Plein - Jeu III-V
Sauf (2016)

This one ended up being my favorite of the first 3. It is light and definitely not dominant in any way, or with any note. I get a warm burning bowl of resins, amber, and slightly sweet incense of some sort, but it is extremely well blended! Liked it enough to purchase the FB.....which is a fantastic piece in its own right....some of the best and neatest package, box, and bottle combination that I've seen!

Soapy, clean incense with soapy clean jasmine. Perfectly pleasant, but not as soaringly light and churchy as Avignon or Heely's cardinal. For me it is a less interesting version of L'artsan's Passage D'enfer with jasmine instead of lilies.

Plein Jeu III-V (no way I'm remembering that without an index card) was supposedly inspired by a flight of angels, and in many ways is the clearest link to LAVS, because it employs the same peppery, slightly soapy incense accord.

Plein Jeu makes great use of aromatics and citrus, with the contrast between the hot ginger, zingy citruses, and cold, waxy/green frankincense providing a lively, interesting start. There is jasmine in the heart, of the cool, fresh variety, but the note doesn't really hold its own against the peppery, oily frankincense that dominates.

It is nicely smoky, pure, ethereal, and there is a slight creaminess that links it clearly to the other two in the collection: Contre Bombarde is ambery-creamy, Voix Humaine is floral-creamy, and Plein Jeu is black peppery-creamy.

By running so close to the sacred church frankincense theme, however, Plein Jeu risks being muddled up in the same category with other, perhaps greater peppery, cold church incense fragrances such as Avignon, Bois d'Encens, and even LAVs.