Clue With The Candlestick EdP - Last call 3 ml

With the Candlestick by Clue Perfumery is a Unisex Smoky, fruity, spicy, Amber fragrance launched in 2022. The nose behind this fragrance is Laura Oberwetter.

Notes: Cherry Communion Wine, Cinnamon Leaf, Labdanum, Melted Wax, Burning Church Incense, Extinguished Candle, Hot Musk

While we've experienced our fair sure of church-themed scents- austere, cold incense, mossy cathedral stone, or waxed-wood pews- we're happy to report that With The Candlestick is something different and far more delightful altogether. Thousands of miles removed from the severity and sanctimony of European fragrance, Clue Perfumery has given us a church-themed scent of playful, gently transgressive mischief- a smoky, fruity, spicy amber unlike any church-themed scent we've ever encountered. With The Candlestick is the scent of stolen sips of sweet, fruity communion wine, melted wax on metal candlesticks, and the oddly compelling acrid smokiness of an extinguished wick- deeply evocative accords that come together for a warm, smoky-sweet fragrance it's impossible to stop sniffing. What a blessing!

REVIEWS

Fragrantica - Well, I have had the chance to experience With the Candlestick, and now I can confidently say that this house does no wrong. Between Morel Map, Warm Bulb, and With the Candlestick, Clue Perfumery had managed to do what so many niche brands try to accomplish; translating their fragrances description and inspiration precisely to what you experience when wearing them. I am blown away. This: "The Blood of Christ pours as wax spills down hot iron," could not be more accurate. The cherry note blends so beautifully with its other parts that it sets the whole scene. A snuffed-out candle with its lingering aroma of hot wax, communion during a Winters Sunday morning service, the metallic chill of a cathedrals marble floors, the smell of incense that will stay in your hair until your baptism, all served with a side of Catholic guilt. This is dark, bitchy, and relentlessly religious but in a way that I yearn to be draped in its holy elixir. With the Candlestick is so complex that not one domination could define its depth, as the smoke fades the journey continues deeper into a service that will last much longer than morning mass. My prayers have been answered for I found the church scent of my dreams; one that feels like it could be a nightmare yet with no desire to be freed from its dormancy. 100/10.

Fragrantica - I wear this whenever i feel contemplative and have a deep desire to smell divine. smelling this reminds me of attending church as a child. perfectly combines cherry w a deeply resinous smoky incense & an almost carnal background. my brother told me i smell like a snuffed out candle. i also once wore this to bed and when i was teetering between wakefulness and slumber i smelled it on my comforter and actually let out a sigh before falling back to sleep.  never thought a scent inspired by a child's impression of communion would move me the way this has...the grave becomes the cradle...

Fragrantica - Smokey incense, boozy cinnamon cherry liqueur, smooth labdanum, and this thick waxy musky backbone. This is one of the easiest incense forward scents, the sweet boozy cherry wine really sweetens it up to give a great contrast between sweet cherry wine and the cooling incense. Then it dries down it has thick and waxy musk, like a thick sweater hug, and old oak wood. First from the house and blown away, can't wait to try the other two. Fall/Winter night to my nose, will be wearing this out during these colder nights

Fragrantica - This perfume smells like my grandparents' church on christmas eve. with the candlestick invokes images of your best red sweater you break out of your closet once a year, church pews lined with evergreen wreaths, and the cinnamon-tinged scent of potpourri wafting off of the old grannies sitting in them. you know those little white candles churches give out for each person to light when it's time to sing silent night at the end of the service? this perfume smells like the tendrils of smoke from those freshly extinguished little candles curling into your nostrils mixed with melted christmas candy.

Fragrantica - Something i have noticed about all 3 Clue scents is that you can really smell the individual aroma chemicals and pick them out of the formula. With the Candlestick recalls Sunday mass, as the perfumer intended, with Labdanum being the most prominent note. The candle wax notes are more impressionistic, unlike warm bulb which really does smell photorealistically like its namesake. This doesn't smell musky or animalic like I thought it might based on the castoreum and musk. It's more churchy than anything. A warmer answer to Universal Flowering's Cool as Christ. To me, this is the most wearable scent from Clue's debut collection.

Fragrantica - A church candle that has just been snuffed out, black smoke still curling from the wick, a hint of incense and communion wine in the background.  The cherry here is present, but it isn't too punchy -- this feels miles away from other modern cherry scents. The note pyramid reads as quite heavy, but the whole scent is constructed with a light hand, leading to a sense of expansiveness: a large echoey cathedral, aside from a burst of intense smoke in the opening that fades like an actual nearby snuffed candle.  Evocative, atmospheric, unique, and well-balanced. I'm thoroughly impressed

Fragrantica - It was no surprise to me that of Clue's three debut scents, With the Candlestick was my favorite. As a professed fan of smoky fragrances, churchy olfactory aesthetics, and incense...The predominant players here are sticky-sweet cherry wine, frankincense, cinnamon, and an extinguished candle accord that into the drydown becomes so photorealistic it genuinely makes me jealous of Oberwetter's skill as a nose.