I walked past a cistus plant and smelled...what resin?

I grew up going to church, and periodically we would have "special services" where incense was burned. I don't know what type of resin was used, but I remember the smell very distinctly. I don't know how to describe it, though. Very warm, dark, woody and slightly aromatic (a bit like sage)? No words can really capture the complexity and beauty of this smell. I have smelled it in perfumery twice so far: it's the primary scent in Vétiver oriental, and I've also accidentally recreated it by combining mimosa, tiare flower, patchouli and agarwood in one of my own perfume creations.

Today while running some errands, I passed a stretch of pavement where I smelled this exact scent. I thought nothing of it the first time I passed, but the second time, I was looking around and notice a hedge made of plants that looked familiar. I got out my plant identification app and just as I suspected, they were Cistus species. They were not flowering, I was only smelling the leaves.

I'm aware that labdanum comes from the Cistus plant, but I've smelled labdanum absolute and it's very different to this mystery resin I'm trying to identify: much sweeter, smoother and less complex. Labdanum is a smell I associated with the "amber" accord whereas my mystery resin is not.

I'm wondering if anyone knows the smell I'm talking about and can identify what resin might have been burned as incense at my church. I know it's not frankincense because I have L'orpheline and it doesn't smell like that and I've also had various cone incenses that use frankincense and it doesn't smell like that either. Nor does it smells like dragon's blood incense.

Also, I've always wondered why some perfumes say they contain "labdanum" and some say they contain "cistus". What is the difference? Are these using different parts of the plant that smell different?

P.S. see attached photo of lovely smelling plant

This note is in Ambre sultan Eau de Parfum, unsurprisingly, since it actually does focus on cistus according to the marketing.

I find that a lot of the resins used for incense have differing hints of camphor or (some use the term camphorous). Camphor is basically the terpene profile of the resin and the different terpenes have complex aromas that hint at different things in nature like mint, lemon, pine needles for example. Some of the same descriptions of terpene profiles are regularly used in cannabis horticulture. 

Some examples in my collection that stand out for me with Cistus Labdanum are Tauer  Lonestar Memories, where I kind of feel it combines with the clary sage to give it a distinct camphorous profile; Reve D’Ossian from Oriza Legrand has labdanum mixed with some other resins like Benzoin and Opopanax, which is a myrrh, and It presents as a sweeter and less earthy camphor profile to me.

I grew up catholic and went to a Jesuit secondary school, and I am fairly certain that in America a lot of the churches have myrrh in their incense because of the affinity to the gifts from the wise men. However, myrrh is not from a single plant, but a class of plants. 
Maybe check out some Opoponax or Benzoin, which has a sweeter terpene profile or some of the different myrrhs. 

Thank you! I'm familiar with benzoin and it's not that (benzoin is too sweet and vanillic), but I did wonder about myrrh. It seems the most likely candidate. 

I don't know how accurate this is, but while researching this I also read on the internet that cistus essential oil is sometimes added to incense, especially frankincense. I remember seeing the priests scoop raw resin granules into the censer though, so it was probably a pure resin. 

Hi,

I think the catholic church incense is a mix of myrrh and other resins. As you mention, it has a very peculiar smell to it, smokey, dry and woody like mesquite wood burning. I don't know exactly what type of resins are in it but I assume it's "their own incense mix" because in my home country you can buy it in stores that sell catholic religious articles.

For me, the only perfume that resembles this type of smell in a church during Easter is La Liturgie des Heures, even the name tells you how it smells like

Regards,

The resin burned in churches is usually a mix of olibanum and myrrh in different proportions, and the best rendition of that scent I found in perfumery is Cardinal. Shame about its performance...

Armani Privé - Bois d'Encens is another great, great one, albeit overpriced if you ask me.
Olibanum is a significant part of it, but it lacks smoke - it smells like pure, splendidly high quality incense, while churches use less refined products that contain other impurities that contribute to the smell being "smokey".

Despite the marketing behind them, none of the fragrances you mentioned are straight-forward enough to be good to learn what incense, of whatever variety, smells like, so I recommend you don't base your impressions of olibanum and myrrh on them too much.

Labdanum is the incense made from the resin of the cistus ladanifero flower, and the names are often interchangeable in note pyramids and marketing copies.
A nice one note frag focused on this is Attaquer Le Soleil - Marquis de Sade. I don't think it smells splendidly, but it does smell like labdanum and nothing else.