Kathmandu

[AliBabble]

The scent of sacred incense swirling up the steep slopes to Swayambhunath Stupa. Saffron, blessed sandalwood, Himalayan cedar and the miraculous lotus of the Buddha with chiuri bark and Nepalese spices.

a frimp from the lab...let's see...it reminds me of lemony almonds when i sniff it out of the imp. on my skin, it's cedar-y, warm and cool at the same time - like wintergreen, a bit. smells a lot like carpathian mountains actually, which i like. i like this fine, but it's not a scent i'll probably wear often (not particularly sensual or sexy) - it's uplifting tho, a mixture of woodiness and wintergreen - outdoorsy, but quiet and soft. maybe a bit lacking in pizazz, i'm afraid, but pleasant enough - especially if you like wintergreen-like smells (i do.)

[tempestteapot]

Cedar is very powerful in this one. I didn't get much in the incense.

[oh_the_horror]

In bottle: Dry spicy woods, sweet bubblegum, root beer.

 

Wet and drying down: Root beer.

 

Dry: Sweet sweet root beer. I don't even want to try to pick things out. Every sniff makes me sad. This broke my heart. It sounded so amazing. I wish I knew what makes certain blends smell like root beer on me.

[smallvoice]

Oddly enough, I too get the root beer and a hint of wintergreen. It must be something in how the saffron mixes with the cedar on my skin? I don't know. It's really peculiar. As it dries, I get a hint of pencil shavings. This is really a strange one. I don't know what to make of it, but it's not for me. It's not so much the root beer itself as it is the fizzy foam at the top of a really good one. Huh. I really think it is tied into the saffron, though.

 

Tried it again today. Uh. It smells like smoked meat. With a hint of mint.

Edited January 14, 2007 by cordia

[filigree_shadow]

I like this. It's a lovely dry wood scent with some spices that aren't too spicy. A little bit smoky and incensey, too. Cedar seems to be the most prominent note, but it's softer here than in other perfumes. Blends beautifully with the sandalwood. Not getting any mint or root beer that other reviewers are noting.

 

This imp is labeled Old Kathmandu rather than Kathmandu, so it's probably a bit older than the scent other people are reviewing. It's quite lovely, in my opinion, so I think this is one of the ones that's better when its aged.

[hipslike___cinderella]

Straight from the vial, this is very cedar... but my nose SWEARS to me it's wintergreen. It's a clean, crisp, clear white cedar/wintergreen smell, like the peak of a mountain. It's also medicinal to me; in fact, especially the very first time I opened it, it smelled precisely like a tattoo parlor to me. Which I didn't mind.

 

Wet on the skin, it's mostly the same wintergreen-cedar scent, except the lotus peaks through, just a tiny bit. Once dried, it only changes slightly, to add some spicy notes. I never got the sandalwood; but then again, sandalwood seems to have a difficult time showing up on my skin.

 

Unfortunately, this pretty perfume fades fast. After 2 hours it had disappeared, practically without a trace. Shame shame. I'll enjoy my imp but I'll move on.

[The_Merf]

How old is my imp--this baby's got Old Kathmandu on the label!

 

In the imp: That is some mighty powerful aged woods, y'all. They are heavily smoked, and I think that's not just the cedar, but the sandalwood too.

 

Wet: This goes on very much as it smells in the imp. It is an overpowering smoked wood, very dusty and almost "bone-dry." I often get this with orris, but it's undoubtedly cedar here.

 

Drydown and wear: The variety of spices are more evident on drydown. I don't get anything in common w/Scherezade and other saffron blends, so maybe it's the Nepalese spices. This is an interesting little fellow (though I get no mint here and wonder if that's part of "new" Kathmandu...mint usually doesn't work on me), and I'll mull over the imp, at least.

 

Drydown and wear:

[Trish]

In the imp: sweet and sharp woods. There's a kind of menthol note too.

 

Wet: Same.

 

Drydown: The cedar emerges quite quickly and tones down the menthol a bit.

 

Dry: This is far better now. The menthol has almost completely gone and the cedar hasn't gone overpoweringly sharp on me as it sometimes does. In fact it's quite soft. A little spice has appeared, not a lot though. After a while a smidgeon of sandalwood appears and then lotus, making it even softer. And more floral than I'd like. I'm not overly fond of lotus I have to say.

 

Swap, but only because of the lotus.

Edited March 2, 2007 by Trishek

[storme]

In the imp: cedar and spice, lots and lots of woods to this.

 

On me, wet: mm, sandalwood and spices and something almost menthol-ish. Interesting.

 

On me, dry: cedar and spice and sandalwood, sweet and slightly medicinal.

 

Verdict: this is nice, but I don't think it's nicer than other woodsy scents I have, so I'll pass it on to someone who'll love it more.

[lightgatherer]

This smells to me just like All Souls with a little bit of cedar mixed in. Unfortunately, I don't get any of the spices or other notes - just a sweet and slightly fruity incense. I definitely like this, but I don't think I have a pressing need for more since I do have a bottle of All Souls.

[Jilara]

Wet: root beer with a cedar chaser. Well, I like root beer...

 

Drydown: a background spice base comes up as the root beer becomes less aggressive. The cedar doesn't really seem identifiable at this point, just an intriguing back note.

 

Dry: cedar coming out again, and mingling with sandalwood. The spices add intrigue at the back, and the root beer has gone away. It smells cold, which is odd, with all the spices in it. Definitely chilly behind the spice.

[asciident]

Wet: Spicy sandalwood.

 

First on: Incense mixed with creamy, slightly sweet lotus for a while. Then the lotus stepped to the background and cedar amped up.

 

Dry: Cedar, very woody, with just a hint of a creamy incense behind it. Hmm. I'm going to have to try it again later. The more it dries, the more it smells like plain cedar, which is fine except that I remind myself of my late hamster's wood shavings...

[RemAkimichi]

In the Bottle: Woods! Cedar and Sandalwood. Somebody mentioned "root beer" and that fits better than my original thought of something spearaminty.

 

On me (Wet): Oooh sandalwood incense and that minty touch. Not quite root beer anymore, but still sweet. Reminds me heavily of Cathedral with a hint of Morrocan Mint tea and Nag Champa. LOVE!

 

On me (Dry): Incense, lovely, smoky incense. The sandalwood is still strongest on me, but the cedar comes through in a very nice way, smelling like old cedar chests filled with dry linens and herbs or spices. I'm left with the image of a meditation room in a buddhist temple, bare dark wood foors and walls, orange cloth, and a view overlooking green wet woods and a waterfall below.

 

Overall: To me, this is like the beautiful love child of Sri Lanka and Cathedral. The Eastern touch of exotic spices and expensive sandalwood meets with the smoky incense of cedar to bring together a truly gorgeous scent for anyone that loves the smell of churches and temples. I'm very pleased that this one seems to have a much better throw and lasts longer than either of my other two favorites.

 

Instant true love, I must get a bottle of this.

Edited April 14, 2007 by C O U R T of M I R A C L E S

[cranberry]

Initially, there’s a lovely wood scent – mainly cedar, a touch of smoke and sandalwood. After it’s been on for about a minute, there’s a wintergreen scent. It sticks around for a while, then poof, the whole scent is gone.

[Nia]

I so much wanted to like this one. Sadly, on me it smells like something very strongly bitter and medicinal. Like a very bitter version of Vaporub, only it's not really Vicks Vaporub, it's just.... nasty. I don't detect incense, either fresh (unburnt) or smoky, and I don't think that cedar is supposed to be this bitter. 've never been so sure that a scent was meant to be swapped.

[mystery213]

This was a very spicy scent straight from the bottle... I usually like spicy stuff, but I actually set this one aside for a week or so before deciding to go ahead try it on myself to gain the true effect...

 

When this finally happened I was pleasantly surprised as a very intriguing mixture of incense and spicy rootbeer hit my nose. It was a delicious scent when wet, and I silently reminded myself to try more oils on before passing them up...

 

It lasted for a minute or two, before the rootbeer smell mellowed out into more of a cedarwood scent, at which point I could pick up an array of spices in there, as well as the saffron pretty distinctly. The spices died down, and the cedarwood took over a bit too much however after it dried down a while, and I ended up smelling like cedar chips about 20 minutes into it. It was beautiful while it lasted though...

Edited May 8, 2007 by mystery213

[Naamah_Darling]

It's really hard to describe this in the bottle . . . it's quite sandalwoody, with a distinct cedar veneer, yet the two do not blend. It smells a bit like Coke, or some kind of cola. There's something swirling in between the cedar and the sandalwood that's only waiting to come out on my skin.

 

On, it becomes cedar and spice, the sandalwood underlying it in an almost root-beery bloom. I like this, it's woody and barky and rather manly, but not in a sweaty, animal way. It's dry, smoky, and not at all sweet. I can't smell the lotus in it at all. There might be peppermint in here, topping out that root-beer note. Fascinating.

 

As it ages, it smooths to a tangle of smoky, root-beery, woody, spicy notes – it sounds like a hopeless melange, and it is quite varied and unorthodox, and yet, it's very pleasant. Not that refined, but quite cerebral and very serene.

 

Not really for me, but quite likeable nevertheless.

[PurpleHeather]

In the bottle: A very smoky, slightly sharp scent. Oddly comforting, though I can't pin down why.

 

Wet: Still smoky, with some sort of zing lurking behind it.

 

Later: Mellow, incensey smoke. Nice, but my nose isn't good enough to get any individual notes out of it.

 

Overall, about a 7/10.

[TrinitySydney]

In the bottle ....wintergreen?!?

 

On, incense, cedar and wintergreen. Wow..what a combo. I'm a sucker for imagery so I really wanted to like this one, but the combination of these notes = Bengay & Auto shops. Heh.

 

Wearing Kathmandu, I feel like an old person before my time. I'm not even sure I'd like this as a room scent.

 

Maybe I'll have to try this one again sometime and give it another chance, but for right now, it's not a winner. *shrugs*

[CrazyPretzel]

D'oh. Yeah. What the heck? Wet, this reminds me of Hamadryad -- that weird, wintergreen, somewhat old people-y smell. There's a more dominant cedar note in here than there was in Hamadryad, but even though cedar seems to be a woodsy scent I can pull off successfully it's not enough to make this a winner. Anyway, I already have Sri Lanka for my cedar needs.

[kwsix]

In the imp, I smell a strangely appealing combination of cedar, birch beer, and smoke. Interesting . . . I like birch beer

 

On my skin, Kathmandu is almost completely wintergreen by way of birch beer. It isn't bad, but it isn't something that I'm particularly interested in smelling like. It does make me long for the diet birch beer that I can't find in Virginia. As it dries, it gets more creamy and the sandalwood peeks out a bit. I think this would be a good home scent (think sachet), but I really can't imagine using it as a personal scent. It is interesting, though, so it's worth a sniff if only for the experience. It opened my nasal passages all the way, so it would probably be good for times of sinus congestion.

Edited June 15, 2007 by evilmistressoftoast

[LadyCrow]

In imp: Clove! Where I'm getting this, I dunno, but Clove! Clove! Clove!

 

Wet: Ah, now the aromatic woods come out. Cedar, and a sharp, clear mint like wintergreen.

 

Drydown: Absolutely pungent and aromatic; great throw. For me, the sandalwood is buried very deeply beneath the cedar and "birch beer" notes; like some other reviewers, I couldn't find the lotus at all -- leading me to believe that it's not the same one that my skin amped so hugely in Blood Lotus.

 

Verdict: If I've got a craving to smell like birch beer and wintergreen, I will totally lay hands on some Kathmandu. It just doesn't smell... particularly Buddhist to me. (At least I had better luck with this one than I did Namaste, which absolutely vanished on me. I've not tried Kurukulla yet.)

[luna65]

Thanks to kmasden for the imp.

 

Imp: The tang of cedar and the sweetness of lotus.

 

Skin: I like the combination of the cedar and the sandalwood, it has a lovely smokey quality to it. The spices sort of sit under those notes, especially the saffron. It really does give a wonderful evocation of a sacred space high above the cares of everyday life.

 

Drydown: I get more of the spices in the drydown, the wood notes have shifted to provide a base. I get just the tinest bit of sweetness with the lotus, but this is primarily woods and spice - two of my favorite things - and one of my favorites of the Wanderlusts.

Edited July 10, 2007 by luna65

[Styx]

Kathmandu

very pale yellow oil

 

frImp (Thank you!) : Sweet, minty, a bit nutty and herbal.

 

Skin: Started off as a minty rootbeer. I LOVE the smell of rootbeer, so this is a good thing for me.

As it dries, the spices and saffron come out, and the rootbeer morphs into cedar. Spicy and smoky.

At this point it also reminded me of the sweet and woody bath salts my grandma used to imitate the minerals in hotsprings with.

How comforting... then: Saffron started to pick a fight.

 

I'm sad my skin suddenly decided to amp Saffron. I would have bought a bottle otherwise.

I still can't bring myself to hate this, so I'm hanging on to the imp.

 

People that like Laudanum may like Kathmandu.

[n1k1ta]

The first half hour of Kathmandu was root beer with anise. I have to say that it was completely awesome. The cedar really starts to break through after an hour and it brings with it a pepper note.

 

After four hours, Kathmandu became sandalwood and, I guess, chiuri bark. It’s resin sweetness with a hint of exotic wood. There might be a floral note hiding in the background. It’s not very distinct. I still like Kathmandu at the end of its life, but I’m not crazy about it.