Sister Hildegard Pearfat Parfum 2025

This is a church pew scent if I’ve ever met one. Fresh wood varnish and antique oak form the heart while the softer milk and incense meld to create a diffused, vanillic glow. The blood orange is the main character; orchard air one breath, wood oil the next. I don’t hate the cleaning product slant to it. There’s a handsome “historic property” feel to Hildegard, of dust and dankness but also comfort and care. Subtract the incense and I’d call it a natural history museum scent. Sadly, most of the Pearfats in the discovery bundle did not jive with my skin and took on a mildewy lean, but Hildegard stays faithful on both flesh and fabric. Burned through my tester in under a week. Longevity and sillage are on the gentle (~3h) end of the spectrum. Easily my favourite of the house, but by no means a blind buy. You have to want to smell like old church.

Mental Snapshot: You’re the first guest of the day in a small-town chapel. The floors are polished to glass, but the cases of bygone curios and relics remain sugared with dust – either too fragile or too holy to be given a brush. You slide into a confession booth and peel yourself a plump orange, stolen straight from the priest's gardens.

tl;dr: confessional citrus