Female Christ 19-69 2019

If you’re looking for a church fragrance, Female Christ is not it. Hell, it doesn’t even closely resemble a church. Who the fuck said this smelled like old bibles and church pews? This is incredibly heavy on the rhubarb and overpowers every other note that you could possibly detect. Even after drying down, all I can smell is rhubarb. This was such a letdown.

It’s aggressively sweet, vegetal, and insanely medicinal. It’s very synthetic-smelling, I’m not one to get headaches from perfumes but this was straight up nauseating.

If you came from Ethel Cain’s video looking for a melancholic church scent, this is not it. Go with Reliqvia by Filippo Sorcinelli for the embodiment of a church or LAVS if you want something a bit colder.

If someone told me they were going to use their NUTRiBULLET to blitz up a pack of Hubba Bubba, A jar of Vicks vaporub and the Bayeux Tapestry I’d have them locked up, Until I smelled what emerged. I adore this creation. It’s hard to pin down what I’m smelling, a perfume in its own category. Winter, spring, summer, fall, masculine, Feminine? many people have asked me what I’m wearing out of fascination more than simply complimenting it. The dry down is very similar to Nasomatto Pardon but with extra sweetness. I think it’s misunderstood and hated on by quick first impressions as it can be quite forthcoming. It’s both gothic and pop art at the same time. there’s a lot of polarising reviews on here which I think is a positive sign. subjectivity is what keeps the cogs turning. Well done Johan Bergelin.

Female Christ's opening is a huge, romantic sweep of damp, earthy patchouli, vanilla, and flowers that makes me think I know where this is going, except that instead of chocolate, the lingering impression is that of high-roast coffee, mixed with heavy cream and rhubarb compote. It is heavy, aromatic, and fruitily sour, with the eucalyptus note providing a sharp greenness that might be camphor but might also just be crushed spearmint leaves. The effect is so blown out with the musky grey-whiteness of cashmeran that you get flashes of the notes rather than a clear picture.

Very quickly though, things start to fall apart and as soon as you start to make out the individual components, the overall effect is immediately less charming. The fruitiness of the rhubarb and the vague creaminess of the white flowers conspire to create an insistent tuberose note that dominates the entire mid-section of the scent. Rubbery, florid, and overblown, this is where Female Christ smells more like Café Tuberosa (Atelier Cologne) mixed with Tyger Tyger (Bianchi) and Fracas (Piguet) and less like a cool Danish art experiment.

Yet, the traditionally feminine and sweet-plasticky-fruity-floral layers of this fragrance are stretched over a framework of an extremely dusty, hoary patchouli (think Vierges et Toreros) that smells like the small cupboard under our stairs at home where our coats, old toys, unused files, and assorted knick knacks went to die, so you have the conventionally pretty uneasily mixed with something old-mannish and dusty. The vanilla is very sweet and blooms all over the drydown, but that too clashes with the sourness and air of neglect created by the aromatics and patchouli. Female Christ is appropriately confrontational. It gives me the originality I crave but not the cohesiveness of design I need to wear it on the regular. It is a good mile marker, however, on this patchouli journey I am on. It shows me where my hard stops are.

Though rhubarb is a heart note, I really get most of it in the opening (first 5 min). It's got this kind of tangy, jammy, almost wine-like scent. When that takes off (pretty quickly), it has airy, earthy qualities, like petrichor but not quite. I imagine this is thanks to the eucalyptus and winter green. I didn't like the opening very much at all, but the dry down is quite nice. Doesn't read smoky on my skin like some scents advertised as incense usually do. It's more like the room after the incense has been burned and the windows are open.

I've seen people say it smells like a metaphysical shop, but it's less Earthbound Trading Co in the mall circa 2005, and more like a plant and crystal shop with big windows in a small woowoo town (read: Eureka Springs or Lilydale) owned by a 63 year old woman with great skin and beautiful long curly silver hair named Deirdre. It's more sunny and open than dark and deep. Fairy circle, not seance.

I would say this is appropriate for warm weather, because it's so earthy and airy to me. The spiciness definitely gives it a year-round quality though. I could see the winter green really coming in strong on a frosty day.

this is a warm, sweet amber and incense, a bit dirty and heavy from the patchouli. at the same time it has a hint of freshness in the opening from the aromatics and fruit. the cinnamon and the spice of pimento really come through here, making the whole combination interesting, multi-dimensional and slightly gourmandy.
it really makes a couple of unexpected turns as it develops.
in a sense, it reminds me of notre dame notte di natale, with this spicy-chocolate accord that lasts the longest.
since i already know and own that one, i don't think i would purchase female christ.
whether the name is fitting or not... it's definitely not the fragrance profile i imagined for a name like that, but it's undoubtedly interesting, so i wouldn't say it's inaccurate.
the longevity here is really nice as well, i must say.