The Holy Cave of the Apocalypse

after ordering a full bottle of this, i ended up writing a lengthier version of my previous observations because i cannot stop thinking about this perfume (it’s perfect to me 🩷) ........................... this smells like a specific subsection of my childhood summers, not one which i’m used to idealize but one which shaped me. i grew up in europe and my parents never liked going away to popular destinations in the summer so they would often pick somewhere rural, isolated and cheaper to spend a couple weeks at as a family. these trips often involved going to visit old churches & ancient castles, etc... something i both loved and hated. loved because when in the right mood, thinking of the emotional history contained in ancient walls would give me a glimpse into the sublime, and how big and beautifully i could feel. hated because sometimes it felt like it was always the same small confining experience and idk eventually i grew older and verged onto being of the age of an ungrateful teenager. the holy cave to me, smells like a lot of these places combined. the small village 12th century roman chapel, the cave of the apparitions in lourdes, the troglodyte dwellings carved into the cliff side, the crypt of an old medieval castle... MUSTY STONE, water dripping and pooling in one corner, the kind of smell that your brain associates with somewhere dark, damp and cool. specifically it smells like ENTERING one of these places: stepping from a hot summer day into a shaded refuge. it reminds me of how in one step, air can feel and smell different as if you’ve somehow not only walked through a door or down a flight of stairs but also traversed time in a very subtle and imperceptible way, or maybe just ambled along the edge of time. it dries down from moderate-intimate to a skin scent which lingers for a long time, and somewhere in there, i also start finding the strange but wonderful smell that clings onto me after a summer afternoon swim in the pond. cool algae water, something a bit earthy, a bit green, and very fresh. that smell of not needing to shower because you are clean but somehow still a bit dirty and wild, your hair and skin softer, smoother, lighter. —several friends did remark that i smelled like i just returned from a pond swim while i was wearing this. the pepper note is the main masonry of this whole smell and allows for all these tricks of the mind. i love pepper sm.........

the cool air of a dark damp musty rural cave chapel when you open the heavy creaky wooden door ; fresh smell of algea pond water lingering on your skin after a swim on a sweltering hot day. i am in love with this!!! really good longevity (i sprayed this on going to bed and it still smells at 12pm the next day), evolves from moderate projection to intimate.

Church in a cave. Haven't smelled a lot of fragrances with dirt notes but man, this one is realistic. The blast of incense in the top notes dries down to a subtle sweetness underneath the wet stone smell a couple hours in and it's very very nice. Will be purchasing a full bottle.

An immediate blast of petrichor from the earthy mineral notes grounded by the hay and tobacco. The vanilla and frankincense plays its part in softening this down, letting your mind wonder deeper into the cave. A story in a bottle that transcends space and time.

You've stepped into a limestone cave to get out of a late spring downpour. At first all you smell is wet stone and rain-tilled soil, but as your eyes adjust and you notice someone's been living in this cave, other scents reach you. Dried herbs, sage and tarragon. Half-tanned leather, warm and funky. Piney ashes from a fire burned down not too long ago. Tobacco from a pipe smoked in contemplation. And musk from a well-worn bedroll, slept in by someone soon to return. But you feel like a guest, not an intruder, and you decide to wait out the storm. Phronema scents care more about transporting you than making you Smell Nice, and out of all my samples this one was the most evocative. I love a petrichor note and this is almost an overdose of it on paper, but on skin it has so much going on underneath the minerality. Currently wearing it inside on a rainy Saturday afternoon and it's magical.