There’s no mistaking the impression and inspiration behind Heeley’s Cardinal, a gorgeous frankincense and myrrh fragrance that paints an artwork of catholicism. Midnight mass, tabernacles, stained glass, wooden pews, linen, and golden chalices. Lift is provided by pink pepper and aldehydes, rendering a brilliant sparkle set against gothic stone. While Eau Sacree (Heeley) retains a similar image - slightly more rustic, richer, more like the plumes of warm smoke from the swings of the thurible censor. It feels more sacramental than atmospheric, built with the woody resinous richness of labdanum, patchouli, and vetiver.
Incense Extreme from Tauer Perfumes situates precious frankincense in its ancestral homeland in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, capturing the roughness of the desert climate where the Boswellia tree thrives. An incense on red hot coals, it is a cool night in the desert, a precious CO2 extract of frankincense is enriched with coriander seed, petitgrain, orris, woods, and ambergris. Wazamba (Parfum d’Empire) assembles sacred materials from across cultures, layering many different extracts of incense (essence, resinoid, coeur, and CO2 extract) with sacred resins and woods, including sandalwood, cypress, cedar, myrrh, and opoponax - all turning to the gods in sacred communion.
Attaquer Le Soleil (Etat Libre d’Orange), a most Sadean perfume, abandons this narrative and sees cistus labdanum free of connotation. In this unique treatment of an incredibly low yield, essential oil and absolute combine to produce a remarkably pure and generous expression: a dry and solar sandy heat. “How many times, dear God, have I not longed to be able to attack the sun, snatch it out of the sky, create a general darkness, or use that star to ignite the world”. King Cobra (Zoologist) completes this collection, in which incense becomes the vector that builds an overall smoky impression with notes of soil and ganja - a dangerous and mysterious scent, brightened with the bitter pith of pomelo. King Cobra is green and oily incense.
