With the Candlestick.

With the Candlestick draws its name from the board game, the parlor murder, the moment all eyes turn. But the scent itself reaches further back. Church incense, candle wax, the smoke that rises when flame meets breath. These notes form the core of the composition: the moment a candle goes out and the room changes. Cherry wine appears alongside, fermented and acidic, with a green bite from the cinnamon leaf that cuts through the darker tones. Something communal and not sweet, it plays against the smoke rather than softening it. The result is a fragrance that feels like walking into a church at night, after the congregation has left and the candles are still burning down to nothing. There's a weight to the air, a stillness that settles like a familiar hymn.

What makes With the Candlestick unusual is the candlelight itself. The wax note is not a vague beeswax accord or abstract sandalwood warmth. It's the smell of a candle cooling on skin, the specific texture of tallow as it solidifies after flame has passed. Combined with church frankincense, the composition recreates a particular space: gothic, slightly austere, with an undercurrent of something darker running beneath the ritual. The cherry wine keeps it from feeling purely ascetic. It brings a fermented acidity that cuts through the incense, a reminder that the congregation once gathered here.

The opening arrives sharp and immediate. Cherry wine hits first, fermented, acidic, with a green bite from the cinnamon leaf. Then the smoke arrives, cutting through like a struck match. In this early phase, the fragrance is all contrast: fruit against char, bright against dark. The heart settles into church incense and cooling wax. The labdanum adds a resinous, slightly medicinal depth that some wearers read as old hymnals, others as vintage paper. As the fragrance develops, the cherry wine begins to recede. What's left is smoke and warm musk, close to the skin, intimate, the kind of scent that someone notices only when they're standing next to you. On fabric, traces of wax and ash linger, a memory of the flame.

Since its 2023 launch, With the Candlestick has attracted wearers who want fragrance to mean something. It's not a safe blind buy or an office-appropriate crowd-pleaser. It's a statement: gothic, atmospheric, built for the cold months and the evening hours. The divisive cherry wine opening, some read it as medicinal, others as deeply evocative, has made it a talking point in niche fragrance communities. Enthusiasts who gravitate toward it tend to describe it as the scent of a church at night, candles burning down, and no one left but you.