DifferentDances

05 version. Bottle: Some mixture of sweet alcohol and floral soap. Wet: Plasticky wine and floral. Drydown: Plastic wine and floral. I keep hoping it'll change. Dry: Faded plastic wine and floral. My rating: 1/5. Not going to try this year's either. Chocolate notes tend to turn to plastic on my skin. Ugh.

Bottle: Very purple powder with a hint of something chilly. Wet: Very purple powder. Drydown: Very purple powder. I swear this reminds me of something. Dry: Very, very dry purple powder. My rating: 1/5. I was hoping this would work on me, but alas, like pretty much everyone else, I resign myself to not loving it. It reminds me of something, but I can't figure out what.

Bottle: Some sort of floral, with a vaguely aquatic tone. Wet: Ragged patchouli and resins. Drydown: Very faded resins. Dry: Really, really faint resins. My rating: 2/5. It's a nice enough scent, but zero lasting power on my skin.

Oh, WOW. Those are preeeeetty.

Bottle: Chocolatey yumminess. Wet: Mmmm chocolate. A really nice, rich chocolate. Drydown: Wait, what's that plastic-y smell? The chocolate's either turning into plastic or some other minor note is amped up to become plastic! Knowing my skin, it's probably the amber or the starfruit. Shoot. Dry: Out of nowhere, lavender and rose kick in. O_o The plastic is slightly subdued, but it's still there, and making me nauseous. My rating: 2/5. The chocolate was SO nice before my skin chemistry did a whammy on it.

In bottle: Eau de flowers. Wet: Mulchy mess of flowers. The apple blossom is not my favorite smell, and it's clashing rather powerfully with the violet. Drydown: Same mess with the mint peeking through. Great, the irony --the one mint that seems to stay minty on my skin is combined with a lot of other things that don't seem to work. Dry: Soap. GAH. My rating: 2/5. It's not awful, but it smells like generic soap. Phooey.

Bottle: Dragon's blood and ginger. Wet: The black pepper steps in and makes a dramatic entrance. Drydown: Pepper wrestles honeysuckle into submission. Pepper wrestles dragon's blood into submission. Pepper wins all other bouts except for ginger, which remains the lone challenger. Dry: Aaaaaaand Pepper has won the celebrity deathmatch against Ginger! My rating: 1/5. X( Odd, I didn't think the pepper would overpower everything else --I can barely smell it in Xanthe, though I suppose there's a difference between white and black pepper notes. *sigh*

2005 version Bottle: Sugary gingerbread dough, with a slight threat of plastic sugar. Wet: Mmmm. Gingerbread with light spices. I want to gnaw my hand off. Someone mentioned snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles indeed; I love snickerdoodles. Yum! Drydown: Either the nutmeg or the clove is peaking --it's a sharp scent punctuating the fresh-baked divinity that is gingerbread. Reminds me more of apple cider, like some idiot grabbed my delicious, chewy slab of gingerbread and dunked it remorselessly in mulled cider. Now, while I love them both equally, they're not meant to go together, IMHO. Dry: Well, whatever spice it is has faded a bit. Sadly, the plastic quality has bumped up proportionally, and the overall scent is muted gingerbread-scented plastic toy. *sigh* My rating: 4/5. There was a reason I loved scented toys when I was little, and the deliciousness of the wet stage of Gingerbread Poppet rounds up the rest.

Bottle: Fruity bubblegum Wet: Chaotic fruity bubblegum with sharp citrus taking the lead. Drydown: Calms into a fruity mix. Dry: Fruity bubblegum once more. My rating: 3/5. It's nice, but....

Bottle: Watermelon candy. Yum! Wet: Watermelon candy. So sugary smelling I keep thinking my arm should be sticky with sugar and syrup. Drydown: You guessed it, watermelon candy! Dry: Watermelon candy. My rating: 3/5. See, it smells absolutely delicious --but do I want to smell like watermelon candy as a fragrance? Hmm....Must ponder further. Edit: Revised rating: 4/5. I think this will be much, much better in the colder months to come than in the sticky heat of the end of summer.

Imp: Cooked plums. Wet: Spicy carnations thrown in to stir fry with the plums. Drydown: Spicy carnations with a hint of fruit. Dry: Spicy carnations through and through. My rating: 1/5. I just don't like carnations enough to enjoy the almost single-note scent this becomes on my skin.

Imp: Powerful floral, almost gag-inducing, very grandmother-like. Wet: Softer, but still grandmother-like. Drydown: And it's gone, but for the faintest, faintest genteel perfume. Less grandmotherly and more tea with the Duchess. Dry: Same as the drydown --a faint, classy floral. My rating: 2/5. It's a beautiful scent, make no mistake about it, but if I'm going to reach for a subtle, classy scent, I'm more likely to reach for a tea-based scent or my beloved Rose Red than Black Hellebore.

Imp: Vaguely candy-like, with some floral edge. Wet: Very green floral with a fruity punch. Almost like a berry-bearing branch that's been just cut off, revealing the green inside the bark. Drydown: Oh, snap. The berries have gone all Herbal Essences on me, and the green's all but gone. Dry: Diluted Herbal Essences. Phooey. My rating: 3/5. I liked the wet stage very, very much (I'm a sucker for green scents), but it doesn't stay around for maximum enjoyment.

Imp: Clean, crisp lighter-than-tea. Wet: Piercing grapefruit warmed by a little something else. Drydown: A touch of leather to the tea, a touch of orchid to the citrus, and a merry sheer wash of something pretty binding them all together. Dry: Delicate repraisal of the drydown stage. My rating: 4/5. This is such a soft, lovely, complex scent while remaining clear and clean!

Imp: Bathroom soap a la jasmine. Wet: Solid jasmine with a teeny hint of something else. Drydown: The tuberose is making its belated entrance with a mischievous smirk. Dry: Tuberose and jasmine high-end soap. My rating: 2/5. It's just not for me.

Imp: Succulent berry, reminds me a little of Bewitched. Wet: Succelent berry with very damp greens. It's skirting the edge of soapiness, though. Drydown: Very soft berries. Dry: Soft berries in lush green. My rating: 3/5. It's a very clear, simple berry smell --others have mentioned it's like soap or shampoo, and I agree. That doesn't make it bad by nature, though, it's just a matter of connotations. Not sure whether I want to smell like shampoo, but then again...Hm...I need to think about this further.

Imp: Moonflower and ozone. Beautiful and classic. Wet: Iris jumps to the forefront, and a bit of something nose-crinkling --either the musk or the moss. The entire effect is very faint, though. Here's hoping the drydown gives it a boost back to the imp-smell. Drydown: Very faint, very faded moonflower and probably the white musk. Dry: Just the wisp of white musk left. My rating: 1/5. It's lovely, and doubtedly suited better to other people's chemistry, but really not my thing.

Imp: Peach and what I think is labdanum. Wet: Peach and soap, fading fast. There really wasn't much of a drydown. It just vanished, smelling vaguely like some sort of detergent of handsoap. Not for me.

Bottle: Faint, watery floral with a sugar crust. Wet: Sugared flowers. So much love! Drydown: Sugared peony, with a glaze of something else...ginger? Lotus? The Chinese musk? I haven't a clue, but it's very pretty. Dry: Sweetened peony with that little something extra. My rating: 4/5. Oh my, this is lovely. *cuddles bottle* Very girly, very flirty, very youthful. Keeper!

Bottle: Bubble bath. This smells like childhood bubble bath! Wet: Oh, hello stargazer lily, my mortal enemy. How do you do? Yes, please settle down and allow the other shy florals to come forth. Now, don't all jump up at once! I can barely discern you! Drydown: Intense floral shot through with a core of...something thin and reedy, either the musk or the sandalwood? Oh hey, is that the ylang ylang? Suddenly this reminds me of Herbal Essences shampoo. Dry: Herbal Essences shampoo and bubble bath once more. FTW! My rating: 4/5. Okay, so I'm a cheeseball. But it's bringing back some lovely nostalgia from my high school days when every shampoo, conditioner, and body wash I owned was Herbal Essences. Mmmm....

Bottle: Grape juice-ish sour tang. Wet: Powdery peonies. Drydown: Tangy peonies with an undercurrent of...burnt plastic. Ouch. Dry: Tangy peonies with a blanket of burnt plastic. My rating: 2/5. Darnit, I had such high hopes for this one. I love peonies, and plums and all the stuff in here. But something is turning to plastic on my skin. Phooey.

Bottle: Spicy tangerines. Wet: Spicy tangerines blanketed by stale bread, followed closely by the driest hint of clove/cinnamon. (Reminds me of those clove-spiked oranges people use to decorate homes around Christmas time. ) Drydown: The musk has stronger throw than anything else in this blend...and I'm not so keen on it. At least it's not the dreaded sweaty mess that is red musk. Dry: Vaguely orange musk. My rating: 3/5 overall. I'm trying to decide whether to send this to the swap pile, or if I should try to enable my little sister....Hmm....

Bottle: Smells like a slightly limp salad. Wet: Oh, this is deliciously crisp and green. Bye bye limp greens, hello sharp and chilled slices of lettuce and god knows what else goes into salads! (I don't eat salads....) Drydown: Warmer greens with a touch of...I don't think it's honeysuckle, since it reminds me more of lilac-scented soaps, but there's some gentle floral that reminds me of soap in with the warmed greens. Dry: Whup, there's the honeysuckle molesting the greens. My rating: 4/5. Not quite perfection, but pretty damned good.

Bottle: Caramelized lavender. Oddly delicious. Wet: Sharp astringent lavender with a very delicious caramel note. Drydown: Still caramelized lavender. I want to eat myself. There's the slightest hint of some rose around the very edges of the scent. Dry: Slightly fainted caramelized lavender, with a hint of something that makes my nose itch if I sniff too closely. My rating: 4/5. I consider a scent a success when it does the rare act of being foody without causing me problems. I know this really isn't a 'foody' scent to most people, but having this on makes me want to attempt to make lavender candy, which is quite a feat since the closest I get to cooking is scrambling eggs.

Bottle: Sweet, wet greens. Wet: Slightly musky, sweet herbs with a touch of something chilly like mint. Drydown: Smoky undercurrent to mossy green. The sweetness has faded to a minimum, sadly, and the mossy green isn't quite as lovely as either the herby greens in the wet stage or the grassy greens in the bottle. Dry: From a distance, it's a nice green aquatic green. Up close, the moss is very, very strong. My rating: 4/5. I don't think this is one for my skin chemistry, but it's such a lovely wet scent.