Kali

[Ajila]

Kali, the Black One, is the fearless Goddess of Destruction, Creation, Energy [in her Shakti aspect] and Dissolution. Also named Kaliratri [black Night] and Kalikamata [black Earth-Mother], she is the fiercest aspect of Devi, the supreme mother goddess. Kali is a protector Goddess, the destroyer of evil spirits and guardian of the faithful. She, along with her consort Shiva, represent the unending cycle of death and birth, sexual union, creation and destruction. Kali annihilates ignorance, maintains the natural order of the world, and blesses those who strive for spiritual awareness and knowledge of true holiness with infinite tenderness and motherly love. The constant, unending Work of Creation is called the "The Play of Kali". This perfume is a blend of the sacred blooms of cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey.

 

In the bottle - Sweet fruits with cocoa in the background.

Wet on me - Very sweet but soapy floral, with a hint of the bubble gum edge of lotus.

Dry on me - Over time the florals faded and the blend became richer and darker, until in the end it became dark chocolate, so strong that its almost bitter.

Edited October 24, 2005 by Ajila

[paradoxicaljlb]

On me, Kali smells of chocolate covered cordial cherries (must be the wine and chocolate notes), florals (but I never really smell rose), honey, and just a wiff of tobacco. From when I first put it on until drydown, those scents swirl around me. It's a very complex perfume.

[tinyvulture]

when i applied this, it smelled like straight up cough medicine. but in a GOOD way, ok? very syrupy and herbal and sweet. and lest a comparison to cough medicine would scare you off, don’t worry; it very quickly morphed into a heavenly, rich grape/berry wine scent. and then the flowers and honey appeared. so then it was a sweet, floral, red wine nectar. then, over time, it became drier and more floral, less syrupy. notes i did not previously smell, including chocolate and tobacco, began to appear -- but very faintly. i couldn’t tell they were there unless i read the description, honestly. still, they added to the complexity and changing nature of this lovely scent. i'd say it's one of the lab's best.

[BlackWingedRoses]

good stuff.

 

Out of the bottle this smelled like Luden's Honey Lemon cough drops. very soothing actually.

 

On my skin I got a musky rose, with a sweeter side that could have been the hibiscus. Can't smell any tobacco or chocolate yet, although there is something grounding it so as not to become too sweetly overwhleming.

 

After a while I could identify the chocolate and tobacco notes. The floweres stayed sweet yet dry. There is almost something masculine about this scent.

It's a good scent when you want to feel powerful and in charge.

 

My bf liked it on me. He hates so many smells that it's a pretty good sign.

[melange]

Imp: red wine plus something sweeter.

 

Wet: flowers heighten as the wine fades, already, with one note right at the front of my nose that I can't identify.

 

Drydown: it's already blending further, and I can barely pick out the wine amid the rose and other flowers, and notice the chocolate/tobacco only if I really reach for them.

 

Worn: this is a much more blended scent than I imagined it would be. I get a little pressure in the front of my forehead, but it stays relatively minor. When I wave my wrist in front of my face, I get primarily sweetness, with depth like a fallen shadow beneath. After a while, I notice a hint of smoke and wonder where it came from, only to get an aha! moment: it's the perfume. After a little longer, the same thing happens, only with the wine. I'm really liking how this perfume blends but still lets individual notes wander out. Later on, it becomes a complex honey-tinged sweetness, the sort I imagine Kali might employ for distraction while all those hands of hers were busy. Oddly, my right wrist smells sweeter than my left. Even after reapplying from the frimp, the whole thing fades fairly soon, but it's cheerful.

 

Conclusion: of the scents I've tried so far, when worn this is the most like department store perfume on first whiff, but that first resemblance is deceiving. It's more complex, it's more interesting, and it doesn't give me headaches. In fact, it sounds like a good scent to try for church: exciting when you put it on at home, then fading enough to not make anyone sneeze or wonder too much at what you're wearing, but still teasing you with a surprise now and again...

a private, yet occasionally exhibitionistic, amusement.

[theseagrows]

it's hard for me to make out the separate notes. also, i don't really know offhand what many of the florals listed smell like. i definitely can smell the wine, though, and maybe hints of the chocolate.

 

kali is a deep, sweet scent, reminds me of walking through flowers in the dark.

[SeaMonkey]

It starts out with wine.....then goes to wine and chocolate......then wine, chocolate, and flowers.........then a cigarette for afterwards.

 

 

Which is as it should be.......

[shayelea]

In the bottle: I can smell the cocoa, but this is a very complex scent. Can't pick out specific notes other than that, but they are sweet but not overpowering.

 

Wet: Just at first, the cocoa depeens and it's WONDERFUL. And then...

 

Drydown: I honestly don't know what happens. I cannot describe what this smells like. I suppose it's the florals taking over, as they tend to on my skin, but I'm not actually getting a floral scent. It's just very...mild. It smells like a fancy spa. Really nice, actually, but...not at all what I was expecting.

 

Also, it fades very quickly. Gone after about three hours.

[brownbear]

This one starts out smelling like chocolate, wine, cherries, and hard candies. Then on my skin I mostly got wine, cherries, and hard candies. The florals never seemed to come out. Then it went to powder. oh well

Edited November 22, 2005 by brownbear

[AlaskaSnows]

Wet: Honey and chocolate which mix very strangely,and a bit of cherry, altogether a nasty scent.

 

Dry: Honey, flowers and a VERY mild spice. Everything I wanted from bengal, but got too much cinnamon. Gorgeous and rich and heady. A 10+.

[AngellicMystique]

This smell is sweet and reminds me of a candy I used to eat, but I can't place the confection. (I think it's because of the chocolate and honey.)

 

The musk in it is great and works well with the floral notes. This stays sweet, but remains a floral overall. It's complicated. I don't normally like overt florals this much, but Kali was one of my first imps and remains a favorite.

[silver_springs]

A big bottle of this is definitely going on my next order. The more I wear Kali the more I love it.

 

It's another one for the "sexy-sweet" category. The scent is a very nice sweet floral with slight earthy undertones. And in a weird way Kali reminds me of the beach and summer. Maybe it's because it's such a refreshing and crisp scent. But the great thing it's also not "too sexy" so it's a nice casual scent. I could see myself wearing this almost anywhere.

 

Fantastic!

 

9/10

[Ancientgirl]

This was a freebie the lab sent with my last order.

In the bottle: I don't get any chocolate, which is actually good, because I love the taste of chocolate but hate its scent. I do get the same wine note as I smell in Bordello, along with mingled florals and honey. This is a sweet and complex scent.

On me: The wine scent fades a bit, but the scent of honeyed florals stays. I am bad at identifying florals, mostly because they usually make me sneeze, but the mixed florals here do strike me as tropical, exotic blooms.

2 hours +: The scent is pretty much the same as when I first applied, but a bit mellower. It's a golden scent, warm like candle glow. Seems like it would be good for seduction, or dancing.

I'm keeping the imp.

Ancientgirl

[terrierhead]

This stuff is like Valentine's Day in a bottle! A sweet, sexy, boozy Valentine's Day that starts off with a glass of red wine with your lover, followed by sharing a box of deep, dark chocolates. Then, you and your valentine retire to a room with vases of brightly colored yet softly scented flowers to get to know one another a bit better. Yes, this is good stuff.

[pale]

my first review (pumps fist in air, discreetly)

 

in the bottle: interesting, but mighty strong. smells fruity and rosy.

 

on me: started off quite fruity (and strong!). no smell of chocolate.

 

later: now very strong roses at the forefront, but a wisp of tobacco and strong note of honey too.

 

smells like the rose scented ghee that triloka used to sell did when it was being burned on a cotton wick.

 

i think i may have to invest in a 5ml bottle!

[merebrillante]

In the vial: Fruit and perhaps some wine?

 

Wet: Spice (sandalwood or myrrh?), and maybe vanilla.

 

Drydown: The fruit returns, along with a floral note - lily, maybe, or lotus? Something wet and delicate.

 

Description review: Oh my gosh, I can't believe I got some of the notes right! There was wine and lotus in there. The fruit smell must have come from the wine, and I mistook chocolate for vanilla. I don't know where I got the impression of spice from.

 

Dry: Floral, green and light. Not a lot of throw.

 

Final thoughts: First on, this is much sweeter and more floral than I would've expected for a perfume dedicated to Kali. I would have thought there'd be lots of dark notes, like patchouli, black pepper, amber, sandalwood. An hour later, it's gone all green. Three hours later, it's settled down to what I call the "hairspray" smell, a very faint whiff of something artificial. Alas, because Kali is my family goddess. To the swap pile.

[GemmaCat]

I have a cold, so I'm probably not picking up all the complexities of scents today. That said. . .

 

This is a strange one. I can't smell any chocolate or wine; nothing deep in fact.

 

In the bottle it's warm, fresh florals with a hint of fruity sweetness. On my skin it's delicate and inviting, the florals taking over but without being overpowering.

 

I'm studying Kali as part of my dissertation, and this perfume makes me think of her mothering aspect. It reminds me strongly of the poems written by her devoted followers; praising and loving her for her gentleness behind the fierce mask of warfare and destruction.

 

In particular it reminds me of this verse by the Bengal poet, Ramprasad:

 

"O Tara, doer of good, the good of all, grantor of

safety, O Mother, grant me safety.

O Mother Kali! take me in Thy arms; O Mother Kali!

take me in Thy arms.

O Mother! come now as Tara with a smiling face and

clad in white;

As dawn descends on dense darkness of the night."

[Abbie]

In the bottle: A simple sweet scent that to me seems mostly "cherry". Generally I do not do well with the sweet, but we'll see how it goes.

 

First on: This is actually pretty good though! It's not too cloying on, and it's got a nice light fruity fragrance. It reminds me of high school, actually... somehow it evokes the Exclamation and Sunflowers perfumes and the Bonne Bell Lip Smackers we all wore. Although it doesn't really smell like any of that. But if EVOKES them. Boy this'll be a real helpful review to people.

 

Dry: Pretty much more of the same. Maybe a little bit more Bonne Bell and a little less Sunflowers. But very nice indeed.

 

Overall: Keeper!

[ABrokenAngel]

In the Bottle: The first thing I smelled was the chocolate then the florals and the musk rose. This is the type of sexy every woman dreams of being. Deep, sensual, dangerous, intoxicating, vibrant, curvaceous, mysterious and mouth watering. This reminds me of Maya from Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. I want to just slather my body with this and wait for the husband to come home. I think I’ll be wearing this to the airport to pick him up.

 

Wet: There’s a part in Kama Sutra that Maya does a dance in an outfit made of pearls. She’s seducing in her dance. And this is that moment in perfume form. This is so succulent. I want a bottle of it now.

 

Dry Down: Oh my…..all the spice and flavor have died down however all the florals have come out to shine. I love each and every stage of this.

[bifemmefatale]

Kali was a "frimp" (free imp) with my first order. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, beacuse a) it sounded like it had waay too much going on, and I hate rose scents and the Lab's are often overwhelming on my skin. So it came as a total surprise that I tried this one, and I LOVE it.

 

The scent, both in the bottle and on my skin, can be summed up in 2 words: fruity floral. The wine, honey and chocolate notes conspire to give this scent a truer black cherry smell than Blood Kiss had. I want to eat my skin when I wear this. The rose is the dominant note in the floral, but all the scents are blended so well that this is just one glorious summer symphony. It goes on very fruity and then fades back to more floral within a few minutes, but the scent stays very much the same all the way until it fades completely.

 

This isn't what I'd imagine a smell named Kali should be. No, this is The Empress of the tarot, womanly, fecund, lush, and queenly, all the abundance of Summer rolled into one scent. It's ripe, sun-warm fruit bursting on your tongue as you walk through a rose garden in riotous full bloom.

 

Kali is the ultimate contradiction in perfumes for me: I hate fruit scents and I hate roses, but I can't get enough of this blend.

[strawberry_star]

I completely went fangirl over this. I ran around to anyone who would listen, raving about how much I love this scent. It is that good.

 

I was afraid of this one, because it has dark chocolate in it and I'm not fond of smelling like chocolate very much. When I had tried on Spooky, all I smell is dark chocolate and peppermint, not good on me. Kali I don't smell chocolate at ALL! Good! There's some really sweet flowers in this that are agreeing with me. It might be the hibiscus and lotus. I can also smell an underlying of tobacco in it which I LOVE!

 

Will be in my top 10 for a long time, I'm sure.

 

PS: Oh yes, I forgot... I don't smell rose either which is wonderful because I hate rose!

Edited February 6, 2006 by strawberry star

[fiddledragon]

This is absolutely luscious...I wasn't sure what to think from the description, given all the ingredients, but I couldn't pass up a perfume named for Kali.

 

In the bottle: I mainly get red wine and honey -- very sweet and very alcoholic.

 

On me

Wet: wine and chocolate and spice and honey and YUM!

Dry: The sweetness fades out and it's left with wine and flowers and a whif of cocoa and spice. Something turns faintly soapy, but somehow it's not unpleasant. It's very aptly named. Female (yet not at all girly), powerful, rich, and alternating a feeling of protective motherliness with "I eat demons for breakfast".

 

I've found that wearing it makes a surprizingly good meditation focus.

[Anbreen]

Lush, gorgeous, sybaritic. Full of secrets and innuendo.

 

But, very noir, at least, on me..... think, a very chic woman, in veiled black, ghosting up a gangplank onto an ocean liner. She is very mysterious, and very alone-- by choice.

 

Who is she? What is her past? Whom will she meet? What is her REAL destination?

 

NOT a scent for a fresh, young girl! It's ALL woman!

[slyfatale]

I just recieved my 5mL of this yesterday . I *adore* this scent.

 

In the bottle: Red wine and chocolate.

 

On me:

This scent is very complex. At first it smells the same as it did in the bottle, but then the chocolate darkens and (oddly enough) I smell a sweet-minty note. There's a hint of the red wine still, and I'm starting to smell tobacco.

After a few minutes, the chocolate goes away, and I can smell some lovely florals. The minty smell is stronger, and then suddenly the chocolate is back, and very dark. The florals all fade, except one. I can't place what it is, maybe lily? It's very delicate.

 

Cor, it is so hard to describe this smell.

 

Hours later a soft honeyed floral smell still lingers in the air.

My love for this perfume knows no bounds.

[smallvoice]

Complex! Oh, and just to ruin the dramatic tension, this one is going on my top ten list as soon as this review is written. Kali makes me feel so damn good. I feel confident and powerful and feminine and even seductive. She's sweet without having that candy/bakery scent; she's floral without being sneeze inducing; she's got a kick of spices and warm tobacco with wine... And I love how the honey note is keeping everything in line. Somebody before me said that it's like sniffing Valentine's day in a bottle, and that's just hit the nail on the head. But only if your Valentine's day experience was a damn fine one, as mine was. I love this!

 

EDIT: I wore this again recently and discovered that I need to wear stuff more than once before I review them. My chemistry amped the grape of the wine so much it smelled like kool aid and just... unpleasant. It didn't work. Off with her head!

Edited April 30, 2006 by cordia