Scent of History

If you constantly yearn to kneel at the prayer bench of an old catholic cathedral overlooking the Mediterranean sea, then this scent is for you. I don't know how, but all of the components that make up this fragrance smell aged, like they were pulled out from a barrel in a cellar. You will smell like you've spent your entire life tending to the altar, so be ready for that. It is also quite sweet, though not in a way that is powdery or gourmand. I could practically see the Lady of Mercy praying over me as soon as I entered the small fragrance house. I left with two samples, then ran back as soon as it opened the next day to buy the full bottle. Needless to say, I love it. It reinvents me every time I spray it on, in a way that no other fragrance has.

Ah, I can see that fragrantica has finally discovered one of my best kept perfume secrets! Perfume aside, the shop is an experience in itself. Tucked away in a little back street in Palma, Mallorca, it's a wonderful place to escape the hustle and bustle and find a moment of calm. You enter a narrow building through a beautiful old door into a small entrance which has the still, cerebral feel of an apothecary, library, and monestary. Old tiled floors are flanked by aged wood cabinets displaying curious ephemera. A winding corridor leads you past more cabinets and curios, and you enter the main shop. Immediately, you'll notice the big french doors leading to a small hidden courtyard with a large free in the centre. And scan around the room and the apothecary feel becomes more apparent, with walls lined with old glass display cabinets filled with a variety of fragrant wares. Now: the fragrance. This is an incredibly dry, resinous fragrance which as the reviewer below has observed, has a very catholic, monastic feel. It smells like frankincense, old wood, and resinous pines. Like ambient music, it feels quite rooted in place, emphasising atmosphere and tone above construction. And like ambient music, it doesnt change much, but holds the same note throughout with only very subtle shifts in texture and tone. When I close my eyes and inhale, I am transported to a rock hewn church carved into an Ethopian mountain. The air is hot, dry, and quiet. There nothing green - I am surrounded by dust and stone and silence. It is serious, quietly reverent. Holy.

First of all the Palma boutique is stunning, worth checking out even if just to sample the perfumes. Tucked into a narrow alley it is meticulously decorated with antique bottles and antique pharmaceutical wooden furniture. The scent itself, whether by chance or purposefully does indeed smell like the inside of an ancient church or cathedral. Very dry cedar woods, spiced incense, dry flowers, a dusty sweetness that is not at gourmand or sticky or cloying. It’s a dried flower in a cedar chest in a desert in an old church sweetness. I walked into a nearby church, 850 year old Monestario de Santa Clara shortly after I visited the boutique, and bought a bottle, and the smell was 90% the same as the perfume. It lasted a good 8 hours on my skin and was not loud, but sophisticated. I highly recommend if you can get your hands on some, and a must stop if you find yourself in Palma.