Ecclesiastical Excesses

[Poenari]

ECCLESIASTICAL EXCESSES
Hark, Ambrosio, while I unveil your crimes! You have shed the blood of two innocents; Antonia and Elvira perished by your hand. That Antonia whom you violated, was your Sister! That Elvira whom you murdered, gave you birth! Tremble, abandoned Hypocrite! Inhuman Parricide! Incestuous Ravisher! Tremble at the extent of your offences! And you it was who thought yourself proof against temptation, absolved from human frailties, and free from error and vice! Is pride then a virtue? Is inhumanity no fault? Know, vain Man! That I long have marked you for my prey: I watched the movements of your heart; I saw that you were virtuous from vanity, not principle, and I seized the fit moment of seduction. I observed your blind idolatry of the Madonna's picture. I bade a subordinate but crafty spirit assume a similar form, and you eagerly yielded to the blandishments of Matilda. Your pride was gratified by her flattery; Your lust only needed an opportunity to break forth; You ran into the snare blindly, and scrupled not to commit a crime which you blamed in another with unfeeling severity. It was I who threw Matilda in your way; It was I who gave you entrance to Antonia's chamber; It was I who caused the dagger to be given you which pierced your Sister's bosom; and it was I who warned Elvira in dreams of your designs upon her Daughter, and thus, by preventing your profiting by her sleep, compelled you to add rape as well as incest to the catalogue of your crimes. Hear, hear, Ambrosio! Had you resisted me one minute longer, you had saved your body and soul. The guards whom you heard at your prison door came to signify your pardon. But I had already triumphed: My plots had already succeeded. Scarcely could I propose crimes so quick as you performed them. You are mine, and Heaven itself cannot rescue you from my power. Hope not that your penitence will make void our contract. Here is your bond signed with your blood; You have given up your claim to mercy, and nothing can restore to you the rights which you have foolishly resigned. Believe you that your secret thoughts escaped me? No, no, I read them all! You trusted that you should still have time for repentance. I saw your artifice, knew its falsity, and rejoiced in deceiving the deceiver! You are mine beyond reprieve: I burn to possess my right, and alive you quit not these mountains.
—The Monk, MG Lewis

Faustian depravity: daemonorops, rose-infused frankincense, vetiver, mate absolute, and clove bud.

I really hoped that since this has so many notes of WIN for me (daemondrops, vetiver, clove, frankincense) that Ecclesiastical Excesses would be a spicy incense perfume with just a hint of rose. Once again, rose takes over everything else and amps to !SOAP! After the drydown, it has mellowed to a frankincense-rose blend, but nothing more. Disappointed.

[dawndie]

Wet: sharp incense

 

On skin: blast of rosey incense

 

Half-hour later: strong rose incense with a base of sweet dragon's blood (Ron Burgundy says it "stings the nostrils")

 

In conclusion: I love rosey incense blends, like Parlement of Foules and Saint Foutin. This has a nice base with the daemonorops, but do I need another rosey incense blend? Pretty nevertheless.

[angelicruin]

Rose, incense, and vetiver right after application. Vetiver note seems to disappear after a few minutes and I am left with this spicy rose incense. Very pretty and delicate.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Sharp rich resin, a bit of rose, and some vetiver. Strong, a little dandyish.

 

Wet: That's the sweetest vetiver I've ever had that still retained its blackness. I like this one; let's see how it develops.

 

Half an hour: Here too I find the crittery note I sometimes get, like in Whitechapel, Arcana, Tin Phoenix. Usually that comes along with citrus and white musk, neither of which are listed here. But there are also a host of more traditional notes that are good on my skin. The vetiver is much calmer now.

 

One hour: There's a note in this that I don't like, and I'm not sure what. It's similar to but not quite my crittery note.

 

Four hours: Rose and resin with some very unusual overtones. The crittery note subsided somewhat, but it's still unusual. A very interesting scent: not at all my typical skin reactions to rose, frankincense, or vetiver.

[edenssixthday]

Ecclesiastical Excesses - Everything about the ingredient list screamed "winner!!!" at me. But I'm pretty disappointed after trying it on. It's a rose-and-frankincense scent that's kind of generic and bland. On my skin, it doesn't blossom at all. It just sits there, kind of flat and dead. I'm sure it smells fabulous on the right person, and I thought for sure that person would be me, but it's not.

[milo]

I cannot believe there is not jasmine here. This is going to sound pretty bad, but all I smell from wet to dry is a diaper that is soaked and has been left too long. The ammonia-like urine fades after a bit, but it is still there. This is definitely not for me.

[Little Bird]

This is mostly perfumey floral and vetiver in the vial, and then morphs into a perfumey, sour, spicy rose-floral on my skin. I usually love clove, but the spiciness here smells dry and potpourri-esque. I don't get much of an incense/resin impression from it, but my skin seems to be amping up the floral aspects of this blend. There are definitely rose blends that I prefer over this one...

[Pika]

Heavy on the dragon's blood at first, then settles to dry, sour vetiver and powder. Not sure if it's the rose that's going powdery underneath it all, but I definitely don't get and of the rose or clove bud.

[Lyzz13]

In Bottle: Incense, roses and cloves

 

Wet on skin: All church incense and roses, bb. And I'm ok with that.

 

Drydown: Initially during drydown, the roses amp, but there's still a tiny undercurrent of clove, tiny hint of frankincense, but mostly, it screams ROSES. Thankfully, that calms down after a bit, and the fruity dragons blood comes out to play. Thankfully, it doesn't pull its usual trick of turning onto cherry-hell on me, but is thick and red. Don't really get the vetiver or the mate, but all in all it's a lovely roses/incense blend

 

Similar: Cathedral (what it says on the tin) All Saint's (2006 version seems a bit harsh to me, this is smoother, haven't tried 2010 version, so YMMV)

 

Final Verdict: Like I said, beautiful blend, but I'll stick with the decant, not hunting down a bottle.

[zankoku_zen]

Huge hit of vetiver on wet, and it dries to something like Red Rose with the rose, hint of clove and slightly more resinous than RR.

[ami226]

On the skin:

 

Not getting any vetiver. Mostly this scent is a slight floral with a hint of frankincense and clove. Quite soapy on me. On the dry down, this becomes a lovely floral frankincense. A pretty scent actually.

 

Not really for me.

[Soniadevi]

I'm glad I took a chance and purchased a bottle of this! There is nothing bland and generic about this blend in my humble opinion. Smells nothing like Parlement of Foules to me AT ALL. I am amazed some find this "flat", "just another Frankincense blend".

 

Wet, it starts out with a certain sharpness, but quickly mellows out into a lemony powdered incensy blend with something else I cannot quite put my finger on but the notes are quite well blended and soon they all marry and soften together giving a very unusual but lovely smelling end result- I find it morphs from powdery to herby to incensy to sharp to powdery and back again. It's an interesting blend that deserves to be approached like an exotic and unknown animal in the jungle: with humility and patience. I find that some smells cannot be simply sniffed and consumed. Some need to come to in their own time, and I think this is one of them.

[forspecial_plate]

I was excited to try this, especially with mate absolute. The notes all sounded pretty good, actually, except maybe for the rose infusion, but I was willing to take the chance. Well, it was just not meant to be. I don't even know how to describe this, soapy metal? It does remind me a little of Copper Phoenix, but this is.....murky? I don't know, I just know I don't like it. : (

[impolight]

:::ECCLESIASTICAL EXCESS:::

 

A miracle of sorts led to the discovery of Ecclesiastical Excess hiding in the "search" area of the BPAL site.

When 5ml. was ordered, it simply disappeared the following day! Whew!

Somehow, this had escaped notice when it was posted in the LE Category, but snatching it up quick proved serendipitous! This stuff is superb.

The gorgeousness of ALL the Lab's notes are way beyond compare.

Daemonorops (Dragon's Blood), Frankincense, and Vetiver are particularly spectacular. The genius of Beth's craft is amply displayed, both, in the way these notes come together and the degree to which they are complimented and enhanced by the addition of the other notes.

Ecclesiastical Excess? Faustian Depravity? C'mon!

Ecclesiastial Excess proves itself to be almost supernaturally irresistable.

As if the very first whiff from the Bottle's neck isn't a rascally recumbentibus enough, the Label Art suits ground-breaking and classical tastes alike.

The entire experience is profound from start to finish.

From the Bottle: The Daemonorops and the Rose-infused Frankincense accentuate the Vetiver in a completely unprecedented way.

For those who are timid or skeptical of Vetiver, ecclesiastical Excess would be ther PERFECT opportunity to be exposed to the loftier qualities of Vetiver's olfactory profile to as they are illuminated here.

Ecclesiastical Excess has the über high-quality depth, magnitude, and resonance ordinarily reserved for the costlier varietals available only when one has the willingness to plumb the depths of the Salon or the Carnival Diabolique Categories.

Ecclesiastical Excess IS depravity... Depravity and full-blooded hedonism that is somehow captured; it's essences bottled for mere mortals to stake a temporary claim on riding the ethers with Gangs of Gods, a Multitude of Monsters, and Far-Fetched Fractal Frequencies.

It's funny, but Ecclesiastical Excess almost makes you want to BOW to it.

Wear this in a crowded room if you've the stomach for hungry revere, being disrobed with a glance, or... Daggers. Maybe all three!

The Mate Absolute and the Clove ride in on the tail-wind of Ecclesiastical Excess, leaving you all to helpless to not succumb to their white-hot vortices. They create a dry and, yet, pliable element that typically resides in the Land of Leathery notes.

While not quite Leather, the aridity and the astringency join forces to produce something that might make for a more pleasing set of tannins and hermetically isolating and secreting away all traces of the creature.

Ecclesiastical Excess will burn an indelible groove for itself in your synapses.

This is, so far, one of those Limited Edition fragrances that deserves to be immortalized with a place of permanence in the Catalogue...

Hey, shouldn't there be a new "Hall of Infamy" category where the upper eschelons of the LE's might reserve a place of honor?

Just think of those incredible Alums!

Pretty penny notwithstanding, it would rock! ...

Just sayin'!

The Infernal Illinition: Here, the Rose-infused Frankincense acts the vulcan projectile with a direct assault on the frontal lobes.

After the slightest brush with sapponification, the Mate and the Vetiver both geyser forth in a roiling crescendo to stay apace of the Frankincense and reverbate in unholy matrimony (patrimony?).

The Myrrh transmogrifies into a veritable Force of Nature; a crazed and sentient lightning strike blasting a blackened path before it and luminating an olfactory opera of intergalactic proportions.

The Clove stays surprisingly subdued. Here the Clove could be interpreted as 'The Watcher' or maybe 'The Lunatic Fringe'.

Ecclesiastical Excess waxes sweeter the longer it lounges on The Skin.

Impossibly gorgeous and radiantly befrocked.

Ecclesiastical Excess is sure not to disappoint on Him or Her, rendering one more delectable than the other in turn.

Spectrally, this is crimson, purple, gold, indigo, & black shades of velvet.

A 5.5 out of 5!

[ObliqueRed]

Alas, on this I get no rose at all, just a blast of super-skunky resin. Something in this hates me. Vetiver? Frankincense? Whatever it is, this bottle needs to get rehomed.

[brineydeep]

This is heaven in a bottle if you like rich, slightly spicy and sweet incense.

 

I'm hit-or-miss on daemonorops, vetiver, and clove but in this blend they are all winners. I smell all three rounded out by the frankincense, though no one component stands out over the rest. It's just a lovely blend of resins.

 

There is a slight hint of rose in the early stages as a bit of sourness (something rose can do on my skin) but it definitely is in the background of the resins (caveat that my skin loves and amps resins). I have no idea what mate smells like and how it's adding to the blend.

 

I seems to be one of the few reviewers who loves this blend, probably as it works so well on my resin-loving skin. Aging has likely also helped. Either way, this one is a winner for me.

 

Medium+ throw and good wear length.

[starbrow]

Midnight Mass fans, take note. Ecclesiastical Excesses takes that sweet incense and turns it myrrhish and almost bitter with clove and corrupted rose, dripping with old resins and crumbling wood. When it goes on the skin, it has the dark reddish-brown of dried blood. Woof. This is very gothic in the same way that Divinities Doom-Laden is gothic, but also there's an element of decay here that is appealing to me. There is no sweetness, and the roses here are dead and rotting.

 

I didn't smell the dragon's blood or vetiver from a blind sniff without reading the notes, but rather thought this was a heavy, thick myrrh. This is quite different than Bloodlust, which also contains dragon's blood and vetiver but which runs in a pulsing vetiver direction; here, the resins dry down like an oppressive blanket of ancient cathedral smells. Frankincense surely, and if this doesn't have myrrh, then the dragon's blood/vetiver/rose is doing a very fine imitation of it. The mate (a bitterish tea note) and clove contribute to the dark oppression. Later, this turns a little powdery the way myrrh does on me.

 

I'd recommend this to anyone who's drawn to the BPAL church incenses (Cathedral, Midnight Mass, Penitence) but wants one without sweetness and with some sinister undertones to it. 

 

I'd wear this while: designing my Halloween cemetery display.