With Angels and Archangels

My bottle just arrived from Kerosene out of Detroit, and the immediate reaction is hard to ignore: has John Pegg been spending time with Filippo Sorcinelli? For those not familiar with Sorcinelli, unlike Pegg who is a perfumer, he's an olfactory artistic director. He also created robes, mitres, and other garments for the late Pope Francis. I have a majority of his perfumes in my collection. I also have a majority of Kerosene's line in my collection. I'm a Fragfagfan of both men. Right out of the gate, this doesn’t smell like the typical Kerosene profile. No syrupy gourmand density like Unknown Pleasures and Found in Light, or aggressively linear projection like Blackmail and Broken Theories. Instead, it leans abstractly liturgical and atmospheric, almost reverent in tone. There’s a distinct incense accord that feels closer to old world church resin than smoky abstraction, layered with a slightly waxy, mineralic quality that evokes cold stone, extinguished candles, and that faint metallic echo you get in cavernous neo-gothic sanctuaries. My Sorcinelli comparison isn’t superficial. It’s that same ecclesiastical aesthetic being somber, textured, and conceptual rather than crowd-pleasing. Where Kerosene typically pushes bold, immediate gratification, this composition feels more restrained and intentional. The development is slower, less about top-to-base theatrics and more about subtle shifts in density and warmth. I get flickers of balsamic sweetness, but they’re subdued and more like smoldering resin than anything edible. This is one of the more intriguing departures in the Kerosene lineup. Less “look at me,” more “experience this space.” Whether it fully lands for me will come down to wear over time, but as a first impression, it’s a compelling pivot and one that raises some interesting questions about where Pegg is heading next. Postscript: About eight hours later, I had to throw on a dress shirt for dinner. It hit me driving to the restaurant this evening. I must’ve hung the dress shirt back up after its last wear instead of tossing it in the laundry. As it warmed on my skin, my current signature scent, Histoires' 1740 Marquis de Sade, came alive again from the collar. The unintended layering with this new Kerosene release was nothing short of breathtaking and reminiscent of Liz Moore's Anubis. Postscript II 05/04/26: Honestly, it didn’t fully land with me -it descended. Loudly. With wings. And projection that could be detected by air traffic control.

I should tell you that I love to light a million sticks of incense in my room, especially just above my collection of hanging cotton shirts so that when I leave the house, the smell of incense fills the room when I arrive. This is the only scent I have found to encapsulate that experience. The opening can be harsh and almost offensive at first, but it dries down to this lovely sandalwood smell that feels like the first time you smelled the pheromones of your first love. It feels refreshing and encapsulates woody earth tones that I’ve been looking for. Most perfumes I have tried in this realm come across as simply smelling like old books. Just old. The smell lingers around you all day, with this one. And I’ve noticed that it sticks to my hair in particular that when the wind blows you’d smell it all over again as your hair flies about. Not everything should be in excess. If you want this perfume to work for you, then moderation is key. This is intimate. I like to mix this with Le Labo’s Rose 31 to really bring the sweetness out of this scent. I feel as though the rose notes are hiding. Too many sprays and I can definitely see how other users have reported “bug spray or barbecue”.

Opens with an overwhelming blast of smoke (and general barbecue-ish-ness) that chokes everything else out: there's no rose, no cedar, just an inferno. But around half an hour in, that slowly burns out, revealing a smoky, gorgeous rose that has this spicy creaminess from the sandalwood and cedar. This fragrance tells the unmistakable story of an angel, or maybe Icarus, plummeting to earth in a pillar of holy light and landing in the rose garden of a lonely wooden church. No, I don't like the opening, but it is SO evocative that it adds to the experience for me. Like most Kerosenes, this is a longevity MONSTER- I easily got 12+ hours off it. It's not a "one spray and everyone in a 20 foot radius will smell you" level of sillage (looking at you, Followed) but, hot take, not everything needs to fill a whole room!

This fragrance smells like you just stumbled upon an abandoned church in a clearing in the woods in the winter time, or a grandmother that chain smokes while gardening on Sundays. With Angels and Archangels opens with a very polarizing, ashy, smoky scent. The insence reads very church-like and the charcoal and smoke kind of smell like a cigarette to me. I actually really enjoy it, but not everyone would. As it blooms on paper you immediately start to get this sort of wilted, dying (not in a bad way!) rosy floral. It’s very beautiful, and becomes generally more wearable as it dries down into a floral-driven scent. I haven’t tried it on skin but definitely plan to.

Starts off bright, with that dusky rose you get a hint of everything and the dry down is the most delicious cedar/charcoal/sandalwood scent that had me sniffing my arm all day because I would catch whiffs while driving and walking. Longevity is insane on this it lasts overnight for me and nothing ever lasts on me. Definitely projects but not in a migraine inducing way. This scent is truly unique and beautiful it’s witchy it’s beautiful and I think it’s really great for any season. If you like the likes of black saffron and things up that alley you would love this. It’s dirty, it’s feminine it’s sexy. 10/10