Holi Water

This is a beautiful warm citrus, blending bright lime and velvety softness due to the sandalwood, vanilla, and tonka. I'm learning that I love champaca, and here it adds a peachy, herbal tea quality here that is just very fresh and pretty. It has an incense aspect without being remotely smokey - if incense emitted steam instead of smoke, that's the feel it gives off here. This fragrance may not work for the middle of summer, but its balance of woodiness and freshness would lend itself well to spring, fall, and even winter. It has a definite urban bohemian vibe, but soft and refined enough to steer well clear of Phish concert territory. This will be my go-to this fall.

A bright energizing aromatic citrus fragrance, this is my personal favorite from the Heretic line of natural fragrances. An ode to the Indian festival of Holi which is celebrated to welcome Spring which is celebrated by lot of color throwing revelry, the perfume opens with notes of lime, coriander and cedar before moving into a middle consisting of slight floral hints of champaca and vanilla and quickly settling into a powdery base of tonka, vetiver, patchouli and sandalwood. The perfume is very pleasing, positive, bright and natural. Unisex with moderate sillage, projection and longevity. Not earth shattering but deceptively beautiful. Enjoy!

So excited to pick up this little number! It is discontinued... Yet another really good perfume they decided not to make anymore! Why?! I really like this. It is light and great for summer. I definitely smell the lime note, but it is not heavy or overwhelming. It is a very nice blend. So glad I bought this, even though I did a no-no and blind bought it. 👌

I like this, my wife very much does not. She thinks it smells like a meal. But I find that the coriander, champaca and vetiver all play off each other well, with a little brightness of the lime at the front. Surprisingly the lime note lingers for quite awhile for a citrus note. This is for me a fresh spicy fragrance, very bright, and as the name suggests, has a certain watery quality to it. However it is a tad unusual, and probably not the best blind buy, as it can smell like curry spices to some.

A really nice fragrance that opens up bright with Kaffir Lime and has a powdery and woody base. The lime lasts for about a half hour before it fades. I do get a tinge of coriander in here as well, along with a bit of champaca but only for a while between the middle transition stage to the drydown. At the end you are left with a fragrance very reminiscent of Light My Fire from By Kilian, so if you enjoy similarly family-based fragrances such as that, I think this would be a winner for you.

Husband bought this for me as a blind buy because the notes sounded right up my alley, and I’m a fan of Heretic Parfum. Unfortunately, I just can’t really bring myself to wear this. Every time I put it on, it just feels too strong and powdery and musky. It might be the patchouli but my nose isn’t experienced enough to pick out the notes I dislike. That being said, I have a barely used bottle if anyone wants to buy or swap!

Just got a bottle of the limited edition reissue of Holi Water, and it appears they’ve changed the formula slightly. The notes now on the website are - TOP: Bergamot, Lemon, Cedar HEART: Champaca Absolute, Ylang Ylang BASE: Tonka Bean, Vanilla, Patchouli It’s now lemon instead of lime, has ylang ylang in the heart, and is missing coriander, sandalwood, and vetiver. First off, it took over TWO WEEKS for Heretic to even ship, so I assume the little heretical elves were making a new batch of Holi Water. Did I get the right perfume? This smells like it’s missing most of the notes. Unfortunately, I smell absolutely NO champaca, NO ylang ylang, NO vanilla, and NO tonka. Sad, and puzzling, since these are the scents I purchased this for. I get a short blast of citrus from the lemon and bergamot up front, then that sadly disappears, and it goes straight into a very faint cedar-patchouli masculine shaving cream/church incense vibe. HUGE disappointment based on what I was expecting. It smells like a very, very faint Etro Messe de Minuit. If you like that musty, church incense smell then this is for you. I do not. The name fits at least. I always feel like I’ve been fooled by Heretic when I excitedly purchase another of their very expensive parfums, only to find that it doesn’t smell like it is described, that I strongly dislike it, and the longevity is about 1 hour. Holi Water isn’t offensive, just not what I thought I was getting. Some people really think this smells like Shalimar? Ha! I hoped, but this new formulation smells nothing like my beloved Shalimar. I still think someone was rushing and left something out of this batch. I really wish I could return this (along with all the other Heretics I purchased and disliked (i.e. Scandalwood, Dirty Violet, Flower Porn, Dirty Jasmine, Poet’s Jasmine (this one went bad really fast, and turned into a solid block of goo that wouldn’t come out of bottle), Dirty Gardenia, Osmanthus, and Bergamusk). I’m so done with Heretic Parfums.

This is definitely my favorite of the Heretic line and I hope to purchase a bottle this season. It's a nice twist on an incense scent- smells clean and is the lightest scent of the line. Most of the fragrances from this line are quite powerful. Generally, I go for what I would describe as medium strength(projection), slightly softer fragrances- Tom Ford(White Suede, Cafe Rose), Byredo, Roads, Parfum de Rosine. Sillage was fairly good too based on the sample I received. Definitely a line of fragrances that should be checked out.

Both the longevity and the shelf life of this were appalling (like all of Heretics creations) but it made no difference to me. Holi Water was my favourite perfume and I nursed the last drops of my discontinued final bottle for a full year until it unexpectedly expired. All too soon. Deep, warm, cozy and at the same time somehow uplifting. Mysterious, cool, addictive and very much irreplaceable. I miss it dearly - 10/10

First association in my head was bergamot, but apparently it's lime. Easy, nice perfume. I find something same between this and Dirty ginger?