Unholy Water

3 thoughts on “Unholy Water”

1. I like this. This definitely has the pleasant, atmospheric feeling of being in a specific place. It’s got that ritualistic, clean palo santo and sage. It smells like being in an open room near a river in the woods where someone is burning sage or palitos santos (not that it smells like a river or the woods, it just feels like that’s where I am when I smell it, maybe a scent memory). It’s clean, ritualistic, but also has a strong base of what smells like ivory soap. Wore this for a few hours before bed and slept in it, and when I woke up, a pleasant, sweet, bready incense smell was all that remained, with maybe the faintest trace of soap. I can’t see this being an every day smell for me, but it would be a great summertime smell. I can see wearing this at a backyard gathering on a warm summer day. It’s pleasant. One of the few scents I genuinely liked from this house.

2. Holy Water is the sun-baked desert expanse, this is the night time. Full dark, no stars, cooler than you’d expect. The smell of smoke and the glow of embers in a pit dug in the desert sand. You shiver from the air and from the ceremony you have to complete… The camphorous quality from the sage mixed with that otherness from the Palo Santo, wisps twisting in the air. This is enhanced by the dragon’s blood. I don’t get a strong dragon’s blood scent here, and that’s a good thing. I feel like Palo Santo is delicate, but it’s also totally new to me. A scent that can be bent toward light or dark. Here the incense quality is present from the dragon’s blood, but just enough to give off a smokey feel. I don’t get that intense sweet pungency from the note. It goes with the cedarwood for an earthy, ceremonial feel. I keep going back to that word, ceremonial. I smell the Palo Santo in this and Holy Water and I keep getting this fresh, clean skin aroma. I want to call it medicinal, but not in a sterile, hospital way, but ancient medicine. Balms and herbs. Ceremonial. Gah, I’m absolutely not doing this justice but I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a new aroma to me but somehow familiar.

3. First impression is a burst of bright cedar smoothed out by that killer, meditative palo santo and calming sage. As it sits on my skin, the dragon’s blood creeps forward just enough, bringing the almost-indescribable dark herbal depth I know so well. It never takes over completely (thankfully), and I’m left with a balanced woody, outdoorsy, slightly spicy-floral blend. I dig it. I’ve been backing off dragon’s blood lately because it dominates a bit too much as I sample lighter things for the warmer days, but this one is supremely balanced. I quite enjoy it. These notes complement each other well. I could see myself wearing this a whole lot more often than say Smaug, which was so aggressive I didn’t reach for it much and ended up swapping away. The extreme dry down is mainly cedar, but it’s super soft now. I’m enjoying this darker cousin of Holy Water, which was a smash hit with me. I really like palo santo. It’s got such a mood effect on me. I think objectively I like HW better, so I’ll be waiting to upgrade this one. I’m not the biggest fan of cedar and it comes through more than I expected here. Still, it’s a very nice blend. I’ll come back for it eventually. I won’t be able to resist adding such a restrained dragon’s blood blend to the collection.