Sacreste

I love incense-based scents and spent a long time searching for one that smells like incense but doesn’t feel overly religious. I wanted something easier to wear than, say, Lavs or Reliqvia by Filippo Sorcinelli — amazing quality, but they really give off church vibes for me. Wearing them, I felt like I had a cassock on and people might start greeting me with “bless you, Father.” Sacreste totally hits the mark. I don’t have to overthink when to wear it — if I feel like smelling like it, I just go for it. It works pretty much year-round. I’ve tested it in 8°C and over 20°C, and I think it’s fine in anything but a heatwave. On my skin, it opens with a peppery kick that tingles the nose a bit — but that only lasts around 15 minutes. Then it softens into this cool, smooth sweetness. That slightly sour note others have mentioned? It’s definitely there and I think it works perfectly with the scent’s vibe. I’m guessing it’s the elemi giving it a subtle lemony twist, which helps make it wearable in warmer weather. It lasts a solid 8 hours on my skin (I can still smell it after 12h close to skin), and the projection is noticeable for about 3 hours — about an arm’s length away. It has great atomiser. I’d recommend it to anyone into incense-woody fragrances with a bit of freshness — especially if you don’t want to smell like you just walked out of mass. If you're looking for something more overtly “religious,” maybe check out Unum, Cardinal by James Heeley, or even Montale’s Full Incense for a cheaper option. On me, Sacreste smells nothing like Bowmakers by D.S. & Durga or Hwyl by Aesop, both of which I own.

A very quick review this time. I had this perfume for about two years and it became my go-to perfume for the versatility and neutrality. Neutrality is sometimes very good, and the blend here does it in a calming way. At first, it bursts overwhelming church smell, but it subsides in about 30 minutes into a nice masculine skin scent. The scent is throughout woody, resinous and a bit spicy. If you are the guy who is not into explosive floral and fruity scents, this one will deliver. Longevity is about 6 hours plus which means that this will get you comfortably through the day or evening. For me, it was always a day and work/leisure perfume. That I have already used the entire bottle in about 20 months says a lot.

Reviewing sample from 2022. Sacreste was launched in 2018. Dark green aromatic opening with a waft of incense.Delicately spiced with soft leather. Barely there smoke and a little sweetness to round out the cypriol and the spices. Aromatic woods support the base. Beautifully blended. Quality -very good 4/5 Unisex Performance- very good 3.5/5 An offering of frankincense and myrrh to the deity of your choice .Although Sacreste opens with liturgical vibes it has enough heft and complexity in the basenotes to make it wearable. Absolutely beautiful resinous woody drydown. 9/10

As a devout Catholic, Sacreste smells almost exactly like the balsamic incense used in our Churches. I luckily got the chance to test this side-by-side with Reliqvia by Filippo Sorcinelli and the two smell very similar, nearly identical in fact. Besides the smell however Sacreste by Laboratorio Olfattivo doesn't perform to its full extent. Its projection simply isn't strong enough for what is a beautiful scent. Luckily, the longevity is quite good, lasting a good 10 hours on my skin.

Rather than transporting me to a church, I feel this scent more so evokes some deep, unknowing emotion inside of me. It feels deeply meditative, yet also highly intimate, as well as quite melancholic. It feels like a quiet solace brought about by a deep reminiscence of intimacy - something lost, never to come back, something that evokes a form of melancholy, but something that reveals a deeper meaning amongst the gloom of the past.

I'm not great in making reviews, I will be simple: it's like entering in a cold church! Great scent, great performance (I still can smell it after 7/8 hours), and sillage is kinda normal. Even if it's more an autumn/winter perfume I believe you can even wear it during hot seasons too because it gives me the sensation of breathing cold air. 10/10

to me (background is: northern italian, catholic raised) this is the most churchy church scent i’ve managed to find. this is it. more than avignon or else, this brings me back there! it’s a cold one! cold and greenish. love it!

This is amazing. Smells like catholic guilt. Very unisex.

I got a load of these black bottle samples a few years ago but I don’t recall this one, until a pal of mine sent me a sample and it’s so him. I would say that the mellow black pepper opening into a nice but pretty standard incense accord and smoky woods is almost like the kind of thing the fragrance professionals would recommend to a team on the apprentice when they were making a modern men’s fragrance, and they wouldn’t listen and make some wacky combination of strawberry and burnt Lino or something? I actually really appreciate the smooth quality of this stuff, I’m light of some incense fragrances I’ve tried in the last week or so, the new as yet unnamed Amouage I got as a promo sample shhhhhh (spoiler alert...it was boring) or the incense one from Louis Vuitton (I wanna say Nuit de feu?) which I was not very taken with. Anyway, Secrete it’s not sharp or dominant in any one resin, has a little tickle of olibanum, the amber heft and sweetness of labdanum and that smoky Cypriol is really mild but still present. I like it.

Cold, clean, peppery-ashy-fizzy-airy-woody superdry incense with a really sparkly burst of spice at the opening - classy enough for my heart to beat faster for a few minutes wondering if I'd stumbled across a wonderful replacement for my beloved discontinued beast Sahara Noir. But no: it's all a lot thinner, cooler and almost-sourer than that, with not enough true warmth or depth to the resins to last for long - more in the vein of Reve d'Ossian or Lutens L'Orpheline. Abstract enough to be a CDG and very much in that linear, minimal spirit. Virtually zero sillage and a maximum lifespan of only a few hours. Sure, a restrained, modernist, perfectly unisex go at the theme, but there are SO MANY others in this realm (Samharam, Cardinal/Avignon, et infinitum...) that do so much more. Close, but no cigar - no more than a cool-kid diffident like and nod from me. Yeah yeah sure sure whatever.

this opens with an ambery slightly resinous opening with a creamy labdanum and elemi. There’s not a lot of saffron or cardamom to my nose. You get more of those resins in the heart of this paired with an aromatic black pepper and an earthy cypriol oil. It’s slightly smoky too. The dry down of this is where it really shines. It’s a deep woody scent with smooth warm cashmere. The wood here feels smoked, like a petrified wood. With warm smoothness too it. I will say you lose all the previous notes here as it really just smells like pure wood with smooth warmth but I enjoy that. It’s a simple woody scent that works.

اسپایسی،اینسنسی،چوبی،بازامیکی،انیمالیک،صمغی در راه رسیدن به آمبر شروعی زیبا و عمیق از روایح چوبی و صمغی و اسپایسی که رفته رفته کم عمق میشه و انگار راهشو گم می کنه. رایحه ای بو داده انگار که در حال تفت دادن آجیل یا ذرت هستید و با این حال سعی در حفظ فضای اینسنسی و سنگین و رنگین می کنه. شروع عالی و پایان معمولی ************************** scent:8/10 longevity:8/10 sillage:7.5/10 purchase value:4/10 ************** overall:6.9/10

a mix of church incense and burned wood smoke. great product but not as innovative as I would have liked ... a mix between full incense and boise d'ascese or avignon and encense flamboyant. good longevity but poor sillage.6,5 / 10

I blind-bought a bottle of this and Comme des Garcons: Avignon at the same time. It was a mistake because they smell identical. It wasn't a mistake because I really like both. Swings and roundabouts 🤷

I like it, but it's too linear for me, it's just woodsy, I mostly smell cedarwood and that's it..it is also dry and sort of cold. Longevity is not really good at least for me.

A very nice woody/ambey incense. Unfortunately not innovative enough for me to justify spending $180 on it, in view of the many incenses I already own. Still, a nice option.

Add review:very sweet,balsamic and resinous.

It's so similar to CDG Kyoto incense

Based on the notes I was hoping Sacreste would be reminiscent of CDG Black, maybe with a warmer, sweeter base. I really like Black, but Sacreste ... not so much. To my nose the incense is very dominant, closely followed by the cypress, pepper and woods. The overall sensation this provokes with me, is a freshly oiled / waxed church bench, which has been infused by incense smoke for years. Very gothic but still vibrant, though not as versatile as I hoped. Performance on skin is so so, but on clothes the projection of the incense and cypress is fairly pungent. All in all, not a favourite (I do favour many other Laboratorio Olfattivo scents though). A regrettable blind buy.

A pleasant incense- based fragrance, less sweet than Cardinal, not as astringent as Vetiver Incenso and with far less staying power than either. Just another incensey fragrance. Disappointing!