Diwali

[inurbanus]

Lotus root, mogra, mango, tamarind, cardamom, clove, almond milk, cashew, rice flower, coconut, supari, raisins, and incense crafted from aloeswood, red sandalwood, cedar, and spikenard.

In the bottle this is fruity resin, but once it's on me it expands to a delicious mixture of tropical fruits and spices. Diwali is a lot of fun -- it's flirty and makes me feel energetic, for some reason. It's also one of those perfumes that I want other people to smell on me; I would wear this to a party. This scent is very strong and lasts a long time, so it's perfect for dancing the night away (or whatever). Even if you don't like BPAL's fruity scents, I recommend giving this one a try: you might be surprised!

4.5/5

[aleciarivas]

Fruit, cedar, cream.... Not a combination I would necessarily pick out for myself, but really I do like this!!! It's not an every day scent, but I can totally imagine this to be my "I want to snuggle up in front of a warm fire" scent.... Mmmm.... I wonder what this would smell like on my DH..... Hmmm......

[Rheliwen]

I almost didn't get this one, but I'm glad I did!

 

Initially, this is a blast of brown sugar incense, reminiscent of Al Azif. After a couple of seconds a strong, rooty, floral note starts to pop and them immediately settle down into creamy goodness. I'm left with a next-to-skin scent of faint, wafting spicey incense behind creamy florals sitting on mild smelling nuts

 

This fades so fast though!

[empi girl]

I was on the fence about this one, but tried it after all the reviews came pouring in. My experience seems a little different, because this doesn't have anything foody about it to me. It is a soft melange of notes, with a hint of coconut in the beginning, that fades away and I have a soft, perfumy incense blend. The main notes in it seem to be the raisin, the cedar, and the sandalwood. It is unlike any incense blend I've tried, but it just doesn't quite work for me. Actually, it makes my nose itch a little bit. So even though I want this to be a love, it isn't.

[mhickle]

I really thought I was going to love this one, but I'm surprised at the results. In the imp, I smell coconut and sweetness, and that's not a bad thing. On my skin, though, it goes more "perfumey" than I expected. Where I thought I would get a slightly foody, complex scent, I'm getting more floral than anything else. I'm definitely up for giving it another try, though!

[Shannihilation]

In the bottle the sandalwood and cedar seem to stand out the most but I can pick up the almond milk too, keeping those two from being too sharp. As it starts to dry some of the other notes start to come through a bit more. It's hard to pick out individual ones though, this blends so smoothly. It's almost foody but there's also an incensey kind of thing going on. It's really interesting and very nice. I like it alot...

 

It kind of reminds me of being at Nazef again. The smell of the different Hookahs, the rice pudding, the perfumce of the dancers, and the incense in the background.

[VioletChaos]

i have been waiting to review this, and i've got very, very high hopes! :fingers crossed:

 

in the bottle: vaguely foodie, but with offeratory incense under it, sort of what i get from Dia de los Muertos, but with an eastern edge.

 

wet on skin: a floral rises up, but i'm definitely getting hints of those raisins as well.

 

dry down: i think because of the inclusion of cardamom i was hoping for something more chai-like. this is more like incense i get in little india, mixed with thick jasmine and a slight touch of the coconut and raisin without being foodie at all.

 

in all: although not what i anticipated, a beautiful, very complex scent, that i will cherish throughout the year.

 

 

[CrazyPretzel]

I'm a fan of incense-y fragrances, especially those of an Eastern stripe, so even though red sandalwood is not always kind to me this was a bottle purchase for sure.

 

At first, it's a musty, dusty scent, like a box of sandalwood incense that's been buried in a chest somewhere for years. I get a bit of that red sandalwood foostiness that spoiled La Belle Epoque for me, but that fades as the scent dries. As it warms it becomes less musty and very, very Indian - I actually smell like a kitchen where someone's been making curry, or rice pudding with a full bevy of spices! The sandalwood incense continues to hang in the background. The final stages of the drydown include a soft fruitiness (the raisin?) and a lovely dry, soft cedar incense smoke - like a temple filled with offerings of incense and fruit.

 

Diwali manages to be sacred and exotic and yet make me feel as if I'm warm and safe and right at home in someone's kitchen all at the same time. Very special and very lovely.

[Koumori]

I can't figure this one out. I got a sort of fruity incense in the bottle, but upon application, it seems to have gone through several very quick morphs and ended up rather "perfumey"-- a rather LUSH-type incensey floral. There are so many notes in the description, I wasn't sure what to expect, and I"m still not sure how to describe it; I think I was hoping for something a little more spicy/foody. I'm still undecided on this one.

[Lucretia]

This smells SO good on me. Warm spices, incense, and a touch of fruit. I can't entirely place it, it doesn't smell like a spice store, more like someone baking. It's a very warm comforting scent that is "normal" enough to pass for a more traditional perfume. It's also a lot lighter than I thought it might be. I can see myself wearing this a lot.

[Avery]

 

Diwali is one of the lightest and shortest-lasting BPALs I have tried (right up there with Dana O'Shee) . It smells promising in the imp, and if I *slather* it on my skin it wafts teh yummy indian fruity incense coconut spice for a solid ten minutes, and then it disappears. Oh well, I'll likely dump my imp into hair treatment, as those make light scents last longer. boo.

[aestien]

Bottle: incense and spices

Wet: mmmm incense and spice with a hint of sweetness and creamy almond

Dry: creamy almond with a hint of sweet mango and raisins, incense, and a touch of spice

 

This is a delicious blend, very much like a couple of my favorites, Eclipse and Morocco, with a little more incense. The milk, almond, and coconut blend really well into a slightly sweet creamy note, and the mango isn’t too sweet. It makes me think of walking into a shop filled with open containers of spices, dried fruit, nuts, incense, and Indian desserts. Yum!

[Czarina]

In the bottle: creamy fruity floral.

Wet: coconut, cardamom.

Drydown: out of nowhere comes a strong men's aftershave note. WTF? Would this be the red sandalwood and cedar?

 

Man, that's one rapidly morphing scent. I thought this would smell like suntan lotion, and instead it smells like lifeguard.

[donnatron]

Imp: Butter toffee. I put this on and then booted up the site, so scent list unknown, my first instinct was sweetness, butteryness, and a bit of a burnt smell.

 

Wet: Immediately on the skin it goes butter toffee with a hint of juniper on me. This fades quickly leaving a buttery-spice scent.

 

Dry: A nice spicy scent. I still smell a pine-y scent and I don't quite know why. My one caveat is that this is making me cough a lot, but I am just recovering from a cold and the two could be correlated.

 

Throw: Ample. I might have to wash this off before I go to bed.

 

Overall: I received this in a lot off eBay and I'm glad I did. I don't feel compelled to hunt down a big bottle, but it's a nice imp and I'll be sure to use it up.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – A short burst of sweetness and spice and then nothing, very odd

 

Wet on me – Very faint, orange peel and condensed milk

 

Dry on me – Nothing, seriously, it just disappeared in a flash

 

Overall – I don’t really get a good enough chance at it to form an opinion

[gchris]

First Sniff: Foody sweet

 

On Skin: Smells of juicy fruits

 

Later: This smells like floral fruit juice, if there were such a thing. It contains several notes that are considered 'food', so it does smell kind of foody but with an overtone of flowers.

[enderfem]

Bottle: incense, with sweetness in top of it. I think it is the almond milk and rice flower. no coconut yet.

 

Wet: Mostly the same as the bottle. One of the better incense scents thus far. I can smell a little of the mango now.

 

Drydown: This blends so well it is hard to pick out individual scents on drydown. It doesn't get over-incense-y and make me feel I'm at high mass, which makes me really happy. It is just a well blended pretty scent, sweet, but not foody or flowery.

[mansku11]

I’ve been wanting Diwali but didn’t manage to get it at Yule; now I’ve finally snagged a bottle.

 

In the bottle: I was expecting this to be headier/stronger. I’m just getting vaguely exotic sweets and spices; it doesn't knock my socks off.

 

Wet on skin: When first applied, I get really pungent woods, and woods are my note of death. They really, really do not like me. However, Diwali morphs quickly and the spices soften up the woods to make a scent that smells like good curry. My heart starts beating again!

 

Dry on skin: As it dries, the florals seem to come out as well as the various sweet things. I seem to smell the raisins most of all; I was hoping for more coconut, but this is nice and unexpected. This stage is so startlingly different from the first!

 

Overall: This is the first BPAL I’ve tried that morphs so drastically! I don’t know whether that works for me, but it’s definitely worth some more tries. I bet it will age well.

[goth_huntress]

Beautiful and light, so perfect for the friend I got it for. She loves it.

[matokie]

I got the mango right away when I opened my Diwali imp, with the incense and spices right behind. Other reviewers have described this as a rapidly-morphing scent and I absolutely must concur. Just when I think incense is the only thing I can smell on my wrist, the fruit reappears. This is an amazing scent, incredibly sexy and warm and complex, and I'll be wearing it for my birthday tomorrow! Not to mention the next hot date I manage to acquire.

[waternight]

In the bottle: Rice flower is dominant, and this is reminiscent of Tamamo-no-Mae. There's also some sweet mango, very smooth, in here. If I sniff really deeply, I get the spices, along with a bit of almond milk and the tiniest hint of coconut.

Wet: First on, rice flower and almond milk! This is very milky and creamy, and really really reminds me of Tamamo-no-Mae in this stage. In fact, I may have to do a side-by-side test to compare the two... Anyway. After a moment or two, the fruits show up, mango and tamarind blending to add a lovely sweet fruity element. Then I start catching whiffs of the cardamom and raisin, which adds a very interesting, unique note to the blend. This is such a light-hearted, joyful scent. Truly uplifting. The woods add a bit of dryness, but they're not full-blown notes in their own right, although I do keep getting the suggestion of cedar.

Dry: Becomes less fruity and more dry/woody, but it's still predominantly a creamy rice flower scent. Diwali is lovely.

[Ishtar]

When I first tried Diwali several months ago, I found it nice but not earth-shattering. Revisiting it tonight in order to review it, I was amazed at how much better it was than what I remembered.

 

In the vial: sweet, fruity, gorgeous!

 

Wet on my skin: oh, the creamier notes in this are beautiful. Here is the coconut, and the almond milk. I thought Diwali was going to be a big, bold blend but this is actually very gentle. There is a serenity to this first stage that is quite remarkable.

 

The fruity notes start coming out after the half-hour mark. They are so well-blended that it is very difficult to tell them apart. After complete drydown, the incense and spices make their presence known, once again in the gentlest of ways. What a superbly well-rounded blend this is!

Interestingly enough given that there is no fig in the description, the feel and even the drydown of Diwali are almost identical to those of a fig blend I used to buy when I lived in France. I never found anything equivalent and it was discontinued a few years ago, much to my chagrin. Needless to say, I am very happy to have found such a close equivalent in Diwali! Must find more!

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

Almondy, mildly nutty, with a delicious background of very light spices. Mmm.

 

First on:

Fruit, spice and incense in a joyful serenade to light. ^^

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it's a soft and tender scent – light incense smoke, and the tiniest hint of spices and something else in the background.

 

Another 20 mins later, it's still soft, but a little exotic – subtle, professional, sensual.

 

Finally:

Haven't got a clue what to use this for, but... Keeping it for now.

[brsis]

Initial Thoughts: I wouldn't have looked twice at this if it hadn't come up on a sales thread and I looked up the notes out of curiosity after ruling out all the other scents listed. That's one potent line-up of goodness right there. The weirdest thing is that the list of notes combined together is the same colour in my head as the word 'Diwali' - BPAL never ceases to amaze me.

 

In the bottle: Mellow, sweet spices with a hint of fruit, and I can just get a touch of incense.

 

On the wrist, wet: Ouch. Cardamom, clove and what I think is the lotus root - and that's me sneezing. After the initial nose-tingling dark spices, I'm getting more of the incense - this is certainly exotic and y'know, actually does smell Indian.

 

Ten minutes later: Well, it's mellowed out a bit. This has really good throw - I can smell it while I'm typing and it's only on my wrists, but it's a pleasant sort of waft. Up close it's not that special - mild spices and woodsy incense. Pleasant, but not something I'd wear very often, I think - I prefer to go for something with a bit more oomph.

 

Verdict: Keeper... for now. I wouldn't cry if I had to let it go, but since I'll probably wear it infrequently it may as well stay.

 

Tl;Dr: Mellow spice and woody incense. Good throw.

[Wwindy]

So, I was about to make an impromptu purchase more or less purely on grounds of cultural/religious affinity. Then tartchef said, "Don't buy Chanukkiyah, buy Diwali -- it's much easier to wear and you'll like it." And I thought to myself, "Are you MAD? It has fruit in it! And almond milk! And, you know, other yucky stuff which makes me go bleh!" But tartchef is made of awesome and also a very wise woman, and so I did what she told me to.

 

You guys! Hey you guys! OMG, you guys!!!

 

Diwali: The Platonic ideal of mango lassi, accompanied by joyful exotic party smells and a curl of incense smoke. This is sooooo incredibly gorgeous. Why did I not pay attention to this when it came out?!? Oh, that's right, IT HAS FRUIT. And true, it is foody, kind of -- but it's also spicy and smoky and a tiny bit woody, and the mango doesn't really smell like a fresh-cut fruit so much as it does ... well, like I said, lassi. Very sophisticated, very warm and...yes, definitely celebratory.

 

I always sort of laughed at the whole "I want to eat my arm" bit you read a lot around here. Now you can all laugh at me, because I WANT TO EAT MY ARM. Actually, I want to bathe in this stuff. Rawr!

 

In conclusion: 1) Try this even if you think you don't like fruit, because BPAL is full of wondrous surprises. 2) I don't have enough italics or exclamation marks to convey the depths of my squee. 3) Also, tartchef is a goddess... but most of you probably knew that already!