Heresy

Heresy's opening captures that effervescent quality of frankincense as it is burning. It is a cold smoke, pepper, lemon and pine needle sharp, but no sooner than that does its cool feel collide with a waxy wood and a metallic violet. This continued sparkle softens into a dry cedar. It starts off sonorous, and within an hour or two, is a persistent, haunting whisper. This is one where my nose runs the surface of my skin savoring its elusive charm. It reminds me of when I paid a visit to Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac in Quebec, Canada. I attended a service there, and there was such an austere beauty to it, filling me with the beauty of ritual, custom, and devotion. It was a place of silence, peace, and prayer. I do see the irony in its name, but perhaps the heresy represents the wearer. To wear such a scent in the presence of others who can't grasp the subtle would be its own schism of sorts.

Oh. My. God. This is it! I’m not sure where it’s coming from but I definitely smell an oily/waxy/candlestick note in here that’s totally mesmerizing. Normally I’m hypersensitive to any sweet notes, but I can confidently say that that this is sweet in a comforting way rather than a headache-inducing way. Maybe I’m just a wh*re for incense but I consider this a masterpiece.

just absolutely divine. looking for a cathedral-esque, church incense type scent and found exactly that. beautiful - hope to make this my everyday or at least professional scent.

Heresy smells much like church incense, but it's sharper and darker. It feels like a distorted reflection of a church. Everything is skewed slightly out of balance, out of light, out of the familiar. Heresy has a strong, sharp opening. It feels smoky and stingy right away, but calms down to a more resinous and smooth fragrance after a short while. I smell so many more notes in this than what is mentioned. There is a faint dirty, slightly sweaty, burning sage type of note in the opening, and it lingers towards the heart of the fragrance. It removes the fragrance from the modern man made boundaries of spirituality, and back into nature, to ancient times and ancient, more intuitive ways, of spiritual practice. The combination of a modern church and the very roots of religion are what makes this fragrance super interesting. It's like it contains the entire history of man and God(s). The scent has an organic vibe. Strong, aromatic, woody, with a mix of both raw and burning resins. In the heart something softens, and blooms. There's a beautiful floral vibe, to my nose it smells like a cooling, calming mix of carnation and iris (even though it says violet leaf). The sharpness and the shadows disappear, and the scent suddenly feels welcoming and appealing. The church incense and the ancient sage is still present, but vaguer, and the floral feel brings a feminine touch to the overall masculine creation. It's like a modern God and an ancient Goddess comes together in this fragrance, in peace and unity, to remind us all of the beauty that lies at the core of every spiritual path. Man may have deemed alternative ways as heresy in the past, but all paths are a product of the same yearning for love and unity with the divine as the more traditional beliefs. All paths lead to Rome, rigth? Right. In the drydown Heresy softens even more into a softly smoky woody smell. The longevity is around 7-8 hours on my skin, and the strength is enourmous right away, but softens to a skin scent after around an hour or so. I like this fragrance, it's one of the more interesting takes on a church incense perfume, but my favourite from this brand is still Holy Stick.

Smells like incense for sure, but for me not in a churchy way, but in an esoteric store way. The smell is quite linear. The longevity and sillage is quite poor. After 10 minutes nobody else can smell it, it just quietly sits on skin, and after 2 hours it is completely gone. For that reason I think it's overpriced. I TESTED THREE CHURCH-LIKE PERFUMES: Avignon: Full on sacred cathedral, exactly as described. Not an everyday fragrance, but stunning for sure. Long lasting, quite strong sillage as well. I recommend to all churchy smell lovers. 10/10 Heeley - Cardinal: A priest uncle who went from the service to smoke and whiskey, maybe he is a little sleezy even. The scent is not overwhelming, but is long lasting. Chapel Factory - Heresy: One of those incense shops that also sells crystals and mandalas, definitely incensey but not in a churchy way for me. Most wearable from the three for daily wear. Poor longevity though.

Staticky warm smell of candle flame combined with the cold, ozonic smell of graveyard lit up with generic funeral home candles. Very faint and safe though, for daily wear even into the office. All the smells are so faint and well blended that it really only smells like something indistinct, unless you sniff your skin agressivly and know what youre looking for. Strangely this perfume also smells to me like those 90s/2000s magnolia/orris/tea heavy perfumes my mom used to wear before the insence note kicks in - and the insence DNA of this brand turns into a fish note in humid weather unfortunatley.

A light, non-churchy incense floating over a bed of woods and spices. This is my first sampling of Chapel Factory, whose USP is the notion that perfumes are emanations of the spiritual instinct. Not sure why "Heresy" applies to perfume, unless Chapel Factory's ethos is to go against received opinion in the Church-that-is-the-Perfume Industry. In which case, Good Luck to them, since, on the evidence of this fragrant offering, they are on to a winner. They just need to work on longevity - the pleasures of this fragrance are short-lived and the brand fades from the memory as a result.

I like this!! First test from a sample and the middle notes come in quickly. I love the black pepper and cedar combination! Thankfully I don't get any hint of cola or citrus notes mentioned by other reviewers. Different skin chemistry, I assume. Unfortunately, it's a skin scent on me due to the application method of dabbing rather than spraying the scent. There is a big difference created by the method of application and my sample isn't in a spray bottle. Still, it's wonderful when I put nose to wrist.

really nice, peppery, spiky incense. because it's called Heresy I was kind of expecting it to be a dark, sinful type incense, but it's actually really clean and sharp. honestly, I'd recommend it to incense skeptics as a sort of gateway incense perfume

this smells so delicious, i love it. however its longevity is horrible and i personally dont want to lug around a glass bottle with me everywhere to reapply every hour or so. honestly i would buy a full bottle if it weren't for its poor longevity.

Cold unlit incense with sharp pepper and bold violet notes to keep it feminine. Very sexy mysterious goth girl smell. She's cold and prickly but you cant stop thinking about her

A classic, and dare I say gentle incense scent. However, I cannot justify a full bottle of this one due to short longevity.

The opening is very spicy and medicinal smelling; it's not just the black pepper, I think there's some clove or allspice here too. It settles into a light, balsamic, fresh olibanum(raw, not burning) The scent is light. It can be an introductory incense perfume for a newbie, or someone who doesn't like this note. It has no resemblance to Zagorsk or whatsoever. Zagorsk is extremely woody-green and smokey. It's OK, but nothing "wow!" A pass.

I've never experienced being anosmic to a fragrance before, but maybe this one is my first time. When I sprayed, there was a strong peppery opening, but within a minute, I couldn't smell anything but the barest trace of a soapy smell. That was gone entirely after another 2 hours.

Harshly crisp lemony frankincense opener, industrial cleaner potent. Intimate projection, good for summer. Office safe lemony catholic incense for the corporate goth.

I get that sparkling coca-cola effect that incense can sometimes have. Too bad for me, I hate cola... but if that appeals to you, check it out!

How am I getting a zingy citrus-grapefruit note from this? On me it’s like orange peel. I think Luckyscent have mixed-up my sample. Unless anyone else gets this too?

All I can smell is super waxy cheap cherry flavored lip balm. This seems to be a unique experience, but I am sadly not a fan

This fragrance reminds me of church funerals. It smells like a church but with a sickening green note. I hate it. I absolutely hate it. Reminds me of the smell of old people when they're dying, and death in general. Might throw the sample away and I never do that.

I love the concept of this line. I'm currently on the lookout for a vampiric, gothic, dark fragrance, but unfortunately, heresy isn't what I'm looking for. It's much cleaner and more subdued than I thought it would be. The opening is very spikey, and in your face spicy. That pepper and violet scream at you, but that fades fast. The incense isn't that strong, so it's quite palatable. The top is quite clean and fresh, surprisingly. Its like an improvement on generic classic mens colongs with that incense and violit leaf. In the base, I smell some guaiac and vetiver that give off this mens colong vibe. However, incense and patchouli are still the dominant scents. This smells like you hugged a male relative who just came from church. This fragrance is spicy, clean, inoffensive, and has a hit of religious trauma. I would give this a 6 or 7 /10 depending on what you are looking for. update: This scent lasted like an hour. This did not last at all its basically all gone, disappeared off my skin. The sillage wasn't that strong to begin with but this is really disappointing. 5/10

I am still getting to know Heresy from Chapel Factory but I believe it is fast becoming one of my Holy Grail scents. It is the sharp green metallic floral of violet leaf, mingled with cool aromatic cedar, lofty sandalwood, and the smoked leather notes of vetiver; elements which alchemize into the austere elegance and kindred glooms of a dry, peppery violet incense. If you like the dark ambiance and nocturnal aesthetic of dungeon synth coupled with spectral visionary Simon Marsden's black and white photographs of haunted ruins and moonlit abbeys, this is a transportive scent that will spirit you away to those eerie, ominous realms.

While this smells great, it only smells great for an hour because then it’s gone. It’s a very coniferous incense fragrance with an added greenness from violet leaf. There’s a clean powdery streak here too once it dries a little bit. It smells very nice, I didn’t really experience much heart or base as the longevity and development is shocking. Such a shame. If this had more power it would be fantastic.

Deliciously sweet patchouli incense. A little bit earthy but candied with a stunning incense running through. It is more of a sweet witchy fragrance than church so the name suits it perfectly. I have loved all the samples i've gotten from this house so far so I think this is one of my new favourite houses. Will be buying a fair few bottles this year 🤣

I wanted to like this because I love anything incense-y but this smells like straight up baby powder on me. kind of bummed because I really like the name lol

A lightweight, soapy, clean incense. I'm getting none of that pepper, minimal spiciness. Soft, woody, not really memorable though.

does it smell like coca-cola to anyone else or am i tripping? like a flat coke.

loved the scent. very poor longevity though, really wish it lasts longer

Similar to Serge Lutens l'Orpheline.