Cathedral

[FireInCairo]

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

Oh what a strong scent this is..quite smokey. The name certainly suits this blend. The resins can certainly been identified in this blend. It is very holy/majestic in nature. This blend is lovely to burn on a lamp ring- but I don't see it being used on the skin.

[feline.by.design]

This, to me, smells like an abandoned cathedral with moss growing over the old pews and weeds poking through the stone floor. Dust is covering the old pages of written holy works. The wood is damp from the humidity and the elements. There is a small shaft of light breaking through, but not enough to truly illuminate the way.

 

It's "dirty and dark" as my notes state from my wearing of this oil.

 

I found it nice. It was a very curious scent, but in the end, I passed it on. I just didn't feel like it was a scent that particularly captured me, but I did find it interesting. I think it was actually too dark and deep for me.

 

However, I was glad to try it on, as always.

 

-doreen

[Phaedra]

I really wanted to like Cathedral because I was looking forward to an incense smelling blend. Unfortunately that's not how it smells on me. In the bottle and when I first put it on it smells like pencil shavings to me- particularly it smells like graphite- yuck! It's sharp and biting. After several minutes it softens into a sweeter, warmer scent. I'm not sure what the note is but it smells exactly the way Belladonna does on me in the dry down. I wish I knew what that note is because I'd like to avoid it in other blends. It might be a green type of scent, maybe it's cedar as some people have mentioned. This doesn't smell like incense at all to me. Oh well, I guess I'll keep trying until I find a good incense blend from the Lab.

[shelldoo]

Wow, this is very resiny. I get a strong cedar smell, but not just cedar there is something else to it. It in a way reminds me of intrigue but heavier on the resin smells. I want my dh to try this one on.

[phaedrine]

I love this one even more than I thought I would!

 

Oddly, I don't get much incense out of it. Some, yes, but mainly it's smoky woods. It completely and totally makes me think of Santa Fe, New Mexico at Christmas time, walking through the plaza where all the evergreens are, maybe stopping in to the huge old church, or even walking around the corner and going in to the small, cozy chapel that houses the miracle staircase.

 

So lovely. I love wearing it, and need to try it as a room scent, as well.

[mmcfa2]

pleasant but not a huge hit. Cedar and smoke wet ,

drying the same with occasional wafts of incense. Dry, Cedar and pinion wood incence! It made my head ache at the end

 

I'll be puting this on my man perhaps. It's VERY strong and has a great presence so maybe as a room scent? we will see.

Edited January 24, 2005 by mmcfa2

[Lit Chick]

This was not what I expected...

I was raised Roman Catholic, and my mother was a Canter - meaning we always sat very close to the front, by the incense. I loved that smell, but it was always thick and heavy - and inhaling too much would make me dizzy.

 

Cathedral is much lighter that that incense - it's a very pleasant and comforting scent. The smell of wood is there, too - blended perfectly. I see what this is called "Cathedral" instead of just being a simple church - you can sense the space of high valuted ceilings, feel the light of stained glass windows.

 

I'm surprised that I liked it this much. I cannot wear it as a perfume, but I'm finally getting an oil warmer - this will make my apartment smell divine.

[angelblue]

i've looked over the reviews and can't seem to find a reaction like it had on me.

right off, hay. newly mown hay.

 

as it began to dry, it smelled like the hay loft in the summer. dry, dusty and a tiny bit musty.

 

20 minutes later, leather! warmed leather! i remember that smell. it's the smell of heated leather in the barn! a little bit smoky, the hay scent is still there and wonderful, warm leather. oh please let this stay smelling like this.

 

sadly, the wonderful lazy days of summer smell has gone. incense, wood and dusty flowers are what this has morphed into. it's a very nice smell all in all. but i so badly wanted it to remain that wonderful smell of leather, hay and smoke.

 

i'll try it again later. next time, i'll know the leather smell will fade so i won't be disappointed.

[ianastar]

Very woodsy and almost grassy smelling. Kind of like moldy grassy wood. I dont care for it right away.

[shadowsong]

i really wanted to like this one, but it turned all powdery on my skin. my first thought was of motels and other people's clothing - it smelled like fresh linens washed in a detergent i'm not used to. there was something sharp and green in there too - like the note i didn't like about lush's "tramp". i didn't really get wood or incense or any of that out of the oil at all.

 

it sounded so cool! why are bpal and my skin not getting along?

[tinyvulture]

i really liked this to begin with. then i went to a catholic church and i thought, wow, cathedral is right on the money. it captures the wood and marble, the incense hanging in the air, and something else, like the smell of old books. i love it because it's so exact. it REALLY smells like a church.

[theshapeshifter]

In the imp: Deep and resinous and smoky.

 

Initial application: Where'd this wood come from? It goes on as the very distinct and clear smell of fresh, clean wood shavings. Not what I expected, but it's a scent I quite like, so it seems promising.

 

After 30 minutes or so: It's still primarily wood, but there's now a pleasant woodsmoke element coming in, especially in the bit of oil that I applied to my hair. I had to go out in a rain/sleet storm, and the combined smell of Cathedral on me and the precipitation in the air was utter heaven! I'll be curious to layer this with a rain-type scent, when I get one.

 

Over the day: After an hour or two, I start getting hints of the incense, but not nearly as strongly as I'd expect. My overall impression is more of a crackling wood fire in the fresh air, with maybe some resins or herbs added to the bonfire.

 

However, being pagan, I don't have a strong impression of what 'church' is meant to smell like. On the other hand, my sister sniffed me late that evening (after having the scent on for 12-14 hours) and instantly exclaimed, "wow, you smell exactly like a Catholic church!"

 

Overall - A very different scent than I'd expected, but I like it just as much as I'd thought I would. My possible-big-bottle list is getting long!!

[girlmadasbirds]

resin, incense, polished wood, and old leather-bound books. this is a wonderful scent. i don't see myself wearing it as an every day scent, but i'm going to hold onto it.

[Lucretia]

hmn, i was hoping for more incense and less cedar wood. I like cedar quite a bit, but it's the incense in the cathedrals that I love. I can smell a cathedral, a lofty wood buildings, but I don't get as much of a kick out of this as I tought.

Oh well, at least I like cedar.

[Janie]

I like incense and wood notes so I was looking forward to trying this.

 

And I like, it. I really do. It does smell of an old church - you can smell the incense and the wooden pews, burnished wooden altar and old wall hangings. Even the hymn books.

 

I just wish it lasted longer. I had to reapply after a couple of hours.

[quimerula]

Wet it's woody (cedar), but after a few minutes it goes softer and some myrrh comes out.

 

A bit powdery, it's woody resins, dark but still light and not cloying.

 

I agree with the "church" feeling, it matches the description... but for a cathedral it should be, well, stronger.

[wickedgoddess]

Origin - received an imp in a swap

 

Preconceived Notions - I love incense scents and cedar, so I was dying to try this. I wasn't planning on reviewing it right away, but then I got a drop of this on my finger when sniffing the imp, and fell in love!

 

Wet - it smells like Holy Water, or at least it smells like being in church.

 

Dry - incense and cedar. I love this! As a former Catholic school girl, this scent is very familiar to me and Beth has absolutely nailed it.

 

As time passes, the cedar gets stronger and stronger until it becomes overwhelming. I love the smell of cedar, but this is becoming perilously close to the pencil shavings I have seen others describe. I have a feeling cedar is amplified on my skin, because I had a similiar reaction to Kathmandu. I still love it, but not quite as much as I did fresh.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 4.

[MissAnthropy]

I decided to slather some Cathedral on. I sniffed it once a long time ago, and tossed it into the imp box. I think I was uninterested in it because at the time, I was more into lilac and violet noted scents. I didn't pay much attention to resins. And I did NOT notice the sandalwood in this scent when I first sniffed it.

 

Oh... my... stars. I'm so sorry I passed this scent by for so long!

 

All I can say is... SANDALWOOD! My beloved, beloved sandalwood. A little more cedar than sandalwood, but oh, the sandalwood is divine.

 

I know some folks don't like this scent because it smells, well, pretty much just like a church. Woody. Resin. Incense. Warm burning smokey kind of scent. It lingers. And it sticks. But for me... it's beautiful.

 

This is going to be a 10ml for me. ASAP.

 

-Leslie

[innerellipse]

In the botttle Cathedral smells like freshly cut grass, but maybe that's just me. Wet it is very incensey in a not so great way, but when it dries down it's lovely and reminds me of the following things: 1/My grandparents, who were Catholic and always dragged me to church 2/ The smell of caves, giant limestone caves like the ones we have in New South Wales Australia, better Cathedrals than any manmade ones 3/ My local library when I was a kid, because it smells dusty and woody and I'm not sure why other than that. Incidentally I applied for entry into a librarianship course the same day I wore this so maybe I just had libraries on the brain. 4/ My mother's make-up/jewellery drawer that I used to play in when I was a kid. I think it was her face powder that smelt like this and made everything else in the box smell like this too.

 

It's a warm and cosy scent after the freshly cut grass thing goes away. I wore it to bed the other night and felt soooo scubby and good. It's soft and smoky and gentle and reminds me of my childhood, but I think I do that a lot with smells, very strong memory triggers for me.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: This smells like nothing. Seriously, I can barely smell it, but it's got an incense-y medicine-y scent somewhere if I look really hard for it.

 

First on: I can smell frankinsence, but it's not overpowering like it is in everything else. Maybe some myrrh? I like myrrh. It's still faint, but it does smell like an old Catholic church.

 

Drydown: Sigh....another one dissappears into my skin. An hour or two later and it was completely undetectable.

[Thorne]

I ordered this imp a while ago when I was looking for the perfect incense smell, and this is it. It's sweet and dark and woody and smoky. It has a little touch of something that reminds me of Anne Bonny (whic I love, but Anne Bonny doesn't last at all on my skin), which is great, because this is a much longer lasting oil on me.

 

This is too heavy for summer for me, but I'm hanging on to the imp for cooler weather, and I think it will be perfect then.

[lucy gray]

In the vial, it was the incensiest incense that ever incensed--heavy, thick. Wet, it smelled almost exactly like church (and as a lapsed Catholic, I have to say that church incense is the best part of that whole business), sort of woody and sharp, but with a certain mellowness.

 

Dry? Well, it made the person who turned me on to BPAL smell mysterious and smoky. Unfortunately, on me, Cathedral gives a far more prosaic "head shop propriator" vibe. There's a weirdly sweet and cloying scent busting up all that lovely smoke. Ah, well.

[telesilla]

So this is the first BPAL I tried. I was sooo excited! Bear with my review because I don't have a nose trained to individual notes the way some people do.

 

In the bottle it was very much "holy fuck this is strong!" Mostly I got sandalwood and maybe some cedar.

 

Wet -- It was all about the sandalwood. Now I love sandalwood but I have to admit my thought was I can get single note oils a lot cheaper than this.

 

Dry down -- The cedar came out some, which I liked and made me feel better about the whole thing.

 

About an hour later -- The resin -- frankincense and whatever else goes into church incense -- showed up. Everything was still very woody but there was a sweetish smell under the wood. I was sold.

 

Several hours later -- Now it smells like a cedar box with incense in it, and the only problem is that it's fading more quickly than I'd like. But I remember this from wearing perfume before, so I'll try it again after using unscented lotion on my wrists.

 

GF's reaction -- She says it smells like church incense, but that that's not a bad association thing. Also it isn't too strong for her to deal with, so it's a keeper. Yay!

[vyvyan]

I really, truly, desperately wanted to love Cathedral.

 

Oh well.

 

Wet in the vial, the scent stirred a couple unpleasant associations; not anything church-related, just smelled kind of like the inside of a camper a family member used to have. I sucked it up, put it on, and - Cedar. Nothing but cedar. I went and stuck my head inside my cedar trunk to compare, and, yep, that's cedar all right.

 

I have a feeling my skin amps up cedar; I got a lot more of it from Hamadryad than many folks seem to, so - curses, skin chemistry! After several hours, a slightly sweet scent poked its way out from under the cedar, but by that point, it was so faint I was half convinced I was making it up.

 

So long, Cathedral, we barely knew ye. Hope you're as lovely as you promised to be on someone else...

[Abbie]

In the bottle: That's weird. Somehow the lab has captured the smell of wet rock. There's some sort of incensey fragrance that I can't pin down. Let's try it on!

 

First on: This is a very christmas-scented incense... I am picking up frankincense and myrrh, definitely. And sandalwood. When I look at the other reviews, I see cedar, and I can see how that, but to me it smells more about the sandalwood.

 

Dry: The strength of this scent fades fast... 45 minutes after applying it's a very subtle spiciness on.

 

Overall: I'm going to go against the grain and say that this is a wonderful perfume, not just a room fragrance. Although I will have to try that too:)