Kubla Khan

Either everyone reviewing this so far has a had a weird chemical reaction to Kubla Khan or it's just kind of a funky smell. I think it's a funky smell. It's intensely leathery and gingery. It's as if you're snorting a line of powdered dried ginger off an old leather saddle. This is one of the driest scents I've ever smelled--it's practically parched. I'm not sure what opium is supposed to smell like, but there are definitely a few elements in this I can't quite pinpoint so I'm assuming that note is one of them. Strangeness aside, this smells super familiar to me, but I don't know what it reminds me of off the top of my head. I probably won't use up the rest of my sample.

Initially I can smell the Peru Balsam along with the mandarin orange, it smells like chocolate mixed with orange...with a hint of vanilla in the background. There is a little hint of ginger in the background and it seems as if it wants to take over the Peru Balsam, vanilla and mandarin. The leather waits behind this stubborn ginger. Like Ouch! I also love the smell of champaca and it starts to come through with the tobacco after a while...but it remains in the background:( I have to say that even though I more or less slathered this perfume on, it is a bit of a struggle to smell it. The leather aspect now smells like leather left on the windowsill on a warm summer's day Unfortunately the sillage and projection are really not that good on me-and the ginger is threatening to overtake my skin (my skin loves to amp up the ginger) but I can imagine that on a person with the right skin chemistry-this perfume would smell gorgeous!

LAB'S DESCRIPTION "Through sunlit caves of ice, roses unfurl amidst dancing waves of serpentine opium smoke and amber tobacco, golden sandalwood, champaca, tea leaf, sugared lily, ginger, rich hay absolute, leather, dark vanilla, mandarin, peru balsam, and Moroccan jasmine." Oh I really wanted to like this but it's going all wonky on me. The notes just sound amazing. I love Champaca. I'm getting a very powdery Opium scent. Smells like 20 year old spoiled perfume. Sorry Kubla Khan, my chemistry doesn't like you!