Les Encens du Monde – Atlas Cedar

I was given these incense sticks as a gift from someone who was convinced that they had too many. I doubt that’s even possible. 😉

Cedar is a very classic and common scent, not just for incense sticks. However, Atlas cedar is not typically a species used for incense, which is a pity if you ask me. (You tend to find Lebanon cedar or Himalayan cedar and others; also some woods, commonly called “cedar” that actually belong to the juniper genus.)
I was lucky enough to receive a large amount of Altas cedar wood as a gift. A friend had to unfortunately cut theirs down for safety reasons. The wood has the typical, warm cedar wood smell and a sweet note that I would almost like to describe as fruity.
Of course, it makes a big difference whether you heat the wood gently on an incense burner or actually burn it.

Atlas Cedar by Les Encens du Monde have a “campfire” smell; aromatic wood smoke. I recognize the cedar character well. Overall, they are very mild and low in smoke.
I suspect that they were designed to be low-smoke incense, as the sticks are strikingly gray, which means they contain charcoal, that ensures they burn cleaner and therefore produce less smoke. Unfortunately, this often comes at the expense of the scent.
Although it is a dry smoke scent, it is rather soft and tends to be warm. There’s something calm about it and reminds me of walks in glittering winter landscapes when the wind brings smoke from a distant chimney.
These incense sticks smell absolutely authentic, as if they only contain what it says on the package, no frills, no benzoin to make the smell sweeter and more approachable.

These sticks are perfect for people who don’t like sweet smells and prefer dry, woody aromas.
Although I can enjoy this scent to an extent, it’s not one that I would actively seek out.
This makes my rating relatively low, but I would like to emphasize that I think it is well done.
Rating: 2.7

I dug up an old Reddit post that suggests that the sticks I received may be a bit older and lost some of their scent.
The post also goes into details about the complex brand name situation of this manufacturer. Although “manufacturer” is not quite correct, as Aromandise has production done for them or does rebranding, depending on the line.