Kubla Khan

[greenranger]

Through sunlit caves of ice, roses unfurl amidst dancing waves of serpentine opium smoke and amber tobacco, golden sandalwood, champaca, tea leaf, sugared lily, ginger, rich hay absolute, leather, dark vanilla, mandarin, peru balsam, and Moroccan jasmine.

In the imp, I think I smell vanilla...and flowers.

Wet on me, jasmine. There's a lot of scents listed, and I get, just, jasmine. It isn't very powerful, but, it is the only scent showing up so far.

Dry, on me, jasmine. I was hoping for so much more.
Opium, tobacco, sandalwood, leather, and vanilla are often strong notes on my skin. Tea leaf has shown up on me before. Champaca, lily, ginger, rich hay absolute, mandarin, and peru balsam are new to me, but, I was hopeful.

...and jasmine is all I get.

Sigh.


---------

Several hours later, I sniff to see what has changed, and I get a very faint, but nice, incense scent. I'm afraid it is too faint, and too long a wait for the jasmine to fade enough so that I can smell it, though. Edited June 6, 2008 by Aerinha

[SarahScent44]

In the imp, it's smoky, but I also get something sharp (ginger?).

 

On my skin, it smells sweet, almost cola-ish - vanilla, balsam, sugared lily (also, it's slightly stinging my skin).

 

When it's dry, it's soft, warm, velvety - sweet, earthy - really beautiful. It's a beautiful blend - it's hard to pick out individual notes.

[Mishinka]

How interesting! For some reason I was expecting Kubla Khan to smell like Plunder. I wouldn't complain, because that's one of my favorites.

 

Opening the imp, my first thought is that it smells like cake. Not sugary, generic sheet cake like you buy at a grocery store bakery, but something rich and spicy spiked with booze. Not quite sure where the alcohol comes from, but I smell rum cake.

 

It mostly smells like jasmine wet, but on drydown it gets a little more complex. the smokiness of it comes out more. It's really, really sweet, mostly seems to be florals and a little vanilla. There's a bit of an edge to it, though, maybe the tobacco. Not my favorite, but it's certainly nice.

[Andrea912]

I don't know what I was thinking. I really don't like sandalwood or jasmine, and both of these smells were dominant on me; think the incense hippie section of the local head shop.

[tinyvulture]

my first impression is: “smells like minty leather.”

 

as it dries, i can smell the leather blended with smoky opium, tobacco, jasmine, and sugared lily. i was excited to smell that sugared lily, since i love the lab’s other sugared florals. but it’s jumbled in with a lot of other notes and it’s sort of hard to pick out. still, it’s there, and it adds something.

 

i have no idea why i’m smelling mint! there’s so much going on here, i think my nose is confused. i don’t think i care for the combination of the masculine leather and sweet, sugary lily and vanilla. off to swaps.

[Indigo78]

I bought a bottle of this unsniffed for a reason I cannot for the life of me remember. Sometimes blind purchases are just that good!

 

I remember recieving this order - Kubla Kahn sat amongst other bottles I had placed at a higher priority: I opened the bottle, sniffed, thought "great, spicefest", and dismissively put it away in my box for another time (which I half-believed would never come). When I opened it up again tonight I still smelled the spice, which rendered a similar "meh" reaction. I decided to give it a go anyway 'cause...well, you never know.

 

Wet on my skin the spices amp uncontrollably (pretty typical for me, hence the tense relationship with most spicy blends). As it dries down, however, I get an increasingly incensey feel from it. The spices never quite overpower the other notes, and the result is a very near-perfect, vanilla-y goodness that rocks my world. The opium doesn't sharpen at all, and although I thought I smelled Cinnamon in the bottle and at the wet stage, there is none of that obnoxious, familiar stinging I get from most spicy blends. The Dark Vanilla is sweet and eroticized by the Tobacco and Leather. To summarize, all of the "type A's" that usually silence other notes in a blend (and yes, Sandalwood, I glanced in your general direction) are under control in this blend.

 

***Update 12/24/08***

 

My overall impression of this has changed a little. The tobacco has aged into something lovely, so that this still goes on a little sweet, but dries down into scent that makes me think of an executive's office. Occasionally I catch a whiff of something like aftershave, which is the only thing stopping me from getting another bottle to age.

Edited December 24, 2008 by Indig0

[galahad]

In The Bottle

I get jasmine first off and some ginger and tobacco in the background

 

On Application

Opium and balsam. A very sweet, herbiness

 

Dry Down

I really get the hay scent coming through the opium and resinous notes and then the jasmine and lily amp up big time. This is too disjointed for me.

 

Rating (0-5)

1

[hkhm]

imp: wow! tobacco, ginger and orange all slathered with something sweet and honey-ish.

 

wet: sweet, smoky ginger. i'm finding i'm in love with every ginger scent that passes my way and this is no exception.

 

dry: this is sweet and very lightly gingery once dry. i get the vanilla and tobacco as a yummy topnote. bottle-worthy.

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: the blending of notes in here is phenomenal, seamless. it reminds me of Glowing Vulva, in that cream-meets-wood capacity.

 

wet on skin: the woods and resins start to dominate at this point.

 

dry down: a lovely mix of woods and roots has emerged. i don't get *any* of the florals mentioned, but the notes that DO pop are earthy and sweet.

 

in all: sadly, it's turned powdery on me but for someone without my cursed skin chemistry, several bottles would be in order!

[zankoku_zen]

I have to say that the vanilla in this blend turns sweet on me. WTF? In any case, I was hoping for vanilla ginger, and that so didn't work out. Tobacco is a very dominant note for me, and it just went smoky.

 

Sadness.

 

ETA:

So, this time around I get the mandarin orange, the hay, the leather accord, and hints of lily, tobacco, sandalwood and amber. Overall, its a much richer and a more complex blend, but it degenerates to an orange/leather with hints of amber and sandalwood blend on me. Sadly, if the leather were less prevalent, I think I'd enjoy it more.

 

I think however, that given the King Mandarin SN release, all GC blends that feature mandarin should be revisited as its a bright citrusy top note that doesn't disappear in the first few minutes.

Edited April 8, 2014 by zankoku_zen

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Agreeably complex: vanilla, lily, rose, citrus. The vanilla-citrus combination smells as usual: like a baked good.

 

Wet: The floral comes up first, lily-jasmine-rose. But it's not dominating, and there's some more masculine smell beneath. The base is maybe a leather-resiny combination; it reminds me of the English Leather soap-on-a-rope my stepfather once had. It's heavy, though, and kind of makes my head ache

 

One hour: This has turned into a girl scent on me. (Too bad, I kind of enjoyed the English Leather moment.) Warm well-blended spicy floral, fairly pleasant but with a faintly disquieting sweetish odor of rotting haybales. I was afraid the jasmine was going to dominate this, but it doesn't. If I didn't have all the experience with haybales I might not have even noticed, let alone been put off by, the hay element, but I'm sensitive that way. (A rotting haybale once caused me allergic problems so severe we had to get rid of the car it was in.) And there's something else, a trace of something sweet I can't put my finger on.

 

Two and a half hours: Much more subdued now, it's fallen back into a faint floral over sandalwood, a hint of vanilla, and what smells like amber. Maybe "amber tobacco" doesn't mean what I thought it meant?

 

Four hours: This one's not nearly as strong on me as some of the others. Must be the lack of amber! This one is mostly sandalwood now, with a bit of vanilla. I don't actively dislike this one, and the headache might be due to the weather pattern rather than the jasmine, but I have to get rid of it because of the hay absolute note.

[kraken]

This is such a deliciously complicated blend of scents that morph each time I sniff my wrists, it's hard to pin them down. (I'm not even sure what hay absolute smells like )

 

In the Imp: Astringent and smoky. I can detect some sweetness and jasmine.

Initial Wet: Strangely, both I and the hubby swear it smells like violet soap. Violet soap with some sandalwood and vanilla and a hint of jasmine. It remains astringent until it dries.

Initial Dry: The vanilla and amber tobacco really come out. It reminds me of Red Lantern, but with sweet florals, jasmine most prominently. The florals keep dying down as it dries further.

Drier Dry: Vanilla sweet with resin and spice. The faint undercurrent of roses and jasmine adds a different type of sweetness to the blend, though very subtle. The overall effect is dark, almost musky, but softened with sweetness.

 

Overall, I really, really like this blend (it gets points for the hubby liking it once it dries down). I was leery of the leather as that tends to go sour on me, but even with several applications throughout the day, I couldn't pick out any hint of leather or its going bad.

Edited October 1, 2008 by kraken

[tacey]

I love the Kubla Khan poem, so I didn't even pretend that wasn't why I bought the perfume blend. Like the inspiration, the blend is intoxicating and complex and I love it. I can pick out the jasmine (but a restrained, polite jasmine ), vanilla made a brief appearance, a bit of smoke, subtle tobacco later in the day, and so much more that I couldn't pull apart. As long as the tobacco doesn't get carried away later in the wear time, this is beautiful.

[Iceblink]

Another of those OMGWTFBBQ oils that I can't believe I've ignored for so long. This is delicious! It's a yummy vanilla/tobacco/champaca with a teeny floral hint and a bit of sandalwood. It's almost foody on me, and the jasmine is behaving nicely. It's sweet but there's some leather far in the background that keeps it from being too girly. Love it!

[crebbsgirl]

This was a fairly overwhelming scent in the bottle. I was a little frightened of the mandarin and the tea leaf, as these are two notes that notoriously don't work on me. Wet, this was pretty light, breezy. A golden incense as opposed to the dark and smoky kind. As it dried, the rest of the notes really seemed to develop beautifully. I get a touch of leather and champaca. The dark vanilla is rather predominant. I don't get any mandarin and the jasmine stays soft and subtle. This blend is really growing on me.

[Champagne]

In the vial it`s sweet and floral and I start to be scared. On me it`s a burst of jasmine at first, and after the gorgeous vanilla note blooms, blended with the mandarin and florals. the smoke is faint but I don`t find any leather. It`s extremely complex and sophisticated, maybe a little too much for a simple foody like me.

[jewelbug]

In this imp, this is complex and hard to pick out any notes, but i can smell a sweet incensy vanilla and a bit of scary jasmine (I don't get along with jasmine, typically.

 

Wet: Sweet vanilla, incense and jasmine that verges on cat pee, but not nearly as bad as some other jasmine blends I've tried. There is also something mineralistic to this, I think. Reminds me of a darker, smoky black opal.

 

Dry: The jasmine dissipates, no cat pee left (yay!). What I get is a lovely dark smoking incense vanilla. Its a little fruity, but not citrusy, so I don't think its the mandarin. champaca tends to smell like a juicy plummish fruit on me, and that's what I'm getting here. The blend is complex and unique and lovely.

 

Overall: I like this once the jasmine goes away, and I can see many others being enthralled with this beauty. Still, I have to pass this on, since I can't justify going through the jasmine phase when I have so many other scents that get along with my chemistry better.

[forspecial_plate]

It took a couple different tries over a period of weeks to even get a grasp on this one, and I still can barely describe it. Mostly I smell kind of a sweet, honeyed floral scent, veering dangerously towards hairspray (I still have no idea which note does this, but I've noticed it in other scents too...maybe it's the sugared lily). It reminds me a little of the Faces of the Heroines LE series from a while back. I can't recognize a single note, to tell the truth. What I smell is basically the smell of all these notes blended together, so balanced and nuanced that nothing stands out clearly. For a while there was a hint of effervescent citrus, but that didn't really play out, it just sort of danced around for a while then faded back into the mix. The overall effect is not something I would really wear, but I couldn't stop sniffing my wrist just because the scent was so interesting.

[femmefatale]

In the imp it's mostly jasmine. Uh oh.

 

Wet it's still mostly jasmine but it starts to darker a bit and it's beginning to smell like jasmine incense. Very pretty.

 

But then...I start to catch a hint of the dreaded cat pee, but that lasted about 2 seconds and it's gone. (sigh of relief)

 

As it dries further it starts to smell like this shop I used to go into that sold soaps and incense. It's actually very pretty and surprisingly clean smelling. I actually expected something a bit smokier and spicier. It's a lovely scent though and I'm very happy I got to try it. I think I will have to see how it does in my locket, hopefully it will be a bit more complex without my wonky chemistry.

 

 

ETA: As it's drying down, the tobacco is coming out a bit more and making it a touch smokier. I think I catch a hint of the hay, which I'm not sure about. It comes and goes.

Edited November 10, 2008 by Femme_Fatale

[Juushika]

In the vial: A slightly bitter, golden scent which is too complex for me to pin to down notes.

 

On me: The bitterness fades, revealing a heart of warm amber, a touch of golden hay, a whiff of opium, and (over time) a touch of sweet smooth vanilla. But it's much more complex than that description implies—I can pick out those notes because I know them, but the scent has a well-blended, indescribable complexity. It's warm, golden but gently smoked, and slightly perfumey. The color is light gold, the throw is low, the wear length is moderate.

 

Verdict: I picked up Kubla Khan for my love of the poem that inspired it. The perfume is a partial match: it beautifully represents the golden facade of the pleasure dome, and the opium smoke begins to hint at its shadows, but the perfume never delves into the darkness beneath. This complex, well-blended, golden scent is a bit too perfumey for my usual tastes, but I keep my imp handy and when the mood strikes, it's lovely.

[themerrybaker]

Kubla Khan is definitely yummy, and the only thing that keeps it from being a GC favorite is that it is a bit "stuffy" as in an un-aired room instead of clear. Otherwise it is made of win in addition to being made of a kitchen sink full of components.

[kjirstiben]

I'd been putting off testing Kubla Khan, because I discovered my rather *ahem* uncomfortable relationship with jasmine after I bought this oil. Sigh. However, when I opened the bottle this morning, the scent I got was... buttery.

 

So on it went. It turned to pure floral when I put it on (very lightly--didn't want to risk being followed around by the florals of doom--and their accompanying headache--all day), and spent the good part of an hour amping in rose/jasmine glee, with a heavy-handed opium harmonic layer. Headache potential here...

 

But it never achieved the Perfect Storm of olfactory pain... shortly after I'd had it on for an hour, I realized that the scent seemed to have resolved itself.

 

I was getting a floral backdrop to a foody sweetness--definitely the dark vanilla mentioned. Interestingly, from time to time, I'd get whiffs of pure opium.

 

The drydown on this is interesting... it's a sweet/musky combination that had me confused, but upon reading through the notes I'm pretty sure I'm getting a vanilla and leather end stage here.

 

Kubla Khan is very nice... exotic, heady, and everything it should be to live up to its eponymous poem.

 

(Is it too nerdy that I want to be like someone in the movie Amadeus and say "Too many notes!"? I find that, as a rule, I tend to prefer the simpler scents where I can really tell what I'm smelling...)

[stillalive]

ohhh, a lovely citrus incense on me.... totally not what I expected. I swear I smell citrus in it, and I get some tea too. Very complex and nice and different.

[lupidog]

This is the third blend I've tried, but first one I have reviewed. So apologies for the newbie-review...!

 

Smells crazy in the imp, high sharp note assaults my nose. Is that the opium? Reading earlier reviews makes me think it is Jasmine. Either way, DID NOT WANT. This made me (prematurely) sad, because it is such a bitching poem and the note list was so intense and strange. But I knew I should get over my reluctance and try it, since the in bottle smell can be so deceptive.

 

On, this smells SO much better. Like an oriental shop, the scents of all the exotic products mingling. Not note savvy, but it really seems like this is a creamy, seamless blend. The shop is nice, but I probably wouldn't want to work there. Maybe sleep on some cushions in the back. I don't smell this on myself after a few minutes unless I go sniffing (which makes me feel like I'm huffing and gives me a headache!!). But not being overpowering can be a good thing, especially for work. Not sure yet if I would wear this out. Need to actually try it during the regular day to be sure. Definitely gets less complex over time, settling into a sweet and understated flavor. Pretty delicious.

 

More experimentation needed, but this could be a keeper!

[Coldfire]

Imp: Jasmine, hay, ginger and sandalwood

Wet on Me: more jasmine now over anything.

But the ginger is giving it some spice kick

Drying Down: baby powder now. Baby powder over the

sandalwood the jasmine bailed out the ginger seems tobe playing hide and seek

Dry: a wee bit of jasmine came back and mixed with the

amber to give me jasmine baby powder. This is nice, but I had

hoped it would smell more exotic on me.