Cathedral

[Halloqueen2]

Venerable and solemn: the scent of incense smoke wafting through an ancient church. A true ecclesiatical blend of pure resins.

Cathedral was part of my first imp order. I wasn't all that impressed when I first sniffed it, so I threw it in my perfume box and forgot about it until today.

It's rainy, dark and gloomy out, so I went looking for a suitable scent. I "rediscovered" this in my imp pile, so decided to give it another try.

Once applied, I couldn't believe how I overlooked this all this time! This is absolutely georgeous. I was instantly transported to some old cathedral in Britain...high ceilings, stone columns, old wood, faint aroma of beeswax candles and old smoke. I don't so much pick up on the single notes of an oil, but mostly pick up it's mood. This is real incense...not the head shop kind or the cheap fruity stuff, but the real, holy resin smell that people have been worshipping with for countless ages. It pretty much gave me a "reincarnation" moment...I can see hooded figures in the gloom, softly chanting...tendrils of smoke rising...ah...I digress.

What I mean to say is this is a work of art. I love the idea of smelling like this, although as some have said, this would make a great room scent, too. I love the way it unfolds, and the only thing I can say against it is that I wish it were longer lasting...2-3 hours is all I get with my body chemistry.

A bottle will be on my next order

[iiinterstate]

warm, woody, and a little spicy. Not unlike church pews

It's a nice scent, but something I'd be more likely to scent a room with rather than wear.

[odalisque]

I wasn't too wowed by this, honestly. It's a very pleasant blend of frank, myrrh and other resiny scents, but it enthuses me about as much as a straight-up essential oil blend of frank & myrrh from the new age store. Which is to say, I sniff it, say "Nice" and maybe I use it to scent the house but it's not complex or "living" enough to be what I want in a perfume.

 

When I think about it, Beth describes this as the embodiment of a cathedral, and that's what I smell -- a space, not the unfolding story of a person or an idea.

[angelicruin]

In the vial and wet on the skin, it's very smoky.

 

As it dries, I get pine along with the smokiness.

 

Not for me, but glad I got to try it as a frimp.

[Suu4LC]

Whoa resintacular O_o Very dark and resiny. Lots and lots of smoke >_O Woody too, at least to my nose.

 

This kinda smells like burning wood to me. Not fresh wood though, like, really really black charred wood. Full drydown is dark incense and wood and lots of smoke. Not my cuppa.

Edited October 2, 2008 by Suu4LC

[madeleine]

I really liked Penitence so I wanted to try some other resin-y scents and see how they worked on me. And I do like Cathedral, but it smells almost exactly the same on my skin. I get a whiff of green-y cedar when I open the imp, but on me and dry it's all frankincense and myrrh. When I press my nose directly to my skin there's a bit of heat and the cedar again, but it's not a scent my skin amps up. However, they're very nice together. Kind of Thanatopsis + Penitence. And it lasts foreeeever!

 

But I think I'll stick with Penitence for my resins, or try a resin/floral mix or something.

[NeuroticaGirl]

This smells exactly like the inside of a formal church. It has a great incense smell and somehow that smell feels far away and wistful. Very subtle.

[annerqm]

Hey, my first review!

 

I selected an imp of Cathedral with my first lab order -- I love resins and the smell of church incense. Of the 12 imps I ordered, I think I was most excited about this one -- and I am not disappointed.

 

Imp: Lots of fresh cedar. I'm not reminded of church but of my childhood bedroom -- pencils, cedar shavings from the gerbil cage and my little cedar jewelry boxes (with the laminated picture on the top) that I got as souvenirs from all our family vacations.

 

There is also a distinct sweetness, much more sweet than I was expecting. I'm thinking this is myrrh or amber, but maybe it's beeswax? I wouldn't think beeswax is this sweet, but I'm certainly no expert.

 

Wet: The prevailing scent is still cedar, but it's a bit more smoky and some other resins are now pushing through -- I'm guessing frankincense and myrrh? Maybe it's the myrrh that smells so sweet, but I definitely think there is something else -- amber? Honey?

 

Dry: This sweet note is even more prevalent, but it's LOVELY with the cedar -- I already love cedar but this is the best I've smelled. The sweet note mellows the cedar into something so peaceful and soft. This is a very nostalgic scent.

 

As time goes by, the cedar fades and the sweet resin (myrrh?) becomes much stronger. This has not gone at all powdery, but I will update if that changes. I also smell very little smokiness, compared to some other reviews.

 

To me, this is sticky, sweet, raw and unlit incense, still in the ornate cedar storage box.

 

This would be a nice xmastime scent.

 

I applied a lot of this (maybe 1/4 of the imp) and even so it's not very strong -- I'm guessing this is because of my dry, porous skin.

 

I really like this, but before I make a decision about a bigger bottle, I want to test a resin/incense-y scent that is dryer, more powdery and less sweet.

 

Later: Ok, it's about an hour and a half in, and it's starting to get more powdery, less sticky smelling, but still very sweet.

[Kimocean]

In my most recent organizational attempt I discovered that I have two imps of this so I figured it's time to test it out! One I got as a frimp from the lab at the last will-call and the other has been aging in my box for at least two years. Both are smokey, sweet, incense. Definitely got a woody tone to it and my skin tends to amp wood notes especially in the younger one. The older stays a little bit richer and deeper. Not a favorite but strong throw and if you like resinny incense this just might work for you.

Edited October 27, 2008 by Kimocean

[Methos]

Wow. When wet, it was strange and green. It reminded me a lot of Wolfsbane, only with more wood. It dried, and all of a sudden, I was back in a tiny, 10th century church, in the middle of no-where France. It was the exact scent that permiated the building-- wood, frankincense, myrrh, and Mass.

[rayvn1]

This was just pure cedar when I applied it. And it stayed in that state for quite some time. About an hour after application I started getting sweet resiny hints of the incense in the background and that does make this a keeper.

[MCS4096]

In the imp: Hello cedar! Pretty much all I smell at this point.

 

Wet: Still cedar, but a little smokier. I may have to wait awhile for the incense to kick in. My father is a carpenter (lol.. not starting in on a Jesus thing here, my actual father is a carpenter) and he loves working with cedar, so we always had it around when I was little, and that's more what I'm thinking about than of a church.

 

Dry: Wow.. SO cedary. As time goes by some smokiness comes out, but I don't get much in the way of resins here. Still very nice, I'll think about a bottle

Edited November 23, 2008 by MCS4096

[tdgnika]

In the bottle, it smells like pine.

 

Wet on the skin, it smells like sort of a buttery rain.

 

Dries to smell like a weak cedar. Didn't have much staying power and was a rather forgettable smell for me. The lab has incense blends that do much better on me.

 

Second go around, stale unpleasant incense.

[milo]

I read somewhere that this was like Midnight Mass, so I was looking very forward to trying this one. I really don't get the comparison, it is just a very light vetiver scent (or cedar, can't really tell these notes apart). I don't even get any incense, maybe just a touch of smoke. I'll stick to my beloved Midnight Mass.

[MisterShrapnel]

Mmm, pine-y smokey church resins, the kind I always associate with Christmas. This is SO evocative and when I tried this I could see the interior of chapels I've been to! I found it was quite similar to Midnight Mass (2008), minus the hint of beeswax. It's a bit stronger on the pine/cedar I believe.

This works well for my skin, but I never wear it. More of an atmospheric thing for me, I guess.

[kjirstiben]

Another early-chosen winner! Cathedral initially smells cedary on my skin, and as it dries down it retains its cedary and resiny character. It's very nice.

 

The cedar, wood, and resin smell remains remarkably consistent through the (long) life of the scent. This is one oil that doesn't do a lot of metamorphosing, so you have to like the smell of woods and resins to wear it… (BTW, I think I amp cedar so it's possible that on someone else this would have more resiny character to it. I'm happy with it as it is on me, but it may not be a representative sample.)

 

Recaplet: Cedar, wood, and resin--consistent through its long wear-time.

My rating: 5 of 5 (I LOVE IT!!!)

Color impression: The yellow-brown of a wooden church interior.

[zankoku_zen]

Incense. And this has patchouli in it... because it smells like dirty incense. Like the burnt out ashes of incense.

 

Pass.

[Bluestocking]

In the imp: Smells like exactly what it says it should: a blend of incense. It's spicy-sweet at first whiff (smells mostly like frankincense), but there's a bitter undertone that seems to come from myrrh. There's cedar, and there are other resins in there as well, but it's difficult to separate them. Doesn't smell precisely like the incense I associate with church, though.

On, wet: Okay, yes, it's church-y now. Very woody, lots of cedar with plenty of myrrh there… and something a bit earthy, like old buildings, and a crumbly, dry scent that I associate with old paper, books and sheet music. This is the smell of the darker, "backstage" areas of a church, where the stale incense of decades lingers on, like the rectory and choir lofts.

On, dry: I can't get over how much this smells like a church to me. Not only do I smell incense and old paper and old building, but I swear I'm getting candles and wood polish. (Can't tell if that's in the scent, or if my memories are just supplying that themselves!) In any case, yes, very like the parish church of my youth, which is not a bad thing. This makes me think of choir lofts and Easter Vigil and Christmas pageants.

Later: Mmm, now it's sweet and resin-y and mellow. It doesn't smell like a church anymore, but it is pleasant.

Overall: This is so dead-on for the concept that I'm in awe. It really is an old church in a bottle! That said, I'm not certain how often I want to smell exactly like a choir loft, so this one might be better as a room scent for me. It's very evocative, but if I want to wear something churchy, I'd rather have The Scales of Deprivation.

 

 

[asciident]

Wet: It's all wood to me.

 

First on: Incense and wood. Like burning an incense holder. It IS very reminiscent of church, though.

 

Dry: Unchanged. Just way too much wood for me; it's pretty overpowering.

[starcr]

In the imp, this one’s very sharp. It’s not a scent I associate with incense; it almost hits me as a floral, although a really heavy one. On me, it turns into… exactly what the description says. When I burn incense at home, it’s a custom loose blend of frankincense, bay leaf and cinnamon stick burned on a charcoal disc; this scent is very reminiscent of that. A little spicy, fairly heavy, a touch of smoke. Oddly, Hubby said it smelled sweet and fruity to him, though.

 

Verdict: It doesn’t top my old favorites, but I certainly do like it very well.

 

[awesomeoverlord]

Woodsy resiny scent. No incense here to my nose. It's kind of gritty...some patchouli maybe?

[Lyrical]

In vial: sharp, resinous ... furniture polish and rosewood!

 

Wet on skin: mostly rosewood with some sharpish resins.

 

Dry on skin: if you like rosewood scents you should try this. I don't.

[March]

Ooh, this reminds me of Christmas! Not because it's anything Christmas-associated, but mainly because Christmas was when we'd go to church to listen to the singing. And get doused in the incense. Which I used to hate, but that's mostly because there was so MUCH of it.

 

Cathedral is church incense and wood. It's a cool, distant scent that sends hesitant tendrils out into the air, being a subtle background scent rather than an in-your-face presence.

 

Two words: Calm imperviousness.

One word: Perfection!

 

I'd love to try this as a room scent.

[Juushika]

I was lucky enough to snag a beautiful tarted imp.

 

In the vial: Resin and wood, or else a polished wood. It's surprisingly pale and faint.

 

On me: Initially it's very much wood, and not ancient at all—it has a cedar-like sharpness and a pine-like astringency. Much of that sharpness swiftly fades, but it doesn't leave a whole lot behind: resins which, however beautiful, are faint and pale. Really what this is is Heavenly Love and Earthly Love lite: lots and lots of resins with a touch of incense, but lighter and fainter and paler. Slightly malleable (like ambergris), golden, smooth, polished, warm. The only odd thing is a slightly saltiness. Scent-color is pale gold. Throws is very low.

 

Verdict: It's so similar to Heavenly Love, and yet such a pale comparison, that I think I'll pretty much stick with Heavenly Love. Cathedral lacks the depth and shadows in Heavenly Love (which surprises me, as my imp is so old), which makes it more difficult to discern and somehow less breathtaking. And when I catch it, that odd salty note is a touch disquieting—on top of all the resins, it smells a little too much like dirty skin. Nonetheless I'll hang on to this, for a bit. It may be a good warm-weather alternative to Heavenly Love, and it is on the whole a lovely, if pale, golden resin.

Edited May 28, 2009 by Juushika

[liquidtrance]

Very woody at first. Pine, and resins. Very cedary. I think this is the cedar that I THOUGHT was sandalwood in Kathmandu. On the verge of smelling like pure pencil shavings. No thanks. There's something else at the back… something almost sweet, but not in a candy sort of way. Smells of like sweet wood.