Lavs

Reader, dear perfume enthusiast, stop! This work is an olfactory masterpiece that has no equal! Forget all the incenses you've smelled so far: Cardinal, Avignon, Full Incense, Bois d'Encens, etc. You only need Lavs! Why? I'll tell you why! After decades of wearing, testing and studying over 2500 perfumes and the world of perfumery in general, I still consider that I have a minimum expertise that certifies that what I present to you is solid information! I am a great enthusiast of resins, I have tested almost every resin that exists on this globe, both in its natural state and in its processed and implicitly perfumed state. I am familiar with all types of conifers and woods that exist on European territory, and I understand dentrology very well. What Sorcinelli has managed to do, together with his collaborator Carlo Ribero, is to create the most original incense that also has a special complexity. I have tested perhaps hundreds of eminently resinous creations, I perhaps love the resinous-balsamic genre the most. But such a complexity and such a perfect execution, I have rarely seen. Lavs deviates from the cliché that has already become, detached from what we know to be Avignon, Cardinal, Full Incense. Those are superb creations, nothing to reproach, but they have a linearity and reduced complexity. Lavs manages to cross this barrier, not only through the material qualities it has and the raw material of the best quality, but also through vision and nuances. Lavs not only transports you to a Gothic Catholic church from the early Middle Ages, but also takes you through absolutely all the decades that have passed since then, finding yourself in an absolute present. The resins chosen by Sorcinelli are multiple: Elemi, with its citrus, slightly spicy, balsamic and coniferic character; Olibanum - with its eminently coniferous, balsamic, peppery-cistrusy and slightly animalic character; Sweet myrrh or opoponax - with its balsamic, sweet-honeyed, sticky and animalic character; Labdanum - with its multifaceted balsamic, animalic and slightly fruity character; All of these open up multiple facets to you; from the incense burned and impregnated in the walls of old churches, to the freshly picked incense, from the old and varnished furniture, to the old iron of religious objects in churches! Here I also point out the unparalleled liturgical character. You will certainly find both the Orthodox and Catholic liturgical character. Smoked just right, slightly metallic and extremely balsamic, coniferous as in a coniferous forest, slightly animalic from an ambergris and labdanum base. Never too strong, but perfectly present, Lavs surprises you in waves and waves, in bursts and bursts and activates again when you thought it had already faded from the skin. For those who want more performance, you can't get a better performance than if you overdose the formula with maximum concentrations of Ambroxan, Ambermax, ISO E Super and other extremely diffusive fixatives. Which would unbalance the formula and turn the perfume into a dissonant one! So, look no further! Lavs is the incense of incenses and the resin of resins! Remarkable technical qualities, very good performance, as I was telling you, but intimate at the same time and always present. You have to love resins and this perfume won't wear you, you will wear it!

Disclaimer: The following review refers to the original Lavs with black / gold bottle (launched in 2015) as opposed to the plain black bottle re-launched in 2016, Formerly a room spray used to scent the ecclesiastic garments that Sorcinelli's atelier L.A.V.S tailored for both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis amongst several others. Now re-worked into an *extrait de parfum*, LAVS is hands down the definitive catholic liturgical incense. Forget Avignon, Cardinal, La Liturgie Des Heures and all the other similarly themed fragrances. Forget also the more *oriental* takes on the main theme such as Bois D'Encens, Sahara Noir and the plethora of others, LAVS is completely on another level. It's the opulence of a mass in the Basilica Papale, it's the whole ritual, the majesty of gold the smell of sacristy, the canonicals. It's white smoke and resins galore, it's deep and dark but never brooding or funereal...instead it's introspective, meditative and comforting. It's not a secret I'm a frankincense freak but, honestly, LAVS is a concrete step forward in its genre and a very substantial one for countless reasons. For starters, it's tremendously striking for its incredible evocative power. Its uniqueness, its ability to get so close to the main theme while skipping being too simplistically literal and, last but not least, the quality of the ingredients involved. Boatloads of resins that range from elemi to frankincense via labdanum, myrrh and opoponax concocted around what's one of the best woody bases I've experienced since Bois D'Ascese. Cloves enhances a certain medicinal vibe before settling down and give birth to a clean undertone that gets more and more remarkable as the fragrance evolves into an endless, pure-incense driven drydown which also relies on the most solid woody-ambery (as opposed to *woodyamber*) foundation I've smelt in a while. Forget the usual cedarwood, forget the typical mono-dimensionality of most incense-soliflores, forget those exhausting woodyambers. LAVS is incredibly alive, vibrating and vivid as only this biblical resin can get. Addictive, introspective, dark and deep as well as spacious, airy and yes, even epic. Saying this fragrance is compelling would honestly be reductive. My personal standout in this line and something I'll never want to be without. An instant classic. Rating: 9.5/10

Got a decant from a dear perfume pal, and I am so grateful that she introduced me to this indulgent incense fragrance. At first I get a ton of bright, sharp elemi (which is not frankincense, but it’s in the same family) combined with woods and aromatic dried coriander. Almost seems pine-y in a way because it has a green-ness about it. An elemi dream, for those who love the resin like I do. As it dries down I get some of the spice--cardamom and clove, but its beautifully blended. I also start to pick up some jasmine, but the fragrance remains dominated by balsams. The base is smoother, muskier, less intense elemi. Lavs makes me feel like I'm in an ancient church. Not a Catholic one. I grew up Catholic, and this does not smell like frankincense. Elemi smells quite different--greener and more sharp. I'm not sure what other religion this could be part of, but it just smells really ancient yet also deeply connected to nature. Had to buy it. Update 1.5 years later: I had not used my actual bottle until today, as I was slowly using up my decant. I sprayed from my brand-new full bottle for the first time, and I am so sad that it smells a bit different from the decant, probably due to the alcohol evaporating and condensing the contents of the decant. From the bottle, the scent is softer and more diffusive or not as potent. With my decant, one spray is enough. I sprayed about 5 times with my full bottle, and it's still not as potent as my decant. I am not getting as much spice as I did with the decant, and it smells quite literally like varnish. I didn't get varnish with my decant, it smelled more like my bottle of Elemi essential oil. But with it much lighter, it smells less like pure elemi (which is what I loved about it) and more like varnish. That is the only way it reminds me of church--it smells like the varnished pews, but still not like frankincense that is burnt in a censor. We will see what happens over time, but for now I don't love it the way I do my decant, which I am grateful I have not entirely used up!

I grew up Catholic and went to many churches, and this is not an abstract take on the Catholic Church scent- it's a photorealistic portrait. Quiet, cold, mostly empty space filled with the ceremonial incense. After a few minutes it develops some warmth coming from the pepper and spices, like candles being lit up by the altar. The rosewood is there too, and it also has a deeply Catholic meaning to me- my grandma had a rosewood rosary blessed by John Paul II since I was a kid, and she gifted it to me a few years ago. It's a very meaningful fragrance to me. I think it's my favourite true incense fragrance. Even though it's slightly masculine leaning it doesn't have the burnt wood smell which other strong incense fragrances have, and which makes a perfume unwearable for me. Maybe it's the resins but there is something almost citrusy about it too. I'm not sure how many occasions Lavs is suitable for, but it's definitely not unwearable, as it's simply beautiful. If you love gothic aesthetics, old churches or history, especially medieval history, you will find it magical. If you have religious trauma, you prefer contemporary aesthetic or if you're a "clean girl" (and whatever the male equivalent of that is) you might hate it.

The note list must be wrong! "Lavs" to my nose is 100% frankincense. Sharp, piney, lemony, herbal, sweet, smoky frankincense. I don't smell much oppoponax here. Perhaps in the dry down, when the sweetness really takes over, it could be perceived as such, but to me it smells more like dill, not the honeyed molasses tones which I would associate with oppoponax oil. However, palisander does have a dill-like quality to me, so perhaps this would explain it? I don't get prominent labdanum either, a note which I am normally very sensitive too. It doesn't have that tangy medicinal quality (thank god). As for jasmine, I can't pick up on anything remotely floral, at any stage. Regardless, I have to say that along with "Sahara Noir" this is probably the purest church incense I've ever experienced. It has an invigorating freshness, but unlike "Avignon" or "Cardinal", it doesn't have that transparent and synthetic 'laundry' type vibe. It feels so natural, as if you crushed the resin into powder and clapped it into the air. Who knows? Maybe the notes are correct and I've been fooled by amazing blending, but one thing is for sure, if frankincense is what you seek, you can stop here.