Church incense perfumes are my favorite category and your descriptions are so transportive, this list made my week. Have you smelled any of the chapel factory scents? Would be so curious to hear your thoughts
i haven't! i was considering trying to get samples of them but after looking at the notes and somewhat mixed reviews it seemed like for all its themes the smells weren't entirely churchy
CDG Rouge to me is kinda what Zagorsk should have been. smells just like the tiny overgrown church that i used to go to when visiting my grandpas village in serbia, the muddy note feels like taking a walk early in the morning before the cold, damp mountain air and dew had a chance to evaporate
i cannot believe you haven't tried "Sacred" by Poesie! it uses the same base as Messe de Minuit but its more of a pure church incense scent. In my original review I wrote "smells like a cathedral during mass, gorgeous incense / otherworldly". It doesn't look like they really make it anymore- I wonder why they stopped. This is an iconic post and it may have singlehandedly reinspired me to get back into my large perfume stash that has mostly been sitting quietly as I put on the same Pacifica French lilac spray every single day lol
omg yes i've wanted to try that one but like you said, idk where to find it 😭 if you happen to have a sample i would be v interested in smelling.... also tysm for reading! ❣️
I should first say that this is a very thorough, clever, and elegantly written article — thank you! I often struggle to understand why someone would want to de-contextualize the scent of Catholic incense in particular if they are truly devout (not trying to incriminate you or imply anything about your devotion — I don’t know your life). I’m sure it’s an interesting exercise to make an incense perfume, but personally I would never try to smell like the sacrifice of the mass because that scent belongs to that inimitable setting. I don’t think true devotion is compatible with either
sentimentality or aesthetic tourism of world religions. And yet it’s unsurprising that so many would want to smell like incense itself, because it’s beautiful—but I’d argue that the fullness of its beauty is in its proper setting—in the air, during mass, uncapturable, dissipating slowly, and meant to be worn only if it sticks to you.
hi lauren! thank you so much for taking the time to read my work and offer feedback. i agree! i think that's a very valid concern, and one that has been brought to me by many others over the time i've become interested in the liturgical uses of smell. i absolutely think my relationship to western church incense would be different had i, for example, not grown up outside of the faith, or generally had more of a personal scent memory behind its traditions, and a more longstanding tradition of encountering incense in worship settings. that said, i do think it is a little unfair to reduce attempts at comparative religion to aesthetic tourism, or to assert that devotion and sentimentality are incompatible. the personal decision to regulate the smell of incense to liturgy makes total sense however, and in a sense i agree as to me church incense perfumes can by their vary nature never really capture the actual transcendent experience of encountering the burned material in liturgy. to me they serve more as memory triggers or meditation tools, calling my mind to past moments of worship or impressing upon me a facet of that uncapturable dissipating experience you mentioned. moreover i think in my very limited experience this matter also varies from catholic to orthodox traditions, as my friends in the orthodoxy are often more familiar with burning incense in their own home altars. regardless, thank you so much for taking the time to articulate your thoughts, and i hope you will continue reading in the future!
Thank you for your thoughtful reply! I especially hear you about the difference between Catholic and Orthodox uses of incense in the home — to me this makes a massive difference in how one views its purpose — or its sense of belonging to you to use in a more personal sense — even if I remain a purist about its specifically liturgical use in my Catholic (Latin rite) tradition. Of course anyone is free to use incense how they see fit, and if it increases devotion, so much the better I’d say. As for what I said about sentimentality and true devotion being incompatible, what I *don’t* mean is that if one’s sense of devotion is tinged with sentimental feelings that it is illegitimate; I was more thinking that the truest, purest devotion to God would exist apart from any personal idiosyncrasies of feeling or ritual — it would be done because it is pleasing to God, period. Does true and pure devotion exist? It sounds like a platonic ideal; but even though we are limited and earthly beings who participate in the divine by virtue of having immortal souls created by God, I still think we should strive to have our rituals and devotions be as little about our own preferences and “feelings about our own feelings” (borrowing a definition of sentimentality from Sheila Heti) as possible. And yet I get sort of stuck in a loop here because if gratifying these preferences — grounded as we are in our earthly senses — could somehow increase devotion meaningfully, how could I criticize them?
Totally, I definitely understand your point better, having now read this. I concur that in a sense it's kind of an impossible question to find a definitive answer to on a personal scale – but your point regarding true devotion as a general practice serving God, not worshippers, is very real. You make a good point. It's hard because like you mentioned smell is such an earthly, sentimental faculty, being of the body and senses – yet in the greater practice of liturgy, it is used towards heavenly, immaterial ends.
Church incense perfumes are my favorite category and your descriptions are so transportive, this list made my week. Have you smelled any of the chapel factory scents? Would be so curious to hear your thoughts
i haven't! i was considering trying to get samples of them but after looking at the notes and somewhat mixed reviews it seemed like for all its themes the smells weren't entirely churchy
CDG Rouge to me is kinda what Zagorsk should have been. smells just like the tiny overgrown church that i used to go to when visiting my grandpas village in serbia, the muddy note feels like taking a walk early in the morning before the cold, damp mountain air and dew had a chance to evaporate
i cannot believe you haven't tried "Sacred" by Poesie! it uses the same base as Messe de Minuit but its more of a pure church incense scent. In my original review I wrote "smells like a cathedral during mass, gorgeous incense / otherworldly". It doesn't look like they really make it anymore- I wonder why they stopped. This is an iconic post and it may have singlehandedly reinspired me to get back into my large perfume stash that has mostly been sitting quietly as I put on the same Pacifica French lilac spray every single day lol
omg yes i've wanted to try that one but like you said, idk where to find it 😭 if you happen to have a sample i would be v interested in smelling.... also tysm for reading! ❣️
I should first say that this is a very thorough, clever, and elegantly written article — thank you! I often struggle to understand why someone would want to de-contextualize the scent of Catholic incense in particular if they are truly devout (not trying to incriminate you or imply anything about your devotion — I don’t know your life). I’m sure it’s an interesting exercise to make an incense perfume, but personally I would never try to smell like the sacrifice of the mass because that scent belongs to that inimitable setting. I don’t think true devotion is compatible with either
sentimentality or aesthetic tourism of world religions. And yet it’s unsurprising that so many would want to smell like incense itself, because it’s beautiful—but I’d argue that the fullness of its beauty is in its proper setting—in the air, during mass, uncapturable, dissipating slowly, and meant to be worn only if it sticks to you.
hi lauren! thank you so much for taking the time to read my work and offer feedback. i agree! i think that's a very valid concern, and one that has been brought to me by many others over the time i've become interested in the liturgical uses of smell. i absolutely think my relationship to western church incense would be different had i, for example, not grown up outside of the faith, or generally had more of a personal scent memory behind its traditions, and a more longstanding tradition of encountering incense in worship settings. that said, i do think it is a little unfair to reduce attempts at comparative religion to aesthetic tourism, or to assert that devotion and sentimentality are incompatible. the personal decision to regulate the smell of incense to liturgy makes total sense however, and in a sense i agree as to me church incense perfumes can by their vary nature never really capture the actual transcendent experience of encountering the burned material in liturgy. to me they serve more as memory triggers or meditation tools, calling my mind to past moments of worship or impressing upon me a facet of that uncapturable dissipating experience you mentioned. moreover i think in my very limited experience this matter also varies from catholic to orthodox traditions, as my friends in the orthodoxy are often more familiar with burning incense in their own home altars. regardless, thank you so much for taking the time to articulate your thoughts, and i hope you will continue reading in the future!
Thank you for your thoughtful reply! I especially hear you about the difference between Catholic and Orthodox uses of incense in the home — to me this makes a massive difference in how one views its purpose — or its sense of belonging to you to use in a more personal sense — even if I remain a purist about its specifically liturgical use in my Catholic (Latin rite) tradition. Of course anyone is free to use incense how they see fit, and if it increases devotion, so much the better I’d say. As for what I said about sentimentality and true devotion being incompatible, what I *don’t* mean is that if one’s sense of devotion is tinged with sentimental feelings that it is illegitimate; I was more thinking that the truest, purest devotion to God would exist apart from any personal idiosyncrasies of feeling or ritual — it would be done because it is pleasing to God, period. Does true and pure devotion exist? It sounds like a platonic ideal; but even though we are limited and earthly beings who participate in the divine by virtue of having immortal souls created by God, I still think we should strive to have our rituals and devotions be as little about our own preferences and “feelings about our own feelings” (borrowing a definition of sentimentality from Sheila Heti) as possible. And yet I get sort of stuck in a loop here because if gratifying these preferences — grounded as we are in our earthly senses — could somehow increase devotion meaningfully, how could I criticize them?
Totally, I definitely understand your point better, having now read this. I concur that in a sense it's kind of an impossible question to find a definitive answer to on a personal scale – but your point regarding true devotion as a general practice serving God, not worshippers, is very real. You make a good point. It's hard because like you mentioned smell is such an earthly, sentimental faculty, being of the body and senses – yet in the greater practice of liturgy, it is used towards heavenly, immaterial ends.
oh interesting! i can totally see the point of comparison here - tbh the beetroot comes out really strong on me but it's def worth including here