In collaboration with the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, this home fragrance is an indulgence for the tastefully unhinged. Sumptuous Afternoon captures the unsettling brightness of a garden party that has gone on far too long: tart Victorian lemonade steeped with black tea, freshly clipped hedges, and sun-warmed linens.

SCENT NOTES: Lemon Peel, Mint, Vetiver, Almond, Crushed Privet, Juniper, Moss
SMELLS LIKE: Citrus gaiety and a cheerfully fatal summer mist.

FRAGRANCE STORY

A Cheerfully Fatal Summer Mist. 

It was a perfectly lovely afternoon, which made the circumstances all the more awkward. Sumptuous Afternoon captures the unsettling brightness of a garden party that has gone on far too long: tart Victorian lemonade steeped with black tea, freshly clipped hedges exhaling their green insistence, and sun-warmed linens drifting lazily toward decay.

Beneath the citrus gaiety lies a faint metallic chill, refined, polite, and best not discussed, lending the whole affair an air of elegant inevitability. Guests linger. Glasses remain raised. Someone reclines very still in the hammock.

A room spray for those who prefer their summer radiant, mannered, and quietly fatal. 

HERETIC X GOREY

In 2025, Heretic inaugurated a new and slightly ill-advised tradition by translating the peculiar genius of Edward Gorey into scent. Gorey's world, exquisitely drawn, wryly sinister, and curiously elegant, is an enchanting realm of mischief and magic. A series of room sprays appeared quietly without fanfare, evoking abandoned corridors, ill mannered weather, questionable refreshments and social occasions best remembered imprecisely. These fragrances were not designed to brighten a room. They were meant to occupy it. To linger. To suggest that something had occurred though no one seemed inclined to discuss it.

This year the collection continues with new Gorey inspired room sprays, extending the atmospheric narrative into additional seasons and scenarios. These home fragrances further refine the collection’s preoccupation with polite unease, sunlit events with unfortunate undertones, domestic spaces behaving suspiciously, and environments that feel faintly over-prepared for disaster.

Each fragrance is conceived as a setting rather than a scent, narrative-driven and resolutely unconcerned with conventional notions of comfort. Together they deepen the Gorey world Heretic has begun to assemble, a place where nothing is overtly wrong yet nothing feels entirely safe. These are atmospheres for those who prefer their spaces expressive, their seasons peculiar, and their pleasures tinged with uncertainty.

HOW TO USE

To awaken the atmosphere:

1. Enter the space with purpose, or at least a vague sense of curiosity.

2. Hold the bottle upright and aim toward the middle of the room, where the atmosphere seems most emotionally complicated.

3. Spritz generously into the air, avoiding chandeliers, houseplants, and brooding relatives.

4. Wait as the scent unfurls like a polite specter; charming, mysterious, and just possibly up to something.

5. Breathe deeply. Sigh theatrically. Works wonders on musty corners and awkward silences.