Cardinal (2006)
by Heeley

Heeley Cardinal has a pretentious name and a wonderful smell. It's light, bright incense of a very Roman Catholic variety; and contrasts with CdeG Avignon, which is darker and more gothic. It is also clean with just a touch of a soapy note in the development which I find works very well. I don't know if the current rage with incense fragrances will continue, but I hope this stands the test of time. I wonder, was there ever a Cardinal Heeley?

Cardinal is Catholic Church incense all the way… Until I tested Cardinal, I thought that Passage d’Enfer was the best representative of the old Roman Catholic Church, and Passage d’Enfer STILL is the best representative IF one is looking at the total ambiance of the church service: The lilies are the clincher for Passage d’Enfer keeping the Catholic title. But if we consider just the incense, Cardinal wins hands down. Cardinal is Avignon light, and it opens strongly with full-on incense that has that unmistakable resinous frankincense bite to it … it is like being there walking down the church’s main aisle alongside the swinging censor as I had done hundreds of times in my youth. In the background to the incense is a trace of vetiver and amber, but the lasting tone of the fragrance is incense all the way. Cardinal is masculine, it is linear, it is quite long lasting, and it is very wearable – more wearable than Avignon, which is darker and heavier and not as adaptable as Cardinal.