The Chapel 2008

[zankoku_zen]

Black incense, bitter wine, brimstone, and blood.

The wine lends a bit of sweetness to this incensey blend. There's a bitter smoky overtone to the incense.

I like this much more than I thought I would. If you're afraid of the description, don't be. This is a sweeter and less aggressive tone than it lets on. Maybe I amp up wine, but it's a boozy kind of incense. More like a debauched night out than a fire and brimstone scent.

ETA: Edited to add description. Edited September 13, 2008 by zankoku_zen

[Cereus]

In the bottle I get the sweetness of wine and the smokiness of the brimstone before the vetiver strikes hard.

 

Wet this is still predominantly vetiver, with an ashy quality that's actually quite complimentary. As this dries, the vetiver fades, however, and I'm left with smokey, ashy incense with a touch of wine in the background.

 

This dries down to soft, not-quite-powder incense, the scent you get once it's burned off but still lingering in the air, with a light, ashy sweetness. It absolutely conjures in my mind the scene and location of the description.

 

I don't think my skin has ever coaxed the lab's blood note out of an oil, so I'm not surprised that it failed to make an appearance. I was very worried about the vetiver at the beginning, since it is almost always a deal breaker for me. This surprised me in the dry down, though, and turned into something soft yet dark. It's actually comforting.

[sleepflower]

I wanted this scent to work out for me. I really did. The description alone makes me happy.

 

In the bottle, all I get is extremely strong brimstone. Every time I smell this, and much like a sick puppy I keep smelling it, I always yell GAK! and have to close it back up. I get nothing but brimstone.

 

When I first apply it, it is brimstone for a five-mile radius. It is really unpleasant. I cannot smell anything else, but this scent takes over anything else in the near (maybe far) vicinity.

 

After a while, the brimstone barely fades and under it is a red scent...the wine, maybe? It smells like red peeking out under near-black grey. One would have to get pretty close to me to smell anything but brimstone. I usually apply oils between my boobs, and as much as I need an exuse to get people to bury their heads there I am afraid this is not it.

 

Overall, I may be swapping this away. If I use the teensiest of drops it smells closer to what I would want it to smell on its own, but the brimstone is just far too strong. I almost want to keep it just because I love the theory of it so much.

[tinyvulture]

This is such a dark, ominous blend. The full-bodied fruitiness of the wine comes out first, but is immediately muted by the spiciness and slight metallic tang of the blood, and the acrid smokiness of brimstone. And then there’s the familiar charred, earthy note of vetiver. If you enjoy burnt, smoky blends, then you should love this. I think this is such a perfect combination of notes to produce such a creepy, yet intoxicating, overall effect.

[ShadowsDance]

In the bottle I smell mostly wine.

On my skin this is a very thick an dark blend. The wine and incense are both strong and very bitter, there is a faint metallic feel in the very background. It turns into something very sour and bitter.. It's interesting, but not something I can see myself wearing.

[ouch!]

Oh dear this smells like disinfectant on me.

 

Yep..I can detect a sort of wine note but it smells like TCP which is a medicinal anticeptic liquid that you gargle with when you get a sore throat. Yuk!

 

[PeshaRocha]

Deep, dark, rich and fruity-sweet. Lovely, but heavy with a pretty strong throw, not an everyday type scent but perfect for special nights out.

 

I don't really smell smoke, but I'm a fan of Brimstone, so maybe this smoke just pales to nothingness when compared to that.

 

Actually this smells to me like fruit-flavored pipe tobacco fresh in the pack (not being smoked). I'm surprised that there's no tobacco note listed, but I guess it's just a combination of other scents coming together to imitate a very dark tobacco. And of course the wine adds the fruitiness. Very pretty in a heavy way.

[Greenwoodtree]

Another one I had high hopes for... fails miserably.

 

The only scent I get from this, even after wearing it for a couple hours, is tobacco. The fresh kind that hasn't been smoked. Nothing special about it, maybe some cherry flavored tobacco...It started making me sick.

 

Bye bye, Chapel

[voorishsign]

I've been dying to sample this, and thanks to sirensea I finally can

 

In the imp - wine. Deep, rich, wine. Not much else.

 

On wet - Vetiver! Oh, there's my beloved vetiver. Vetiver, resins and a bit of blood. I'm loving this so far. Let's see what happens.

 

Drydown - lighter now, and fruitier, resins and wine. Barely any vetiver to speak of. Shame! I was hoping this would last. Will keep the decant, but am glad I didn't order a bottle.

[personaldna]

Upon reading the description of The Chapel, Greenwoodtree and I were ooohing over the promise of smoky, dark incense. She got a sample in a swap and due to sensitivities, can only try one scent a day, so I was a willing test subject. Wet, the scent is smoky but in a short time, it turned to tobacco on my skin. My friend recoiled at that note, displeased, and I am the happy recipient of the imp.

 

I wore The Chapel to my World Religion class, and I loved catching a whiff of the tobacco-y scent as we studied Islam. I reapplied a dab to my cleavage before running off to the theatre to play music for The Bacchae. The scent accompanied my mad shenanigans quite well. It's probably the incense that reads to my nose like tobacco, but no matter to me--I'm in heaven with The Chapel. It feeds my dark romantic mood and is intoxicating. I am seriously considering a bottle.

 

UPDATE: As I applied The Chapel for the second day in a row, I dropped the imp in my bathroom sink. Despite acting quickly, half the contents were splashed across the basin. The scent permeated my house and I finally recognized the tobacco note is likely the wine. And now I need to get a bottle even sooner.

Edited March 14, 2010 by dna

[donnatron]

Imp: Oh, hello there vetiver. I've always wondered what the brimstone note was. Now I know. Vetiver.

 

Wet: Really, incredibly strong vetiver and a cloying sweet note. This reminds me a lot of Centzon Totochtin--another scent that is made up of Win! notes but is utterly tragic on my chemistry.

 

Dry: Smoke, wine, blood (yay!) and maple syrup (wtf?). It winds up strangely sweet and syrupy and strange. This smells mostly like what I would wear were I to be doing great amounts of evil, but then there's the maple syrup. It's like doing great amounts of evil and then making pancakes.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: Almost but not quite. Not sure where that irrationally sweet note is coming from, but it is not working out on my skin.

[Mamma Badger]

Wet- heavy resin and wine

 

On- heavy sweet incense and wine. Reminds me of one of the new age shops I frequented when I was younger. Interesting but not something I would wear much.

[Atrous]

In the bottle: Mostly robust, well aged, dry wine. I can also smell incense.

 

Wet: Wow the wine really amps up and it is indeed bitter.

 

Dry: Wine calms down and lets the incense move in. They dance beautifully together. There is something metallic underneath and I detect the faintest amount of brimstone. This is one of those scents I've been looking for...sexy sinister. The darkest blend I've run across to date. If you're not into 'evil' blends stay away from the Chapel. As for me...I couldn move in.