Bottle Design:
Marc Rosen

See Prices

More

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

KL Karl Lagerfeld 1982 Eau de Toilette

8.5 / 10 210 Ratings

A popular perfume by Karl Lagerfeld for women, released in 1982. The scent is spicy-oriental. Projection and longevity are above-average. The production was apparently discontinued.
Compare

More

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

Main accords

Spicy

Oriental

Floral

Animal

Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Orange

Spices

Aldehydes

Bergamot

Heart Notes

Cinnamon

Clove

Jasmine

Pimento

Rose

Orchid

Ylang-ylang

Base Notes

Patchouli

Ambergris

Benzoin

Civet

Frankincense

Labdanum

Sandalwood Styrax

Styrax

Vanilla

Perfumers

Roger Pellégrino, DSM-Firmenich

Ratings

Scent

8.5210 Ratings

Longevity

8.8172 Ratings

Sillage

8.4166 Ratings

Bottle

7.7165 Ratings

Value for money

7.029 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 10/04/2025.

Interesting Facts

The bottle design won a FiFi award in 1983.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

KL Eau de Parfum

KL Parfum

Sarabé Eau de Toilette

Obelisk Eau de Parfum

Amun Eau de Toilette

Youth-Dew Eau de Parfum

Reviews

5 in-depth fragrance descriptions

02/17/2013

5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 8
Scent

Dalmajen
45 Reviews

Dalmajen

Helpful Review 5

The Secret behind the fan....

Yesterday I had such a craving to wear this wonderful fragrance again. I have a very little bit, left in the bottle, so decided I would wear it, and really enjoy it, as I did years ago. Oh how I loved wearing this gem! It's extremely well put together. It opens with a smooth, bright orange, which combined with the bergamot and spices just grabs your attention from the very start. The spices play a huge part in this fragrance, and they are very vibrant. The cinnamon is deep, almost like it has just been purchased at the African spice market, and the same goes for the cloves. They aren't weak, by any means, but they don't override the other fabulous notes. The rose and jasmine shine through, and the pepper and ylang-ylang play their parts just right. But the biggest secret is the dry down. It just seems to drift into the dry down, ever so discreetly. The warm amber..patchouli and vanilla, with the touch of civet. This fragrance lasts and lasts. It needs to applied with a bit of caution, as even the EDT is strong. I have heard people describe this as very similar to Opium. In my opinion, it isn't. I wore Opium for years, so I can compare them. Both are spicy, yes..but they have a completely different vibe. And the dry downs differ. I purchased my last bottle of this fragrance in the late nineties, duty free). I could never find it again, after that. I had the shower gel at one stage, and it was astounding! I have never had such a potent shower gel. I loved wearing this perfume..it was such a striking, and vibrant scent. Maybe that's perhaps I'm a Tauer fan) His no.12 for example..Eau D'Epices). The wonders of the fragrances from these times..the longevity. Oh, how I long for that wonderful staying power, on today's perfumes! This was not a super expensive purchase in the eighties, but the prices have soared! Never mind, I loved it when I wore it, and the secret behind the fan is still safe with me!

05/20/2019

9
Bottle 9
Sillage 9
Longevity 10
Scent

Can777
132 Reviews

Translated Show original

Can777

Top Review 55

Formidable

I miss him painfully! And I guess it'll always be that way. Never before have I been so deeply sad about the loss of a person that I was never allowed to see and get to know personally. I once had the pleasure of getting to know some very important designers personally. Claude Montana, Vivienne Westwood and even Jean Paul Gaultier were among them. But unfortunately never Karl. He's gone away forever. And it feels like he took a tiny part of me with him. He was at my side from my earliest youth. She came with me. Inspires me on my path of creation. His creativity was limitless and inexhaustible. He was like an old friend to me. I loved listening to him so much. Razor-sharp was the mind and his tongue. He was characterized by an incredible degree of discipline and creativity. Attributes I hold in great esteem for him. Karl and I were very much alike! He was like a mentor and a role model to me. All my life! Creating something wonderful connected us both like a band. Creativity and aesthetics cannot be learned. You're born with it. Karl was blessed with it as I was. From artist to artist I bow down deep before his art and his gift to have made this world a little more beautiful, elegant and dazzling for a while. One of his most impressive works in the history of perfume is probably KL. A perfume which probably best underlines the limitless and immeasurable creative spirit of Karl Lagerfeld!

KL
KL opens with tones of aldehydes and a soft note of dried oranges. Gentle chords of spices already resonate quietly. A soft, spicy freshness, but soon changes. Flowery notes follow, which in turn are accompanied by ever more powerful spices. Cinnamon and cloves are key players. KL has incredibly smooth and flowing transitions throughout its course. Single notes are very difficult to recognize in detail. Sometimes it feels like making the perfume what it wants. The individual notes come and go as they please. But what makes KL stand out is its unforgettable and dreamlike base. The deepest Orient surrounds the wearer like a cocoon of infinite warmth and depth. Soft tones of soft benzoin and amber appear. A waxy-creamy Styrax flows through KL like a warm flow of feelings. Quiet chords of incense and smoky vanilla spray their magic. A hint of animal Zibet ignites the spark of life and passion that made this fragrance unforgettable. An icon was born!

Conclusion
With KL, Karl Lagerfeld and Roger Pellégrino have made a gift to the world of beauty. And the world is a woman! This perfume will remain unforgettable. For both women and men worldwide. It is a painful loss that KL no longer exists. Just like Karl himself. This perfume was and is one of the greatest gifts Karl Lagerfeld gave the universe of fragrances. An homage to femininity, elegance and beauty. Whoever can still call this fragrance his own should consider himself very lucky. KL is still available somewhere in the world, but the price is constantly rising for a half or full bottle. And he will continue to climb after the death of Karl Lagerfeld. In a few years, he'll be priceless. But now he is for many in a completely different sense!

It was you. It's you. And you'll always be it for me Karl!

Formidable!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hfOkfmPABJw

07/12/2018

10
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Minigolf
577 Reviews

Translated Show original

Minigolf

Top Review 19

Ka(r)leidoscopic Oriental

Yes, yes, this Mr. Lagerfeld has something very special. And: He stays true to himself.
Still the braid like umpteen years ago, still the sunglasses and still avant-garde (yes, even today)
But the best scents of this fashion figur were unfortunately abolished, simply let disappear in the sinking.
And this fragrance has it in it in the truest sense of the word.
A huge array of fragrances that don't "dance" in a row, but when you don't expect them. They do what they want. Like Karl.
There is first of all an orange spicy "top note", which has put it into the "head" to take some members from the band of the middle note with it, it "cinnamons" and "pimentet" from full tube, if actually flowers should stand on the "program".
These, however, take the liberty of running off the rank of incense, patchouli and styrax only late.
They in turn dare to say "hello" in the middle of the "action", only to retreat sulking for a short time, because Ylang Ylang and Cloves are showing off. when just Zibet is meowing past.
"KL is like a kaleidoscope. New patterns emerge all the time at the slightest movement of the device. Always different colors and compositions delight the eye (in this case the nose) to fascinate the wearer.
And hardly one of the possible olfactory combinations of the fragrances is omitted.
With very good shelf life and Sillage one can smell the whole day long always "differently", always deliciously oriental.
Just KA(R)LEIDOSKOPISCH...!!

09/15/2024

8
Pricing 7
Bottle 9
Sillage 8
Longevity 8
Scent

Jakoparfum
20 Reviews

Translated Show original

Jakoparfum

Top Review 19

"The scent of an esthete"

"You will be successful in perfume and fashion," said the Armenian fortune teller Madame Zereakian when she was confronted by the young Karl Lagerfeld at the end of the 1950s. Madame Zereakian was Christian Dior's personal fortune teller and both Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent consulted her very often to find out about future events in their personal and professional lives. The fortune teller later added: "Your success, dear Karl, will come much later than Yves', but it will be much more rewarding and lasting.
With his complex and multi-layered personality, Karl was able to understand how much truth there was in the seer's words, which later turned out to be true.

Those were the years when the young Karl had been asked by the fashion house Jean Patou to contribute with younger and more innovative style proposals, but it was not the post for Karl Lagerfed, who was bored to death watching the brilliant and successful career of his colleague and friend Yves, who had just been appointed creative director of the recently deceased Christian Dior, unfold.
In the 1960s, Karl Lagerfeld began working with major brands such as Chloè and Fendi, later becoming a designer on call for a variety of smaller, more commercial brands.
It was not until 1982, when he was commissioned by the Wertheimer family to revive the fortunes of the Chanel brand, which until then had only been bought by the French petit bourgeoisie, that this great masterpiece was created, the first in a long line of perfumes, namely KL.
The production of the perfume was entrusted to Firmenich under the creative direction of Roger Pellegrino. The perfume was reminiscent of the two great oriental classics that had been produced a few years earlier, and given the incredible success of one of them, Opium, they wanted to create another oriental, but with different facets to Opium and Cinnabar.
KL has an opening rich in aldehydes that give the fragrance a feeling of coldness and brightness. After a few minutes, a strong note of candied orange comes in, balancing the sharpness of the aldehydes with its aromatic warmth.
The soapy, talc-like smell is an olfactory constant that runs through the entire development of the fragrance. Then cinnamon and cloves enter the scene, but never intrusively, as the floral aspects, attributable to ylang, orchid and rose, predominate over the spices. The perfume gradually becomes warmer and loses its initial sharpness.
After two hours, a phase in which the spices and floral notes dominate the development of the fragrance, the magnificent base note emerges, consisting of dusty, warm, almost balsamic benzoin. Alongside the benzoin, styrax reinforces all these aspects, and the labdanum combined with sandalwood makes the fragrance feel like a warm, enveloping cloud. An elegant fragrance, refined without ever being as overpowering as opium or cinnabar.

KL is a fragrance that is very often referred to as the little sister of Opium or Cinnabar, but nothing could be more wrong.
KL represents Karl Lagerfeld's perfect mentalism, his great complexity, his rigor and his constant being different, especially when he has managed to design and direct four major brands, all with different DNA. KL is a perfectly conceived fragrance whose intricate but equally ambivalent aspects are the key to Karl Lagerfeld's style, a "snobbish pop style" that has been the key to the success of his career.

The review refers to a version from the 80s.

01/13/2024

7
Pricing 8
Bottle 9
Sillage 10
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Lauser93
886 Reviews

Translated Show original

Lauser93

4

This is a really spicy, oriental fragrance!

Today I also put 3 different vintage minis of KL Eau de Toilette on my arms. There was something going on, especially at the beginning - the longevity is terrific with more than 12 hours and the sillage is definitely effervescent. I also really like the fragrance so far.

The top note starts directly very spicy, aldehydic, oriental but also fruity with aromas of oranges and some bergamot. The spicy oriental continues in the heart note thanks to cinnamon, allspice and cloves. Floral notes of rose water, orchids and ylang-ylang then creep in. The base is slightly different for the three miniatures. While two finish quite sweet, pleasant and vanilla-like with ambergris but also balsamic after sandalwood, another is very animalic with civet and, over time, also somewhat pungently earthy thanks to patchouli.

All in all, this is a really beautiful fragrance, but not quite so convincing for me that I would pass on the miniatures.