For the record, those Tennendo scents that I reviewed a few months back? That I said were nice and interesting, but weren't really my thing? Well, I LIED.

As I made my way through the samplers I decided that maybe I did like Renzan and the Frankincense enough to buy a roll, and since they were both cheap, I did. And for the past couple of months I've been burning them like a crack addict. I'm thinking I might end up having to get a roll of Tensei, too. It was odd, but once I burned enough of them, that musky note in the Renzan, Tensei, and Kuukai, while certainly not being any less noticeable to me, started seeming a lot less earthy/dirty than it had at first; I'm not sure what happened, but they really, really grew on me.

And as for the Frankincense, man, I'd recommend that to just about anyone. That stuff is just amazing. Dave really loves it too.

...

I got Essence's new Gyokushodo sampler recently (I'd link to it, but it appears they haven't put it on the menu yet for some reason), and my overall impression is that they really remind me a lot of Shoyeido, only the Gyokushodos are fairly subtle in terms of scent strength, and, er, well, "subtle" isn't really in Shoyeido's vocabulary, I think. In that light, I sort of wonder why they remind me so much of Shoyeido, but something about the scents are really reminiscent of them, especially of the way Shoyeido does aloeswoods. Sweet, delicate, with certain misty qualities that are nearly impossible to put into words.

I had trouble with not being able to smell a couple of them very well again (I think it was Jinko Hoen and Jinko Yozei). It's very weird how my nose does this. There are a great many scents that get described as "subtle" that I have absolutely no trouble with, but then there are some that I do, and there doesn't seem to be much consistency with the ingredients or anything like that. I can't figure what it is.

By the way, for those who like unique takes on sandalwood, Koujurin is definitely different. It has a peculiar (though pleasant) vanilla-touched musk to it. I think it's triggering some associations for me that I don't really like, but it's a great scent.