Kumari Kandam

[laforetnoire]

The hollow scent of a vast antediluvian civilization, now frozen and buried, smothered by a thick sheet of ice and trapped deep beneath the ocean. Thick incense, clay, stone, and hothouse blooms with a spike of frost, a hint of decay, and heavy, dolorous aquatic notes.

It really does smell like snow, water and ice with a bit of pine in the back. It as mineral notes too. The description totally fit the scent of the oil.

Kumari Kandam has a very good lasting power in my opinion and it's a bit masculine too.

[Magda]

First there are thick, green blooms, hanging high over everything, sweet and sharp. Then I catch a hint of aquatics and brace myself for the inevitable morph into burnt black pepper.

 

Usually, aquatics turn on me within a matter of minutes, but as this is drying it doesn't smell like burnt pepper, it just smells fresh and icy. It's strange. Is this an aquatic that I can actually wear? It's very slushy, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I've never been able to wear aquatics without my skin turning them horrible, so the question of liking or not liking them has never come up before.

 

I think I like it. It's a lot brighter and fresher than most things I wear, but I'm really becoming fond of how it's crisp without edging into girly. It's a unisex crispness, and behind that is the (not at all unpleasant) scorched earth/thick mineral scent that pervades the desert during the first few minutes of rain.

 

I'm definitely going to keep this imp, since this is one of the most interesting scents on me I've tried.

[iiinterstate]

I never would have found this one if it hadn't been a frimp in a swap, and that's kind of sad.

 

Clay, stone, and sweet cold aquatic. I really enjoy this, and geez...clay and stone? I have no idea how the lab does things like this. Reminds me a little bit of Moon of Ice, but less sweet and with better throw.

 

I'm not sure if I need a bottle yet, but Kumari Kandam has my nose glued to my wrist for now. Hmm.

[voodoocatwoman]

I have read reviews that this turns into Irish Spring soap. It does. Sort of. But it's not your classic soapy scent. It is deep and mystical. I smell powerful incense, warm yet cool at the same time...

 

And I like it too...

[Brianne]

Very unusual! It's a sweet, aquatic floral with touches of green lol. It's very hard to pin down in that sense - it does have a sweet incense quality to it, but I would call this more of an aquatic floral than anything. And yet, the green note is rather dominant (fir I think? Don't think it's pine... ) - it reminds me of a lot of the greener Yule scents, so if you're a fan of those, you'll probably really dig this! As for me - well I really think it's nice but I'm not sure I'd reach for it that often due to that green note!

[eyeska]

So I've tried this once already, but needed to think about it some, so this is my second trial.

 

I've applied Kumari Kandam to my inner wrists, and they are actually, physically, COLD - and it's a warm May day, so that's a little unnerving.

 

I understand the "Irish Springs" notes that others have mentioned - this scent is really complex and rather androgynous. I'm actually still trying to decide whether I like it or not - it's really interesting, and I LIKE the green notes I smell, but I'm not sure if it's just going too soapy/cleaner-y on me.

 

It does have a paradoxical warm/cold thing going on, though, and my wrists are cold to the touch. Wild.

 

(I'm trying to find a scent for an "ice fairy" costume I'm building, and this and Szepasszony were my prime GC candidates. The fact that my skin is ACTUALLY COLD keeps this one in the running.)

 

EDIT: After a good half-hour, the throw fades somewhat and so does the soapiness, on me at least. This is definitely an earthy, dead-of-winter sort of scent. Heavy. I'm liking it more and more.

Edited May 17, 2008 by Eyeska

[savage_rose]

The mint is what stands out most to me ("frost" in the note list). Then there's a wave (bad pun) of watery notes, with a hint of something fruity to my nose, but that must be the hothouse blooms. It smells a lot like a watery Yuletide to me.

[gchris]

in vial: cool and sweet

 

Wet: bpals famous 'snow' note, with light florals surrounding. Since I don't like the 'snow note', this will probably not work for me.

 

Dry: This is now a lighter version of the same snow note that I spoke of previously. If you know what I am talking about and you like that note, give this a try. I did not get any aquatics in this which I was looking forward to. .

[UploadedLobster]

I get mandarin and lotus floating in a chilly sea of aquatics. In this case, "chill" equals a very light touch of a minty white floral. Normally aquatics turn to seaweed ass on me, but the sweetness of the fruit and lotus root rescue this one.

 

 

Lobster Rating

better than: out of season tomatoes

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Florals and aquatic notes strongest, a clean, sharp scent with an incense spike. Wet: Much as in the bottle, only more nuanced as the other notes come out. I like the clay and stone notes, but I think the florals are simply too intense for me. Dry: Ends up in a vaguely earthy aquatic.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Ooooh! Icy and smooth floral with a spicey kick

 

On Application

Green stems, fresh COLD air. Awesome!

 

Dry Down

I can't express how wonderful this is, but I'll try anyway! I'm not sure how the lab get the icy air note but it is masterful. I don't get much earthiness but it is there somewhere and the flowers are subdued. The incense is not overpowering. This is one of the lab scents that chokes me up with it's beauty.

 

Rating (0-5)

5

[maryamblue]

I was sent an imp by a good friend of mine who sometimes arbitrarily decides I must try something, and thus far she is *always* right. What a good friend (and you know who you are!)

 

Goodness gracious, I love Kumari Kandam.

 

I get very little ice to this, except maybe a little tangy bite at the outer edges. Mostly, it seems very *warm*. And not floral, but fruity to me, like mangos and somethings citrusy -- overlaid with lovely incense. There's a sturdy kind of earthy center to it, which I imagine must be the clay. What this clay smell does is make it earthier, and really quite sexy. There is a tone of burnt sugar in here, which is just so endearing. It's earthy and fruity, but the incense takes it into another realm altogether, and while the scents mingle together beautifully, you can smell them all separately. It has some of the same feel as Macchu Pichu on me, definitely, with more of a dark base and candy overtones.

 

I am ordering a nice big bottle or so. This is a solid, sexy, consistently pretty scent.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

I'm surprised to see how reddish-pink the imp is, as I would expect a brown earth color...

 

Whoa! Now this I didn't expect--it's Christmas! That is, the scent of Yule at the Lab specifically...I do believe this is the first time I've run across Beth's amazing wet snow + fresh pine combination in the general catalogue. This smells pretty much like Ice Queen and Skadi, with an extra kick of mint. Cold, fresh, clean. Definitely unisex, but aquatics tend to skew masculine on me. A little warmer/sweeter on the drydown. This should be a cause of rejoicing for everyone who missed out on, or wants more of, the frostier winter LEs.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Sharp pine and mint with a lot of incense.

 

Immediately on skin: The first notes that hit me are a combo of mint and either a light pine or cypress, or maybe eucalyptus. It’s sharp and fiercely chilly. Then comes the incense, smoky and swirling about. This isn’t an earthy blend, but there is a chilly stone-like quality to this.

 

After a little while: This has morphed into a very crisp men’s cologne. The stony feel is still there, as well as the pine/mint combo (this has lightened considerably), but now I also get the aquatic notes. This is crisp and chilly with a very damp feel.

 

Overall Impressions: I think this would be a great unisex scent and the way it dries down on me reminds me of more traditional cologne scents. It is and interesting mix of rocky and piney notes that feels extremely crisp and clean. This isn’t for me, but I might like to try it on my husband. I think it is very sharp at first though.

[heathercaley]

Aquatics and flowers. Not much clay... still searching for incense.

 

Veryyy clean and bright. Almost like the sun reflecting off of ice covered flowers. I don't get mint at all, but it's got that "cool" feel to it... it's more water than ice.

 

very pretty, but not quite me. But I am more of a scary dark earth gurl than a frilly snow bunny But don't get me wrong.. it's very very beautiful. I probably wont reach for it that often, so I'll pass it on as a frimp

[skepticism]

The vial and wet/drydown stages were a far cry from each other when I sampled this imp.

 

In the vial I caught a cool, clean note that rings aquatic with a slight cold ozone feel. The coolness settles over the hothouse blooms (which faintly reminds me of New Orleans) and gives it a soapy, clean sweetness that's not too sweet.

 

Wet: Whoa, this immediately warmed up on my skin. The clay and incense are coming to the foreground, and there's something rich, thick, and syrupy that completely blanket the coolness and the floral note.

 

The drydown ended up powdery and warm-sweet (like the way vanilla notes usually dry on me). All the cool notes and floral notes are gone.

 

I have to compliment Beth on creating such a curious blend. It's cool in the vial and warm on the skin, and it ranges the gamut of floral/cool to warm/incense. I think it's really complex and interesting, but because it dried powdery and vanilla on me, I'm going to have to say no to this.

[Seismogenic]

My attention was called to this one shortly after I made my first order, and it's actually one of the reasons that I did not wait even longer for a second order. I was told it smelled, at least partially, like rocks and dirt, which made my little geological heart squee. The description of the remnants of a hot-climate civilization frozen and then sunken made my brain immediately jump to the theory of plate tectonics: this place started somewhere hot, some landmass blocked the circulation of heated water and made everything freeze, then further motion heated things up and caused enough ice to melt to raise the sea level and sink the place. "Yay plate tectonics!" I thought.

So then I actually looked up Kumari Kandam, since I'd never heard of it. Aaand it turns out that there are more tectonics in that imp than I initially guessed! Kumari Kandam, AKA Lemuria, was a hypothetical long and skinny continent located between the east coast of Africa and the west coast of India, not quite connecting them, but not too far to swim. It supposedly accounted for why there were so many similar animals in continents that were so far apart. At some point, it supposedly sunk under the ocean (possibly with tsunamis!), which accounts for its no longer being there. However, when the actual theory of plate tectonics was introduced, along with the insinuation that Africa and India used to be attached to each other and drifted apart over the ages, the idea that there may have been a Kumari Kandam sunk out of favor and grew cold. This really is a plate tectonics scent.

So here's hoping I like smelling like plate tectonics!

 

In the imp: Whoa, this actually smells cold, as in, it makes the air I'm inhaling feel chilled compared to the rest of the room. It's a bit of a minty cold, on top of something spicier and warmer, though I couldn't tell you what those notes actually are.

 

Wet on skin: The division of notes remains peculiar - icy on the top of the scent, warmer and sweeter below. I still can't pick out actual notes, but it absolutely smells like a warm thing coated in ice. I am impressed with how scent can have topography like this!

 

Drydown: Newly dry, I get a little bit of something that could be the clay; it's just enough of a mineral note under warm, sweet, vaguely citrus-floral spice. The smell closer to my wrist is of the warm stuff, and the colder part has a bit more throw. At two hours in, the part that struck me as immediately super chilly has departed, but the closer-in smell of spicy floraly mineral is still there.

 

Five hours later: Fainter, but still there. I'm getting a lot more of the clay now, and almost none of the floral anymore. Coolness is coming back into this, though it's water coolness rather than ice coolness. Damp incensy clay. Nice.

 

End of the day: Whoa, when did this turn into Lightning? Seriously, at the end of the day, I am left with the same saltwater smell that happens at the end of the day with Lightning. I did not really get much of this particular smell earlier in the day at all. How odd!

 

Overall: I like smelling like plate tectonics! This is a very unusual scent, in that it combines things that one would not expect to be able to combine (ie warm and cold at once), and it makes those combinations very successfully. Half the time, I could not put a finger on exactly what I was smelling, and that smell morphed pretty dramatically over the course of the day, but there was not a stage along the way that I disliked. A definite keeper.

[akuaa]

wow, delicious. wet, out of the bottle, i wasn't sure i'd like it at all. it has a sharp soapy bubble bath smell to it. it's sharp and floral at the start, but on and warmed, it's loooovely. the words that came to mind were "round" and "soft fuzzy coral pink". i can't tell what smells are in it, but it's warm and sweet, and soft and feminine, but not "girly". just like a laughing warm curvy woman. will definitely wear this one more.

[toomuch]

It starts off with the hothouse blooms. There's a steaminess that makes the description really fit. Then the clay and stone sneak in. Unfortunately, then it morphs into something awful on me as aquatics always do. My daughter's body chemistry, however, loves aquatics. She'll be getting this one.

[rayvn1]

This starts out as a very full-blooded aquatic with some scattered blossoms strewn about. It dries down to a sweet, fresh aquatic with a hint of decaying blossoms. Nice!

[mooncityminx]

In the vial: Soap!

 

Wet: the soap is now joined by something floral and some other cool scent like kelp or something. Very aquatic.

 

Drydown: This strikes me as a very clean masculine fragrance. To me it is very cologne-y. This is strong.

[VioletChaos]

now, i'm not an aquatic fan. but there are always exceptions. for me, it's Water Phoenix. there're others, but they are few and far between.

 

this is not one of them.

 

in all fairness, i couldn't bring myself to actually put this on my skin. for all i know, if i'd been brave, perhaps it would've changed my life in some fabulous way. but as it stands, i couldn't do it.

 

take all the worst elements of an aqua-based scent and quadruple them and you have an idea of what i smelled when i opened this vial. on top of it, my sense of smell was SO taken over by this brief liason that i have a weird TASTE of it in my mouth now!

 

as with all BPAL scents, one lady's nightmare is another's heaven, so i'm sure there are those who adore this scent and worship the section of Lab it's made on. but for me, there has never been a scent so completely hellish.

 

ever.

 

[cuervosueno]

 

 

I was beginning to think I was going crazy as I read the reviews--and the notes--for this scent, because I was not getting any of these things at all. No clay, stone or frost or aquatics. Then I came across this review below, and it is closer to my take on the scent:

 

In the imp: A citrus floral--I'm going to bet that this is a combination of the blooms, the aquatics and the "decay" notes.

 

Wet: Very much the same as in the imp. Very orange (but my skin tends to amp all citrus notes).

 

Drydown and wear: The orange might actually be coming from the incense, as this smells a lot like Cairo on me. However, there's more floral at base in this scent than there is in that one. As it goes down, some of the clay/stone emerges, but this remains orange.

 

citrus, yes. I'm not entirely sure it is citrus, but when I first smelled this I thought fruit! some sort of bright red fruit that I should recognize but don't. It still has that feel to it, that and a hot house floral.

 

But after it has dried awhile, the snow notes do come out. It does remind me of one of the snow blends that was snow and fruit, but I can't think which one. Not Skadi and not Snow Moon....hmmm....

 

I kind of like it...but am not sure about it.

Edited January 22, 2009 by cuervosueno

[Ceri]

In the vial: This is all aquatic and floral. As much as I love aquatic blends they usually turn soapy on me.

 

Wet: Citrus, aquatic, floral. It's masculine yet it's also too floral to be masculine. I'm not sure if I am making sense here. :/

 

Drydown: I get a lovely mix of incense and aquatic here. The floral is well balanced by the two, not overpowering like most floral on me. This is beautiful. If this scent has a color, it will be the blue.

 

Overall: *EDITED* About 30 minutes into the scent, it turns soapy and sickly floral. A disappointment, but will try it again and see if it's a keeper.

Edited February 5, 2009 by Ceri

[TilHelvete]

This is so much different from any other aquatic I've ever sniffed! It's amazing. It is an incensey aquatic like the description says, but it's not at all heavy or dusty. However it's not a very clean dryer sheet kind of aquatic.. it's really unique. I think there is some kind of citrus note in here too which makes it lighter. I read someone compare it to the Yankee candle "Storm Watch" and I have to agree the two are similar, but this is much much better. This scent is absolutely unisex for sure, it's not cologne-y and it's not a really feminine fruity floral sweet blend either.