Kemenyan

Kemenyan is the Indonesian word for benzoin: a resin that seeps from cuts in the bark of Styrax trees and hardens into pale tears. In the hills around Lake Toba, families have tapped the same trees for generations and sold the resin by weight to incense makers.

This perfume is built on it. Benzoin smells like vanilla with smoke in it, so vanilla stands beside it and sandalwood under it. Labdanum and cinnamon warm the middle.

It opens on lemon and pink pepper, and both are gone in twenty minutes. Six hours later, what is left on skin is the resin.