DSH Ashram: Death and Forever

I received a sample order from DSHperfumes[.com] and included was this week's favorite fragrance: Ashram.

It's in that family of incense-y fragrances that I've recently come to crave ... for some reason, these scents give you that sense of Death and Forever that's perfect for the season.

Per the DSH site: "Om Nama Shivaya. Peace and enlightenment through meditation ..." it has a dense not-so-sweet smokiness that brings to mind burning leaves, but these leaves are from far away trees -- and the burning involves some sort of spiritual petition.

Ashram is not the familiar incense of Catholic mass ... it truly does bring to mind distant mountains where monks in lotus position find satori without seeking it.

Notes include: nag champa, amber, Australian sandalwood, benzoin, champaca absolute, East Indian patchouli base, Brazilian vetiver, frankincense/olibanum, Himalayan cedar and myrrh gum. Although there's no vanilla cited in the notes, it reminds me of Regina Harris' Amber Vanilla, which I also love.

Speaking of Death and Forever scents, here is a wonderful quote about frankincense and myrrh that I read in Robin of NowSmellThis's recent interview with Alexandra Balahoutis of Strange Invisible Perfumes:

"A distiller I know told me that frankincense was the first breath you take and that myrrh is the last. I then realized that myrrh had something to do with death and after that I understood it."