Unum

LAVS Filippo Sorcinelli 2013

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8.1 / 10 277 Ratings

A popular perfume by Filippo Sorcinelli for women and men, released in 2013. The scent is smoky-resinous. It is being marketed by Alter Duo.

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Main accords

Smoky

Resinous

Spicy

Woody

Earthy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Black pepper

Cardamom

Jasmine

Heart Notes

Elemi resin

Labdanum

Clove

Coriander

Base Notes

Opoponax

Amber

Oakmoss

Tonka bean

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

8.1277 Ratings

Longevity

7.9243 Ratings

Sillage

7.3246 Ratings

Bottle

8.0225 Ratings

Value for money

6.782 Ratings

Submitted by Mefunx, last update on 11/23/2024.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the "Unum" collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Cardinal

Series 3: Incense - Avignon

Eau Sacrée

Armani Privé - Bois d'Encens

Full Incense

Santal Nabataea

Reviews

10 in-depth fragrance descriptions

04/02/2015

ColinM
516 Reviews

ColinM

Top Review 10

Holy Grail!

LAVS by Unum is the first scent in (chrono)logical order from this line, meant to represent the “roots” of Unum – which are grounded in L.A.V.S. atelier (“Laboratorio Atelier Vesti Sacre”), a successful Italian tailoring workshop that produces vestments and regalia – even for the last two popes (Benedetto and Francesco). This is actually the aspect of Unum that completely got me; despite being myself agnostic, I can’t help but being terribly fascinated by this. In a market segment ruled by copywriters hired to browse Wikipedia to make up stories and heritages for made-up brands, the idea of a line of scent with such solid, consistent and actual real roots in the field they’re inspired by, is mind-blowing for me. Anyway: LAVS was basically produced as a room fragrance the atelier’s staff used to apply gently on the garments before delivering them to clients and sell as a room scent. Once they realised clients liked to wear it too, Sorcinelli and his team thought about starting a line of fragrances. LAVS is that early non-scent just reworked in a “wearable” form. And just to get straight to the point, it’s an incense scent. A majestic one, a “liturgical” one with a subtle exotic vibe, and despite I am not the most enthusiastic fan of this family of scents, one of the greatest around by far for me. What makes it great, besides an undisputable high quality, is that it finally shows some complexity and some classy, clever work with notes; whereas most of other incense scents just rely on a repetitive and overworked couple of molecules (which smell fantastic, like Givaudan’s Mystikal, or just bare play with Iso E), LAVS is built around a more complex evocation of a liturgical ambiance – the garments, the incense, the rituals, the history, the dust, the cold feel of metal and gold, the intimate relation one establishes with all of this. With some facets evoking more distant references, from coriander to spices, that provide a subtle but palpable sort of pagan, exotic feel. The main accord is incense though, which smells dark, grey-ish, with a slight ash aftertaste but also breezy metallic nuances, not overly synthetic; and it’s beautifully and perfectly melted into a really airy and uplifting blend which definitely plays the balsamic-herbal-spicy card – I personally get sharp cloves, pepper, coriander and aromatic woods above all. As hours pass it becomes warmer and quieter, still carrying a powerful, and almost intimidating “ritual” feel; a round, mellow and resinous ladbanum-amber note with a hint of dark fruitiness emerges, defining the frame of LAVS and tightly connecting it to the other two scents of this line which contain a similar accord – like a secret sign of masonic brotherhood. So despite being at first clearly a monolithic incense scent, and to this extent being similar to others, it has definitely so much more. If you compare this to other “liturgical” references like Comme des Garçons’ Avignon or Jovoy’s La Liturgie des Heures, you can easily get what I mean. Mostly because as I said, most of other incense scents stop at a more shallow level of “incense-ness”, just recreating and reiterating that same accord which simulates a cliché of incense. Maybe because LAVS is an extrait de parfum and therefore is also deeper and richer in nuances than Eau de Parfums, or maybe because Sorcinelli and his team know what they’re talking about when they talk “spirituality” ... but LAVS goes just deeper and further than any other, with a passionate, balanced craft work around the nuances of incense. Spices, amber, musk, aromatic woods, flowers, they all discreetly enhance them and they all help to define and deepen incense, like participants in a ritual. Not a thick scent, though, and above all, not “heavy” as you may expect: it’s deep and enveloping, but as regards of its substance, it’s incredibly balanced, really “spacious”. Totally pleasant to wear, even effortless. And well, all that aside since we’re talking about a perfume... the fragrance itself smells great, sophisticated, with a cozy and spiritual mood and a quiet feel of “sacred” austerity. If you’ve a penchant for “meditative” fragrances with a refined look, this may easily sit among your holy grails. Total quality.

8,5/10

06/25/2015

Tinctureall
94 Reviews

Tinctureall

3

Cold yet warm, yet cold.

Initially this took me aback at first sniff. My nose wasn't sure what to make of this. It peceived this as an astringent pine, minty clean just scoured ceramic surface with a cold facet of myrrh. It evoked a vague scent memory of a familiar bathroom cleaner but just for a nanosecond before warming up and heading for a woodier zone and the pine/mint feel translating to fresh air. The cold myrrh facet remains like cold night air in a pine forest with incense and a fire burning in the distance. It must be aromatic herbs, cloves and rosewood creating this pine feeling because it isn't listed in the notes. It gets warmer and dustier which now translates as a picture of an old church library, parchment books, clean incense and cloves. The sweetness present is almost as dry as a bone and never cloying. This is so seamless that my nose must be playing tricks on me looking at the listed notes. I'm getting nothing like I would imagine those notes to smell like together. I tend to smell with a clean mind and not look too hard at the notes beforehand. This warms up to a spicy dry incense library fireside, almost warming imperceptibly, but someone never quite shuts the door on the cold draft of air running through it. A most intriguing and rather curious fragrance of appeal to incense lovers.

10/18/2023

8
Pricing 9
Bottle 7
Sillage 9
Longevity 8
Scent

AlexD76
9 Reviews

AlexD76

3

A great classic church incense

LAVS (Laus) stands for Laboratorio Atelier Vesti Sacri and is the Latin word for "praise" (as in, Praise God/Laus Deo). Sorcinelli has made vestments for Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, and before delivery, these vestments were scented with what is now the perfume LAVS (it started 'life' as a room fragrance).
Lavs is a great spicy, churchy scent, darker and serious, with a burst of ashy smoke reminiscent of both incense and extinguished candles.
If you like incense-based fragrances, definitely add this to your list and give it a try. Just keep in mind that you're going to smell like the Pope.

07/20/2024

Thewrongbeth
43 Reviews

Thewrongbeth

1

Silence of the Lambs

This scent makes me physically uncomfortable. The scene it sets is unpleasant, at best. I feel like I am chin deep in cold, murky water at the bottom of a well, waiting to die alone. This is what Buffalo Bill's basement smelled like in Silence of the Lambs.

Any scent that can evoke such repulsion is an A+ in my book!

(copied from my basenotes profile Cardozo's_Ghost; review date 8/2018)

09/01/2020

6
Sillage 6
Longevity 8.5
Scent

FvSpee
249 Reviews

Translated Show original

FvSpee

Top Review 46

Tamed incense, bvlgarian lävse

Before I dedicate myself to the Dvftgeschehen, I allow myself first of all, in all Avsführlichkeit to the tiresome (or even lavsigen) topic of the lavs spelling already raised by my estimated Vorkommentatorin zvzvzvwenden. I can do this, because I have anyway the Rvf of a Schlavmeier, Klvgscheißer or Dvmmschwätzers away and therefore nothing zv lose
The Romans had, sparing as they were, a Bvchstaben for the lavte U and V nvr. He saw avs like a V. I think that was connected with the fact that when you carved text in stone, it was more difficult to make the corners than the acute angles. Avch if we don't have tonavecordings, there is no doubt in my mind that the Romans actually pronounced the U avch as U avch.

If she had said zv of my hometown Mainz on the Rhine (MOGVNTIACVM APVD RHENVM) while loosely plavarding with the Tevtonen in the Spelvnke "Mogfntiakfm apfd Rhenfm", they would have been quite a laughingstock or would have been sent directly to the speech therapist.

On a completely different page it is written whether the Romans did not pronounce the Vau-V, as for example in VICTOR (winner), AVE (hello) or VOX (voice) the other way round like the English Dabbeljvh (double U and not a double V!), i.e. with the shvt pushed forward and pointed: "Uuuwox". But the tvt nothing zvr thing.

It can be noted that the V in a word like LAVS (praise), from which such beautiful words as LAVDES (morning prayer in praise of God), Applavs (clapping of praise) and plavsibel (praise deserving) are derived, is a U and has been one since the times of Romvlvs and Remvs. And since we have been writing the letters on paper and not on stone, it has been designed graphically.

Therefore, if someone calls his Dvft Unum-LAVS (VNVM-LAVS would be more appropriate), or, which avf the same, his company BVLGARI, it is just a graphic gimmick with the Bvch letter form, so that the text on the bottle reminds of inscriptions avf the Forvm Avgvstvm carved in stone.

That's why I'm concerned about the nerus when this kind of fragrance is written with a V outside the internet pages of the TV companies (of course they should be allowed to keep their marketing gag). In the Parfvmo database, for example, this leads to dazv that you won't find this dvft if you type "Laus"
But the Zevg is nvn times "Laus" and finished, and Mr. Bvlgari, who founded that company, did not get the surname avch because his ancestors came from Bvlgaria, but because they came from Bulgaria. Therefore with this V should now be avch mal Schlvss.

* *

Unum Laus, "One - Praise", is an incense scent, the Mavs, uh, mouse, doesn't bite off a thread. It therefore legitimately smells of incense, and indeed of rather pale, but nevertheless substantial church incense. It is also not contradictory that there is no incense in the pyramid of scents, because Elemi and Opoponax are resins that are similar to incense or are components of it.

I actually like incense scents very much, but a perceptive perfumer once noticed that one often prefers to smell such scents rather than wear them. This is also true for me. I rated Kyoto here with 9 and Avignon with 10, then bought the pills for a lot of gravel and hardly ever wear them. Too bad. But okay, the bottles look great. So general tip for the approach to incense scents: Start with bottlings.

So the trick here is that the makers of Unum - Laus do everything right in the sense of a high jazzy of practical wearability. Firstly, the scent is rather light and loosely woven, it diminishes in intensity after only one hour and thus you won't be able to get the unusual, already very special incense to start trampling on your eggs (literary quotation Andrea Camilleri, therefore not obscene).

Secondly, and more importantly, the incense here is framed and buffered in an exemplary manner by traditional, unoffensive complexes of notes known from many other (primarily men's) fragrances, which signal to the nose "everything is fine, I'm a perfectly normal nice perfume and not a quirky experiment".

I would like to call these accompanying complexes (1) clovey-wachotry-spicy-woody and (2) mentholy-fresh-fougèrig-moussy (and beyond that generally vegetable-green-lively). As (3.) companion of the incense is hardly visible behind the scenes, there is also a sweetish-warm, caramel-like note.

Since these accompanying complexes take the top off the incense, which undoubtedly continues to be at the centre of attention, without trivialising it and yet harmonising well with it, Unum - Laus becomes a really good and, as I believe, broadly suitable fragrance, which does indeed have sacral echoes, but which can also be worn well in the club without being mistaken for an errant altar boy.

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