Cleric

[Coldfire]

Imp: resinous incense and flowers
Wet on me: still that lovely resin, incense and whisps of floral
Drying Down: aaahh yes the balsam comes out to play with the others. interesting
Dry: darnit. got a rose *sadface* this is not a bad scent but rose just gets so ugly with me and takes over err'ything!

[Lisa Ing]

Looking over a smoke-darkened and aging painting of a martyred saint in a dark church for the thousandth time, counting the minutes until freedom and fresh air.

 

A heavy and oppressive cloud of frankincense, funeral flowers and the smoke of votive candles.

[spikyfairy]

I originally got this as a frimp, and wondered why I'd never ordered it myself as it is right up my alley. I'm guessing the amber would have put me off, as I generally don't like it. But Cleric is now one of my favourites, and one of the only 2 GC bottles that I own. It's rich & deep & heady, and, as others have said, very goth!

In bottle: Not much really, balsam & maybe a little frankincense & mhyrr.
Wet: A rather sharp woody-frankincense at first, then the narcissus comes screeching in. The intense bit doesn't last too long though, and the resulting combination is glorious, to my tastes. Then the rose comes out and they all settle down together. Lovely.
Dry: Frankincense often dries down to something very sweet on me, but the other notes are tempering it somewhat here - the balsam & woods adding some texture & bite. Gets a bit more floral towards the end, and eventually fades down to just a hint of sweet resins & powdery amber.
I find this very potent when first applied, but the throw rapidly diminishes thereafter. Wear length is low to average for me, but seems to improve with age.

I have noticed quite pronounced changes in ageing this one: I love it when fresh, but after about 6 months the amber becomes much more dominant & I almost can't wear it. If I put it away for another 6 months though, I like it again. Might need to get another bottle to cellar.

Edit: Used up one bottle & got another.. This is the second time batch variation has thwarted me. This one is much more heavily resinous / head-shop incense, with almost no narcissus - I still like it, but nowhere near as much. And as it dries it turns to just sour / green rose & sharp frankincense: how Rose Cross smelled on me, when I was expecting to love it. Very disappointed.

Edited October 10, 2017 by spikyfairy

[Lucchesa]

I have no problem with rose, but apparently I have a problem with champaca. This was frankly more strongly floral than I expected a cleric to smell; I wanted to get more of the incense. I didn't love this the first time I tried it, and I got it out again today when Paramatman was going weird on me to see if it was the champaca I was objecting to. Yep. Champaca takes over on my skin, and it smells like cheap soap that's trying to imitate expensive soap. Cleric is a more complicated blend than Paramatman and there are a number of other notes that kept the champaca from being quite so annoyingly dominant, but it still ruins the scent for me. I will keep my imp, as I keep nearly all my RPGs, in case my goth younger son should ever want them, but I will never reach for this one.

[theredkilt]

Cleric to me is a smoother version of Penitence with the addition of rose amber. It's not rough around the edges, yet still holds the ecclesiastical vibe.

[Pixie-elf]

I expected resins.

 

I got soap at first. Then florals start to bloom. I'm not exactly sure what I expected a cleric to smell like, but it wasn't this lovely scent.

 

It reminds me of something my Granny would wear, and I don't mean that in a "This smells old" way. I mean it smells lovely and floral with a hint of incense. I think she'd have enjoyed it...

[milo]

Hard to describe, but this one is has incense, and something florally. It is pretty sour, so not really my thing. Interesting to try, though.

[dementia_divine]

In the imp: In the imp, I'm mostly getting the resins (rose amber, frankincense, and myrrh).

 

Wet: This is incense-y and herb-y on me. The rose amber and frankincense are the most prominent notes on my skin, but after a few minutes, they calm down a little. It's soft resins intertwined with some flowers, with the rose part of the amber and the narcissus being the most prominent of the flora notes.

 

Dry: It stays like that for a while, but after a few hours of wear, the sweet narcissus, golden amber, and frankincense are the stars of the show.

 

Verdict: I'm not generally a fan of floral and resin combos, but this was a lot nicer than I was expecting. I don't think I'd wear this one on its own, but I'll probably hold onto the imp for a bit longer to try layering it with some other RPG scents.

[h_yeti]

I've always been a bit afraid of incense scents but Cleric is so soft and pretty, slightly sweet and I really like it! I mainly smell the rose amber, frankincense and myrrh. It's a very calming scent to me and I like to wear it on rainy days. I consider this an intro- incense scent, would definitely recommend if you're nervous about incense like I was.