizabeth Moriarty Barrial and Brian Constantine, builds it from leaves, earth, smoky birch tar, embers, beeswax, guaiac wood and tobacco, with woody myrrh and labdanum further down. Two combustion materials are carrying the smoke and the resins sit under them: a leaf pile lit at the end of the garden. It suits anyone who wants October weather rather than October decor. $31.

The Conjure Man's Cabin moves the same fire indoors. The note list opens with Pinyon In the Fireplace and goes on through ancient leather, copal, vetiver, mud, hay, pipe tobacco and top shelf hooch. Copal is present, so this is not resin-free, but the resin is behind the chimney rather than in front of it. Nui Cobalt Designs has made oils in Columbus, Ohio since 2012, each one, in founder Forest Nui Cobalt's words, "charged under optimal astrological conditions". $4.75–$19.95.

Char, tar and spent powder

Louis has no resin in its list at all. Scorched sandalwood and iron do the smoke, bitter coffee and bay rum add roast, and vetiver and patchouli hold the floor while osmanthus and magnolia lift it. This is char rather than fire: the cold morning after, with a metallic streak. For wearers who find bonfires too companionable. $36.

Lupercalia leads on Russian leather, the historical accord built on birch tar, then sets deep roses, honeyed black tea, tobacco, black pepper and orange against it. The smoke is a texture on hide instead of something in the air, which makes it the pick for rose wearers who want the rose smudged. $19.

Black Flag is the outlier and the cheapest. AOE Perfumery, run by a perfumer named Allie, builds scents around games, and this one puts gunpowder beside teak, rum, lime, bergamot, marine notes, ginger, leather and vetiver. Powder smoke is sharp, mineral and quick, nothing like a smouldering log, and here it sits over citrus and sea air. Useful for anyone who assumes smoke means heavy. $10.

The one that never catches

Goose Turd Green Dragon contains no fire whatsoever: pale lichen, damp soil, fig sap, crushed fern, patchouli root, oakmoss, tobacco and vetiver. The library files it earthy, green and woody rather than smoky, and that is correct, yet it belongs in this company because it is the wet half of the same landscape, peat before anyone thinks to light it. Currently out of stock, which makes it a bookmark rather than a purchase. $33.

It also makes the pattern visible. Five of these six carry vetiver, a note 358 fragrances in the library share, and three carry a declared leather. Rooty, dry, faintly scorched vetiver is what holds a combustion smoke together, the way frankincense binds the other camp. Learn to read for it and the smoky family, 165 fragrances deep, sorts itself into two piles: everything smoky if the whole shelf is wanted, or smoky under $20 for the oil-house end of it.

Where to start

• Watching the Sun Glow, $31: the bonfire itself, for anyone whose idea of autumn happens outdoors.
• Black Flag, $10: gunpowder over lime and sea air, for a first try at smoke that is not heavy.
• The Conjure Man's Cabin, $4.75 for the 1 ml and $19.95 for the 5 ml: woodsmoke with a room around it, and a sample size cheap enough to test the idea.