Holy Water

4 thoughts on “Holy Water”

1. Holy Water smells like my house (specifically the bathrooms and kitchen) after I clean/disinfect it. The lemon rind is amping on me and reminding me of a cleaner I use daily in my home. My brain just can’t get past that. Personally this isn’t a smell I fancy on myself. I’m writing this about an hour into wear time so I’m hoping this settles in to something more pleasant to my nose. I doubt I’ll upsize though because even an hour plus of smelling like lemon cleaner is too much. I’m not sure what Anjelica root smells like on it’s own. It’s a note in a few of my perfume oils but I couldn’t explain the smell. The main reason I tried this was for the Palo Santo. I have zero experience with PS. Recently I sniffed a PS candle at B&BW (I thought it smelled pretty good) but who knows if it was even a true to life smell. Other than that, none of my scents contain PS so I’m pretty much clueless on the smell. I’ve seen it described as clean, woody, bright and lemony. Maybe it’s the PS and the lemon rind giving me cleaner vibes, I just don’t know. I think that I’ll forever associate Holy Water with cleaning my house. I wish I had a better understanding of the scent of PS! My skin chemistry seems to have trouble with Hexennacht’s lemon and orange notes. They come across very cleaner like on my skin. If PS is also lemony, maybe I’m having the same issue? Personally I like my citrus notes sugared to keep them from veering into chemical cleaner territory. Well that chemical cleaner smell finally went away at about the 2 hour mark and this smells so much better…clean, lemony, herbal and slightly smokey . Holy Water is gone on me after 4 hours. I’m glad I tried this out but I can’t take the 2 hours of smelling like a chemical lemon cleaner. It’s already something I use and smell every day. I don’t think Holy Water is for me. I’ll test this out again in the warmer months to see if anything changes but for now this is a pass.

2. There’s something SO familiar here, but I can’t quite place it. I get a sense of calm when I smell this. There’s something not quite tangible here, the smell of ritual. I’m thinking that’s the Palo Santo. I’m totally unfamiliar with PS, but I’m beginning to understand its appeal. I get a touch of camphorous bite from the sage and hint of cedarwood. It smells like an Ansel Adams photo; I think of deserts, white light from a not-too-hot sun, sun-baked trees, the smell of clean skin. Angelica root always has a fuzzy warmth to me and here it smells like an old worn flannel blanket, rolled out with tools for magic. Amulets and a book, a protection spell. This note and the lemon rind add to the clean, sacred feeling and they round the blend out, playing with the Woody citrus quality of the Palo Santo.

3. In the bottle, I’m a little scared. It’s got a distinct lemon smell and with the woody undertone creeping up, I’m worried we’re venturing into bug spray or household cleaner territory. On my skin though, all I can say is WOW. It is positively transformed. Palo Santo is a scent that is difficult to describe, but when my brain recognizes it, my eyes literally roll back in my head. I last had this response to Black Mass, which is currently still in my top three scents from this house (and it was part of my very first order). There’s a soothing, meditative quality to this one. I’m totally on board with the name now. It’s breathtaking. It’s somewhat herbal, somewhat clean, somewhat dirty, somewhat woody… Everything blends into something new and it is spectacular. I have a feeling this will be one people comment on and won’t be able to figure out what exactly it is or why they like it so much. The lemon rind really fooled me on that bottle sniff. It retreats to a nice supporting role as soon as it hits my skin. As time passes, it gradually recedes into oblivion. I smell very earthy now. I feel like I just left some ancient ceremony. I can’t stop wrist-huffing. Awesome!

4. This is lovely and uplifting. I’d classify it as more of a ritual-type scent (though it’s not a smokey incense) than anything I’d consider perfumey in the traditional sense. Both palo santo and angelica root are new to me, but whatever Caroline did with this combination of notes is freaking beautiful. The use of incense and herbs and other things is not a big part of my religious/spiritual practice, but the idea of a cleansing, spiritual kind of scent is very appealing to me. This is very herbal, with a nice hit of the lemon (bitter rind included), and a slight smokiness which I think is the palo santo. The scent itself is very clean but not in the “ugh, soapy” way. It just smells like what you’d want cleansing to smell like. I wore this on a freak 60 degree day we had early this week (in early February) and it was energizing and uplifting and hung around all afternoon.