Principalities Cæleste 2024

Cæleste is a fairly new Romanian niche fragrance house which at the time of this writing consists of three fragrances - Guardian Angel, Archangels, and Principalities. Noticed something? All three fragrances are named after one category in the traditional hierarchy of angels in Christian theology. Principalities, Archangels, and Angels sit in the lowest sphere of the nine choirs or orders from the angelic hierarchy. Angels or "Guardian Angels" are usually assigned to individuals for protection and guidance, while Archangels are higher-ranking messengers with major missions. But Principalities are traditionally seen as angels who oversee nations, peoples, and institutions. Sort of celestial regional administration. How does this relate to the scent itself? Well, it's certainly the inspiration behind it, but I'm not here to dissect the house's ideology and history, am I?

The notes are categorized as it follows:

WIND: Hyssop, Black Tea, Rose Thorn, Violet, Ylang-Ylang
WATER: Mineral Notes, Petrichor
EARTH: Oud Assafi, Dry Leaves, Galbanum, Ginseng Root, Leather, Immortelle
FIRE: Ash, Elemi Resin, Chili Pepper Seeds, Saffron
ÆTHER: Star Dust, Cosmos Flower, Gunpowder, Burnt Almond Cookie, Incense, Hot Metal, Sandalwood

Jeez, feels like I'm invoking every bender from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Regardless, you can tell that there's plenty going on here, and while the usual marketing nonsense note like "Star Dust" is present, I have to say that as a whole, Principalities is quite a unique fragrance, having smelt nothing quite like it so far.

That doesn't immediately elevate it towards "Heaven-grade perfumery" status. It's just a more distinct blend, with chemistry still at the core. The first thing that strikes is not an angelical choir descending from the heavens - it's an almond cookie. Quite a delicious-smelling almond cookie, blending warm, sweet, toasted nuts, and even marzipan-like accords. All of this happens while synthetic metallic and smoky/ashy qualities slowly wrap this cookie, which is then balanced by mineral notes, mostly reminding of wet pavement (petrichor has a say in this too), with some... salt scattered on top?

Regardless, throughout most of the wearing, there's a constant greenness that hides beneath, mostly consisting of herbaceous, gently bitter galbanum, and rooty nuances, as well as gentle black tea touches keeping things warm and somewhat cozy. These pair well with the earthy facets that try to appear cold and damp, yet they get pushed towards warm and dry due to the rest of the composition. However, one of the most unique and important features of Principalities is the surprisingly realistic addition of the scent of chili pepper. That specific vegetal spiciness follows you throughout the whole experience. I'll admit I'm not very fond of it given it's also bell pepper adjacent, but it definitely adds lift. I manage to pick up some immortelle too with more hay-ish attributes, while in terms of leather/saffron, I get more of the latter, but little to no actual leather. Same for the oud.

Principalities did not push the limits when it came to performance. On my skin, longevity was pretty good, reaching about 9-10 hours. Projection was notably softer, but neither inconspicuous one hour in. It held moderate pushing power through the first two hours, with decent sillage, after which it would aim towards skin scent status, reaching it around the 4th-5th hour mark.

A scent marketed as "ethereal" would imply limited versatility, reserved only for once-in-a-lifetime occasions like The Rapture. But it's actually much more wearable than it may initially strike as. It's no everyday casual pick, nor for clubbing in areas heavily polluted with JPG and YSL. It's definitely a more special situation scent, but not taken to the extremes. It's perfectly suitable all year-round too, and it's completely unisex too.

And once you see the price tag of €215 for 30ml, you'll more than certainly use it with moderation. It's overall a pretty unique scent, and probably one of the better works of Toskovat' (the perfumer). It took me a good while to decide whether I like it or not, and I ended up respecting it more for what it is rather than worshipping it. It's worth trying if you get the chance, unlike Archangels and Guardian Angel which albeit qualitative, did nothing particularly special or as stand-out as Principalities. It's not "out of this world" good or unique; it's just good, more daring chemistry.

Overall Rating: 6.6/10

This smells like a spicy astro-cookie. Looking at the notes, I expected this to be more cold, metallic, ominous, and spacey, but to me, this metallic-dusty-gunpowder combined with the chili pepper and this almondy-gourmand type of accord gives me a rather warm-inviting smell. It is hard to describe it as anything really, 3 very opposite scent profiles that mix together to create this beautifully blended "Alien Gourmand." Spicy, metallic, sweet. It is definitely something new, unseen before in the world of perfumery and scent-wise in general; it isn't a fragrance, it is an aura that surrounds you. Really beautiful art piece.

I have had my eye on Caeleste for a while, the bottle design fascinated me and the notes promised a lot. The price per ml, however, was... Discouraging. Finally, a year since I first saw this brand, I mustered up the courage to purchase 1 ml to test Principalities, the most famous fragrance from the brand.

And now that I have and also as someone who tested about half of Toskovat' scents, I gotta say that David-Lev (the Toskovat' nose) has really outdone himself here.

In a nutshell, Caeleste Principalities is a spicy mineralic scent. And if I were to elaborate... I am a fan of cyberpunk as a genre, and this scent immediately prompted me to think of Shadowrun (the cyberpunk DnD-like game), specifically, of their cyber shamans - someone who manages to maintain spiritual connections despite living in a world entangled in cables and encased in metal. This is what Principalities smells like - a stark contrast of sharp spicy metal and meditative herbs (the tea note is very good here!). Also, the petrichor note is noticeable in the beginning (has anyone else noticed that it rains a lot in cyberpunk universes? :D)

Principalities is sitting with your legs crossed in a meditative pose holding a cup of ginseng tea; Your eyes are closed, and several long cables protrude from the back of your head, connecting you to the other side - the digital world.

This smells like no other perfume I have smelled.
Would I wear it everyday? Perhaps but only layered with something else. It smells like rain in the night, there is a sadness in this perfume that I find bittersweet. The gunpowder comes and it feels like you are alone walking in the dark on the cold concrete. It smells lonely but resilient to me. A masterpiece. Projection is insane

Never smelt something like this before. Didn't expect the notes to work out together, but surprisingly they do.
What stands out to my nose is a green, vegetal aspect, similar to rose stems & green pepper. Mixed with that I sense the mineral notes, the gunpowder note which smells to me like the smoke after lighting fireworks, with a slight burnt cookie smell.
This is extremely potent, 2 sprays are enough to last almost 2 days on skin and forever on clothes and hair.
A big surprise, I recommend trying it out if you have the chance!