The Diamond’s Gong

[Balame]

A celestial hymn, singing to Earth from fifty light years away: ten billion-trillion-trillion-carats of glittering white musk, with cognac, tagetes, white champaca, Gum Arabic, and davana.

Nag Champa incense with a hazy buffer of white musk beneath it.
This and Diamond Star are fairly similar, but where Star was lighter and more ethereal, this feels spiritual and a bit somber.
In a good way, though. It smells like the inside of temple and brings to mind words like "prayer" and "enlightenment."

I couldn't shake the Nag Champa association though, and so it ended up being too simplistic on me.
Odd that tagetes is in here, because I really couldn't pick out anything fruity or green.

[astarinel]

This was my favorite of the OLLA scents that I tried, which I didn't expect from the note list!

 

I find it hard to pick out individual notes in this one, other than the prominent white musk. It's a little sweet and fruity, reminding me of something like champagne grape. I found it sort of perfumey-incensey, but in a good way that made it feel kind of wearable. As it dries, it fades mostly to sweet white musk with a wisp of resin/incense.

[Monday]

Champaca strikes again! This smells like a toilet deodorizer block.

[theseagrows]

hmm, i was almost 90% certain this would work on me, but all i get is white musk and something oddly sweet. my skin seems to amp the sweetness. it smells kind of sticky sweet and i think it may be the gum arabic but i'm not sure (?) i am not really a big fan of sweet scents and this sweetness turns a bit strange on me. what a surprise! it's so odd how skin amps some notes and not others. i think if the sweetness had been more subtle, that this may have worked better with my skin chemistry.

[zankoku_zen]

The Gong is a clear, sweet, white floral. I'm surprised at how clear and sweet it actually is.

 

For me, the Gong encapsulates a single note hanging in the air.

 

Clear, sweet, pure.

[tinyvulture]

A happy, pure, sparkling white musk blend. Really captures the glitz and glitter of diamonds. Sweet, white, tropical (must be the davana!) The cognac adds to the posh, festive vibe. I love the lab's cognac note! A lovely perfume for going out on the town.

[Violaine]

This is a gorgeous, stable, long lasting, creamy white musk on me. So much so it's almost single note. I absolutely adore it and I bought a backup.

[bitterstar]

The Diamond's Gong smells almost identical to LUSH Cosmetics' Champagne Snow Showers Shower Jelly; that is, a perfectly gorgeous, shimmery musk, both light and warm.

[alyelle]

Imp: Musk and gum. Kim tells me it smells like Hubba Bubba bubblegum.

 

Wet: Champaca, cognac, and musk. This is actually what I'd been expecting from Stardust (and kind of what I like to imagine stardust smells like).

 

Dry: As this settles, the gum arabic re-emerges, but it never manages to dominate over the champaca. And thankfully the musk never becomes musk lollies, which is a Very Good Thing. I can't really detect the davana, and the tagetes (which I had to google; I've only ever heard them called marigold ) are very very light. Almost impercetible - and probably a good thing, as my skin doesn't always play nicely with dominant florals.

 

Throw is medium, which surprises me for a scent so delicate; life is 4-6 hrs. And I utterly love this, I will be buying more.

 

Stars: ★★★★★

[MuskWitch]

In the bottle, ooooooo, I like this. oh DAMN, I like this!

 

On my skin, I LIKE this, I really really LIKE this! I think I need another bottle! I can't quite place what it is that I like about it. It's just a really pretty scent. It reminds me of something. I don't know what it reminds me of, but I like it!

 

Wish I had a better "nose" so I could describe this more precisely. I think I will need another bottle. How's that?

[bulletslc]

To me this smells like Streets of Detroit without the depth and grittiness of the musk and myrrh.

I love nag champa but I love SoD more than this.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: I am not familiar with a couple notes, so the following review is approximate. It’s clearly musk dominant with cognac support. I think that may be the tagetes combining with the champaca to make the second strongest impression. The gum arabic is third, with what I’m guessing is davana haunts the background. Wet: Avoid this if you are not an incense fan. The probably tagetes really brings the floral, and while it works well with the still marginally dominant musk and cognac, it’s a little much on me. The gum arabic is strong support, with the davana still lurking in the background. Dry: Reminiscent of nag champa. Absolutely lovely incense blend.

[stellamaris]

omg so amazing...amazing...how to stop myself from buying ten bottles of this???

It changes on me, sometimes it's All Nag Champa All the Time, sometimes it's an amazing musk. Gah. Incense fans this is a MUST>

[purplegirl]

I got this OLLA on a whim and wouldn't it figure - this is my second favourite, right after the beautiful Ava! On me, Diamond's Gong is an incredibly rich scent that is an almost dead-ringer for Lush's 17 Cherry Tree Lane soap which I loved! Creamy musk with a clean floral undertone..... A beautiful feminine scent and I am so happy I got her!!

[milo]

Strong, musky perfume at first. Changes to a soft, sweet incense, which I'm guessing is the champaca. This is very nice, it kind of reminds me of Voodoo Queen, but with no clove, it is that good. Dark, sweet incense. I may hunt down more of this gem....

[Ginspu]

For me, this was pretty much white musk and incense, swirling together. It's really simple and elegant. And has some pretty good staying power. My recliner still has hints of it today, after applying on my arms yesterday.

[Atrous]

I so love Diamond's Gong

 

Creamy, white musk with incense swirling around. Cognac & a light floral note sit in the background supporting the blend.

The scent is pretty, feminine, and light but long lasting. I put it on in the morning and could still smell it that evening.

This has a vibe similar to Diamond Star. The most noticeable difference being that DS has a lighter, more powdery feel.

[keltiejean]

Musky purple sparkling goodness! It has a very gorgeous piercing purple effect, vaguely like grape soda (mixed with champagne?) After a while, there’s a musk that works its way to the front, keeping the crazy piercing at a distance. This is a crazy and gorgeous scent, but not for me…

[goodnightnightvale]

Do you ever put on a scent, figure out that you like it, but you're unable to put your finger on precisely why? Diamond's Gong falls into that category for me. It managed to surprise me: in the bottle, I got a whiff of something that reminded me of Dimetapp (anyone else remember that? that kid's cold medicine that almost knocked you back with how grape-y it was?), but thankfully that passed. Once I had it on, it turned into something...almost comforting, that's a good word for it. Put me in mind of a safe, beautiful space that recently had incense burning. It's lovely.

[Monster]

The Diamonds Gong is all nag champa incense and white musk. It's not crystalline and sparkling, instead it's soft, smoky and powdery. I wasn't expecting this to be as simple as it is, it stays pretty consistent in all stages, incense and musk. I never get any of the champagne grape notes everyone else is getting. This is simply incense on my skin.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Monster

[gingiemay]

This is gorgeous, white, brilliant and sparkling. White musk and davana, almost no champaca for me. Stunning and softly glowing.

[Alethia]

Thoughts before testing: This is a total gamble for me as white musk rarely works on my skin. But I've had nothing but wins out of the OLLA line so I had to try it!

 

Wet: grape-y incense, sweet, lovely

 

Drydown: Gorgeous, creamy white musk with a heavy backbone of incense

 

Dry: The most perfect creamy white musk with a lovely incensey/floral undertone.

 

Final thoughts: Ugh, this is just perfection. Seriously the only words I can think of for this are beautiful and classy.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Musk - much lighter than I thought it would be, and incense, specifically champaca. Interesting. Very light. I get the grape that others have picked up on.

 

 

Dry A very pretty, feminine incense blend. The floral and musk swirling through it are interesting. Overall it ends up being a little too high pitched and perfumey for me, but I can appreciate it's uniqueness as well.

[Little Bird]

Clean, perfumey, slightly powdery, sharp white musk mixed with a sweet, grapey nag champa incense. Very powdery on my skin, especially in the drydown. Not a keeper for me.

[Jenjin]

Silver champa smoke swirls through this. Clean, clear and ringing like a holy temple, it's very much like gong meditation when the sound and the vibration reverberates through the body, pushing out cobwebs and clutter. Exotic and sweet, it becomes a sulty second skin scent on me, a bit like I've just been scrubbed down by sacred white light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1X6jFIrPrk

Edited May 26, 2017 by Jenjin