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fahr – :
Today is Good Friday, and it is cloudy and cool outside. The day, the weather, and this perfume all lend themselves to quiet contemplation (and worship, if you are religious).
The white musk is intense and sour, and is the only thing I don’t love about this perfume. It doesn’t work well in warm weather for this reason, but it is tame today. The musk overshadows the other notes, and I’m glad the lily pokes through. I don’t detect any woody notes right now, although I do catch a whiff of them in warmer weather. I don’t consciously detect the incense, but I’m pretty sure I do, subconsciously, which adds to my religious experience with this perfume. (I’m not Catholic, and incense isn’t used in the church services I attend, so your mileage may vary.)
This scent is austere. The name means “Passage to Hell” or “Passage through Hell,” which is absolutely fitting as I think about the Christian doctrine of Jesus taking on the guilt and punishment for the sins of the world on the cross, and during his time in the grave. The coolness of the musk really reminds me of a cool, dark, damp cave that could have been used as Jesus’s tomb.
This is a perfume review, and not a sermon, but, as mentioned before, this perfume promotes contemplation.
paukash – :
This fragrance opens with a blast of something acrid, like burning plastic, which reminded me of when my next door neighbor threw household trash in the burn pile- not a very optimistic beginning, and I began to wonder which of my Fragrantica friends might enjoy this more- but after an hour or so, the spicy sweet lily notes began to weave a spiral around me, and all is forgiven…
3434 – :
My skin immediately laughed, then shrugged off the evocative name and threw the most virginal Ivory soap fragrance back in my face!
Passage d’Enfer ne, Salle de Bains!
axg374Diobtetty – :
not more incense.only lily.not for me.3/10 very soft.
Serg_dok007 – :
A very versatile incense.
I get mostly lily and musk, with some incense in the background. Very light in nature and suitable for nearly any occasion in my opinion. Giacobetti is really one of the best when it comes down to more restrained scents.
Projection is rather weak but longevity is decent, up to maybe 5-6 hours. The musk usually lingers on which is nice.
7/10
e6aIIIy B kaIIIy – :
Wow. Catholic guilt in a bottle.
superfly 789 – :
Third bottle. On my skin Passage D’enfer is a really dark soapy, fresh scent. Perfect for layering with fruity or freshflowery scents. Absolutely unisex and this scent smells different on different persons, a really unique perfum.
inga_belik – :
A real love. A gorgeous meditative scent. Without that I would be poor.
gruzoperevozof – :
Great scent. Wish it lasted. The lily, incense and woods are fantastic. For 30 seconds. I don’t know if it’s the musks (synthetic) or what, but this perfume is just lovely when first sprayed (and I’ve been rather heavy-handed with it). The lily and the incense are surprisingly harmonious, with the lighter, less sweet aspects of lily in accord with the wood and incense. It’s a great pairing, one that I would like to see again. L’Artisan perfumes is really hit or miss for me, because while their scents are interesting, notes are solid–the performance is just not. I want something I can smell, that leaves a silage, and lasts a bit longer.
What is left is a skin scent at the 10 minute mark, primarily woods and incense with just a waft of something lighter, floral and lily. Very office friendly…. So sad. They really needed to amp this one up, and doesn’t seem difficult to do.
stepnickii – :
Passage D’Enfer is a clean slightly smoky and woodsy scent that was less dramatic than I was anticipating. With a name such as Passage To Hell and with the incense note I was bracing myself for a full bodied incense or Oriental-Persian myrrh. I was not disappointed with this fragrance but it is rather subtle and soft as far as woods and incense go.
The opening is a soapy white lily that smells of funeral home lilies or the lilies and gladiolas in a funeral service. I love the scent of lilies but I was hoping for a melancholy and funereal scent. Instead you get a warm and cozy kind of smell, like the antechamber of a chapel where tables are laid with white flowers. The incense note is detectable and smells good with the woods an a touch of musk.
Passage is clean, warm, inviting, not as complex or spiritual, religious, as I hoped. I want to thank Tiger Lilian for her wondrous review which compares this scent to the interior of a Confessional. That’s exactly right. I love these type of moody fragrances that evoke a specific place. L’Artisan Parfumeur line does a terrific job of formulating fragrances that evoke times and places. I feel the same way about Serge Lutens. Thanks again Fragranticans for keeping my life rich with fragrance.
Amoubsmomar – :
So subtle, picking up faint wood and musk, a light sandalwood and smokey cedar. Reminds me of matches. It doesn’t last very long, wish it did because it’s really nice!
wasil62 – :
Lily with hint incense and white musk. Not smoky at all. Rather sweet sparkling. Very nice simple and masterpiece!!!!!!!! Close to amouage Dia men ( same vibe, I keep them next to each other on shelf) Another niche lovely Giacobeti fragrance is Costes nr1: more smokey incense with cardamom and laurel.
smiv – :
This is mostly incense and some lily. The incense smells aloof and austere and reminds me of disinfectant spray, more zen temple than catholic church. Definitely on the more masculine end of the spectrum.
Wattaherrop – :
Passage d’Enfer takes me back to my Catholic school days. We spent every week at the school’s adjoining church for mass. And ceremoniously the resident priest would burn incense, exactly of this type.
Most “church incense” that is reported in fragrance reviews typically will have the redolence of sweet smelling labdanum along with frankincense and/or myrrh — thick and resinous. Here, it’s incredibly dry and aromatic with smoky cedar, near camphorous and incredibly cleansing, almost sterilizing, combined with clean, peppery frankincense and perhaps some arid sandalwood.
Passage d’Enfer feels very solemn and ceremonial. A nun taking her vows; a young adult undergoing the sacrament of confirmation; a funereal passage into the next world. Somehow though, it isn’t a melancholic scent, but a spiritually cleansing one. Like being inside a confessional, smelling the dry wood, unburdening from everything earthly. Not a feeling of enlightenment, but one of reprieve.
And as you leave this church with your spirit absolved, you bless yourself with holy water — still and quiet in the foyer in a basin of cold marble, tinctured with the scent of lilies that decorate the vestibule. And the lily in Passage d’Enfer really is that subtle, offering just a delicate sweetness that delivers almost a gentle nuttiness to the woods. Perhaps again, it is soapy sandalwood that I’m detecting.
Passage d’Enfer is fairly masculine as far as lilies go. Very balanced and serene. Wonderful for a cedar perfume of a different nature; a bit too delicate for a lilycentric fragrance. However, austere, meditative and achingly beautiful. This is one that you can find sanctuary in.
odio – :
Boring.
It was recommended to me in the forum thread where I asked for something dark, demonic, and suitable for summer. So it is suitable for summer, but other than that… Nah, too boring.
But then again, it’s quite high-quality incense+flowers. So if you’re looking for something very soothing and not too trivially-incensy, it might be worth a try.
AstroCenter – :
This is church incense and funeral flowers, it is very close to the skin. Somewhat reminds me of John Galliano but that is a more complicated composition and very strong silage/longevity. Enfer does not have the same performance and it’s very linear. But when it comes to incense, you don’t always want the powerhouse, sometimes a faint haunting whisp of ghostlike lily and alter smoke is all that’s needed. This is very minimal and zen…Beautiful.
ЯСЯ94 – :
I’ll get right to the point – this smells EXACTLY like the interior of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Or the Madeleine. Or St. Sulpice. Or Sainte-Chapelle. Or Sacre-Couer. You get the idea. Church lilies, blended with Catholic incense, over a backdrop of cool stone and old, old wooden screens and benches. I bought this recently after a trip to Paris so I could keep smelling that experience at those French cathedrals. Absolute love.
sd_1712 – :
I forgot what the description of this was when I sampled it . . . This is my initial impression from a dauber sample:
Wow. A perfect salty sea air scent. You can’t overspray this it smells so fresh and atmospheric, and yet it has remarkable longevity.
This was supposed to be incense? I get skin and salt and air. Exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Today I tested it in spray form and the lily and incense are much more present. The lily is apparent in the first breath but quickly retreats. The incense is almost black powder, If you’ve ever used the pucks to burn resins or hookah shisha it’s that kind of smokey, but still very atmospheric. It’s still beachy but now it’s the morning after Forth of July on a Pacific Northwest beach — musky and salty and cold.
The longevity is really hard to say. After 5 hours I couldn’t smell it on my wrist but I kept getting whiffs of sea air as I drove.
Deidara_Tsukuri – :
Very zen, minimalist, dry, gingery (it becomes more spicy as it dries down) incense and lily (obviously with some wood and musk in the base). Unsure of exact longevity, but a couple of hours and it is extremely soft skinscent. I have layered it successfuly with Penhaligon’s Lily & Spice. Still unsure if I need a full bottle, as I have more interesting and full-bodied lilies in my collection. Maybe one to keep for meditation?
Hojakec – :
This smells a lot spicier than the notes lead you to believe. There’s a certain sharpness to it that I can’t place in terms of note, pepper maybe. Smoky maybe inky in a way!
maha – :
Very interesting.Not strictly a “wow” masterpiece but very wearable in wintertime.I don’t detect any incense,only musk and Woody notes.My nose translate this vibe in “tea and spices”.However,makes me feel warm.It’s a cocooning gem.
zzu698Unlogrere – :
Passage d’ Enfer may be translated like “Hells passage” but it’s also the street in Montparnasse, Paris.
The fragrance itself is not a hellgate. To enter the hellgate it would need a dark, fiery, ambery smell.
Instead of that Passage d’ Enfer is the most wearable incense I´ve ever came across. It´s light and slightly white flowery fresh.
I was always looking for a good substitute for fragrances like Gucci Pour Homme and Christian Lacroix Tumulte.
And I think this is the best substitute for them.
A classic cedar incense fragrance. It smells rich.
Not the church type of fragrance.
It´s lasting power is great, projection is about 2 hours, as many other scents. Then it stays as a skin scent.
Great for a dinner or a short evening meeting.
It´s name should be Porte d’ ciel or Heavens gate
Well done Ms. Olivia Giacobetti.
Puresake – :
On my skin at first spray this smells of stationery, specifically new paper and freshly sharpened pencils with that smell of lead. After a couple of minutes it settles down and the incense comes through with the smell of musk, the lily forms the backdrop to keep things fresh. Basically this perfume tells me I’m drawing in an old empty church after the service has finished, no doubt waiting for my Mum to stop talking to her friends so we can go home. I find this pleasing since I like the smell of new stationery and incense. The scent is warming yet fresh.
This has very low silage and lasts about 3 hours tops, so not the best value for money, but works really well with cedar from Fragonard which kicks it up a notch and makes it last longer. Will definitely check out more of the L’Artisan perfumes in TK MAxx from now on.
Edit: I have now nicknamed this fragrance “pencils and prayer”
ludaf – :
Like stepping into a abandoned buddism temple. The “abandoned” here is not a poetic qualifier, but just to describe the poor-performance of incense accord.
Very clean floral woody scent with a incense nuance, but unfortionately not that smoky and rich enough as I expected.
A typical linear frag, and neither sophisticated nor rich. It seems lacking a spine…
Longevity: 3-4 hours, so bad for a woody based frag
Projection: poor, almost a skin scent.Rating: 7.5/10
koks – :
Finally got my hands on this fresh, airy softly floral masterpiece!! It’s so present on the skin and I get lovely reminders during the day. Beautifully blended and a sophisticated unisex!
bizzonoff – :
A very light delicate fragrance that is easy to wear anytime. You can immediately detect the incense although not strong. The soft muskiness and of course the lily which is the centre piece to everything. The lily fragrance (especially the oriental lily) can easily be overwhelming and headache inducing. Fear not here as it is too weak to do so. Its all very lady like and most pleasant. Average sillage and poor longevity.
fukalotiseryu – :
This is one of those fragrances that I always find myself reaching for. It’s incredibly light, but lasts an age! The heavy lily and spice opening is so distinctive and elegant, and the woody dry down, intermingled with that lingering smokey lily just elevates it to another level.
A truely beautiful fragrance.
(I’m not usually one for layering fragrances but I’ve found that Smuggler’s Soul by Lush works quite well for this frag. The sandalwood adds an extra layer to the incense and spice aspects.)
Алёша – :
Leave it to Olivia Giacobetti to create a frankincense fragrance that’s light and airy, so unlike the heavy incenses you commonly find. I get the cool dank stone of an ancient building; fresh water with a mineral touch, like water from the garden hose; a hint of flowers; and a spicy, cedary, lightweight frankincense that dries down with a salty, hay-like feel, similar to one of the distinctive notes in Dzing! (another of Giacobetti’s creations). It doesn’t carry far and is never strong, and if anything I wish it was a tad stronger and lasted a little longer. But at the same time, I love its gentle and meditative nature, and a heavy fragrance might intrude too much. It’s not hellish at all, but is certainly suitable for contemplations on spirituality or the Underworld. This fragrance fast became a favorite of mine.
Loperad – :
This smells like a not-as-sweet version of my long lost MAC MV1 (which I keep trying to add to the database).
It’s a definite incense and woods scent at first, with a hint of something tangy in the background. That tang soon becomes a soft lily, and the transition is seamless.
This is a very well done scent, but neither player (incense, lily) is strong enough for me ***when I wear it on my wrists or neck. However, the lily and incense are much stronger (and prettier, so that part at least is due to chemistry) on my clothes. If it smelled like that on my skin, it would be in my heavy rotation, and one I wouldn’t be able to do without.
Passage d’Enfer ends up being a very, very light scent on my skin, lighter than any of the other l’Artisans I’ve tried. And the sillage is basically Zero. On my clothes, it lasts forever.
…and *from* hell makes sense ~ incense to creamy and tangy lily.
addentPer – :
“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?”
– Dante, Inferno, The Divine Comedy
This fragrance evokes the classic literary masterpiece of Italian Lit Dante’s La Divina Commedia The Divine Comedy Inferno and Paradiso Hell and Heaven. It’s a journey from the bowels of hell and up to Heaven. I was skeptical that a fragrance could actually evoke such a thing so I gave it a try and I thought why not I’m a perfume slut anyways. This fragrance is very strong as it opens with incense. It’s got all the notes that create the effect of cathedral style incense: myrrh, olibanum, benzoin and incense. Smoky, dark, strong, overpowering. The musk is also clearly there from the start to further add some warmth and depth to the incense notes. This is a musk based incense fragrance and really does smell like the inside of the Notre Dame Cathedral. It smells like a prayer for salvation, a desperate longing for release and escape from the fiery smoke that threatens to consume you and kill you. After a while, as the fragrance begins to dry down, there is at last some nasal relief: white flowers. There’s lilies tons of white angelic lilies and perhaps even soft little jasmine flowers. It’s sweet and innocent powdery very powdery. It was quite a trip from the 9th circle of Hell to the 7th Heaven.
cokensuek – :
One of my favourite scents… It smells of incense for sure but it also smells of fire. It has that unmistakable edge of Flint. I absolutely adore this scent, when I wear it I always get comments asking me what it is and where to buy it. Really like nothing else I have ever smelt. Beautiful.
CrarkabeFrees – :
I’ve really fallen for this one, i love it for winter time as it reminds me of church and Christmas trees, I spritz it on my scarf and it absolutely blooms with incense.
rabotavpoiske – :
My first incense love, many years ago. I wanted it to be my signature but it had the worst lasting power of all the niche fragrances I’ve owned.
Augmesimmes74 – :
Dry, peppery, cold incense…
This fragrance is a typical Olivia Giacobetti composition. She has the ability to do an incense fragrance extremely well. This one is no exception.
The name alternatively means Gateway to Hell or Rite of Passage. I think the second name is more fitting as it also is the name of the street in which the original L’Artisan Parfumeur boutique was located.
What we get here is a very dry, cold incense that has musk, lilly, and dry frankincense. It is extremely wearable, but very light. I would recommend it for lovers of incense.
lulekha – :
This fragrance is so dry that you’ll need a glass of water after the first whiff.
Passage d’Enfer has amazing tension in the opening. The bitter spice from the lily lifts the fragrance in a heightened-senses, anxious sort of way and the woods seem to be fragrant because they’re heated – like the red cedar in a dry sauna. The musk facet feels personal and the smoke note feels distant; they further the “acceptance through fear” feeling one might have before entering eternal damnation.
Then the oddest thing happens…
Like the snap of a bow string, this fragrance releases all that tension and settles into something quite peaceful. The woods are used to construct a sacred place, and suddenly a light breeze flows through the open temple. You feel keen on the sounds around you: the chirp of a small rodent, the flapping of a bird’s wings, the breeze rustling heavy foliage. You are reminded of your mortality but feel grateful and accepting instead of afraid. You are present in the moment.
I LOVE THIS FRAGRANCE.
nick1376 – :
1995. A chilly Saturday afternoon at St. Michael of the Archangel Catholic Church. A young Altar Boy is helping the kindly old Monsignor get the Church ready for the Easter Vigil. This is the highest of all Holidays.
The Altar Guild are busying themselves in the Sacristy, quietly and lovingly starching Father’s white Alb and Chasuble. An Elderly Lady I’d often seen praying the Rosary before Mass expertly folded and pressed with force the iron, which hissed and steamed in service.
Fresh Stargazer Lilies were brought to the Church and placed on the Altar. Their perfume a gentle and welcome reminder of Spring, which was now dawning on a small Missouri farm village. I stood at the altar, next to the Giant Easter Candle about to be lit for another year. I held the bronze Censer as the Nobile Monsignor lit the coal–crackling and hissing as it began to gather heat and burn like a red hot ember in the darkened Church. He reached for a tin of fragrant Frankincense and Myrrh, its musty, resinous aroma wafted through the crowd.
Prayers were said, songs were sung and then the Paschal Candle was lit, and hundreds of parishoners, each with their own candles, created a ripple of light through the Sanctuary.
Light once again, had conquered the darkness.
This is what Passage D’Enfer is to me. A distant memory of simpler times, of devotion, of faith, and of unbounded hope.
Brooks – :
Have to say that I love the name of this scent. Passage d’Enfer – Gates To Hell. If it was cheap enough I’d buy it on the name alone 🙂
At first Pd’E is haunting. It definitely smells like the passageway to an untoward destination. You smell a smokey waft (coming from Hell?) with what seems to be an oily residue. I can imagine the mouth of a cave, walls glistening with a hot substance that you don’t really want to touch. The opening has a menacing yet empty melancholy feeling.
Pd’E then turns ethereal. Like, even though there is evil about, the feeling that salvation may be just in reach is there.
I love the transition between good and evil.
Unfortunately after this the incense pulls back & I get a mostly soapy scent. Luxury soap, milled to perfection, but soap none the less. The incense is there but in the background. At this stage the fragrance becomes a skin scent.
Yes, this is a Unisex perfume – it’s not really feminine nor masculine.
The soap stage reminds me of a mixture of L’Ete en Douce with a little The Pour Un Ete – of course both of these fragrances are also Olivia Giacobetti creations for L’Artisan.
Not quite sure about this one, but if I see it for a good price I might be tempted.
Update September 2015 : I ended up encountering Pd’E for a great price and ended up buying a full bottle. I love it!
I find it quite interesting that although my actual bottle does have the soap stage I mention above, the wood & incense is slightly more pronounced.
So much better and it lasts much longer. It shows you the difference between trying a scent via a sample with a wand (yes it was an official L’Artisan manufacturers sample) & the actual spray.
So lesson learnt, this one must be sprayed to get the intended effect. The sample does not do it justice.
Pam36 – :
This has a much more prominent floral note than it used to, which imo is a good thing but if you’re expecting the original version, don’t.
barbys – :
Love this one! This is a very light, smokey incense and wood scent with a sweet lily. It is soft and draws you close with its mysteriously unsuspecting but inviting aura. It’s very nice and I wish it had a stronger silage, but that would probably ruin its demure mystique which is befitting of its name, after all, the lure to the Passage D’Enfer, Passage to Hell, is lined with subtle temptations.
lark5 – :
okay so i came back to check some of my reviews and it made me want to wear this one again and i must say this time it was completely differente , last time i wore this i could only smell smoke with some menthol , i mean go figure there is no menthol on passage d’enfer , this time it was a whole new story, fistly spray with caution it is a monster for the first few minutes i could smell this thing even without putting my nose anywhere near my wrist, second this time i did get the incense full and omg is like an incense stick the kind people use in yoga studios the ones in the blue box with a tiger or a buddha on the box , is good i mean is not something i would wear often but i guess on a rainy day it would be ok.
after a while it does mellows a lot but you can still smell the incense and honestly i get nothing more .
edit** after 5 plus hours i still smell some smoke and incense but with some very acrid note not pleasant at all is very sharp , tame but sharp
reAllymAn – :
The Passage To Lily’s Hell…
I love me a good church incense frag. I love the likes of Comme des Garçons Avignon, Heeley’s Cardinal, Montale’s Full Incense, or similar. However, as much as I like to smell church incense all day long, I don’t think most people do outside Church. So I was looking for a more wearable incense to wear publicly…
Introduce Passage D’Enfer (Passage to Hell)…
By the accounts of a few reviewers I thought I was purchasing a wearable church incense frag…but disappointedly it is not what reviews have led me to believe..This is not to say PdE is a bad fragrance…it only means that it does not have the incense character I was hoping for..
PdE is lily bomb, and assault of white flowers. The scent of the lily is such and so polarizing that it takes too much away from the incense, leaving it outside character…here the white flowery smell of lilies dominate strongly. The only reminiscence of church this fragrance has is perhaps the smell of lily flower arrangements left near the statue or painting of the Virgin Mary at Catholic churches.
PdE feels cold and smells crispy, extremely soapy, very clean, and highly aldehydic (I know aldehydes aren’t in the scent list of PdE in Fragrantica, but PdE does smell as if it had them because of this high pitched flowery smell aldehydes give to flowery perfumes, just as in Chanel No 5 (the queen of aldehydes)
I’d say this is a great fragrance for women. I can easily see many women liking this one as it smells very femininely elegant.
The longevity of this fragrance is EXCELLENT. For being an EDT, this fragrance lasts and lasts…this is saying a lot about PdE as EDT’s don’t last long on my skin.
Ladies, if you like clean, white-flowery fragrances, with incense in the background, do check PdE out. I think many of you will like this one
Guys, this is not an heterosexual masculine or unisex incense fragrance. Look elsewhere.
alex6391 – :
‘Passage d’Enfer’ or ‘Passage Through Hell’ (Hell’s Gates) is very tame to me, although I actually enjoyed this perfume more than I anticipated. I like this, because it’s got a depth to it, but also a lightness, which makes it really easy to wear in hot climates.
During the opening, there was a harshness and soapiness, which reminds me of lemon on my skin (not listed as a note). I definitely get quite a bit of soap from that lily, and when anchored by the balsamic incense it’s is a lovely combination, very well-blended and pleasing to the nose, as a fresh-smelling floral with a background of incense. The dry-down is softer, smoother, more airy and mostly incense on me.
A very soft, subtle and soapy-smelling sillage (soft sillage is usual for perfumes from this brand I think); longevity is for about 4-5 hours. Overall, this perfume was pretty and enjoyable, but I tired of it quickly 🙂
xPERSONx – :
So happy that I finally mustered up the courage to begin posting reviews on Fragrantica…a website I heavily rely on and a website I love. The members here are great & I love visiting.
So, I recently decided (once again) to expand my fragrance repertoire and along with my love for “dark” fragrances, I realize I like incense fragrances a bit, too (especially complex ones and definitely for the spring & summer months). I LOVE rose-ouds and “dirty” or vintage rose fragrances; however such fragrances seem hard to come by at an affordable price. Having tried Etro Messe de Minuit, CDG Avignon, Heeley Cardinal, Biehl MB03 and Profumum Olibanum among others, I think L’Artisan Passage d’Enfer may be a winner…but I’m unsure.
PdE is a well structured, uncomplicated perfume that opens with clearly defined, sharp, shrill, distinctive incense & balsamic notes. Some might be grateful (due to the intensity of the opening) when the initial notes are immediately eclipsed by pleasant mid-notes of mixed white musk, chamomile and floral (lily).
After several minutes pass…nearly 20-30…PdE continues to unfold and develops into an ethereal aroma of balsamic, myrrh, frankincense, musk & vanilla. The final dry-down is a pleasant mixture of light, transparent, unencumbered incense & floral…this is NOT a dark or mysterious perfume. And yes, I imagine if you are a true “incense junkie,” Passage d’Enfer will smell way too aquatic and light when all is said and done.
And that is what I love about this fragrance. Having tried PdE recently after experimenting with the above named fragrances, PdE seems suitable. Yes, I like the other incense fragrances a lot; but for one reason or another, they just do not feel quite right on my skin.
Many incense fragrances dry down in a primary masculine manner (for my tastes), while others are too church-y. There is that darn amber “barber shop” scent in some and others are too linear. Many incense fragrances land hard with singular “incense” notes…for one reason or another, they just do not work for me.
With my first CDC Avignon effort, a fragrance I intend on trying again this week, my husband said, “…the scent is okay…but do you really want to walk around all day smelling like a church?” I DID feel a bit odd wearing CDC Avignon. Something just didn’t feel right.
I think Passage d’Enfer dries down nicely & I do not think it loses its “Gothic” effect. Like most L’Artisan fragrances, PdE DOES lose its punch after 3-4 hours and silage is quite low. PdE does play close to the skin.
PdE is available and affordable! Not certain about this one yet but it definitely is on the short list! Definitely worth a try! Going to re-try Messe de Minuit (the “newer” available version, which I hear is a departure from the older, much beloved fragrance) and CDC Avignon once again before I make a final determination! Will let you know!
ANDRYAN23 – :
Passage d’Enfer is straightforward. It is 100% pure white soap, albeit a soap of excellent quality, fit for Queen Elizabeth’s soaking tub. Extremely musky with a good dose of lily. Truly a soap-lover’s dream!
tomas1968 – :
L’apertura è leggermente speziata e con un tocco di rosa e zenzero,poi varie sfumature di incenso e fiori , poi muschio bianco… Non mi dispiace, lo trovo interessante e intrigante.
GlurceResee – :
Smokey, soapy scent–with a bite of lemon. The crispness of the lemon dissipates and it becomes smoother, a touch of sweet incense. It vaguely reminds me of Marni, the smokiness. It disappears quickly from the skin, less than 2 hours and it was gone, except for what I sprayed on my scarf. I love it, regardless.
kyzya133 – :
Should you be moved to go forward to the altar upon which she stands and kiss the foot of the best statue of the Virgin at the Basilica here in town, you would notice that the smell of incense clings to her. If someone had recently left an offering of lilies, and the floor had been recently washed, you’d have the smell of Passage d’Enfer in a nutshell.
Herr F – :
I have this deep infatuation with “churchy” smells. And this one delivers. It’s a cold, marble church with quiet, contemplative incense burning and peaceful lilies. Still, I find something kinda sexy about it.
The first hour is full bottle worthy. Perfection. After that, if goes down hill. It starts to turn to soapy pencil shavings. There’s a weird undertone to it that starts to come out, and that’s really the best way I can describe it. Just…goes a little wrong somewhere. An hour after that, it’s gone entirely.
It breaks my heart, because I just love this scent. I still might buy a bottle, because of that perfect opening, but it seems like a waste due to the dry down going so very wrong on me, and the poor staying power
darish – :
This review is based on a decant. On my skin and to my nose, I get mostly just soapy lily. I would say it’s in the same vein as Hiris by Hermes because of the soapy floral. Projection and longevity are below average on my skin.
AVA – :
Passage d’enfer is a dark but fresh soapy scent on my skin. I get no metallic note, no flowers or Insence – just a dark but fresh soapy note – in a good way. Perfect to mix Passage with light flowery scents – great mix. Today I have Passage + R Cavalli edP – great mix<