Kyoto

[heartbeast]

A gentle, soothing blend of cherry blossom, white sandalwood and star anise.

Why oh why does my chemistry give some of my favorite scents this awkward Raid phase before the drydown?

Kyoto is another one that smells like bug spray. After a bit, the anise dominates and covers up the cherry blossoms, which are still smelling like bug spray but are now masked by the yummy anise scent. In the final stage--which thankfully then lasts for hours--the anise slips into the background and the cherry blossom and sandlewood combine and smell exactly like...the headshop where my mother used to buy Indian bedspreads when I was a kid! This is probably because I was just starting to get into witchy things at that time, so I would loiter around in the section with the essential oils and incense until she came by and told me she was ready to check out and I could pick out one thing. Headshops in general, and even this specific one when I go back, don't smell the same to me now, and I'm guessing that's because cherry and sandlewood were probably very popular incenses in the '70's. Anyway, it's a very comforting, happy scent for me. That 20 minute bug spray intro is a bit off-putting, but I've noticed it doesn't happen every time so it may be a hormone cycle thing or a you-haven't-been-drinking-enough-water thing. I'll wait till I get through the imp before I make a decision about whether this warrants a larger bottle.

[danuv]

Argh! This is the third oil containing sandalwood I've tried and as beautiful and different as each one is they all turn to pure sandalwood on my skin! I'm so distressed.

 

Kyoto was so lovely wet and in the vial but kaboom, on my skin everything but the sandalwood vanishes. I'm going to hang on to it for a bit and try it at a different time of the month but my hopes are not high.

 

It's so gorgeous in the vial... all cherry and anise. I don't smell the sandalwood at all, perhaps lightly in the background.

[sarahjay]

I really like this a lot & may have to get a bigger bottle for when the weather warms up. It reminded me of lush's sakura bath bomb too, but happily for me I like that. I was worried that the cherry would smell too much of sweeties but it doesn't, thank goodness, the sandalwood seems to pin it down.

 

I'm enjoying the wanderlust scents a lot.

[rhubarbbear]

both in the bottle and wet kyoto is super-anise! or fennel. fennel grows wild where i grew up, and this kind of reminds me of trying to weed it out of my garden. as it dries the cherry blossoms come out and the anise fades, just leaving a sort of medicinal background note. its kind of cough-syrupy on me, actually.

 

i imagine the sandalwood would round things out nicely, if my silly skin hadn't sucked it all up!

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: Cherries and some kind of too sweet licorice. Cherry scents hate me. I didn't figure this out until after I had ordered this imp, though. And I'm devoted to testing just about everything I get.

 

Wet: This smells like chocolate covered cherries, which I cannot stand. I'm not a big cherry person and all that goo inside it really makes my stomach lurch.

 

Dry down: Cherry goo with some sweet and the sandalwood in the background. The sandlewood is very nice and makes me long for my Libra. Still chocolate covered cherries up close.

 

Dry: Chocolate covered cherry goo. I bet there are lots of people out there that this smells simply beautiful on. I am not one of them. Part of the reason for this is because I do not like to smell like cherries. They just make my stomach kinda ill for some reason. The sandalwood in the background is nice but is almost completely covered by the cherry scent. Hmm...well, now the sandalwood is coming out more but has a really odd, acrid background note to it. The cherries. Washing off. Maybe the boy will like it.

 

ETA: As it continues to dry, it turns into cough syrup. Not gonna work for me.

[xoe]

Kyoto was at first sweet, bright cherries. But quickly morphed into a lovely blend. My experience was the opposite of many of the above reviewers. On me, Kyoto went from being mainly cherry to being mainly sandalwood and star anise. It's a really great springtime scent. And it does evoke images of Japan. Wow!

[VelvetSky]

Kyoto is quite strong on my skin when freshly applied....deep red cherries and anise with a whiff of the sandalwood underneath. This reminds me very much of Kabuki.

 

As it warms, the anise pushes up and I'm getting that slighly medicinal tone to the fragrance.

 

The final dryout is basically all sandalwood, with just a hint of something green and leafy.

 

Kyoto is a scent that I probably won't wear because I can't do overtly fruity scents, but I'm very glad to have tried it. I'll be passing this on as a gift.

[darkitysnark]

Kyoto

 

I had to test this one twice as I was distracted the first go 'round. My friends (the distractions) did note that the initial hit after applying was "almost too sweet".

 

In the bottle:

Thick, dark, woody cherry. Cherry wood, I suppose. Very mellow.

 

Wet/drydown:

This happened pretty quickly. The cherry bubbled up over the darker notes and exploded into the front of my mouth in a bright red candy-like POW! This is crazy cherry syrup YIKES with incredible throw.

 

Eventually, maybe 30-45 minutes later, the cherry subsides and I feel like it's safe to go out.

 

Later:

Four hours in and the sandalwood takes over. Mmmm. I'm beginning to understand incense notes are my "skin" notes. All warm and natural and close to my body. This is something that asks the sniffer to come hither and rewards the intimacy with a delicious, private blend of slightly fruity, mostly dark comfort tinged with the potential for more strenuous activity later.

 

Conclusion:

This seems to have medium staying power on me. Even with the lovely "later" effect, this is one for the swaps for all the loud fruitiness at the beginning. I'm beginning to wonder if there is such a thing as a mellow berry/cherry/fruit note in relation to my skin.

[couscous]

This one is so fun.

 

Like pure black licorice, all I smell is anise. I mean ALL I smell.

 

Super strong anise, I love the uniqueness of the note but I prefer my BPAL to not really resemble single- notes. There's not a cherry blossom or a wood to be found on my skin

[shelldoo]

wet was cherries, bitch slap me cherries

 

dry it calms down a bit and the annis is more prominent w/ the sandal wood mellowing it all a bit, i liked it after the cherry wasn't in my face to much.

[gingersnapp]

I bought a bottle of this because I loved the way that the anise in Kabuki was so strong on my skin.

 

In the bottle, this smells very strongly of cherries. I liked the other description where someone said "bitch slap me cherries."

 

On my skin, the anise is definitely the most prevalent scent. But it's softened by the sandalwood. It's very warm and soothing, like sitting in the sunshine wrapped in a favorite soft blanket with the window open to a cherry blossom tree.

 

Mmmm....

[Tesseljoan]

Wet: Cherry and nothing but cherry. and ...ehm... it's gone already.

 

Drying: Anise comes out pretty sharply now, and very overpowering. Good that I love anise. I can smell flower behind it, but at the moment the anise dominates. Yum.

 

Dry: The anise backs off, and what I can smell now is hard to describe. This turns into a very white, dry scent, maybe the sandalwood? It's stell a bit sweet from the cherry, and I can still smell a fresh trace of anise. Very nice one for a spring day like today!

[anmorata]

Kyoto:

 

Wet: Cherry blossoms!

Drydown: Cherry blossoms & sandalwood, with hints of anise.

Longterm wear: My skin really amps up the anise, making this a very spicy smell. After about an hour, the cherry blossom starts coming back as the strength of the anise fades. I'm not sure how I feel about that.. I like the smell of anise, but it makes me think of the little candy-coated anise seeds at Indian restaurants. I'll have to give this one another shot.

Edited April 22, 2005 by anmorata

[Faerykin]

Kyoto

 

Swiped across wrists and along collarbone.

 

Initial Wet (8-8:30am): This goes on sweet and bright. The anise is at the forefront, but it is mellowed by the sandalwood. Not certain I detect any cherry blossom yet. But, it is definitely sweet (almost sugary) and quite nummy.

 

Initial Dry (8:30-10am): This continues to remain its sweet self – I think it may be the cherry blossom lying under everything. The anise and sandalwood are still at the top, which makes for a very nice, warm, earthy blend. Still nummy.

 

Throughout the Day (10am-on): The combination here smells almost like a very light patchouli – how odd. Not at all unpleasant, just not what I had expected – or was hoping for. I really wanted the anise to pop out. Poopy.

 

Off to the Swap Pile!

[girlmadasbirds]

this was a wonderful cherry scent in the bottle, but on drydown, the anise gave it a strange wood varnish touch. it reminded me of cathedral with a cherry hint. i like it.

[LiberAmoris]

Kyoto is really interesting…like black licorice in a flower shop. A truly fascinating blend, one of those that I keep sniffing my wrists to catch because it’s just so provoking a combination. The anise is strong at first and then backs off as the cherry blossom comes through. The sandalwood is very light to my nose, in fact I probably wouldn’t even notice it if it wasn’t listed. It just flickers a bit at the edges as a base on which the cherry blossom and anise rest.

 

An hour later, this is a spiced cherry blossom, or an aged cherry cordial. This is one of those blends that I don’t think I need a bottle of, but I definitely want to keep the imp. It’s really a remarkable and unusual combination of notes.

[Jessica]

Kyoto smells exactly how I thought it would smell. Light and cherry and floral. I thought I'd like it, being a floral person, but it was a little too cherry for me. On my skin, after the dry down it left a slightly cough syrupy with some spice behind it.

 

Overall, a nice blend, but it isn't one that I can keep around.

[Nepthys]

I'm not a big fan of anise so I was wary of this one; it was a gift from the Lab. It turned out to be one of my favorites in that whole order. Cherry and sandalwood, it turned out, balance each other's sweetness and woodiness in a beautiful way. This was so pretty and so fresh, I couldn't believe it. As for the anise... I sort of detected it in there, but it was faint and it worked. This is a great spring scent; it reminds me of walking home from school as a kid in March/April and reveling in that damp flower smell on wet, windy days. I love this on my skin but I think I might also want this in my car.

[ismene]

Kyoto smells very much like Kabuki to me, only spicier. After an hour or so the star anise dies down and it smells almost exactly like cherry trees in bloom. Unfortunately the whole thing fades after a couple of hours and it never has that much throw. It's a lovely scent and I wish it lasted longer on my skin.

[tempete]

Red_Hot_Mama kindly gifted me with an imp of Kyoto

 

For a scent that contains three nemeses (cherry blossom, white sandalwood and star anise), Kyoto is, surprisingly, quite nice on me. I'm not too fond of the initial wet stage, which bears a strong resemblance to licorice-flavoured cough syrup (if such a beast exists). However, the three components seem to achieve some magical alchemy in the drydown, which is a slightly spicy mix of wood and cherry. Quite different from the scents that I normally reach for, so it's a nice change.

[pekeana]

Mmmmm, I love this, but that should be no surprise, considering how much I love Kabuki -- and Kabuki and Kyoto are so very similar.

 

I'm finding that Beth's anise note really sings on my skin -- it's thick, vibrant, sexy, and warm spice that is very comforting and extremely sexy.

 

Pair that with cherry blossom and soft white sandalwood, and you have an anise that is a little cherry/floral (I've never been able to describe the scent of cherry blossoms -- they're very white floral with the dryer sheets thing going on, but at the same time, they have the same essence as a warm, full-bodied ripe cherry or a nice, fresh slab of cherrywood; the same, thick, rich vitality), and the soft woody edge of the sandalwood.

 

Kyoto is a deep, sensual scent, slightly sweet, slightly floral, slightly woody, and quite spicy across the top -- a slash of red on a white piece of paper.

[empi girl]

Alas, I had hopes for Kyoto, since I love the anise in Absinthe and in Kabuki. But in Kyoto, the anise screams on my skin. It eats the cherry blossom (which makes a brief appearance in the beginning), and must have intimidated the sandalwood, which is a no-show.

 

I did not like this enough to leave it on, so can't speak to how it ages. I scrubbed it off after maybe 45 minutes. And then scrubbed again. And again. Very persistent and strong little bugger!

 

Glad it works for other people, and I will stick with my lovely light Absinthe for anise.

[Orodemniades]

Almondy, with a hint of cherry and maybe some rose? Ah, it's the anise I'm smelling, it's familiar from Kabuki. And now, I just smell the sandalwood coming through...this is lovely, but I think I prefer Kabuki.

 

Oro

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Cherry cherry cherry, and did I mention cherry? There's also the definite peppery-licorice note of anise here; although it isn't a principle player.

On me: White sandalwood emerges on the skin, mellowing and silencing the cherry syrup into something much more subdued. It's almost like cherry ice cream, but instead of whipped cream it is topped with delightful anise, which adds a unique little kick to the blend. As it dries down the creaminess lessens but never completely disapppears.

[klowey]

When I first put this on my skin, I adored it. It was rich, warm and fruity, more plums than cherry. And I'm not one for food smells.

 

However, as it dried down, it seemed to turn into a full-on lotus scent. Unfortunately, I can't wear lotus without it going sickly-sweet, so it appears this is being swapped away.