Cairo

[Venneh]

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

In the imp, this is almost syrupy, can't quite place it. On my skin, it almost smells like fruit gummy snacks. ...Bwa, I say? Ends up being syrupy rose and lemon. Not my thing.

[Argentwolf]

Sour wine and myrrh. These are not notes that go together well on my skin, and here they remind me of how truly vile they can be. Bleh.

[flyby]

In the imp, I get a sweet-sharp-citrusy scent that's just this side of cleaning fluid. Wet on skin, it gets a little smokier and the incense starts to come through, and it gets incensier as it dries. Unfortunately my skin also seems to drink it up, and it dies down to almost nothing on me. A shame, as I quite liked the smoky-sweet incense of it; maybe I'll try layering it with a drier incense scent to see what happens.

[calivianya]

I smell lemon, lemon, and lemon. Maybe I amp lemon? I also smell something boozy, a lot like the boozy smell in Athens. I much prefer it in Athens, though - the lemon smell ruins it for me here. I do like the smell of lemons, I just don't want to smell like them myself. Lemons always remind me of floor cleaner and lemon Pledge, so scents with them do strike me as clean, just not attractive. I feel like I've spent the morning cleaning my kitchen while drinking some wine, and some of the smell of the cleaning fluid stays on me.

[Bamels]

I discovered this in my swap pile but haven't reviewed it. In the imp I smell sharp fruit tea and body sweat. I can see why this is in the swap pile. I won't be putting it on my skin and I won't be moving it from the pile.

[Vega]

Sniffed: Sweet and syrupy, lighty resinous.

 

On skin: Sweet, syrupy/sticky resins, with a slightly glowing, citrus/sour edge. This tartness gets more prominent upon drydown, melding with the light resins. Not always successfully -- the tartness often threatens to overwhelm the blend -- but this is overall light, syrupy resins, laced liberally with something citrus, with whiffs of spices and perhaps florals. I've had mixed success testing Cairo: my early notes say that it eventually dries out and become fragrant spices and citrus, but subsequent tests have all ended up a sour, thin, resin-laced citrus. I suspect there's a verbena or a specific citrus note that is the culprit. Ah, well...

Colour impression is sandstone pink and brown.

 

Verdict: Sadly, Cairo has mixed success on my skin, and while it's a solidly good BPAL blend, there are better out there. I wonder what this sour note is, I may have to avoid it in future.

[imaginepageant]

In the Vial: Sweet and woodsy, but it has a definite green quality to it. There's almost something foody about this... like baked bread and wine and ginger. I can't decide if this smells dry or juicy; maybe a little of both.

 

Wet: Ah, now I see why everyone else is mentioning citrus. Yet, it's definitely dry rather than juicy now. And it's going powdery; just a dusty smell at first, but it's slowly morphing into sweet talcum powder.

 

Dry: Aaaaaaand rose. That must be why I was getting the talcum powder smell. Well, it's only a matter of time now before the fading remnants of the citrus and ginger are fully obliterated by the rose.

 

An Hour Later: Mostly rose, with a hint of citrus, and a smoky background.

 

Overall: Another casualty of the notorious serial killer, rose.

[yakiguri]

Pine Sol. >_< Luckily I have both an aged imp and a Lab-fresh one, so I'll set the aged one aside and hope the Lab-fresh one come out differently.

 

EDIT: Got impatient and window-aged my new imp, and yup, got Pine Sol again. Swapping.

Edited August 6, 2011 by thatbrownelf

[tdgnika]

In the imp, this smelled like beer and cough syrup, and I was worried.

 

Wet on the wrist, it smelled like spice and syrupy-ness.

 

As it dried, it went to incense, which I normally really like. But, there was something that it threw quite vigorously that got in my throat that bugged me.

[boomtownrat]

The first time I wore this I got a musky, resin-ish smell that seemed a bit horsey, which was appropriate for my Halloween costume (My Little Pony's Princess Luna). Today it has a sour, sweet quality that comes on strong. I can't pick out any notes other than incense. As it begins to calm down into something more powdery-soft, it's easier to tolerate.

 

I'm a migraineur and this absolutely could trigger an attack if I'm not careful how much I wear. Applying a bit on my neck after lunch, when it had faded from this morning's wrist application, was a bad idea. After trying to wash it off, it's much better. I thought it would work if applied in a different place, but I should have left well enough alone.

 

I don't think I'll wear this often but I'll keep the imp anyway.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Syrupy lemon.

Wet: As someone above said, lemon gummy lollies!

Dry: A sweet lemon. It's not foody, or something that would get rid of 99% of household germs (thank goodness), but more of a 'fancy soap' lemon. Some incense does come out a bit later, but it's very faint. This faded very quickly on my skin, and was gone in just over an hour.

[folklore]

Whew! This was totally lemon both in the imp and when I first put it on. Sweet-yet-tart lemon, like the Lemon Head candies I love to eat. Pleasant enough, but not wonderful. Not something I'd love to smell like-- it made me hungry!

 

Now that it's dry and settling, the incense and honey has made an appearance. Mmm, now it's delicious in a good way. Smokey and sweet, with a hint of something almost like mead. I love both citrus and incense scents, so this is definitely popping up to the top of my 'When I Get My Paycheck' list.

 

Going to go take an exam on ancient history today and I'm hoping this will gain me some extra luck.

[detritius]

I was surprised by this one. I got the heavy, smokey incense smell I expected from the description, but there was something like a prominent honey note, too, that sweetened up the whole blend. I didn't get the dryness other people have described, either. Overall, this is a slow. warm, languid scent with a nice exoticness to it.

[KittyHawk]

Cairo is downright strange and not even remotely what I was expecting. It begins as a true lemon scent. It's not sharp or pithy; it's quite nice, actually, but I'm wondering where the incense is hiding. It keeps getting sweeter as it sits on my skin, and now that it's been on for about two hours, it's all peach. Peach? Where did that come from? All in all, Cairo is pleasant enough, but not at all evocative of its namesake. Too bad.

[Vaudevillain]

In the bottle: Incense. Intense, resiny incense.

 

On the skin: Very lemony, very yellow- sunlight on stone. Sharp and clean and slightly exotic- almost frankincense.

 

Very good as a room smell, maybe as a skin smell if I really wanted to smell very clean.

 

 

Edit: Uck. Uck uck uck, it's turned to cat pee and disgusting buttery rotten flowers. Ew. And it's got a crazy throw- people across the room can smell it and are blaming my kittens. Do not want. 0 out of 5.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Vaudevillain

[Scorianelle]

Well, for once my experience was similar to those of the other reviewers, which I guess is unfortunate. I had no idea what holy Kyphi incense smelled like and I can't say I feel particularly enlightened now that I do.

 

First Sniff: Sweet honey and dewy melon. Very syrupy.

 

Second Sniff: Still some sort of super sweet green fruit.

 

Wet: Banana, gold syrup and fumes. The fumes resolve into a citrus/lemon type smell.

 

Dry (30 mins): Heady, sweet, gold syrup. A little sandy in the background.

 

Dry (1.5 hours): Still very sweet, but luckily not overpowering. Starting to powder.

 

Dry (3 hours): Soft and powdery. Smells a little bit like mosquito repellent.

 

Throw: none (thank goodness).

 

Colour association: sunny orange/amber.

 

Welp, I didn't enjoy this one, but I've certainly experienced worse. If you like tropical smells then this could be your thing.

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): While the description is vague, I clearly get red wine, followed by fig, and a touch of resin.

 

Wet: Lots of red wine, but almost rancid. I get fig or something deliciously dark and just a hint of resin.

 

Dry: I get sweet myrrh and frankincense supported by light red wine and something "darker." It's interesting, but the wine throws it off for me.

[White_rabbit334]

Now, I COULD be wrong... but I seem to remember a very, very old, Egyptian recipe for incense that included wine, honey, myrrh---possibly some frankincense in there---and raisins. I believe there were a few more ingredients--maybe cloves, cinnamon, labdanum, etc, but for some reason this strikes me as an interpretation compared to the previous recipe. I've MADE that incense before---it can take while a long while to dry, I've let mine mature for years. But when it's lit, it smells downright amazing....

 

I wish I could say the same thing about Cairo. I don't get any honey (the one in O would've been *perfect* for this), or spice, or anything remotely reminiscent of ACTUAL Kyphi. It smells like someone spilled a bottle of wine.... and then, to clean it up, someone pissed all over it. -.- And then there was a lemon-fight.

 

This was such a let down---different types of kyphi are supposed to be bursting to the brim with resins and honey, maybe even a touch of cinnamon (sorry those of you with allergies). Vaudevillain's review was entirely accurate. Crazy throw, horrible smell. I've heard of jasmine going to cat pee on people... I am fortunately not one of those people, but made the mistake of thinking I was safe. Screw 0, at least that's neutral... I'll give this a -15/5. =/ I've never heard of Kyphi incense made almost purely with lemon, wine, and pee.

Edited February 16, 2013 by White_rabbit334

[bellumed]

Sweet lemony incense! Yes, please, sounds good to me!

 

On me, huh, very clean—not soapy, but this certain “straight up through my nose” scent that rose sometimes does to me. I remember it from Alice, too. Something leafy is coming along for the ride. Lemon has retreated to the background, unfortunately.

 

A foodlike spice crops up, and not in the yummy baked way. More like a cooking spice, blech. Fuuuuuu, this was promising in the imp, but I think it’s not gonna work for me. Even my beloved lemon is screwy—I don’t know if I’d say it was like a candle, but there’s something not quite right about this.

[Floria]

Fruity resins, very well blended. It's hard to pick out individual notes. It goes a little powdery on the drydown, but in a nice way (like amber or benzoin), and it doesn't go dusty like some incense resins do. I wonder if there's wine in this - it has that kind of sweet-tart fruitiness. I'm not a big fan of wine notes (sometimes they can be too sour, too strong, or kind of medicinal), but it works nicely here. I can see the resemblance to Athens, but this is less syrupy-sweet and to my nose, easier to wear. It's also a bit like a mellower Delphi. A little honey comes out in the drydown which increases the resemblance. Worth checking out if you like fruity incense or you want an exotic scent that isn't over the top sultry.

 

I'd say this is a pretty unisex scent - to my nose, a bit butcher than Tombstone but a bit girlier than the Great Sword of War. Ymmv, of course.

[JazzieCazzie]

Placed a pretty big-for-me order recently that included 18 imps, split between old favorites and new-to-me scents. This was one of the latter, because I see the word "incense" and unless I see other dealbreakers list, I'm gonna want to try it.

 

IN THE IMP: I confess. I opened the imp, was hit hard by a truly unpleasant smell, and immediately recapped it and said, "Um, no. Into the swap box with you, stinky imp." It was sour and pungent, with the most prevalent note being red wine (something I LOVE to drink but goes horribly wrong on me as a scent). Vinegary. Acrid.

 

The, I re-read the reviews ... many people had had similar observations (not necessarily as negative, but that it was very wine-y upon application but dried down into a deep resiny incense scent). I decided that, with a hot bath already on the night's agenda, I would give it a shot and see what happened, knowing that whether I hated it, loved it, or something in between, it was going to be washed off anyway ... just a matter of how quickly.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: Still wine, but immediately upon meeting my skin, the incense started to amp and offset the pungentness ... Pungence? Pungency? In addition, I could detect some honey that sweetened it and even some ineffable floral notes. It was about 1000% better on than it was in the imp, for me.

 

DRYDOWN: Honestly, I didn't get that deep resinous incense drydown. In fact, as it dried, it reverted to being almost all wine all the time with some honey and possibly a little bit of fig? I love those last two notes in BPAL but they weren't quite enough to turn Cairo into a winner for me. They did, however, keep it from being a washoff.

 

OVERALL: It's one of the biggest differentials between off-body and on-body scents of any of the BPALs I've tried. It's complex and interesting. But it doesn't work for me and, once again, it returns to the swap box but minus the name "stinky imp."

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 2.5

[LateOne]

Got this as an imp off ebay.

 

In bottle: sweet incense.

Wet: VERY sweet incense, almost fruity/floral.

Dry: Sweet lemon citrus, almost like citronella.

 

I heard "incense" and got excited, so now I'm torn. This one's up for trades, as it's just not for me.

[Dust and Fire]

In the imp: Chocolate! Spices and choclate with something wetly floral underneath.

 

On my skin: Definetly getting the incense(though it smelled a bit like an outdoor spice market to me, rather than incense), after a while it turned sharp, almost astrigant.During the last phase the warmth showed up again to bring the incense back with the brighter, cleaner smell fading into the background.

 

Somehow it all balanced out for me and I found it to be totally gorgous, even the wierdly unexpected lemony-ish part in the middle; it held its own amongst all the food smells as I had to spend hours in the kitchen today, it was never overwhelming, and I LOVED the spice without it being too heavy or too sweet. Definetly a keeper!

[inhumation]

it's brilliant how this scent really evokes how I imagine ancient egypt to be like, in scent form. I don't think it quite suits me, but it was lovely to try out.

[Kanashisa]

Honey and lemon. In the bottle, more like honey; on my skin, more like lemon. A thick, sweet, syrupy lemon.

 

I quite like it.

 

8/10

Edited September 23, 2014 by Kanashisa