Lavs

Avignon by Comme des Garçons, almost 1:1 identical churchy scent. But more cardamom and black pepper.

It gives me a sense of comfort and sacredness. Though maybe it lacks a little depth for me but I really like it, though. 9 out of 10.

Reliqvia and Lavs are both so so similar it’s honestly sad. On top of being near identical they both have this extremely austere cracked black pepper accord that overpowers the rest of the notes and is incredibly headache inducing. I’m not getting any church or priestly vibes from it. To me this actually smells quite astringent, cold, and sharp. If you want to smell like church incense I would recommend Beltane from maison des animaux or With The Candlestick by Clue or even Encens Suave by Matiere Premiere

This is the fragrance that made me realize- oh. I definitely need to practice caution and read these reviews before I go applying it onto my own body. From the decanted sample vial it seemed like it would have a sharp opening, smelled medicinal deep into the crevices of my brain. I put it away for a day or two and returned desperately looking for a different experience after a poor time with a different fragrance I smelled earlier that got too powdery. "No powder accords listed, this will be perfect", I thought, foolishly. I applied some to the inside of my elbow. Well, it wasn't powdery for sure, just smelled like a strangely generic "clean". On my partner it smelled "like straight plastic" and then "a generic french soap". Got a vague spiciness 15 minutes or so later, which confusing but still fine as I was just relieved there wasn't anything powdery, but around here it started giving my partner a headache (just behind the forehead). Something spicy, something medicinal... Vicks? No, definitely not that. Perhaps a white person's interpretation of Tiger Balm. Not comforting, not soothing, not at ALL healing-- just the first warning signs of what was to come. When the smoke arrived, I looked over at my perfume notes and realized it was included in the "beginner fragrance" sample pack under "Incense". Now, I've used and enjoyed many an Incense in my life, but none smell like this, and this wasn't necessarily enjoyable to me, but I can respect that it's enjoyed by others. As it deepened though-- as did the nagging feeling of a warning-- I bothered to look at the Fragrantica reviews, and "church" can make sense. I've visited a few churches in the past and they smelled different, I have never quite smelled this, but THIS definitely invoked some of the horrifying experiences some of my friends have had in deeply traumatizing religious childhoods... and wait. Is that wood burning? There is definitely some wood burning. But not in a cozy campfire way, no. This is a house burning down. No, there's something metallic and bloody too, a haunting scream, and oh no, are they burning a PERSON? They are burning a person! I need to get away. I need to get away. It's following me! Why can't I wash this off? It's insidious, no, it's evil, pure evil, it's clawed its way into my throat and I-- [If you read this far, I eventually got it to fade drastically by doing several rounds of: "oil washing" + wiping off, wiping down with miscellar water, then scrubbing with soap and water, then wiping with an alcohol wipe. It's faded to a barely-perceptible level and I'm going to bed. I hope I don't have nightmares.] (2 Aug, '26)

Smelling the blood of the altar (15 fragrances, one confession) There’s no soft way to say this: Filippo Sorcinelli doesn’t make perfumes. He makes olfactory liturgy with incense, resins, animalic notes, and a concept so solid it hurts. I tested all 15 fragrances from his catalog, and I didn’t come out the same. Something moved. Something broke. Filippo Sorcinelli was born in 1975 in Mondolfo, Italy. By the age of 13, he was already playing the organ in cathedrals. Later, he founded an atelier for sacred vestments and became the tailor for popes: Benedict XVI, Francis, and now Leo XIV. A practicing Catholic. Openly gay. A man who dresses the Vicar of Christ and formalized his relationship with another man under the law. He is not a character. He is a walking paradox. His fragrances are not “church smell” in a touristy sense. They are damp crypts, burned incense, old wax, rotting wood, wilted flowers, dense resins, a trace of skin, a trace of sweat, a trace of something that shouldn’t be there but is. They don’t seduce. They put you in front of a mirror and force you to smell the contradiction: crypt and body, sacred and profane, ritual and desire. There is a fragrance that smells like an old church after Mass: residual incense, extinguished wax, cold stone. Another that smells like a convent garden at dawn: white flowers, wet earth, a shadowy herbal base. Another that smells like skin and desire: animalic notes, leather, sweat, a sexual edge that unsettles anyone seeking comfort. Another that smells of something fecal—not cheap scatology, but a reminder that the body exists, that flesh is not an accident. These are not perfumes to wear. They are sensory portals to territories few dare to name. He himself says that perfume is “the art of smell,” a language that needs no figurative references, but in his case is intimately tied to memory, spirituality, and matter. Every name and every bottle functions like chapters in a story where the sacred and the profane contaminate each other. Fragrances like *Ennui-Noir* are presented as an “ode to boredom” understood as fertile fullness, a space where “the impossible becomes possible” and where the perfume forces you to look at yourself without filters. Others are inspired by Gothic architecture, relics of the Passion, or even passages from the Gospel of Mark, translated into olfactory experience. It’s no coincidence that someone who designs vestments for Mass also explores the animal, the sexual, and the fetish. His Catholicism is not cardboard; it is a faith that assumes the paradox of a desiring body within a doctrine that has historically policed it. What is he trying to tell us? Does he know something we don’t? Does he throw the stone and hide his hand? He asks us to understand his madness or, at least, not to judge it. I say he deserves more: to be looked at straight in the face, without any halo of divinity. If he walks, creates, smells, and bleeds, he is mortal. And precisely for that reason, he is fucking original and free. How much is fiction and how much is reality in Filippo Sorcinelli? Impostor or Renaissance man? Antichrist or Christ? I don’t know. But his 15 fragrances forced me to stop, smell, and think. And that, in 2025, is already a miracle. Sorcinelli deserves credit not for being “good” or “bad,” but for opening a path in contemporary perfumery where incense and flesh, crypt and desire, sound—and smell—like something very few dare to name. His perfumes are not easy. Some unsettle you, others hypnotize you, several force you to think. If you seek comfort, go elsewhere. If you want a perfume that pulls you out of your comfort zone and forces you to smell contradiction, stay here. Don’t close this review with a “like / dislike.” Close it with a question: what part of you moved when you smelled Sorcinelli? What part resisted? What part recognized that the altar and the bed, the censer and the body, the divine and the carnal, are not opposites, but two sides of the same coin?

i just love the catholic church

Austere, cold, linear. A very photorealistic church incense, but lacking the warmth and depth I had hoped. I don't smell much that's in the note tree. Kind of like CdG Avignon, but with less body. An impressive creation, but not particularly exciting for wear.

cold incense, ozonic, detached, quite fresh, with greens, it's like a clean concrete church abandoned in a grove, but still being kept and taken care of, where the vines are slightly growing around and starting to cling onto the walls the incense profile reminds me of Avignon by CDG, that classic incense profile you find in Cardinal by Heeley, Encens Roi by Histoires de Parfums, and more, quite realistic, but this one is fresher, with more greens on top, not Kyoto levels of fresh though, something in between, which I really appreciate. also lasts longer than Avignon and Kyoto which is huge for me, I was looking for something like the CDG Incense lineup that actually lasted, it's also slightly more complex and evolves more

How’s the rosewood in this ?

This is the 6th fragrance I have tried from this maker today. I am sampling 7. So, you know Carrie from that Stephen King novel, when she burned the entire school gymnasium. This is what she would have smelled like. Doused in petrol and a slightly sweaty. And you of course you know it was her prom night so a bit of lipstick smell in there too and some aqua net hairspray.

Priestly. I feel ashamed to have it on my skin. It is beautiful.

Updating my review: I bought a sample of this last year and fell head over heels in love with it and immediately bought a full bottle. After wearing it for a winter I feel like it's really not for me. It is a cold, almost sterile incense, not a warm, rich, sweet incense. It is very masculine on the dry down, which I don't particularly dislike, but after it has been worn for a few hours it takes on this generic "cologne" scent that I'm not super into, amd find a little boring. I gave it to my husband, so it won't go to waste, as it smells terrific on him, but I guess it just sadly doesn't do it for me anymore. I'm more a fan of Encens Suave, and after I smelled that, Lavs was inadequate!

It smells exactly like CDG Kyoto but smoother

An ethereal church incense, that quickly grew on me. I have numerous church incense fragrances, as incense is my favourite genre in perfumes, but LAVS has its own place, I won't compare with any. It opens peppery, along with the frankincense & soon brings out many facets. I particularly like the touch of cardamom & the palisander rosewood. As very rightly put by a friend, it's 'compact'. It's the very first creation of Sorcinelli & I find it divine. IG : @scentclouds YouTube : @scentclouds

I like this when it dries down and the natural incense comes out more, but it has a screechy musk accord that feels unrefined

Smells like a priest in a dentists office.

Purchased a sample because I was looking for a good church/incense smell. Sadly this smells mostly like an old man in a very wood-ish kind of way. Also incredibly strong (which could be a pro if you like the scent).

It opens cold and smoky, more like cold wet stones than metallic, almost ozonic, static. It warms with wear, lightly amber. It’s easy to picture an old stone church with wooden pews, it’s cold and raining outside. The notes listed above are almost irrelevant, this is predominantly incense. But is this the definitive incense fragrance? Not ready to hand over the crown yet, but it does have more atmospheric depth and longevity than many another wispy incense fragrances (I am looking at you Avignon in particular). Performance isn’t as intense as earlier reports suggest, possible variation or dilution? It does last longer than some other incense perfumes at least.

Approaching ideal incense territory. It’s a bit too “thin” and green, and not annimalic enough though. Performance also a bit lackluster. 3 hours and it’s basically gone on my skin

I bought into the hype and got a sample of this expecting to be wowed. Such a huge disappointment. There's something cold, sterile, and lifeless about this that rubs me the wrong way. A previous comment described it as a hospital located inside a church...sounds pretty accurate. There's a weird plasticky odor that ruins it for me.

this smells like concentrated "old man in his sunday best" that got doused in black pepper. spicy & mature, this evokes smell memories of "bored in a pew" & "polite hugs at funerals for family you barely know" I'll be sure to wear this when I'm missing my grandpa. otherwise, this smell is not for me

Reminds me of a hospital which is located inside of an old church.. a no from me :(

smells soapy. cleaning product over a dusty wooden table

First smell and I'm instantly teleported to some old, ancient, dim lit church, full of incense smoke, with schema monks in the background singing some ancient hymns in deep bass voice. Its a strong, dark scent, couple of sprays and it projected like crazy, some reviewers have listed some other notes, but those are so minor compared to the main stuff, and that is incense. I haven't smelled much of the other incense frags, except for Montale Full Incense, and I think this is the king of incense, can't think of any other frag that can top this one. Very spiritual and dark gothic scent, easily one of my favourites

This one takes you right back to mass and liturgical incense in a hyper real way. The closest and most spot on I've experienced. It also avoids becoming grating after hours, which is better than a lot of incense frags, an accomplishment. And it lasts. Projects descents for hours as well. Solid and definitive church incense frag here.

A specific moment from church comes to mind- kissing an icon painted on wood and feeling the cold protective glass on your lips. Chilly early mornings, incense, and spiciness. I definitely sense an aura of cardamom, pepper, and cloves around the core of elemi and labdanum that gives it a really strong leathery accord. Crisp with depth, elegant, calm, yet sharp. There’s something about it that feels cold and distant, though- an unsettling impression I wouldn’t want to associate with religion.

The king of incense fragrances. A cold, sharp, metallic fragrance with a bit of citrus in the opening as well. I am so so happy I have it in my collection next to its sibling Reliqvia. This is one of those fragrances that, to me, go well with everything. I only dress in black, so it just fits the aesthetic perfectly. But it is definitely not a crowd pleaser, but it is still very elegant. I did get one comment that it smells very sharp when I walked past someone. This also gets an idea about projection. Filippo Sorcinelli creates perfumes that mean something to him, it is his story and his memories put into a bottle. I find it to be a perfect cold incense fragrance that a pope could wear. It is spiritual, yet not as photorealistic as Reliqvia is.

I bought this for my husband YEARS ago... there's less than 1/2 left so I guess I used to like it but I asked him to stop wearing it because it started smelling putrid to me (on him). I read the reviews below and I 100% can now see and agree with some of them that say it's super dark and gothic. Not EMO goth, but vampiric goth... cloak and dagger... almost a scary scent if you can imagine that? If you wear this, you are confident, strong and do not care what anyone says. I do not get unisex on this but I can see the right kind of lady who can pull this off for sure! The more I sit here and smell it while writing, the more I like it... just not ON my husband or on skin of anyone I know. Very intense incense... in a way I might want in a lighter version for a candle or linen/room spray if I had a castle to live in!

ძალიან კოლორიტულ სახეს ქმნის ეს სუნამო ბიზნესმენისა, რომელმაც რუმინეთში ქალების ტრეფიკინგით იშოვა მილიონები და ამ ფულით ახლა თავის სოფელში ეკლესიას აშენებს.

Medicinal, but not in the sterile way, more akin to sitting next to your 94-year-old grandma in a vegetative state in a hospital bed. And I’m trying to hold onto the memory of her taking me to mass forever. The resin note is heavy and it gets sweeter in the dry down. I think I love it, I’m not sure.