Cairo

[gingersnapp]

The essence of holy Kyphi, beloved incense of the Egyptian Gods.

When I put this on, my husband said I smelled like the Catholic Church.

[Ajila]

Wet on me this was lemon grass and sandlewood. As it dried the lemon grass faded and the sandlewood became much, much more strong. About two hours in it turned into incense with a little touch of fennel. On the whole on me this was a really strange blend, I liked it in parts, but I don't think I'll be keeping it.

[Khaman]

Initially very musky out of the bottle, began to dry into some serious (but lovely) evergreen/resin on me. Eventually went powdery after several hours, but a very pleasant powder. I liked this one. Dunno if I'd get a bottle, I'll give it a few more wears and see what more I think of it.

[herdivineshadow]

In the bottle and immediately after being on my skin, it smells just like Turkish Delight. Not a good smell for me, as I now only tentatively might nibble on turkish delight after years and years of hating it.

 

After a few hours, it becomes less sickly sweet and a bit more incensey and spicy, which is much better.

 

 

 

edited for embarassing typo

Edited August 15, 2005 by herdivineshadow

[Dustbunnyxox]

From the bottle: flat incensy smell. something sweet hidden in there but i'm not 100% sure what.

 

On me: OH MY GOSH. this one is absolutely gorgeous. incense smell has left, and now it's just sweet. there's a slight fire-y smell in there, but the sweetness makes it all alright.

 

Two hours later: i loved this one, but it kept getting sweeter and sweeter to the point where I had to wash it off. next time i'll use much less.

[QueenFae]

It's a gritty, hot sand blown type incense smell, probably perfect for Cairo. Not a super spicy incense, but a little more on the sweeter side with a tiny bit of musky kick. A yellow/orange smell for me. Conjours images of Cleopatra on her throne.

[Muppetk]

Wet: I swear to god it's Life Saver's incense.

 

Drying: less fruit-candy, still that strange incensy smell. So far, still not me.

 

Dry: Slightly Pledge-like lemon with that odd incense-spice.

 

Nope. Not me.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Sweet incense.

 

On Skin: It is the very essence of Egyptian incense. There is also a sweet fruity note in the background. It’s light and fades quickly to just a plain soft incense note. Sadly it didn’t do too much for me… I prefer Nefertiti and Anubis.

[Lilithlefay]

In the imp: wine, a little fig, and something else. I'm bad at picking notes but maybe myrrh. It smells rich

Wet on the skin: lemons, almost candyish. Where did that beautiful richness go? This smells like lemons with something dark underneath.

Drydown: So much better. The wine is coming out again, a little fig, the lemon scent has really faded down, a little floral, some musk. Much closer to what I originally smelled in the imp. Resiny, incense, woodsy, but not heady. Definately my cup of tea.

[quikslvr]

Sweet, sweet incense. A bit of a fruitier (wine?) topnote than a lot of BPAL's incense. Very dry, though--not really juicy. Settles down into a warm, comforting honeyed incense scent. Frankincense or some such?

[Blood onmy hands]

Cairo was not a good scent at all on me. It starts out smelling like honey cough drops and some sort of lemony bathroom cleanser.

 

In the drydown it smells like a charred orange/herbal glaze that reminds me of BBQing chicken . It's sweet and smoky. I can't imagine ever wearing this.

 

This will be one for my swap pile.

[LiberAmoris]

Cairo is all lemony honeyed golden resins on me, and is so much better than I thought it would be! It does start off candy sweet, but the drydown is almost second-skin on me, very earthy and sexy and natural.

 

I'm going to try this in my oil burner as well. I'd love to smell this around me in the air!

[zenvodunista]

orange resin.

 

huh.

 

n.

[theshapeshifter]

In the imp: Sweet, very dry incense.

 

Initial application: At first it does something like a drier, flatter version of Cathedral on me, but then a familiar scent starts creeping in.

 

Drydown: Oh dear, the familiar scent is the cleaning-products aisle at the grocery store. My skin chemistry obviously disagrees with this one.

 

Alas, Cairo and I weren't meant for each other. Off to swaps!

[idontwannawait]

In the Bottle

Orange, but in a pleasant gourmet drink mix way. Kinda playdoh? But... good. Hard to explain. Not natural, but inviting.

 

On Skin

More powdery? Sandy? Like candle wax. Very subtle spicy, but not sweet. Baby powder smell is coming out. Some exotic fruit/flower thing that I can't identify. Jasmine? Dunno.

 

After ten minutes - Nice, warm, vaguely spicy/waxy. May be a nice room scent.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 2/5

Summarised in one word: Lemony

 

In the imp: Sweet, and vaguely green. Something like lemon, and grape. Bubblegumish, but not bubblegum.

 

On skin, wet: Lemons! This isn't strong, overpowering lemon (like June Gloom), but definitely very lemony. Lemon isn't a favourite of mine, so this isn't a very nice scent for me, so far.

 

On skin, dry: Spicy, incensey lemon. Strange and exotic. Interesting. Might be grand in an oil burner; on my skin, not so much.

 

Conclusion: I might like to have my apartment smell of Cairo, but not my skin.

[Monster]

I smell wine at first, red wine with incense. On my skin this morphs into something very citrusy. I'm not getting incense or resin anymore. It's just a light, herbal/fruity/citrus type of a scent.

 

This scent confuses me. Haha I'm not too sure what to think of it. The breakfast cereal, Trix seems to come to mind. While I love Trix, I don't want to smell like it. Off to swaps.

[Miss Lynx]

I was looking forward to Cairo, because I really like Kyphi incense. It smelled a lot sweeter in the imp than I was expecting, but I wasn't particularly put off by that because one of the traditional ingredients in Kyphi is wine, and the wine note BPAL uses can smell really candy-sweet at first, but usually dries down to something more reasonable.

 

On me, at first sniff it smelled a lot like Delphi, which makes sense since I'd imagine they have a few ingredients in common -- Delphi is bay laurel, honey, wine and incense, and Kyphi is an incense that contains wine and honey. I like Delphi, so this was promising. But then it began to evolve in an altogether different direction.

 

The first sign of trouble was when my wife walked by my desk and said "Uh-oh -- something really doesn't smell good in here!" I sniffed my wrists again, and sure enough, it had morphed into a sharp, pungent, cloyingly sweet scent. It was a bit like the overly-sweet-commercial-perfume scent that Dragon's Heart, Snake Oil, and a handful of others turn into on me, but with an unpleasantly sharp, medicinal note injected into it for added nastiness.

 

I stuck it out for a while to see if it would improve, but eventually gave in and washed it off.

 

So, no Cairo for me. I don't know what exactly it has in it -- Kyphi traditionally has 16 ingredients, some of which are no longer available in modern times, so people make various substitutions for them. But as much as I like Kyphi incense, something in Cairo doesn't like me.

 

Grade: D+

[SeaMonkey]

A little resiny, maybe some wine? Nothing really stood out to me. It disappeared as soon as it hit my skin. I'm starting to think maybe this was one of the diluted oils that hit lj for a bit.

[sookster]

upon initial applicaition this comes off as very grapey and winey.... makes me

thirsty

then a bunch of fruity goodness pops out.......or is that tea and honey??

hrrrmmm......

very different and very long lasting i need to keep my lil' imp and give this a few

more tries before the verdict is out

[gangstaknitta]

In bottle: a very purple-y incense, very sweet and not at all what I expected

 

Wet: still very purple and a little earthy

 

Dry: this morph into a true incense smell, darkly fruity, earthy and regal. it's not too strong and has a moderate throw

[try_infrared]

I was really really excited to receive Cairo in a swap because I was sure I couldn't go wrong with this one...

 

in the bottle/imp: sweet wine, honey, figs, and a touch of lemon (a foreshadowing of what was to come)... this is really sweet, but I like it!

 

on my skin, wet: the sweetness of the figs and honey is completely overpowered by lemon - and as others have said, it's not a light, perky lemon, but definitely heavy, like Pledge. However, there is definitely some nice resin underneath the lemon as well as some amber.

 

on drydown: Although the resins become more pronounced, the lemon never dissipates and instead becomes sickly and powdery on me... and I developed my first throbbing BPAL headache. I definitely couldn't wear this.

 

I'm starting to wonder if my nose just isn't well enough BPAL trained to accurately assess a scent as complex as Cairo, but I just could not wear this, no matter how much I want to I'll definitely try it again later, and if all else fails, as a room scent.

Edited January 7, 2006 by try_infrared

[merebrillante]

In the vial: Gah! Grape cough syrup! (Edit change: I originally thought grapes, but then once it was on my skin, I smelled chocolate too, and I thought, Why would they combine chocolate with grapes?, so I changed it to cherry. But it's not cherry, it's grape.)

 

Wet: Chocolate-covered grapes.

 

Drydown: Oh, there's the spice. I'm not familiar with Kyphi, but it's definitely spicy. Warm and strong, not as thick or wet as patchouli generally is, but sharper than sandalwood or dragon's blood.

 

Dry: I never get any of the lemon notes that others do, just that resin. I think they stuffed kyphi into mummies' corpses in the embalming process. I don't really want to smell like a dead Egyptian, even a dead Egyptian princess. Not for me.

Edited January 9, 2006 by merebrillante

[urraca]

Thick and sticky. Patchouli? Figs and dates. Licourice and honey Resins. Chocolate, yes. It smells like the incense used in a religion that is not mine. It smells like the incense that is burning in the brothel just before the drugs start to work and they rob you and strip you naked and leave you in an alley far from the main part of the souk.

[UploadedLobster]

Never smelt Kyphi incense. Bought this unsniffed because I was on an incense-oil tear, and with the lemon it seemed like a nice change.

 

In the bottle: The lemon says hello! It's a sweetish, candied-lemon-peel lemon, which I love. The lemon is jumping all over everything else, but there's some sandalwood and coriander in there somewhere. Not smelling the usual incense note.

 

On me: Something gets more resiny, and the lemon and sandalwood break into MORTAL COMBAT. First one's on top, then the other. Occasionally the lemon veers into Pledge territory but quickly finds its feet again. The classic incense note has arrived and is sneaking up behind both of them, ready to sap the lemon and sandalwood and steal their kidneys.

 

Drydown, 2 hours later: The lemon's sweetness has worn off, leaving a very pleasant lemon-oil scent commingling peacefully with the sandalwood. The resin seems to be cedar or myrrh, which blends beautifully with the other long-lasting notes. Incense is still there.

 

Throw: Quite strong at first, still scentable at friendly conversation distance as it dries. I put too much on, the second time I tried it, and the cat ran away from me at a distance of eight feet.

 

Overall, the scent starts out sweet and quickly becomes less so as it dries, taking on a fantastic resiny incense feel touched with bitter lemon. NICE. Really, really nice. It's a smell that wouldn't feel out of place in any season, but would probably be awesome on sun-warmed bare shoulders in the summertime. I'm going to be wearing this one a lot.

 

 

 

Lobster Rating

Better than: blackberry pie!

Edited January 27, 2006 by Uploaded Lobster