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Cardinal Heeley 2006

8.0 / 10 556 Ratings

A popular perfume by Heeley for women and men, released in 2006. The scent is smoky-spicy. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Smoky

Spicy

Resinous

Woody

Fresh

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Linen

Pink pepper

Heart Notes

Frankincense

Labdanum

Base Notes

Vetiver

Ambergris

Patchouli

Perfumer

James Heeley

Ratings

Scent

8.0556 Ratings

Longevity

7.7435 Ratings

Sillage

7.0429 Ratings

Bottle

7.5373 Ratings

Value for money

7.1156 Ratings

Submitted by Andi136, last update on 09/20/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Series 3: Incense - Avignon

Full Incense

Velvet Incenso

Craft

Sancti

LAVS

Reviews

18 in-depth fragrance descriptions

01/04/2012

5
Bottle 5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 7
Scent

Flaconneur
49 Reviews

Flaconneur

Top Review 7

CARDINAL by Heeley

Cardinal, created by British designer James Heeley, is loaded with a churchy incense vibe and a touch of modern gothic. It conjures up visions of grey stone cathedrals, a bit of dank gloom that's swaddled in white linen. If you love that type of fragrance concept, you'll love Cardinal. It's warm powdery labdanum and light smokiness make it an interesting choice for the cooler months.

The opening of Cardinal is very bright and sharp. Baie rose is sprinkled with a spicy black pepper and aldehyde gives this spicy confection strange cleanness. Once the labdanum, ciste, frankincense and myrrh make an appearance, it’s a little like a fresh cut christmas tree decorated with ornaments coated in pepper, very spicy and very mystical. There is a smooth smoky incense that rises between a subtle herbal note. Cardinal is rounded out with a strong patchouli base, which combined with a veil of vetiver and sweet amber, prevents the patchouli from being too earthy.

Cardinal is most commonly compared to Comme des Garçons' Incense series Kyoto and Avignon. If you are a fan of either of these fragrances, you will enjoy Cardinal's smoothness. I will warn you, Cardinal does not seem to have the longevity of Avignon from Comme des Garçons. In fact, Cardinal is probably one of the weakest in this scent classification. It is a tamed version of Avignon with a little more sweetness. Cardinal has a mild sillage, it wears close to the skin and the longevity is average.

Cardinal is a great fragrance for those who don't like overpowering incense fragrances. It's easy on the nose and give just a hint of churchiness. Overall, Cardinal is a well behaved incense fragrance that leans a bit more towards modern in its interpretation of gothic.

02/28/2013

7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 7
Scent

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Helpful Review 7

Hope in the Post-Pope Period

It's official: the man formerly known as "The Pope" has left the Catholic Church flapping in the wind. There is no pope, as of today at 7pm GMT. In honor of this historic event, the first of its kind in six hundred years, I have decided to don Heeley CARDINAL.

How could the pope leave the Catholic Church with no leader? one might well ask. Does this not demonstrate that an acephalic structure is perfectly adequate to the needs of twenty-first-century people? Or even twentieth-century people. Or even nineteenth-century people? Remember the Protestant Reformation? The "man on the street" has access to the Almighty every bit as direct--or not--as the leaders of the church? Is this not an iron-clad proof of what anarchists have been trying to say all along? That's right, we now know with complete certainty that the sky will not fall without the pope. There is life after the pope. But if the Catholic Church can go a few hours or a few days or a few weeks without any pope whatsoever, does this not show that there really is hope in the post-pope period? I leave these questions for the reader to ponder.

Heeley CARDINAL is an incense perfume. Very churchy, very Catholic, very medieval smelling. I agree with my comrades (see below) that this perfume fits right in with the Comme des Garçons Incense series. Looking at the note hierarchy, one might expect more complexity, but everything here is blended together seamlessly. I really smell incense anchored in labdanum. Is there a "linen" note? To my nose, the linen is about as present as the pope. But there is hope in the post-pope period. It can be found in perfume. This CARDINAL can stand all alone.

Is the world now pope-less, or is it pope-free? I ask most sincerely.

02/06/2012

5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 7
Scent

Missk
1357 Reviews

Missk

Very helpful Review 5

A religious affair

Incense, especially the dark, atmospheric kind, has been a rather new interest for me. Since falling in love with Chanel Coromandel, I have been so eager to find other well-done incense based fragrances.

Cardinal by Heeley has been suggested a few times as being true church incense. I'm not a big church-goer, however I do love the smell of a chapel full of smokey incense and mustiness.

Cardinal opens rather strong and masculine, with a somewhat dirty earthiness coming to the fore. Pepper, patchouli and vetiver tend to stand out on my skin the most. The aldehydes provide a smoothness in texture and smell, which is both intriguing and a little strange.

I was a little disappointed that the incense didn't seem to feature so readily in the first hour or so. However the more the fragrance settled, the less green and earthy it was and the smokier it became.

I can understand how some see the sweetness here, however it's more of a dusty and resinous cedar chest smell to me, with that delightful incensey goodness.

This fragrance does however sit lightly on my skin, without making its strong presence known. I'm actually anosmic to this fragrance at times, which is woeful.

Cardinal tends to lean on the more masculine side of things, however a woman that enjoys wearing rich woodsy or primarily patchouli and vetiver based scents will enjoy this.

I can't say that this is my favourite incense fragrance, however it was extremely enjoyable, nonetheless.

06/10/2025

ClaireV
958 Reviews

ClaireV

Helpful Review 3

High Mass in a bottle

I have owned bottles, decants, and samples of the some of the biggest players in the High Mass corner of the incense genre, and my personal favorite is Cardinal (Heeley). Compared to Avignon (Comme des Garcons) and Full Incense (Montale) – the two other High Mass scents with which Cardinal is most often grouped – Cardinal smells like incense from the priest’s censer wafting at you through shafts of sunshine, fresh air, and white sheets fluttering on a brisk breeze.

Though it is very dry, it is not tremendously dark or smoky, and therefore, not forbidding. The aldehydes lift the spirits as well as the scent itself, and the papery-sweet benzoin makes me think of vellum sheet music soaked in vanilla, strung out over a line to dry. I appreciate the elegantly-slanted, sideways approach to church incense that Cardinal employs because it gives me the vague whiff of spirituality without dragging me back to Mass.

07/07/2016

7
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

Silverfire
134 Reviews

Silverfire

Helpful Review 3

A Longlasting Purity

Cardinal is best of what you expect - a clean incense intertwined with something else clean - lily-of-the-valley or perhaps linen. It echoes Passage D'Enfer by L'Artisan, but the latter is a deeper, more mysterious incense. Cardinal I enjoy quite a bit, but not enough to own both it and Passage. They both inhabit the same medieval mental space, however.

It is linear with slight variations - every once in a while it smells slightly dirty, slightly sweaty, or slightly cleaner. It befits the name, and it is expensive, but it's quality for what you get. It emits 6" to 1', and the duration is immense - 1.5 days.

If you're in the market for a clean incense scent and you can afford the entrance price, Cardinal is an excellent option.

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