Here's one of the things I won't be missing about late summer and early fall in Southern California: the smell of burnination in the air. I know that SoCal locals are totally blasé about the whole "world's on fire" thing, but for me, it totally freaks me out. When coworkers calmly chat over lunch about fire jumping freeways or encircling entire cities so no one can get in or out, I find that terrifying. Talking to a friend who grew up not far from here, she told me that southern Californians regard fire season with a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. They can't change it. They have to live with it, so they learn to embrace it. I, on the other hand, find the idea that your nasal passages can be seared by the dry air and smell of soot in the air, which hangs over the horizon like a yellow haze, difficult to normalize.
That said, I enjoy smokey scents in general, when they aren't actually reminiscent of a dangerous elemental thing trying to consume the world around me. In honor of beautiful smokey scents, the Brosius love continues! Fire From Heaven is described as follows: Smoke represents perhaps the most important aspect of perfume – its beginning. Even its modern name is derived from an antique term that means "to smoke through."
Fire From Heaven is blended from classic ancient incenses: Frankincense, Myrrh, Opopanax, Cedar, Sandalwood, Styrax & Labdanum. But the perfume's scent is subtle. Fire From Heaven is the memory of smoke...
Fire from Heaven has an acrid edge to it on initial application, kind of like green boughs burning in a newly built camp fire. It's medicinal and almost a little citrus-y. If it is possible for a scent to be gritty, this is a bit gritty too. It's rough, like flame paper. After a few minutes, though, the roughness backs off and it has a smell that reminds me more of raw green peat incense burning, like the smell I'd imagine one would find in an Amer-Indian desert ritual. It doesn't smell like smoke from a pipe or smoke from a chimney or even smoke from a bonfire; its smells rarer than that, spiritual. A kind of holy fire. Twenty minutes in it get a little sweeter, but never loses that strange acrid edge.
Fire From Heaven is a very unique scent and would work very well on a man or woman. It feels like it it would require unique circumstances. As unique as it is, I can't imagine a circumstance I'd have to commonly wear it. It feels right for being outdoors -- camping overnight and starring at the stars, spending the night on the coast in a yurt next to the immeasurable sea, going to a pagan ritual in the desert, or even, maybe to Midnight Mass for Christmas. It just smells too special, too rare, for every day wear. It seems like the right scent for contemplating the divine, the greater purpose, the grand design, in any form, whether that be in the good works of others or math or physics or astronomy or art or music or philosophy...or something even more ephemeral. Fire from Heaven may not be something you'd wear with frequency, but I think it's uniqueness is like great art; even if you wouldn't hang it in your living room, it is certainly worth experiencing.
You can buy Fire from Heaven for $85 in either 15ml perfume absolute or 100ml water perfume direct from the perfumer. You can also get samples from the CB website or from The Perfumed Court.
"...When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.
Then sings my soul,
My savior, god, to thee,
'How great thou art!
How great thou art.' "
- "How Great Thou Art," traditional hymn
Want more reviews? Try…
~ A review from I Smell, Therefore I Am
~ A brief review from Perfume Posse
Images from CB I Hate Perfume, The Courier Post, and Flickr.
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