Holy Hell

Universal Flowering, HOW did you bottle The Florida Project (and the scent of my childhood, which was strikingly similar)? First off, I love plastic notes!!! This is insanely unique but like, weird in a way that I can’t imagine being “too much” for many people. A warm pool floatie deflated from being slapped around all day, sunscreen, biting into juicy cut up honeydew after a day swimming at the pool. Filling a kiddie pool in your backyard and seeing the water from the hose reflecting rainbows. Polly pocket clothes with mysterious bite marks, the afterglow of a beach day, collecting shells in a pail, conditioning your salty hair at the end of the day. Very reminiscent of The Florida Project or mayhaps the pool rooms TM️ and so nostalgic. I live on the FL Space Coast and this reminds me of the tourist resorts near my house we’d sneak into to swim during the summer/stay at for birthday parties. One had a huge water slide, this smells like the inside of it. Putting on a bathing suit right when you wake up and being so excited for the day, but also the afterglow where you’re warm and exhausted. Changing in the locker room at the public pool. It feels warm. I get this toasty feeling that I assume is the choya nakh (toasted sea shells, obsessed) and an almond-y scent with the juiciest melon and of course rubber and sunscreen. Some florals come out in the drydown that remind me of honeysuckle. Warm sand, beachy but not marine. I just love this so much. Every time I smell it, it evokes a new memory and I find something new I like about it! Today, it made me think of going to those tacky tourist shops near the beach. I used to smell everything as a kid (and still do really) I’d smell all the toys, the seashells, the hermit crabs, the sunscreen and body mists, the airbrushed t-shirts, the postcards. Staying at Motel 6 with my family and feeling like I was living large. It’s playful, emotional AND it smells damn good with great longevity and sillage. I would join the UF cult if such a thing existed. If it does, someone please invite me 💗

Holly hell! This is soo similar to my signature scent Vacation but ...better? Stronger? More plasticky? I love and adore Vacation but i think i mention in every single review i write how much i truly detest bergamot, literally why is that note in almost every perfume? Unfortunately for me, Vacation was no exception. Also Vacation has a pineapple note i could really do without, ive always kinda hated coconut +pineapple combo. Sooo this is where Holy Hell really shines, no gross sour pineapple or Davidoff knockoff bergamot. Its all plastic pool toy, suntan lotion, salt and water. Even though there is no oceanic notes, the choya and ambergris combo lends to that, while the melon adds that fresh air. If Vacation was laying on a floatie, in the pool, slathered in Banana Boat drinking a piña colada, then Holy Hell is a more sophisticated version, maybe laying by the ocean, under an umbrella, wearing La Mer spf, drinking an organic coconut water. If you want it wetter, layer with JHAG Vanilla Vibes, if you want it coconutty-er layer it with Heretic Dirty Coconut, if you want it saltier and more marine, layer with #Nude Magma or Salt Air. All in all, this is absolutely addictive!

I bought the sample set for my birthday, and the first scent I smelled was Holy Hell. Before I sprayed it, just from smelling the nozzle on the sample, I said, "Oh God" out loud- I am a Floridian, born and raised, and this scent delivers what it means to be a Floridian- all of that- and more. This scent is a fresh bandaid opened for a knee skinned on the pool's concrete- there is plastic, adhesive, tanning oil, cut fruit growing soupy in a Tupperware, coco frío, chlorine, sunscreen, the A/C working hard at CVS. The plastic notes are literal, which makes this scent more compelling. I cannot stop smelling my wrist. I plan on purchasing full bottles of Holy Hell and Venus in Tuberose. This is for fans of Vacation's signature scent, and for fans of Juliette Has a Gun's Lust for Sun, only freakier. This scent gives the summer an edge again. We are going to Spencer's and Hot Topic in the Wellington Mall with wet hair and wearing jelly sandals after swimming at Juno Beach. Incredible.

Absolutely beautiful! On my husband I smell hot vinyl plastic but I don’t smell any plastic or vinyl notes on myself. It smells (on him) just like blowing up a beach ball on the beach! But in a very pretty way. On me I get suntan lotion, melon, and something floral. I prefer the scent on my skin. It is the perfect summer perfume and I’m so glad I found my summer perfume in one try! The reviews for this brand seem spot on (this is my second fragrance by them.) It’s a very evocative, unique, and pretty fragrance. The dry down seems to be mostly floral and fruity on both me on my husband. I adore it and this will be my new summer signature. update: tried it again a few weeks later and I totally smell the plastic on me now. WOW. what a unique and fun perfume. It’s really amazing. I can’t stop smelling my wrists. I smell like a pretty beach barbie, it’s addictive. You can smell the sun, the beach, the plastic.

i was so vexed by this one. when it first touched my skin, i got pure antiseptic smell, images of bandages and hospitals and plastic IV tubes flashing in my mind. after i'd let it settle for a while, about 40 minutes, only then did the full portrait unfold in front of me - the hospital opened up into a crowded beach, the antiseptic scent was placed within its context as being smeared over sunburnt peeling skin in a motel bathroom; the plastic note that at first conjured up medical equipment now evoking lawn flamingos, surfboards and pool inflatables. it smells like being day-drunk in flip flops and trying really hard not to trip over pebbles and clumps of beachgrass. this really is photorealistic and highly occasion-specific, but at the right occasion i couldn't imagine something better. and that occasion is Beach. i can't wait for summer so i can experience Holy Hell's full potential.

This is my absolute favorite of Courtney’s entire lineup. I blind bought a bottle and I’m so glad I did. I moved away from the gulf coast of Florida years ago, and sometimes I get a little bit homesick for it, so I always love when I can find a little bit of sunshine summers elsewhere. It keeps my heart full. This one did take some getting used to. Like it took a few minutes before my brain “understood” the scent, if that makes sense, but I kept sniffing my wrist over and over and falling for it more and more each time. It kind of has that “should I be inhaling this?” chemically smell. But it mellows out into this soft, melon sweet thing near the end of the wear. It’s lovely, and it feels like a happy summer.

I'm in love with Holy Hell. It's my favorite from Universal Flowering along with Venus in Tuberose. This is toasted sand, plastic, and fruit with a spicy warm vanilla neroli dry down. Steamy, hot, and completely unique. The beach ball accord is most present at the opening but the memory of it lingers in the dry down. If you were intrigued by Nasamato's Fantomas but found the patchouli/dirt notes overpowering, try this. Interestingly, both pair plastic and melon. Immediate nostalgia and dopamine. The dry down is just as gorgeous as the opening. I put my sample of this on right before going into a three hour movie and was sniffing my wrist the whole time.

Courtney Rafuse has a gift for creating profoundly evocative olfactory portraits of moments, places, and objects. Holy Hell may be the strongest example of this. Imagine plastic beach balls in the hot, hot sun; suntan lotion slathered over warm skin; children and vacationers diving into a swimming pool; and that all-too-elusive feeling of not having a care in the world. While I don’t love summer, especially when it is 105 F (41 C), I purposely saved this scent for a miserably hot day, as it dramatically improves my attitude toward the season. Indeed, I’m fighting the urge to take some PTO to go to a waterpark. The urge is almost overpowering.

I love this, and it's much softer and more nuanced than most of the reviews led me to expect. Upon first spray, it definitely gives me the vibe of applying sunscreen in an inflatable plastic kiddie pool filled with hose water, but it's more of a hazy, nostalgic impression than a photorealistic beach ball hitting you in the face. The neroli, melon, toasted seashells, and ambergris are subtly blended, and the drydown (warm, ambery, slightly sweet, slightly smoky, slightly floral) evokes sun-kissed skin basking in the afterglow of a backyard cookout in late August. Initially bizarre but ultimately transportive, addictive, and quite beautiful.

It does hit the nail on the head for a summery beach vibe. The suntan lotion element is very coconut. It's a bit more subtle than I would like (because it's so coconut-forward), I feel like I have to wear a lot of it to get it to really come across. I don't quite get "beach ball," it comes across more like a very fake plastic flower that somehow smells very real, and the synthetic and natural elements combine in an interesting way. I don't think the plastic scent lasts as long as the rest, it gets a bit lost as it evolves. Huge fan though, I wasn't ready for summer to end.

mjchaelj said below "last day of summer" and that is exactly it. it smells like everything is faded from being in the sun all summer and there's a thin film of sunscreen and sticky sun-cooked fruit juice on your hot plastic beach chair. the pages of your tabloid magazine are sandy and stiff and sort of sticking together from the sea spray. somebody maybe 100ft away is smoking a cigarette. i grew up in a beach town and this is a very nostalgic scent. i really love it, even though it's not the type of scent i typically wear these days.

I got a sample of this with Venus in Tuberose and my god it is soooo special - the opening is disarming like a tire fire but it mellows into this shockingly wearable cocktail of salt water, neroli, and smoky sea shells. While I definitely get the nostalgic summer imagery, the other image it conjures is like a very sexy mermaid swimming away from a ship as it burns. Gleefully watching from the shore as the sun goes down. It was a successful day of luring men to their deaths. 1000/10 going on my FB wishlist for sure

Truly on a quest to find anything that will make me smell like a robot and i am not kidding anyone when i say ive never smelled something SO plastic than Holy Hell by Universal Flowering it smells like a pool floatie in an above ground pool thats not exactly "cold" but at least it's colder than the sweltering heat around you and something sweet.. like your neighbors garden peaking over the fence, and whatever sickly nectar is within those flowers is baking right alongside you

Holy Hell smells like Barbie on a hot sunny day. Like literally, this smells like a plastic doll that melted in the sun, and I actually find it sooooooo cute and camp. So much so, I powered through the strong toasted sea shell and plastic notes that I initially really disliked. I'm glad I did too, because the yummy sweet sunscreen smell comes through a lot more as this dries down. A girly summer skin scent perfect for sunny days.

Holy Hell is that woman in a high cut thong bikini, walking in slow motion down the beach in 1984 !! She’s sun kissed, and dappled with beads of sweat, glistening with sun tan lotion, hair thick with salty summer humidity! On me I don’t get much of the plastic, maybe a touch? I’d have to really concentrate to notice it! Rather it is this yummy, salty, sandy, tart ... almost buttery situation that I cannot get enough of :)

Everyone is right about the plastic. Everything else is secondary to the beach-ball-vinyl-old-toy-plastic-jelly-sandals accord. It's beguiling, but also a tiny bit sickening. Kind of unforgettable. Either you want to lick the sunscreen Barbie, or you don't. Edit: every time I wear this I’m more into it. As a bunch of other reviewers describe, I’ve fallen victim to the Holy Hell Effect and it feels so good, baby

Gloriously sunny. I'm wearing the ouai matte pomade in my hair today (rue st honore scent) and the combination of that and Holy Hell has me smelling like I'm completely and utterly beach-bound, even though I'm sat at a desk on a 9-5. The car is stuffed to the brim with blow-up floats and everyone is wearing jelly sandals. The windows are down and the air smells fresh and sweet.

yes yes beach ball, hose water, suntan lotion very true. a modern interpretation of sunshine that smells so fake that it's real. but what has me truly obsessed is there's something about it that reminds me of holding a nectarine at the market and straining to inhale the faint, ethereal scent from the uncut skin through a thin plastic bag and i can't stop chasing that

Preceding this review by saying I am very amateur at knowing anything about perfumes. I got this in a sampler kit as a gift and I love this scent. The opening notes are a little powdery and harsh but the longer it sits on my skin the more I love it. Slightly citrusy but also coconuty and milky. I would probably buy a full bottle of this.

Smells like being perfectly day drunk after a long day at the beach, not sunburned but your skin feels a bit dry and tight from the sun and the sea , getting ready in the bathroom, with a glass of rosé, to go eat somewhere fabulous wearing a slutty outfit.