Hey Posse Peps! Yes, another from Surrender To Chance. When you start going through doing Decant Demolition 2025 it’s amazing what you’ll find. I must have bought With the Candlestick because of the name. This is what I found on the brand, “Established in 2022 by childhood friends — perfumer Laura Oberwetter, and designer Caleb Vanden Boom —Clue is an independent perfumery finding delight in unexpected sources… With a close group of friends and collaborators, Clue develops everything in-house. Every product produced has been designed, composed, formulated, bottled, assembled, and shipped by hand from Clue’s studio and lab in Chicago.”
With the Candlestick by Clue Perfumery 2022
Clue Perfumery gives these featured accords:
Top: Cherry Communion Wine, Cinnamon Leaf
Heart: Labdanum, Melted Wax, Burning Church Incense
Base: Extinguished Candle, Hot Musk
With the Candlestick is meant to conjure “The Blood of Christ pours as wax spills down hot iron.” So describing the wine and eucharist experience at Catholic Church. This is something I’m completely au fait with, albeit decades ago. Let’s see if it lives up to expectations.
The opening is all bitter cherry wine and quickly warms through with weird green spicy waxiness, bed head and smoke. If you are into the strangeness of fragrance where scent stops being about beauty and starts feeling like art then With the Candlestick could be right up your alley. It’s not exactly what I was expecting but then this is not Demeter. They really nailed that acrid smoke and hot wax of extinguishing a candle. It’s so real.
While I really love what the Clue Perfume crew have done here it’s probably not something I want to smell like regularly. This is more for when perfume peeps come around and we bring out the crazy weird shit and all enjoy it on card. Maybe some brave person gives up some skin real estate and we all spend the next hour or so luxuriously sniffing them.
Just as an aside: Clue Perfumery does US$140/30ml. A little expensive but not stratospheric. Their Sample Set is US$35 and you get a $35 voucher for full bottle purchases. Currently Sold Out but a bloody good deal.
Do you like the sound of Clue and/or With the Candlestick?
Portia xx
Oh no, I don’t think I’d like that. Recently I’ve had too much of the conceptual perfumes smelling like blood, metal, credit cards, snow…there’s a hype for that sort of perfumes here in my perfume community. I’ve reached the point of saturation and now I’m longing for soft flowers, fruits, woods and leathers 🙂
I doubt that I would like this at all, plus the cherry top note that I can’t smell makes it a no. You did get me very curious so I checked out Clue further. Their perfumes seem weird like The Point, described as “A cup of jasmine tea, brewed with ocean water.” I can’t imagine that smelling good. They have some high ratings though and good reviews. It seems to be divided between those that say it’s true art but not wearable and others who love to wear it.