Essential Faith

I first bought Faith in 2017 after smelling it on a coworker and finding myself wanting to chase her down every time she’d walk by just to take in the scent wafting off her. I never knew I was a musk fanatic until then, and have since become a musk MANIAC! “Essential Faith” became my signature scent, a seriously important part of my identity in a way, something that I felt was meant to be and a literal must have. When I first started wearing this I was just absolutely enamored with it... I feel like those following months went by in a musk induced haze of exciting romance and naughty escapades with my partner. The aphrodisiac element was definitely there, and not just for me but to anyone around me who took notice of the scent. I had people complimenting my scent everywhere I went... it was enticing, intoxicating (but not in an obnoxious way at all), hypnotizing and arousing. It was in many ways a “skin scent” as the beautiful white musk was something that seemingly held close to the body while still deciding to entrance a passerby every now and then. One application every 12 hours or so was enough, and the longevity of this was pretty insane. I would smell it on my clothes weeks after... even having gone through the wash. I used this perfume oil exclusively for the next 6 months or so, until it ran out. Upon emptying the already very small bottle I repurchased it sometime in 2020 I believe, and sadly it was just not the same. It gave off that same familiar scent I had been absolutely longing for, but the longevity was just not there as it once had been. After using it for a couple weeks regularly, I realized I was kind of fooling myself into believing it was the same Faith I’d loved and known. It wasn’t though, and it seems that in just a short period of use my applications were immediately smelling of nothing but a basic, slightly powdery oil scent... I have been devastated by what feels truly like a loss. Essential Faith is something that literally had a huge impact on a period of my life I look back on and feel so nostalgic and inspired by. It was the time during which my fiancé and I were falling in love, energized and romantic, sensual and tender. I wish I could find a bottle of the older version, because clearly its formulation has changed. RIP Essential Faith... you will be surely missed.

NEVER HAVE I EVER received more compliments on the way I smell than when I wear this fragrance. This best part is no one ever says your perfume is amazing. They say: YOU SMELL AMAZING. Talk about skin enhancing - that je ne sais quoi. Here is the best analogy I can think of for this fragrance. You can get a nose job - that's other perfume. You get a little Botox- that's Essential Faith. It's an enhancement that no one can place. It's just YOU, but a little bet better. WHO I PICTURE THIS ON: ME because I wear it, but someone who is truly boho, like an effortless surfer girl, who's gorgeous and should probably model for Sports Illustrated and is casually like "oh me, I grew up in Hawaii, yeah I have a lot of guy friends (but they all want to date her)." After a day of surfing and sun, she hops in the shower, puts on a little mascara, ESSENTIAL FAITH, and voila, somehow she looks prettier and more put together than you do after getting ready for an hour.

I really enjoy this perfume oil, it has such a shower-fresh, clean, natural scent that’s really enjoyable. It smells like clean skin, in a very sexy way. The only con for me is the price point...personally, I think the $65 is a little high for such a small bottle. I get a similar sexy clean-skin vibe from the Body Shop’s White Musk although I don’t think they smell exactly alike. White Musk wins out in my book though, when you’re paying $15-20 for three times as much product!

I ordered a small sample of this out of curiosity. It smells really good, but it just doesn't have a lot of presence. From the marketing, which seems to emphasize its aphrodisiacal qualities, Essential Faith appears to be one of those scents I've seen a lot of recently (some of which I like very much) that claim to be unobtrusive to the wearer, yet somehow irresistibly attractive to those around them. Look, I'm a 51-year-old spinster and there's a pandemic on. The only person I'm trying to seduce with my perfume these days is myself, and in order for that to work I need to be able to actually smell it. So I guess I'm just not the right consumer for this. If I had more money I'd buy a full bottle and experiment--I'm sure it would be a great layering fragrance. A cheaper alternative that I adore and get a similar vibe from and can actually smell on myself is Kuumba Made Egyptian Musk, available at the food co-op for around 12 bucks.

Agree with the other reviewer's remark about this being a social experiment. There. Is. No. Fragrance.