DifferentDances

I mentioned briefly my experience with this oil in the TAL general chatter thread, but I wanted to go more in depth here. I purchased Chthonic for a few reasons. The primary was that I needed some sort of catalyst to help me focus when I meditate and do ritual. I've found that sound and scent have been very effective means for me, and so I looked to the TAL temple blends to see what I could use. My intent was to dress a ritual candle in the blend of my choice, and let the candle set my 'space' for me. I selected the Chthonic blend specifically because of the following: 1) I've always had an emotional connection with the underworld, though the magnitude of it has faded in the past few years. 2) I'm very earth-based and identify with the ground and dirt; my meditations often take me underground. 3) I tend to raise energy very easily. A little too much so, and it usually leaves me very dizzy. I have difficulties grounding, and I'd hoped that Temple: Chthonic would, by virtue of being ground-related, help to center me and keep me from getting overwhelmed. I still believe my reasoning was sound, but in retrospect I should've guessed at the potential, opposite effect. I dressed my candle with a couple dabs of the blend, turned off the lights, and settled in for a quiet bit of meditation. What happened was anything but quiet. After just a few minutes of focused breathing, during which I felt as though I were only sitting half in my body, half to the left of my body, I was sucked down. I'm not going to be able to put it into words, but I will say this: having a strong connection with the earth and underworld and having enough problems with grounding, I should not have been all that surprised when instead of being anchored, it was like every one of those things amplified into a really powerful experience. I was scared not of the journey, but rather because I was completely unprepared for the mental equivalent of a total body slam. It was so warm and comforting and welcoming, but I panicked when I realized the experience was just not something I had prepared for emotionally. (Cowardly, I know. Believe me, I kept apologizing into the darkness for being a wuss, but I had gone in to just meditate, not have an earth-shattering experience.) So in summation: This stuff works. Moreso than any TAL blend I've ever touched. I've yet to try a different temple blend, so I cannot judge whether all of the blends are that powerful or will be that powerful for me, or if this one isolated blend is just the right combination to set me off.

Imp: Sandalwood --raw woods in the back of a furniture shop. And patchouli. Wet: The red sandalwood meshes with the patchouli with a throw of sour bread. Drydown: Wood polish. Dry: Stale wood polish. My rating: 1/5. Not for me.

Imp: Bright, tangy, faint touch of ozone. Wet: Aquatic ozone with a slight citrus bump. Drydown: It's going a bit sour and plastic. Dry: Smells like stale air freshener spray. My rating: 1/5. It smells pretty in the imp, but goes weird on my skin.

Imp: Green tea, lilac, and a sharpness that I guess is the Chinese musk. Very pretty. Wet: Lemon lilac. Drydown: Lemon, dry musk like old wooden shelves. Dry: Lemon with an underlying musky-book odor. My rating: 2/5. I love the initial scent in the imp, it's a 4/5. But once it hits my skin the lemon gets amped to kingdom come. Bah.

Imp: Pure florals. Wet: Floral combined with a mild suntan lotion scent. Oddly soapy. Drydown: Sweet florals still with that California glow. Dry: Faded, salty flowers. My rating: 2/5. Not bad, just definitely not me.

Imp: Black amber and dragon's blood Wet: Permanent markers, rotting diapers (must be the amber --tends to do that on my skin), and a hint of mandarin oranges. Drydown: Just down to faded permanent markers and diapers. *sigh* Dry: ...same as the drydown, alas. My rating: 1/5. Note that this is purely because of my bizarro skin chemistry, YMMV. The wet scent was nice enough.

Imp: Slightly citric flower. Wet: The blood orange sings on high over the other notes. Drydown: The orange has faded to a mere shimmer over the gardenia and tonka. Dry: Interesting. It's very well-blended -the honey and apricot give it just a slight stickiness, while the gardenia restrains the fruits from going hogwild. My rating: 3/5. Ultimately, I don't think I'd wear it, but it's a very pretty scent.

Imp: Faintly sugared water. Wet: Bleach. It smells like bleach. O_O Drydown: Hey, there are actual notes coming out now! Mostly the verbena, bergamot and orange, but it no longer smells like I spilled cleaner on my arm. Dry: And it's become mostly verbena. My rating: 2/5. It's a softer lemon than usually appears on my lemon-amping skin, but it's still lemon. And that bleach stage is just bizarre.

Imp: Clear, translucent air. Wet: The lemon balm definite pops straight up. Drydown: Lemon balm with a hint of myrrh/sandalwood. Dry: Freshly Pledged wood. My rating: 1/5.

Imp: Dark sexiness. Wet: Myrrh. Drydown: Myrrh with a punch of floral. Dry: Myrrh My rating: 1/5. I'm not a big fan of myrrh.

Bottle: Tea rose, lavender, and violet. Wet: Sweet lavender and violet. Drydown: Sadly, the sweet lavender fades, and the lily kicks in. Very muted, though, and very deliciously feminine. Dry: Very muted floral bouquet, though with a subtle lavender and violet throw that makes me sigh. My rating: 5/5. This I might need to get another bottle of before it goes away. For me, this is one step above The Emathides (the blue musk is iffy in that blend depending on the time of month).

Bottle: Okay, weird. This smells like freshly peeled carrots. O_o Wet: Carrots with some crushed green weeds --the ivy? Drydown: Whoa, this morphed. It's a very subtle woodsy scent with a very clean, soapy, green overtone. Dry: All but gone. My rating: 4/5. It's both an interesting experience and a lovely smell once it calms down. Not a two-bottle buy since it doesn't have great lasting power in its dry phase, but definitely a keeper.

Bottle: Mishmash of overwhelming florals Wet: A tiny sliver of green cuts through the florals, which have turned candy-ish. Drydown: Candied greens. Dry: Just the mildest hint of candied greens. My rating: 3/5. Nice blend, but not particularly unique or outstanding. Maybe aging will help it.

Bottle: Oil paint and unfinished wood. Wet: Oil paint and unfinished wood. Drydown: Sour wine and unfinished wood. Dry: Mostly unfinished wood with a mild layer of sour wine. My rating: 1/5. Off to the swap pile it goes.

Bottle: Pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin butter. Wet: Pumpkin with something chalky/caulky --is this the asphalt note? There's a thin sliver of something sweet, which is probably either the beeswax or the beer. Drydown: Smokey, sour beer over the background of pumpkin. Dry: Smokey, sour beer that's very faded. My rating: 2/5. It starts out nice and promising, but eh, it's not for me.

Bottle: Caramel and sugar apple. Wet: Caramel apple. Drydown: The apple turns a bit greener, and the caramel fades a little. Up close to the skin, it's all green apple, but the throw is some seriously gooey caramel. Nom! Dry: Up close, it's all but gone. But the caramel throw is still there, with a slight green of apple. My rating: 4/5. This is AWESOME! Nom nom nom nom....

Bottle: High-end generic perfume. Wet: High-end generic perfume with heavy alcohol. Drydown: Bathroom cleaner/soap scent with heavy champagne. Dry: Cheap, sour champagne. My rating: 1/5. Booze and me don't mix at all.

Bottle: Sweet, sweet scent, with something creamy that's reminiscent of Tamamo no Mae. Wet: The sweetness gives just a little bit, letting a hint of green slither through the sexy sweetness. There's a warmth that definitely reminds me of TnM, which worries me because TnM's musk I can only wear once a month. It's creamy sexy goodness when it does, though. Drydown: Not too much morphing. The sweetness is definitely taking a back seat as the musk warms up and becomes that weird, damp, powder smell I'm not terribly fond of. Dry: Bah. I wish it'd stayed in the wet stage. Mostly musk now. My rating: 3/5, 5/5 for potential. I need to retry this on a different day.

Did you hear? Salon-exclusive scents from the Labbies! Now I really, really wish I was closer to Shelldoo's salon! Peacocks and Autumn look delicious!

Imp: Warm buttery pumpkin with a spiced orange kick. By far the most tempting based purely on the non-skin smell. Wet: Buttery popcorn comes to full front with a zing of ginger, orange and lemon peel to keep it from getting too buttery rich. Drydown: Oh no, oh no, something's turning to plastic. Is it the vanilla? Damn it! And something's gone seriously sour in a rotten way. The buttery pumpkin has amped to a silly degree, almost like scented playdoh. Dry: Plastic playdoh. High-end, nice, not overwhelming plastic playdoh, but alas, plastic playdoh is not a scent I want to be wearing. My rating: 2/5. Figures it'd be the one out of the Patch that smelled the best in the imp that would smell the worst on my skin.

Imp: White chocolate liquer. Wet: White chocolate liquer with a nutty base. Drydown: Whoa, okay, weird. It flipped to dark chocolate on me, and reminds me mostly of those not-quite-made-from-real-chocolate chocolate foil coins from my childhood. You know, those brown chewy pieces of chemical candy that had only the barest resemblance to real chocolate? It's delicious, regardless, and is the one chocolate note that doesn't make me gag with plastic nausea. Dry: The throw may be all chocolate, but skin-close there's the caramel loping in. I wish the pomegranate was more present. My rating: 4/5. Just for the fact that it's a chocolate note that works on me.

Imp: Pure buttery pumpkin. Wet: A floral pops up --not quite the intense spice of the carnation, but neither the overly soapy, feminine florals I tend to think of when discussing floral notes. Drydown: Fades to minimal scent. Just the barest hint of warm florals with a slight buttery tinge. Dry: Faint, sweet floral with zero throw. My rating: 3/5. It's very pretty, and might possibly be the one carnation I can wear, but it fades so quickly as to be non-existent within a half hour.

Imp: Warm buttery pumpkin with a solid wall of green. Wet: The pumpkin rapidly gives way to a more lush green harvest smell. Vaguely sweet and herby with the pumpkin predominating as a nice base note. Drydown: The pumpkin is nothing more than a warm, buttery base note carrying the mildly herby, sweet greens. Yum. Dry: Herby greenness. Mmmmm.... My rating: 5/5. OMG this is delicious. O_O I wasn't expecting to like it this much!

Imp: Very buttery pumpkin, with a high-pitched whine of fruit. Wet: Warmed pumpkin with a weird wine tone. Drydown: Ooooh, the pumpkin fades, taking a step back to but still dancing with a delightfully sweet pear. Dry: Pear with tea with a tiny hint of grape. Normally these types of notes fade on me, so I think the pumpkin is providing a solid base for them to anchor to, even if it's faded. My rating: 4/5. A very nice, very clear scent with pleasant stages all around.

Bottle: Cold medicine that's been sitting beside the Vicks vapo-rub too long. Wet: Minty freshness with a weird creamy undertone. Drydown: It's definitely minty up close, but the throw has that vanilla creme undertone I'm not terribly fond of. And vanilla and mint do not, in my book, mix well together. (Tokyo Stomp overkilled that point for me.) Dry: Sugared mint that's become less sharp and yummy, with the unfortunate overtone of vanilla. My rating: 3/5. It's a pretty scent, but the vanilla is just not working for me.