Diwali

[blu°]

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

I'm positively surprised by this scent!

Many of the former Indian themed blends didn't quite do it for me, smelled rather like some generic incense to me.

This is nice though. It's sweet, smooth, creamy, slightly fruity, still with a dry woodsy/spicy vibe - especially in the (really strong) throw.
Close to skin I get more of the fruit notes, slightly tart, and almost a bit too sharply so.

It reminds me a bit of Halôa, but is less cloying on me. In Diwali the wood/dry spice/incense notes are stronger and win over the foody and fruity notes which are but a mere background whisper on me after some time and blend in perfectly with the resins here.

Something in the wild mixture of different food/sweet smells (raisins, nuts, almond milk, coconut, etc.) brings to mind Midway as well, but I might be hallucinating that again. I seem to find a lot of midwayish resemblances lately.

It doesn't last terribly long, maybe around 5 hours (?), but is a lovely, warm, fruity-spicy-sweet incense as long as it lasts.

I'm sure tempted to get a bottle of this one, not sure though my funds will suffice with all the other items on my Yule wishlist.

[Little Bird]

In the vial this is milky and sweet smelling. I can smell the almond milk's silky sweetness and perhaps some coconut in there as well with hints of a light, pleasant incense.

 

On my skin, the sweetness kicks up a few notches and I get hints of something fruity, without being able to pick out any one fruit note. It goes a bit softly powdery on me before it takes a turn into a stage that makes it unwearable for me.

 

Diwali is a hard blend to describe because it melds together pretty well, making it hard for me to pick out any notes, though the almond milk is strong and makes its presence known above everything else.

 

Something about this gave me a vicious headache when I wore it though. It turns a bit sharp and smoky after a while, but still has a heavy smack of sweetness to it and the almond milk screaming for attention.

 

Perhaps this is just too heavy of a scent for me, and a bit too smoky with my skin chemistry.

[fireflower]

In bottle: Mmmm... milky, sweet, sugary. Smells a bit like coffee when you've poured a ton of cream and sugar in it.

 

First applied: Still very sweet, but now there's a note grounding it that's slightly incensey, smokey, deep and heady. On the top it's sweet, sugary, and slightly florally and fruity. Underneath it's still got something smokey going on. I think it's the mixture of the clove, aloeswood, sandalwood, cedar and spikenard that's underneath this, and I smell mostly the almond milk, cashew, rice flower, and perhaps the raisins on the top.

 

Drydown: It's sort of unusual, and there's a note in there threatening to throw the blend off-balance, but if I ignore that, it's soo pretty. I'm hoping whatever it is will go away! I really love the rest of it. And now after it's been on for a bit longer, it's starting to smell oh-so-slightly soapy on me. Not typical soap, a very pretty soap.. but soap and not oil. Hard to explain.

 

Verdict: I will be using the rest of my decant in a scent locket once I get one, for sure. I don't think it merits a big bottle because there's that one blasted note that I don't smell in the bottle or when it's first applied.

[Hayet]

This one is simply ~lovely~. I can smell the coconut and amber and almond milk and mango and sandalwood, they sort of some and go in waves and each wave is a shimmering haze of beauty. It's not foody- in fact it's hit a floral stage on me now. But it fades into a lovely smooth sandalwood (one of my favorites) and is just beautiful. I'm very happy to have found an Indian theme blend that works on me. Chintamani Dhupa, for example, had all the right notes but just smelled like an old ashtray on my skin.

[Miss Lynx]

This is the one of this year's Yule scents that I most expected to love, but I don't find myself liking it quite as much as I expected to. I certainly don't dislike it, but at least when first applied, it's an odd and slightly discordant mix of extremely varied scents, with some kind of slightly harsh undertone that's a little off-putting. It reminds me a little bit of Nephilim, which I had a similarly mixed reaction to, but it's nicer than that one is.

 

There are some elements to it that I really like, and others I'm not so crazy about. As it settles in, the harshness does diminish, and the different notes begin to harmonize a bit more.

 

Eventually it settles down to a nice, soft, slightly spicy Indian incense scent, which is pretty likable. But on the whole, this does seem to be a case of like rather than the love I expected. I'll keep the imp, but I'm not going to be ordering a bottle like I'd thought I would.

 

Grade: B

 

ETA: I may have been underwhelmed at first, but now this scent seems to be growing on me. I keep finding myself wearing it again, and it gets more interesting each time. There's such a lot of complexity to it. And just the other day when I was wearing it, my wife passed by me and said "Whoa! What are you wearing? You smell really good!" and leaned in for a closer sniff. So I'm not ruling out a bottle purchase after all, and I think I have to bump this up to a B+.

Edited December 7, 2007 by Miss Lynx

[slave1]

DIWALI

 

In Bottle: Dirt and incense

On Skin: Wow, what an interesting combination of notes. It covers so many bases! Foody, woody, spicy, incensey…. The fruits are nice, not like a tropical punch of fruit salad at all, just notes that blend and compliment the scent well. I wouldn’t call this a fruity scent at all. The coconut and almond milk give it a gorgeous creaminess. The other notes don’t stick out enough for me to say, “I smell the cashew.. or clove… or rasins…” As the scent develops, it’s foody qualities fade and it becomes much more about the woods and incense. I really like that there are no many notes, yet they meld and make a very significant blend that isn’t really dominated by any note. The closet blend that resembles it is Hungry Ghost Moon, but I do think HGM is more on the fruity side whereas Diwali is more on the incense side. It has a moderate throw and an average wearlength.

[puck_nc]

Origin: leftover sniffie from eviltemptressdq's circle

 

Initial Thoughts: I wasn't sure about this one. I've developed a fondness for Indian cuisine, so the raisin and coconut and almond intrigued me. But red sandalwood hasn't worked on me in the past.

 

In the Bottle: Rich and creamy food elements, sandalwood, a hint of incense. Even though the notes aren't familiar as Christmas ones, I get a holiday sensation from it.

 

Wet: For a second I get an intense blend of sandalwood and coconut, then the other notes start to play. It's a virtual swirl of notes, so blended that I can only catch a whiff of the incense, a dash of clove, a brush of cedar. The foody notes aren't showing up much.

 

Drydown: Eventually the almond milk and coconut get stronger, and I think the lotus as well. The one factor that remains hidden on me is the fruit - I can't catch even a hint of raisin or mango.

 

Verdict: An interesting blend and I think a rather pretty one, but I'm not in love with it.

[Pepperminx]

Finally a Yule scent I'm not crazy about!

 

I thought this might be a 2 bottle purchase, but it is just so very nondescript on me (thank goodness, because I've got plenty already). When I applied it to my wrists I thought I could smell skin musk, but that note isn't listed, so I don't know what is up with that. I recognize the coconut, and something slightly fruity, but it's very bland and watered down on me, my skin must drink it right up.

 

I agree with the above poster that it's well blended, for the same reason as they stated - I just wish it jumped out at me more!

 

It's been nary an hour and I can hardly smell it anymore. I'm keeping the bottle though, I might just try it again in a few months!

 

- - -

 

I pulled this out again, and Oh My GOD! I don't know what has changed, me or the oil, but it smells divine now! I get mostly fruity notes from this, and it sticks around for much longer than before. I'm glad I decided to keep my bottle!

Edited March 10, 2008 by Grynet

[UploadedLobster]

I'll be brief, because Diwali was brief.

 

First: it's meh.

Then: it's gone.

 

Faintly sweet, faintly floral, faintly fruity. In short, faint. And gone in three minutes. Not a success.

 

 

Lobster Rating

better than: gone in sixty seconds

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Slightly spicy and floral mango.

 

Immediately on skin: This scent is a little fruity, but also creamy and slightly spiced. The most evident note is the mango, but it’s a light, fresh mango... not syrupy sweet. I also get some of the spices, but no one spice note stands out above the others. The spice is extremely subtle and slightly warms up the scent. There’s a light nuttiness and a bit of warmth from the sandalwood.

 

After a few minutes: This is a very nice fruity floral scent. The mango is still the predominant note, but it has mixed in a bit more with everything else. The almond milk seems to make this slightly creamy, and the spices are light and pretty. There is a slight smokiness to this from the incense now as well, but it’s very subtle. This scent is so well blended… everything works together nicely.

 

Overall Impressions: This scent is a lot more perfume-y and pretty than I was expecting (I fully expected it to be rather foodie and spicy). It’s fruity in a bright, fresh way, with slight touches of spices, soft flowers, and a hint of creaminess. It’s a little warm and a little crisp, and very pretty.

[edenssixthday]

Diwali - In the bottle, this smells like meaty nuts, and I'm certain I'm smelling the almond milk, cashew, and coconut. However, as soon as I apply it to my skin, it becomes a dry, woody, incense and nothing else. After 10 minutes or so on my skin, it sweetens a bit and beneath the dry woods, I smell what I think may be cashew or some sort of meaty type nut scent. When I first ordered this, I somehow got it into my head that it was going to smell something like India Bouquet (despite not bothering to compare notes between the two scents), so when I smelled this in the bottle and on my skin and realized it's nothing like India Bouquet, I was quite disappointed. It's not nearly as exotic as I had hoped. On me, it's pretty much just another incense scent.

[LauraB]

Oooh! This is lovely!

 

It starts off smelling very like Indian sweets - a lovely thick coconutty creamy scent (that doesn't go funky on me! Yay!) Then it develops a fruity sweet top note and there is the barest hint of wood underpinning this. I was nervous of this in that almond can go to play doh, milk can go sour and cedar can amp to high heaven, but everything is working.

[Astarte]

When I first apply Diwali I can smell the ceder most prominently. Diwali does go through several stages, I initially had a gentle skin musk stage where the almond and coconut flourished, then the ceder reappropriated itself taking center stage and then it settled towards more a incensey tone.

 

Its a very intrigueing and a comforting scent.

[stardreamer]

This goes on rather sweetish, but quickly settles to spices and sandalwood... perhaps a bit too much sandalwood. Aside from that, it's very much an Indian scent, reminiscent of being in an import shop over in the Little India part of town. Staying power is good, with (again) the sandalwood being the last thing to fade. Bottom line: I didn't fall in love with this scent the way I'd hoped to, but I certainly like it well enough to keep and use up.

[zankoku_zen]

I have to say that this is one of the more interesting Yule blends I've tried this year. It reminds me to my friend Shivani's mother, with the mix of sandalwood, musk and spices... something about the combination is intrinsically Indian, but rather comforting. This is not going to eat at an Indian restaurant smell, this is the hug from a mom that is happy to see you. She just happens to be Indian.

 

This was great for a trip down memory lane.

 

On the other hand, as an actual perfume, this is not my cup of tea. It is a savory, delicate and gentle blend. Kinda like eating coconut rice pudding after a fiery vindaloo. Just... comforting.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Fruity amber

 

Wet: Amber and fruit, coconut and sandalwood.

 

Drydown: Some cedar and musk coming through now. It's a comforting scent, but it confuses my nose, because there's so much going on. I'll need to test this one again.

3.0 outta 5

[forspecial_plate]

I've worn this a couple times now and it always reminds me of Chintamani-Dhupa. I tend to amplify sweeter notes so I was a little surprised that this smells so woody and incense-y for me. I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do. I'll happily wear this again! I wore it to work tonight and it was nice and soft.....subtle with wood and incense, and some sweetness from the foody elements. Good stuff.

[SarahScent44]

In imp, this is mostly mango.

 

On my skin, it's very well-blended, in that it's hard for me to pick out individual notes; it's very light, but warm. It's spicy, with a buttery-nutty undertone.

 

When it dries - mmmm, this is really nice. It's spicy-warm yet really light - it's an unusual combination of traits.

[Ravenclaw79]

Am I the only one who gets red berries out of this one? It starts almond/incense in the vial, then incense/red berries (a juicy smell and sort of like holly berries), and then the incense fades off so it's predominantly red berries. It's nice, though. I might need a bottle.

[strangemodegirl]

I have been wanting to try this so badly, but I have a mango allergy, so I thought it was off limits to me.

 

My best friend got a decant of it and I decided to be brave and test some on a small bit of skin. Wow! No reaction! You don't know how happy this makes me because.....it smells AMAZING!

 

I have had it on for almost 4 hours now and it's still going strong (from one little skin patch!). I get a very creamy, spicy incense. The cardamom, clove and almond milk are really strong on me. I am soooo happy this worked out and am so in love with this scent.

I am buying a bottle of it tonight!

Edited December 25, 2007 by strangemodegirl

[Brianne]

I wish I was getting what other people are getting. I am not getting creamy, fruity coconut. This is a sharp woody scent with a faint fruit note behind it (barely there fruit note). It's a spicy wood - kind of simple and straight forward but pleasant in a comforting way.

[naeelah]

This is one of the yule blends I was most looking forward to trying. I was hoping it would be a creamy rice pudding, chai tea kind of scent. Somehow I completely missed the incense part of the notes description, but that's ok, because I love incense scents too.

 

Wet, it's a very sweet, creamy, complex scent. There's a touch of spice, a touch of florals, a touch of woods and smoky resins, and a lot of almond milk, mango and raisin. The almond milk doesn't actually smell almondy to me -- definitely nowhere near as strong as an almond note -- it's just sweet and creamy. This is a wonderful note, because actual cream notes don't usually work out for me, and they usually feel a little flat to my nose. This initial phase blends to make a classic perfume-like effect, rather than a gourmand one.

 

As it dries, the incense quality gets stronger and stronger, until finally, that's all I smell. Maybe it's because I amp sandalwood? There's a very, very faint fruity, creamy backdrop, but otherwise, it's all temple incense. It's great, I just wish I had more of the food offerings.

 

After about 40 minutes, it seems to be dying quickly. The cedar is more apparent now. All I smell is smoky wood resin. However, even as a purely incense fragrance, it differs enough from the other incense fragrances to make it a strong bottle candidate. I lived in Japan for a year, and this really reminds me of the scent of temples.

 

This is only the first time I've tried it, so I'll update after a few more tries. I think I like this, but I'd like it more if it didn't give me the flash in a pan treatment. I think a combined attack -- on the skin and in the locket -- will be the way to wear this.

 

The smoky wood notes linger forever, but so far, I'd say the wear life is below average. The throw drops off dramatically (so it seems - it could just be my nose) after a couple of hours, but the trace of the base notes lasts well into the next day. It lasts a good long while in a locket. I put some on a piece of velvet last night, and the following morning it's slightly softer, but definitely still noticeable.

Edited December 27, 2007 by naeelah

[PurringPulsar]

Diwali

 

In the bottle: sweet mango and flowers with a hint of coconut.

Wet on skin: mmm, now I smell the woods and spices!

Dry on skin: now the wood smells like incense, it's smoky! This is really beautiful, complex and interesting. I can smell all sorts of things here-flowers, fruit, spices, woods, incense, even a hint of something creamy. I smell a gorgeous jasmine note, not bitter or sharp at all, but beautiful and bright, along with the sweet mango, and also some delicious spices. There's coconut and almond milk to add a slightly gourmand touch (but this isn't a foody scent) and I also smell the drier sweetness of tamarind and raisins, the sweet powdery lightness of lotus root, and a fabulous incense. It smells like aromatic woods gently smouldering over a table of offerings.

After a while: my oh my, this gets even better. There's a wonderful, shining floral note at the heart of this-it's jasmine, but like no jasmine I know of from BPAL. This one is heady but not sharp, this one is sweet and glorious, sweetened by the mango, I think. All around I smell the spices and incense and dried fruits. This is so unique and everything works seamlessly.

The floral note, which was singing on my skin, now quietens but doesn't go away. I think now I smell more of the lotus and maybe rice flower, as well as the woodsy notes, which are rich, dry, a little bit smoky but not as much as before. I still smell spices and mango here too, but I think there's a bit more of a nutty smell now from the cashew, almond and coconut. It's still beautiful and I love the way it morphs and how all the notes play together. The nutty smell increases over time, and the woods smell now like soft incense ashes, along with that glorious floral background. The smoke returns at the very end with hints of nuts and creamy flowers and woods.

Verdict: this is one of the most stunning scents in the Yule collection. It’s so unique, so complex, so beautiful, festive in a totally different way to the other Yule scents. it’s a mix of all sorts of scents from fruity mango to offertory flowers, one of the most gorgeous woodsy incense notes ever, touches of spices and nuts…and everything blends wonderfully together in a scent which is both colourful and joyful yet also feels sacred and luminous. There’s a lot going on here but there’s also a harmony to it so nothing clashes and the morphs aren’t dramatic. The jasmine note here is one of the nicest in BPAL and that incense note is fantastic in the way that it smells like it’s smouldering but not burning, and I can also smell the woods themselves. There’s nothing quite like this in BPAL, and I need another bottle!

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Yes! This is magnificent!

If you like this, try: The Dodo, Khajuraho, Chintamani Dhupa, Kubla Khan, Hungry Ghost Moon, The Masque

[arabella]

First Impression: Exotic floral but unlike any other floral I've ever smelled.

 

Dries down to: Stays pretty much the same on me.

 

Additional Comments: This is definitely floral but so exotic. The way Beth has blended all the notes is exquisite. The balance is so perfect that I can't pick out any one note but was instantly addicted to the whole. Of the new Yules, this one is the hidden gem.

 

Lasted: 2-3 hours.

 

Rating: 5 out of 5

[heathercaley]

In the bottle it's very sweet and earthy, but once it goes on my skin it's mostly cedar. It's a very milky cedar, but all I smell is cedar. It's not bad. In all actuality I like it.

 

It sticks very close to the skin and goes away really quick though

 

 

edit: 7 months later... aged nicely!! Now it's a soft sweet incense.. a bit of cedar around the edges but I've actually grown to love a bit of cedar these days. It's great how your snoot can mature to appreciate lovely smellies. So yeah... it's very very nice. A slightly sweet.. slightly creamy.. with a touch of spice and a bit of cedar blended incense. I'm glad I held on to this baby!

Edited July 23, 2008 by Purrsnikety