Then I can see why it's "gone bad": the cedar wood note that comes through in the drydown gives a touch of resinous, pungent edge that disturbs the previous petals bath. It becomes dry, almost cologn-y.

For the price this is a steal, if you like this scent profile. And even if you don't , I don't see why not this fragrance cannot grow on you. Evoked Dried-Tobacco-Leaf with VANILLA, VETIVER & PATCHOULI. In the first couple of minutes there's a burst of warm & fresh spices. As the sillage opens up, there's an evoked dried-tobacco-leaf note with plum-y/raisin-like nuances. All of the other notes are serving to support & enhance different facets of the evoked tobacco leaf. This has above average performance for a year-round wearing experience, but some people will become anosmic. However, I do love osmanthus. I’ve even been eating fresh apricots hoping they will taste as good as an osmanthus perfume, lol. Not yet. I swoon over the osmanthus dry down in Serge Lutens Bapteme du Feu, and I just wish Nuit de Cellophane was longer-lasting. Actually, if this had been a cheap perfume, I would probably have been less lenient and would have attributed such a drydown to poor quality. But this is Kilian, so they're allowed to be strange.Kismet is warm, but the vanilla is not sweet and eatable , it is powdery and classy. Later becomes creamy, complex ... like a mixture between otherworldly and "something old and comforting" . The creaminess makes it feel like there is tone of musk in it, but other notes create the feel. On my skin, the opening is a beautiful bouquet of fresh white flowers, enough sweetness, enough deepness without giving away the presence of wood. Petals everywhere. Fragrantica editors have allocated this to the "Floral" category; if you buy it on the basis that it's a floral perfume, you are going to be desperately disappointed. Kismet is an Oriental. It DOES bear similarities to Shalimar (allocated to the Oriental Spicy category); they also smell as if they're from the same era. It may even be that the original Kismet helped inspire Jacques Guerlain's Shalimar, as it predates it by four years or so. This Kismet is more "user friendly" than the current Shalimar. I'd love to get my hands on the original in that gorgeous bottle, to compare it to its current formulation.

I decided that I would give it a try this morning since I would be in a temp controlled environment all day. I still put down a base layer of "By the fireplace" and put about 4 spritzes of "Kismet" on top. I own both Shalimar and Kismet and I have to say that there is not much resemblance between the two. However, this beauty is much closer to Shalimar Parfum Initial, my beloved Guerlain.

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However, when one pays such an amount of money knowing exactly what it is they buy, they expect - if not demand - their fragrance not only to be unique, but also to be distinctive; that is to have projection.

I was sampling a whole bunch of white florals in a row, and this is the only one that really stood out to me. I thought it was a little complex, I had a hard time describing it. It was definitely the most interesting in the line up. Remember, microperfume vials come with a tiny dabber. You can miss out on some top notes when you don't have an atomizer. (important later)Kismet is a beautiful combo of tuberose and narcissus, with amber, wood, and a touch of rose. The apricot adds a beautiful fruity jammy brightness to the overall fragrance. The performance is not bad (4-5 hours or wear with moderate projection) and for the size and cost of the bottle, I wouldn’t mind having to overspray it. I actually got two compliments at the gas station this morning while filling up and that has NEVER happened in the past 2 times I wore this fragrance. And the last two times I wore Kismet, I put on enough to leave a noticeable dent of about 1/4in removed from the bottle. I mean, I BATHED IN KISMET, and it didn't perform and was gone in an hour.