Calling All Angels

A beautiful review of Calling all Angels by Eiderdwon Press: I’m not sure if a more saturated incense perfume has ever been made; it has a density that reminds me of oatmeal cookies, and a smell that makes me think, not of churches, but of how I imagine certain artifacts would smell in the Egyptian wing of the Met, if one was allowed to get up close and personal with them. Myrrh, incense and tobacco, sandwiched between the folds of a honeycomb, is how this perfume smells when it first hits my skin and for a long time thereafter—and though this next statement probably sounds more weird than attractive, I’m going to throw it out anyway: When I smell Calling All Angels, I think about the food, wine, oils and perfumes that were placed in the sarcophagi of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. It smells like what I’d like to imagine provisions for the afterlife would smell like: rich and sustaining, with a dramatic darkness that is both reminder and symbol of life’s melodramas ... a promise of the entertainments that await the pharaoh on “the other side.” Balsamic, resinous, smoky, winey and sweet in the way that an English plum pudding is sweet, Calling All Angels is not for the faint of heart. It’s the kind of scent you’d suspect would be attractive to people who already have the life-force flowing in them strongly ... the kind of people you think of as being either adventurous or curious enough to go out on a limb to claim the kind of life they want for themselves. Considering that most days I am neither of those things (much as I would like to say I aspire to them), you would think this scent would scare the pants off of me or that I’d feel unqualified to wear it, and yet it very much appeals to me. This is not a perfume I could wear everyday—it’s that bracing—but I think that’s the whole point of it. It’s a perfume created with the intent of opening up its wearer to feeling a sense of supernatural support. As it dries down, there is a period in which the scent has spicy nuances of clove (I should note that some of the things I smell in this perfume aren’t accounted for in its list of notes—they are what my nose smells, not what the perfume is comprised of). After some hours of wear, the myrrh and frankincense fade away and what is left behind in the final mellow stage of this perfume is a scent that smells like a combination of light amber and a tobacco-like vanilla, lightly resinous and weathered smelling. It, too, can be enjoyed for a humming long period of time and is quite rewarding.

Once again, I thought I had reviewed this ages ago.... Anyway Calling All Angels is my favorite of the April Aromatic samples in my possession. It is a deep, sweet, woody, and smoky incense. It reminds me of the scent of night-time beach bonfires mixed with incense and honey syrup. The price is indeed steep for 30ml, but I have not come across many 100% natural perfumes that smell this good, so whether it is worth the price or not is highly subjective. I tested this perfume when I was pregnant and seeking 100% natural perfumes. I found the price to be prohibitive, personally. Yet I have not forgotten about it either--it smells fantastic. I could never tire of it. Sillage is very nice and longevity is great. I get a solid 8 hours before I would even consider touching up. Update: Now that my baby is one year old, I still seek natural perfumes as I do not like to wear any chemicals around her. I could not forget Calling All Angels and ended up purchasing a bottle. I like that it smells amazing, and I don't have to feel guilt for wearing it around her. I also think this is a wonderful option for when I am in yoga class and don't want to wear chemicals. The bottle is very pretty with amber-colored liquid. There are also beautiful gold flakes floating in the liquid! They come out onto your hand when you spray, and they just melt away. Update 2: I wrote my review some time ago, but I now stock this fragrance at aveparfum.com. My opinions are always my own. Years later, it has become my go-to frankincense perfume and is in my regular rotation. It''s an exquisite creation!

This is absolutely gorgeous and completely FBW. Perfectly named, it's an incense perfume that somehow smells sweet, conjuring images of fat cherubs cavorting on the walls of an ancient cathedral. I love the vanilla/tonka bean combo as a support for other notes. Here, it's sweetened with honey and used to underpin the main incense/labdanum chord. Heaven! This is one of those perfumes where the wafts smell completely different from what you get when you go in for a sniff. The wafts are all sweet incense. Wrist sniffing yields amber and woods. I'm not a huge fan of this base note- too much amber for my amber-phobic sniffer. So I wave my wrist in front of my face when I want a pick me up. By the next morning the woody amber has departed leaving a trace of the vanilla sweetened incense still clinging to my wrist. Edit: My son says I smell like marshmallows. I'm guessing he means the kind toasted over a campfire since that's the kind he's familiar with and it's a perfect description of the smoky sweet, slightly burned note in this perfume. mmm. Edit: this is becoming my go to scent for important days. It doesn't feel like I put this on so much as I anoint myself with it. When I need every blessing I can muster, I call in the angels.

Calling All Angels is both a beauty and a beast; stunning, rich and deep resinous, woody, ethereal incense. I cannot usually wear these notes as they tend to get too heavy but this is different, it has an ethereal air here that is rich and complex yet not suffocating. I feel like I am wearing a saturated work of art, it is all over and goes from being very sensual to almost meditative. I get wafts that remind me of the huge churches my grandma used to bring me in when I was young in Italy, there is a special air of divinity here. I find this presents many facets going from incredibly complex and ethereal to sometimes deeply sensual smoky resins a more charming woodsy and gourmand realm burnt sugar cookies. I love how one moment it is warm and resinous and the next transformed on the skin to deep rich smoky incense to warm woods and sweet honey. Definitely a cozy winter scent. Update: layered this goliath of goodness with my fave rose scent (Rose l'orange), took this on another level of ridiculously good.

April Aromatics Calling All Angels, my first try from the house, is exactly as advertised: a resinous collaboration of benzoin, labdanum, amber, incense, honey, and hordes of other resins that I might have no idea of. Additional sweetness and perhaps sharpness are added via vanilla and tonka, but the main story here is one of resins with slightly woody undertones. It's sweet but not as sweet as, say, Le Labo Benjoin 19, let alone Amber Absolute, but not remotely as animalic, as Ambre Russe. Calling All Angels leans mostly sweet but ever so slightly animalic as well. Longevity is extreme but projection is still quite great. Surely this is unisex and better for cold weather, but since it isn't a crazy projector, it might work on summer nights as well. Overall, a great resinous entry but one that suffers from some redundancy with and similarly expensive pricing ($170 for 30ml) to Le Labo Benjoin 19 ($300 for 50ml). 8 out of 10