Khadlaj – Kashmeeri
This is one of the many samples I received from my friend Povilas.
Kashmeeri is a dukhoon bakhoor; it is pressed into a sharp-edged puck measuring 3.5cm in diameter and 1cm in height.
At Khadlaj, a 120g tin currently costs €23.49. A puck weighs approximately 10g, meaning a tin contains 12 pieces.
The price per gram is around €0.20.
Unfortunately, the bakhoor itself is once again not shown, only the packaging.
Khadlaj describes Kashmeeri’s scent profile as follows:
Top notes: White musk, bergamot
Heart notes: Sandalwood, rose, cashmere
Base notes: Cedarwood, agarwood, amber
Breaking off a small amount from the puck is enough; just a few crumbs are sufficient to fill my living room with its fragrance.
I find it almost impossible to separate the notes in this composition, to break down and analyse the scent. It is far too fused into a single entity.
Finding bergamot in the description initially surprised me. However, I do detect a fresh aspect, for which bergamot makes sense the more I burn Kashmeeri.
This freshness contrasts with the otherwise very deep, velvety fragrance, which I generally perceive as rather warm. The soft, sweetish musk scent and woody nuances contribute strongly to this impression.
To me, Kashmeeri has also something spicy about it, which I can’t quite explain from the listed scent notes. I feel the scent has a vague resemblance to anise. This might result from the interplay of bergamot and several other components.
Over time, Kashmeeri’s room note develops increasingly in a fruity direction. I notice this particularly strongly when I have left come back into the room after a while. Spicy, fruity, woody, and warm, underlined by a slight sweetness. It is a potent yet soft fragrance.
Kashmeeri is the first bakhoor that truly excites me. Like the others before, it is perfume-like, but it is not a very floral scent, and its character is deep, rounded, and complex, which attracts me.