Reliqvia

Allow me to preface this review by saying that I was more or less aware of what I was getting into when I tested this. I had already sampled a few of Sorcinelli's scents prior to this, of which Lavs was my favourite; but that is a topic for another time. His work of course is storytelling first, and perfumery second in my opinion; these fragrances do a stunning job of painting specific pictures in a way that is amazingly lifelike to my nose. I thoroughly appreciate them for the images they evoke even if they stink. Well, having said that; Reliqvia does stink quite a bit. Upon first spray it is smoky, a decisively incensy scent. It is also rather spiced courtesy of the cloves and nutmeg - unfortunately on my skin this soon started to smell exactly like a rotisserie as others have pointed out, which was pretty disconcerting. On paper or rather by sniffing the juice itself, this definitely smells sacred, but in the way that a monk of the Old World would smell while carrying a crate of spices from the local bazaar in a densely populated desert city: ancient, aromatic, warm. Like perspiration. Something about it does in fact bring to mind the sourness of sweat. It's an interesting fragrance for sure and I keep coming back to it in an effort to force my untrained nose to pick up more of its notes, but it's definitely not something I would wear myself. I had to wash it off due to that priestly sweat smell and amazingly it was still there even after I had showered, so that should speak for its potency.

OMG! This has to be the WORST fragrance I have ever smelled! UGH! I sampled it and almost puked. I had to scrub it off immediately! Some people have written reviews that they liked it. They either work for the company, or they got a different sample than I did? I really wanted to like it, because it has the Weirdest bottle I have ever seen. So Ugly I find it intriguing. I could always buy the product, never open the bottle, and just display it as a conversation piece? Warning: Do Not Blind Buy This!!!

(Please bear with me as you read this review, because this fragrance keeps changing, and so does my opinion)... I thought this fragrance would be right up my alley, because it lists so many of my ride-or-dies: blackcurrant, orange, orange blossom, balsamic... and I love pine, cloves, nutmeg, sandalwood, tobacco. Everything I read in the reviews made me think this would be a solid "hell yeah!", so I purchased a sample from Luckyscent. I've opened the vial three times in three days, and had the same impression every time: SMOKE, BURNT, rubbery tar, freshly burnt pine... and sourness. Bitter and sour. Can this be the cat-pee quality attributed to blackcurrant? This is my first time experiencing anything but joy with BC. :( The first two times I opened the vial, I closed it immediately and scrubbed my fingers. But tonight... I got the nerve up to dab it multiple times on both wrists, about 45 minutes ago. Immediately, somewhere in the ether, I heard David Byrne ask, "My God... what have I done?!?" It was like letting a pissed-off genie out of its bottle, after a toddler has given the bottle a good shake. I was pounded with the scents of Smoke, Incense, Mastic/Lentisque, and the tar-like property of the Guaic Wood. I got a fleeting whiff of tobacco, but, alas, it wasn't my Granddad's fragrant pipe tobacco. Instead, it was cigar-like tobacco that I associate with fat old married patriarch-types trying hard to get a little side-action. I could not imagine wearing this, nor could I imagine ever wanting to smell this on anyone I actually like. But wait.... there's more. Shockingly, within about a minute, Sandalwood, that quiet hero, emerged and started mellowing everything out. About 45 minutes in, I was smelling Sandalwood, Pine Tree, and the tiniest hints of Patchouli, Cashmir Wood and Cloves. The incense and smoke mellowed out, and the tobacco has been thoroughly tamed. At the 75-minute mark, I have gone from a hard "NO", to slowly coming around. This fragrance is a Mystery. This is what you annoint yourself with when you need a mental and spiritual focus, to ponder the profound, and define your sacred space. So when the text above states, "Reliqvia is the perfect sacred space", I am in complete agreement. But I don't see this as an everyday sort of scent that you bounce around in. It's what you put on when you need to meditate on bigger things and make a life-changing decision. 90 minutes after applying, the genie has chilled out, the scent is close and mellow, and possibly I could wear this out of the house. Or in the house when my partner is around (I waited until he went out to meet friends, because I'm a good human being). I should note that I have not yet experienced any of the 'juicy' or 'sweet orange' or the fruit of blackcurrant (which I love love love). I may need to put this in a decanter that I can spray, and see if that changes anything. My initial thought was that this fragrance veered towards masculine, but now I feel it's not male or female. It is mystic and oracular. This is not a blind-buy fragrance, but I suspect it is very much a love or hate fragrance. I don't hate it, so I've rated it "love".

(Please bear with me as you read this review, because this fragrance keeps changing, and so does my opinion)... I thought this fragrance would be right up my alley, because it lists so many of my ride-or-dies: blackcurrant, orange, orange blossom, balsamic... and I love pine, cloves, nutmeg, sandalwood, tobacco. Everything I read in the reviews made me think this would be a solid "hell yeah!", so I purchased a sample from Luckyscent. I've opened the vial three times in three days, and had the same impression every time: SMOKE, BURNT, rubbery tar, freshly burnt pine... and sourness. Bitter and sour. Can this be the cat-pee quality attributed to blackcurrant? This is my first time experiencing anything but joy with BC. :( The first two times I opened the vial, I closed it immediately and scrubbed my fingers. But tonight... I got the nerve up to dab it multiple times on both wrists, about 45 minutes ago. Immediately, somewhere in the ether, I heard David Byrne ask, "My God... what have I done?!?" It was like letting a pissed-off genie out of its bottle, after a toddler has given the bottle a good shake. I was pounded with the scents of Smoke, Incense, Mastic/Lentisque, and the tar-like property of the Guaic Wood. I got a fleeting whiff of tobacco, but, alas, it wasn't my Granddad's fragrant pipe tobacco. Instead, it was cigar-like tobacco that I associate with fat old married patriarch-types trying hard to get a little side-action. I could not imagine wearing this, nor could I imagine ever wanting to smell this on anyone I actually like. But wait.... there's more. Shockingly, within about a minute, Sandalwood, that quiet hero, emerged and started mellowing everything out. About 45 minutes in, I was smelling Sandalwood, Pine Tree, and the tiniest hints of Patchouli, Cashmir Wood and Cloves. The incense and smoke mellowed out, and the tobacco has been thoroughly tamed. At the 75-minute mark, I have gone from a hard "NO", to slowly coming around. This fragrance is a Mystery. This is what you annoint yourself with when you need a mental and spiritual focus, to ponder the profound, and define your sacred space. So when the text above states, "Reliqvia is the perfect sacred space", I am in complete agreement. But I don't see this as an everyday sort of scent that you bounce around in. It's what you put on when you need to meditate on bigger things and make a life-changing decision. 90 minutes after applying, the genie has chilled out, the scent is close and mellow, and possibly I could wear this out of the house. Or in the house when my partner is around (I waited until he went out to meet friends, because I'm a good human being). I should note that I have not yet experienced any of the 'juicy' or 'sweet orange' or the fruit of blackcurrant (which I love love love). I may need to put this in a decanter that I can spray, and see if that changes anything. My initial thought was that this fragrance veered towards masculine, but now I feel it's not male or female. It is mystic and oracular. This is not a blind-buy fragrance, but I suspect it is very much a love or hate fragrance. I don't hate it, so I've rated it "love".

Was able to pick up some samples of Reliqvia Filippo Sorcinelli. So glad I did vs blind buying. To me this smells like a musty damp log cabin in the woods by a creek that's been boarded up and not lived in for a long time. That has caused the air to stale from lack of circulation/ventilation. It's not a scent that I would want to wear but I did for about 7 hours. It projects well for close to 3 hours, then settles down to a noticeable scent bubble that I could still smell quite well until I finally washed it off. So good performance although I find it to be very linear and just not for me. Which is a bummer cause I think the bottle is camp but I just can't bring myself to buy it knowing I will never wear it.