Kali

[Eros]

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.

The tobacco & balsam in this made me a little apprehensive about trying it even though I *love* the smell of a good tobacco
That said, after paying closer attention to the other notes, the reviews and of course, all that Kali represents, I just HAD to give it a try.

In the imp, lovely, rich tobacco, with a hint of sweetness. On/wet...a beautiful & heady medley of wine, creamy/milky honey & rose with the other notes swirling around in perfect background harmony. Dry, after about an hour, seemed to fade to almost nothing But then...almost suddenly, comes back for the longest of encores. On me, up close(wrist up my nose, lol), very faint. But at arm's length, mmmmm....
Warm, rich & feminine w/o being overly sweet or floral. A very "womanly", voluptuous blend indeed. Seductive & threatening to turn dangerous at any given moment.

This is truly a work of art...

Needless to say, onto the big bottle list it goes.

[Janie]

I was so looking forward to the wine and the tobacco. But on me, Kali is all honey and light floral. Not too long-lasting, quite pleasant, but sadly I don't get quite a few notes that I really was looking forward to.

[metaldog32]

I was pleased as punch to get a freebie imp of Kali from the Lab..although I actually purchased a 5ml bottle of Kali unsniffed..this was for my sis. So I hadn't actually TRIED it..my sis and I don't wear each other's fragrances..but when she wore it, it smelled divine. Lucky for me, I have my own imp to review..YAY

 

This does sound complex and layered...hope my nose is up for the challenge..okay here I go:

 

Let me preface one more thing..I put Kali on last night before I went to bed to see how well the lasting power was and to get an idea of what the drydown would be after several hours...but I am appying again on my other wrist to get a better feel of this in its' *wet* phase..

 

Initial sniff from imp: I get a blast of boozy/honey sweetness..but the sweetness isn't overwhelming or cloying...I don't get any florals per se..let me re-phrase..I don't get any floral that I recognize..all I get is the booze/honey blast.

 

Applied wet on skin: Okay..the boozy blast transitioned quicky...and I am still getting the honey sweetness..but with that I also have what I think I am registering is the lotus..happily I am reporting that the lotus is NOT morphing into my lotus gorilla..

 

Couple of minutes on skin: Oh.my. The melange of everything is amazing.. I wish I could identify the notes on my skin..but unfortunately for me, my nose isn't being very helpful right now From what I can discern, Kali is definitely complex..but in a good way..dark but not sinister, sweet, but not cloying...very womanly...I think the dark chocolate is adding an anchor to the florals with the honey/wine adding varying tones of sweetness...

 

Dry: Completely dry, I actually get the sweet tabacco with a hint of wine sweetness..of the red variety. This has impressive staying power as I smelled the complete drydown on my wrist this morning after sleeping with it on for 7+ hours.

 

Bottom Line: Kali is UNBELIEVABLE. What a complex scent..amazing job Beth. I find Kali perfect for fall/winter..and I have to say..it has so many *faces* to it, it makes me look forward to trying it again and again just to get the opportunity to ride this scent of Kali-so many notes that work well together..one minute the florals are in the forefront..seamlessly it changes and it's the chocolate/wine..then again, the honey/sweet tabacco emerges...this scent keeps me guessing...in a good way.WOW.

[Blood onmy hands]

Kali sounded so good. I was so lusting over the blend of wine, tobacco, and honey... and it was PERFECT when I first applied it. It was delicious tobacco and honey, sort of smelling chocolatey. But this stage was gone in about five minutes and it was completely taken over by rose and lotus. Thus turning Kali into yet another boring floral blend on my skin.

[Muppetk]

In the bottle: Oh YUCK, sharp and icky. Am tempted not to put this on.

 

On wet: oh okay, the sharp scents disappeared quickly. Now it's lightly floral, and pretty. Possibly a light fruit note? Maybe that's a hint of red wine?

 

A few minutes later: lightly rose. This is the first light rose I've sniffed from the lab as opposed to a rich rose. Interesting.

 

Later: the scent stays consistant. It's not a heavy scent by any means though on me. I'd probably have to slather this one. Funny, it doesn't sound like it'd be a light scent. Very pretty, but not particularly complex unless my nose is still confused from trying on Dorian earlier. Somewhat dissappointing though as I was looking forward to the nifty complexity. I love the more complex scents. Will have to try again tommorrow without the Dorian confusion.

[moukin]

In the bottle, it smells sooo rich and intoxicating...with a bit of a sharp sting in there somewhere. All the smells are apparant, but especially the wine/honey/tobacco mix.

 

On me, wet....definitely rich and sweet. The honey and wine are strong. I can smell the florals behind, but not very strongly....I think it's because the florals are of the darker, richer type. At this point, I was quite nervous that those florals would go too light and girly on me.

 

Drydown, the honey is staying there, much to my happiness. The florals start to come through a bit more, but they're still dark and rich and quite pleasant to me.

 

It's been about an hour, and this may morph on me a bit in a couple more hours...but I absolutely LOVE this fragrance overall. The slight stinging darkness I can smell in the bottle dies off and gives way to the honey/wine sweetness that stays.

 

I'm VERY tempted to order a 5ml of this.

 

Later: I love this scent in every phase. It's dark and rich and makes me feel very sexy.

[tesao]

i tried kali today. waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too strong.

 

it is also too floral. there are lots of really nice undertones of spice, but you have to get past too many flowers -- cloying, almost rotten sweet flowers -- to get to it.

 

it is probably the lotus, which hates my body chemistry.

 

::sigh::

 

another one for the swap pile!

[reina]

I've just recieved a bunch of imps from a very generous fellow forumite (thank you! ), and one of them was Kali.

 

This is the only blend with lotus that works on me. seriously. At first I was taken aback because at first sniff it smells like an alcoholic chocolate truffle (which great, but not as fragrance).

I decided to give it a chance.

 

Red wine usually doens't work well with my chemistry. I could smell it while the oil was drying down, but somehow the honey and florals are more prominant. evetually they take over.

 

So there it is on my skin 7 hours later, honeyed oriental blooms with just a smidgen of wine. I like it a lot. I'm blown away by the fact that it has lotus and hasn't turned all bubblegum on me.

 

I'll be wearing this to the big salsa party on Saturday night.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Straight out of the vial this is an odd scent to me. Something that brings about certain memories but I can't place the scents. There is something very "grown up" about this scent, and it has a very womanly, exotic smell.

 

On me:

hmmm more oddness. This is so familiar to me. It makes me think of walking into one of my favorite oil merchants at our local Renn Fest every September. It's the scent of womanly perfumes mingling with the outdoor smells. Outside the shop is a food vendor and you can smell sweet and warm desserts, next to that the wine vendor. Right outside the oil shop you'd find lovely, delicate flowers, just gently mixing with the scent of the oils.

 

Final note:

I do so love this scent. I wasn't sure I would at first, because it was striking me as so familiar but I couldn't place it. The cocoa smell is more cocoa buttery than chocolate on me (as Andrabell noted), and the honey definitely comes through as light and feminine rather than overwhelmingly sweet. After about 10 minutes, the florals come through but they smell wonderful. I wish I could figure out exactly what floral it is that I'm smelling in particular because unlike most florals, I actually really like it. This is very unique and I will definitely be buying a big bottle of this.

 

 

EDIT: After giving it a good sniff in the bottle again I finally know what it makes me think of JUST in the imp (not when I'm wearing it at all) - it smells like a maragarita that is WAY heavy on the tequila. Seriously. Actually, if I put a bit more on, I smell like tequila for about 60 seconds haha.

 

Also of note, after an hour or so, this is a very nice sweet pipe tobacco smell, with hints of honey.

Edited May 29, 2005 by Brianne

[yeahbutnobut]

Kali

 

In the imp: a luscious floral blend with a slight boozy kick.

Wet on skin: there's a huge explosion of scents-light delicate blooms underscored by tobacco and dark chocolate. What a mixture! It's light and feminine-floral, yet has a dark side to it.

Dry on skin: I can smell those luscious blooms again, there's a slightly 'off' note there but it isn't too bad yet, just a bit distracting…and yes, I can smell the tobacco, but it's not making me smell like a smoker, yet. There's so much in this blend, I can't pick out individual notes mainly because there are so many, and they are all mingling in quite a big clash as opposed to a perfect blend. I suppose this is appropriate concerning the goddess this blend is named for!

After a while: that off note goes after five minutes, thankfully, leaving a gorgeous floral smell, so exotic and full bodied, a womanly scent. But there's still that sharp kick from the wine and tobacco, but its not as noticeable now. I now really this flowery scent, so exotic and heady-it reminds me of jasmine, but I can also smell lotus and rose there too-and maybe hibiscus. This is growing on me-I love this floral note I'm getting, it's the fragrance of beautiful Indian blooms scenting the evening air! it's also slightly fruity as well...

Verdict: this is a chaotic blend of feminine flowers, exotic and perfume-like, but with an undertone of dark, clashing notes like tobacco and wine…it's womanly and luscious, and yet has a dark side to it. it's not a gentle fluffy flowery blend, this is powerful stuff! At first I thought it smelt a bit weird, but it does improve nicely as time passes, the flowers become even more heady and lovely until it gets to the point when it becomes truly gorgeous. But the first stage was a bit funny, there was an 'off' note that was a bit weird. But five minutes afterwards-amazing tropical floral explosion of WOW!!! however, I do prefer other BPAL florals to this, but none the less, it's still amazing.

[quikslvr]

From imp: Sweet, boozy start. Sexy, musky. Juicy also describes it well--berry-y, even. Rose peeks after a bit, then the tobacco. Neat, sweet drydown. Very changeable throughout: almost a sweet, romantic floral at the end.

 

Realized upon application from new 5 mL that it's awfully commercial-smelling in its waft--wasn't as much of a fan of it last night. Not sure if it's a different batch to blame, my chemistry at the time, or just a further study of the scent.

[Krista]

Musk, rose, tobacco and a lot of floral usually spells disaster for me, however this was on the top of my wishlist. It’s very strong, and very floral. I can’t pick out what it is that I don’t like, but it’s probably the rose, musk or lotus. I can’t decide. It’s a very interesting blend, different from a lot of Beth’s floral oils. I can’t pick out any tobacco at all, but I think a bottle with a bit more tobacco might be a lot nicer for some reason. It’s just a bit too bright and musky for me.

[Tess]

I am very much a worshipper of the Kalika the Black, so I simply had to immediately order this scent.

 

In the vial - Ooo, I like this! It's a sweet, boozy dark chocolate! It reminds me of eating little bourbon chocolates on a hot day. Or of having mole in the summer months, a rich mole with too much wine.

 

Wet - The chocolate's backed off and the florals are more noticable now. And the sweetness has kicked in.

 

Drying - Goodness, the wine note is making me light-headed. *laughs* It's a sweet foral on me, very lotus. But... even as I sniff it, it's fading, fading... I can barely smell it at all!

 

Dry (1 hour later) - Well, the chocolate and tobacco came out just a touch, but it's still mostly lotus and hibiscus on me. And it's FAINT. No throw at all.

 

Overall - I'll have to give it another chance later, but it's not at all what I expected. I had really hoped that it would be darker on me, less foral and more powerful. *sighs* Ah, well...

[wickedgoddess]

Origns - imp received in a swap

 

Preconceived Notions - Kali is one of those scents that I thought I had tried before, but everytime I read the description I couldn't understand how I could not love it. So I got another imp and gave it a(nother) try.

 

Wet - chocolate, wine, honey, and a touch flowers.

 

Dry - one of the things I love aboout Kali is that the "offeratory" notes disappear on drydown. Of course I would love it if they stuck around, but I think it's very cool, that first you make the offering and then you get to the actual fragrance. As soon as this dries the chocolate, honey, etc. float away, leaving a rich floral bouquet. I am not a big floral fan, and none of my favorite florals are in this, but I don't care, I love this anyway, There is still a bit of red wine left behind with the flowers, and this is rich, full-bodied wine, none of that grape smell here. The lotus is behaving itself as well, in fact, I can't even smell lotus, which is a good thing. This smells lush and juicy and absolutely gorgeous. This is the perfect summer scent and I am getting a big bottle immediately! The question is not whether this will end up in my top 10, but how high it will go. I <3 Kali!

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 5.

[mistri]

I have a cold at the moment, so this is a rather muted review, but I'll try my best.

 

The florals are almost insignificant to my nose. In the bottle it's a dark and overwhelming scent - I felt it'd be rather overpowering on my skin.

 

But, onto the skin, and it's not as scary as I thought. To begin with, the tobacco is quite strong (a little too much for me), but then it softened to let the chocolate, wine, balsam and honey through.

 

This bottle is going to be a keeper for me (got it unsniffed) and it's definitely going to be an evening scent.

[wingedcorset]

In the bottle:

A weird overly perfumey floral plastickey ick. A tiny bit of spice somewhere in the background. Fruit? Wine? I think that's what I am picking up as plastic.

 

Wet:

Flowers. Spicy flowers and a little bit of powdrer. Some sort of green stems?

 

Drydown:

Honey? Honey and wine? and a little chocolate.

 

The next morning:

A really foul BO sort of smell, but I shower in the morning, so this isn't too bad, I guess.

 

Verdict:

Unknown. I wrote swap at the bottom of my notes, but I like the description that I wrote out here. I'll put it back into the "to be tried" box, I guess.

[elphaba]

Kali is an incredibly chaotic scent, which makes sense, I guess. I'm amazed at how Beth can make an oil go from alcoholic to flowery to foody all in the course of a few hours.

 

In the bottle and just on, Kali smelled like wine and chocolate to me but within moments of hitting my skin, the flowers began to come out. For a while, it was an almost exclusively floral scent. After half an hour or so, everything comes into balance but it's interesting that the two parts of the scent stay split. There's a high wine/berry note floating over a lower chocolatey (and maybe the tobacco?) scent on the bottom. I can feel each one distinctly with the flowers still there flitting through the whole thing.

 

I tried Kali twice because I find the description and the notes quite appealing, but the floral phase was too strong for me (both times, I felt a headache coming on, although it never fully materialized), so this one is a reluctant swap.

[mmcfa2]

initially: wine , chocolate and tobbaco

 

slowly I smell honey and rose comming into play...

 

OH nooo. I get that odd berry note that i have yet to identify

 

and then kali becomes a berry wine floral and does nothing for me

 

so sad

[stardreamer]

This is about the 4th time I've worn this, trying to formulate a review -- and, still, all I can really come up with is "light sweet fruity/floral". This is an amazingly well-blended scent; no single note ever really comes to the fore.

 

For some reason, I can't smell wine in any of Beth's blends; it always reads as "berry" to me, so that's probably where the fruitiness is coming from. Similarly, tobacco tends to read as "green" and not much else. I don't get any chocolate or honey from this at all, though there's an underlying sweetness. The florals are not overwhelming at all; wearing this is like being out in a garden full of subtly-scented flowers, with a fruit tree or two next door. Staying power is light to moderate, though it might have more hold in cooler weather.

 

Bottom line: I like it and will certainly use up my imp, but it's not at all what I would have expected for Kali; there's no dark underpinning, which makes it feel a little... unbalanced... as an expression of this Goddess-aspect. It reminds me a bit of Nefertiti, another one for which I've been having trouble coming up with a review.

 

(cross-posted to alchemylab)

[dcmo]

Light, airy, soft sweet flowers. Very feminine, and good for an everyday scent.

[telesilla]

Um, how you get Kali out of any of these notes, I have no idea. I think I wanted to try it just to see if it worked.

 

In the bottle and wet: Once again, too many notes. It's sweet and kinda dark.

 

Dry: Ah rose, my old nemesis, we meet again. Soap. A really nice rosey soap, but still, soap.

 

Off to the swap pile if Nancy doesn't want it.

[Caltha]

Kali

 

I just received my first load of imps from BPAL and I'm very excited to try them all. The first one I tried was Kali, and I have to warn in advance that I've only used a few commercial perfumes before and don't have a trained nose. There are so many notes in Kali I can't pick out any, it's just a quite uncomplicated sweet smell on me. At first, I feel the incense quite strongly, but it fades and a sugary sweetness takes over. I'm thinking of candy, I guess it's the honey and chocolate. The incense smell reminds me of an incense also named Kali that's supposed to smell hibiscus, so I guess the hibiscus note is hibiscus incense rather than fresh hibiscus flower. I don't feel any of the more "adult" ingredients like tobacco and wine, but it's still quite an "adult" scent since it's so heavy and warm and sweet. It's nice, but not that original, I'm hoping for more complicated smells, interesting clashes and distinct notes in my other imps.

 

Edited to add: Today I mixed some Kali with water and sprayed all over myself. I really like it now, perhaps it's just my nose being more trained after sniffing through my first imps. It's still sort of candy sweet, but not at all as incensey, it's more like hibiscus flower than hibiscus incense now. The sweetness of fresh, tropical flowers which reminds me of Bayou but a little less sweet and more oriental/exotic. Like Bayou, this could be the scent in a rainforest-mimicking greenhouse. Standing really close to a huge blossom, that is, not the vague smell of greenery and moist earth but the intense smell of nectar. When wet I thought I got a hint of the chocolate too, which I didn't get before. It's still a sort of "typical" smell, not all that original, but very pleasant and I don't own anything else like it (the closest thing being Bayou) so I almost regret swapping my freebie imp and only having the imp I ordered left... But not really, swapping for new imps to try is great fun!

Edited September 6, 2005 by Caltha

[melrose]

In imp: Holy Kali - this sucker means business!

 

Wet, on skin: I'm flummoxed. I can't identify what I'm smelling. The only thing I can say with certainty is that it's not a cool scent, definitely warm.

 

Near drydown: I mostly get the wine and honey - can't detect the chocolate, tobacco, or any of the other notes. My skin chemistry doesn't like this very much - I'm surprised, because I've done well with honey and/or wine in other scents.

 

Middle drydown - Wow, this goes through lots of stages. I've never before experienced the B.O. note others have mentioned, but I just did with Kali - yuck city.

 

Thankfully, the B.O. stage didn't last long. Now it's spicy, somewhat powdery, I get a few florals, a whiff of the chocolate - but the pronounced smell that's been present from the beginning pretty much overpowers everything else - it doesn't scream honey or wine, but they're definitely in there.

 

Far drydown: Way-too-sweet cotton candy. I won't re-purchase, but don't go by me. There are so many notes in here, it probably smells quite different on everyone.

[sarahj]

Kali

 

received in a trade

 

in vial: honey and flowers

 

wet: smells strongly of honey and lotus with faint hints of chocolate and rose

 

dry: this dries into a nice floral...the honey and chocolate disappear (I never did smell the wine or the tobacco)

 

verdict: staying power is good...lasts about 7 hours on me...I will use up my imp, but most likely won't be purchasing a big bottle of this

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: I swear there's berries in here. I get a slight hint of tobacco and chocolate, which surprisingly don't make me want to vomit here.

 

First on: Now it's all balsam, honey, and some sort of flower. I actually hope the other scents come back, or it's just too sweet. I never pictured Kali to be a sweet diety.

 

Drydown: This got even sweeter, if that's possible. I'll keep it probably for ritual uses if I should ever need it, but I don't know if I'll wear it out.