Round Dance

[Nepthys]

Blush amber, wild carnation, French lavender, hay absolute, strawberry candyfloss, and vanilla cream.

In the bottle, this didn't seem like anything I'd like. On my wrist it was a 180 - I loved this and it's my favorite Luper so far.

 

These notes are blended together so expertly it's hard to pick them apart. However, lavender is eventually what predominates, graced with an underlying note of amber. I get no strawberry or vanilla at all for the first half hour and then slowly the vanilla comes out. It's a very light, feminine scent, more of a traditional perfume than one of the Lab's more experimental blends. Highly recommended.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Nepthys

[Ryan Hemphill]

Don't give up on Round Dance with a quick sniff-- in the bottle it was a little off-putting. I know it's not a note listed, but it was reminscient of some of the jasmine-heavy florals that can go so bad on me.

On the skin in changed almost immediately--to me it first amped a sharp, spicy floral. It was a bit much as first, somewhat abrasive to my nose. That hit a peak as it warmed up- about 15-20 min or so?

 

But then, the magic happens It becomes a sweet, joyful floral. It's a very bright and happy outdoor scent. Reminds me of an old-timey casual outdoor party on some farm land w/ pretty girls and boys dancing, tables of homemade goodies, and a slight breeze winding all these scents around you.

 

Everything blends together so well- I can pick up individual things if I try, but they all meddle together creating a realistic and immersive experience for the nose--while still being a good scent as a perfume.

 

Great blind-bottle buy--no regrets!

 

As a note- I usually don't like florals. But this one works and doesn't scream "flowers!" at all to me.

Edited February 20, 2016 by girlryan

[Agatha B. Android]

Wet: I'm getting sugar and strawberries melting over hay on a hot sunny day. As is dries, the wild carnations enter the picture, as well as the faintest hint of french lavender.

 

Dry: The hay, carnation, and lavender meld into something fresh, dry, and most definitely wild. Some time after it dries the vanilla cream appears, but it is very soft, and sort of smooths out the harshness of the sugar. These elements, combined with the dominance of the strawberry candyfloss, make for an exuberant, exciting springtime fragrance that registers as surprisingly complex for such a sweet scent. This scent takes me to a land of free afternoons where the possibilities for play are endless. The more I wear Round Dance, the more I find to enjoy.

[DevilsCandyCane]

And a third from the Purple Snails that I adore!!

 

The lavender is centre stage, to begin with, and I actually thought I hated lavender, but in this it's just beautiful, it's so natural - we have it growing in our garden and it's just like the scent of it freshly crushed between your fingers on a summer's day - no artificial old lady knicker drawers here! The strawberry candyfloss is coming out more and more as the bottle settles, which makes me very happy indeed, and again it's so real, just the soft, melting sugar strands of candyfloss, not overly sugary or sticky, as light and gentle as candyfloss itself, with just the subtlest hint of strawberry. The hay remains in the background, surprisingly - my skin generally amps hay to hell and back, but here it just gives it this gorgeous hint of outdoorsyness, and it somehow smells nostalgic, old fashioned, like a vintage country fair. I cannot put into words how beautiful this scent is - it smells very innocent, and very happy, and very summery, like a perfect rose-tinted memory of a long ago summer's day.

 

Huge round of applause for Beth, with this one, seriously - just wow! You've converted me to lavender, and cured my phobia of hay notes! I can see this getting a loooot of wear on chilled out, stoned summer days at the park. Big love

[Franny]

This is quite wonderful. It smells like an outdoor garden party, with carnations and lavender blooming and you are eating something sweet. I had no idea how these would blend, but it works so well. I would say the dry down is a mix of spicy carnation, with hints of lavender, hay and maybe that's the strawberry candyfloss/vanilla I'm getting? It's very balanced, I don't think anything overpowers the blend. It is playful and beautiful. Another hit for me.

[Suusje]

Honestly, this smelled pretty nasty in the bottle. Sharp and slightly sour. But I'm so grateful I skintested it anyway! It's a gorgeous soft lavender with a sweet creamy vanilla.

 

Edit: after a little while the lavender takes a backseat to make room for the carnation and that makes it a lot more powdery.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Suusje

[Teamama]

I agree that this is a happy combination. Lavender, hay & strawberry candyfloss are a winning team. Carnation arrived late, and I never found the cream. Smells fantastic!

 

The bad news for me is, my skin eats it up! Within an hour of application, it was nearly undetectable. Four applications later, I have to admit defeat. I will never smell like RD for any length of time.

[ellocentipede]

This oil is a morpher for sure! When I first apply it, I get an initial blast of lavender, followed by a warm, spicy blend of the lavender with the amber, carnation, and hay. I absolutely love it at this point. The spiciness of the carnation blended with the warmth of the hay and the amber give it a resinous/woody quality to my nose. Someone mentioned that it smells like a sunny garden, and I agree wholeheartedly! It's like Thomas Sharpe meets Victoriana.Goth.

 

As the oil dries down, it changes pretty significantly. The strawberry candyfloss and vanilla cream make their big appearance, nearly drowning out all of the other notes. The lavender and carnation feel like they're wafting in and out with the breeze, while the candyfloss (with a few bits of hay and amber scattered in its sweet fluffy pink cloud!) is most prominent.

 

All in all, this is a super fun and happy blend that I will enjoy wearing year-round, but especially in the spring and summer.

[LiberAmoris]

The Round Dance is so curious! Wet, the lavender and carnation are most prominent, and smell bright—like there's sunshine falling on these notes. I love the hay absolute note, and here it smells tawny and natural, like a plein air painting or something. As those notes mellow, the strawberry candyfloss (aka cotton candy, for us Yankees) and vanilla cream come forward. The result is a perfume full of notes that don't seem like they'd work together, but they genuinely do. It smells like summertime, like having sweets outdoors and sunshine. So much fun, and I think this would make a great sleep blend in the summer due to the lavender!

[Little Bird]

Round Dance gives me a vicious headache. The lavender is sweet and musky-perfumey (keeps reminding me of white musk, which almost always gives me a headache), the carnation takes on a cheap spiciness that reminds me of cinnamon potpourri, and the drydown has a really cloying, sickly strawberry candy syrup note. My husband described it as "flowery, but not good." Already made its way to my sale pile.

[myswtghst]

Received my bottle in the mail from the lab yesterday, wearing Round Dance for the first time today, and I'm already in love.

 

In the bottle, I smell sweet strawberries and some light florals (lavender and mild carnation).

 

On my skin, it's really beautiful and fresh. This is well-blended with a relatively strong throw (especially for the first hour or two of wear), and in each sniff I get the fresh hay, the light florals, and a bit of fruity sweetness, all blended together to make a really pretty, fresh, outdoorsy smell that I adore. I can see how this might be headache-inducing for some, and I'll definitely need to be careful not to over-apply in the future, but it's really pretty.

[hammy]

In the imp - A little odd. I'll give it a shot.

 

Wet - Wow, that's a lot of lavender. Too bad. I was really hoping the rest of it wouldn't get eaten by lavender, which always amps to high hell on me.

 

Drydown - The lavender has settled down a bit, but it's still the predominant note and I kind of have to sniff around it to get at the others. (Not a pun.) There's a bit more sweetness as it wears on, and I definitely get the sense of being outside in harvest season. It's fairly lovely, actually. Takes about half an hour to get to an acceptable point for me, and another twenty or so before I start to really like it. Somewhere along the way it went a bit anise on me, but maybe that's just my chemistry. At any rate, that stage passed quickly. At this point (2 hours in), it has faded a touch but is really divine. I'm definitely getting the sense of fall. Thanks, hay.

 

Verdict - This blend reminds me a lot of A Moment in Time, but not really scent-wise. Just in the sense that they both have domineering French lavender at the outset but then eventually settle into a beautiful place that evokes the outdoors. Heartbreaking, since I don't tend to be patient enough to wait through notes I don't particularly like. I'll keep my imp, but I doubt I'll need a bottle.

[lucycat]

This blend is very well named. The various notes of sweet strawberry candy, creamy vanilla, fresh bracing lavender (this is an herbal lavender) and warm hay come forward, recede, and come forward again as if they’re engaged in the steps of a dance.

 

In particular, the hay and the strawberry candyfloss make me think of summer, of being outside in a field with sunshine pouring down, of the cotton candy at a summer carnival.

 

I can’t pick out the amber, or, surprisingly, the carnation, but I think the amber is what’s grounding the whole blend, and will probably become stronger with wear.

[LizziesLuck]

I really love all of these notes individually, though strawberry candyfloss will likely have potential to go plastic on me. Still, this sounds so interesting and I am really excited to try it!

 

 

Wet: A blast of lavender, with some sweet fruitiness as well. It's a bit bitter on me at first, I think that might be the hay, but it's hard to say, it could be the really herbal lavender. I just got a whiff from my wrist that smelled like hot dogs....that's a new one for me. Ya, nose to wrist it's all lavender, but the throw smells like hot dogs.

 

 

Dry: Overwhelmingly of hot dogs. I really don't understand it. All of these notes are familiar to me. They are all great with my skin chemistry except strawberry, but the worst that has ever happened with that is turning plastic. Somehow this combination with my skin chemistry has turned smoky and salty, and really like a hot dog. I may test it again another day, in case my skin chemistry is just off today, as it certainly doesn't smell like that in the imp. But right now it's pretty icky and I am going to have to wash it off (I've endured smelling like a hot dog for an hour, hoping it would morph).

[sarandipitee]

Strawberry and cream notes are usually straight up plastic so I didn't have a lot of high hopes for this one - even with the lavender and carnation backdrop (2 notes I amp). But this is GORGEOUS on me. Sweet hay and strawberry mixed with the most beautiful carnation (a note I disliked for years but am now discovering how awesome it is on me) tinged with the faintest lavender.

 

It's close to the skin but lasts for a looong time.

 

I'm seriously debating 2 bottles since I love it for bed time as well.

[freyasfae]

Very pretty, springy and sweet, could also work for summer, and the carnation doesn't kill me. I don't need a bottle, but nice to try!

[MadameSalty]

I went out on a limb for this one. It sounded just too tempting and evocative to pass up, even with the dreaded lavender. I love the smell *of* lavender, I just don't usually want to smell *like* lavender. On my skin it was just straight up WEIRD. I got none of the listed notes, just high pitched lavender and WEIRDNESS. I have no idea what I was smelling! I had to wash it off and couldn't even bear to test it out again. I'm glad I gave it a try as it would be the one that got away if I didn't, but this was certainly not for me! Skin chemistry, you crazy!

[SophieCedar]

The carnation/lavender/hay combo turns to sexy tobacco on me? I smell like a debonair man's debaucherous playroom. Its a good thing! I vote this one as the sleeper hit.

[astarinel]

Wet, lavender and carnation are the most prominent notes. The carnation comes across mostly as soft spice, and the two together give me a garden/outdoorsy vibe. Behind this is a sweet fruityness; I'm not sure I'd necessarily say strawberry (and I love strawberry). The lavender is a touch sharp, especially while wet, but I generally find it a little edged for my taste. One of the few lavender-heavy scents I can tolerate is TKO.

 

The carnation and lavender fade a bit as it dries. I definitely agree with the reviews that referred to this as being sort of an outdoors scent, without specific notes really dominating the blend. Something about the carnation's spice + the lavender's herbal edge gives me the idea of fresh air. It gets a little sweeter as it dries.

 

Overall it's nice, but I don't love it -- I have scents that I prefer in all of the categories this ticks for me. I'm glad I tried it, and it was nice to be able to tolerate a lavender blast in a perfume for once.

[zankoku_zen]

Strawberry, hay and a touch of vanilla plastic. Sadly, the cream note in Round Dance doesn't work for me. This ends up smelling like a hay-variant of Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

 

SAD PUPPY.

[unxolve]

When this starts out it is WEIRD AND NOT GOOD. It's like...fake berry mixed with musky urine.

 

But dry it's soft and pretty. A pink, sugary vanilla. Mmmmmm. Like other people have said, soldier through the first phase and stick around for the later one!

[nolifeking]

In the bottle : Woa! Strong lavander with a chemical strawberry like scent..this is....oddly appealing to me ♡

 

Wet: Lavender! The kind that grow in the garden of my mother in law in France I get right away what I think is the candyfloss

 

Dry : All of the notes are very well blended, I get a little bit of carnation there, a drop of hay, soft vanilla and amber. I feel like I'm walking in a field of flowers while eating candyfloss ♡ The lavender at this point is faint, but still present

 

What a pretty floral! One I can actual wear! Wouhou! :D

[PeculiarHeroine]

This perfume makes me giggle! Its light, sweet, and certainly playful. The creamy note wins out in the end, but before it does the sweet florals and strawberries run the show. Its just so much gosh darn fun, and it turns out I love blush amber. I suspected I would, but now I know!

[HerbGirl]

I love this so much. I loved it earlier this year but I love it more now.

 

Lavender, Carnation and vanilla are the strongest notes backed by hay and a touch of amber. The strawberry comes out on the drydown just detectable hanging above the scent, if that makes sense. Lupers killed me this year and this one is such a masterpiece. I am so glad I have a bottle, I have a feeling I will be reaching for this when I need a pick me up. :-)

[sunlitgarden]

In the decant: In scents with this many notes, I often have trouble picking out individual ones. I definitely smell the lavender in here, and the scent overall is on the sweet side but it's not overpoweringly sweet. Something reminds me of....a barn? I guess that's the hay? o_O

 

On my skin: I smell the sweet strawberry and cream here but it's not nearly as dominant as it was in The Instructional Manual on me. This is on the herbal side and the "after-smell" that lingers in my nose after I sniff it reminds me of fennel. This is kind of a weird one on me, but the scent that it's settling into as it starts to dry is better than how it smelled in the decant and wet on my skin. The carnation is giving this blend a spiciness. The "barny" quality of the hay goes away, thankfully, and it's more like just dried grass. The scent it's settling into is hard to describe but it's kind of spicy and also herbal. The carnation is coming through now and there's something almost a bit smoky.

This is okay on me, but not my favorite of the 2016 Lupers. The Instructional Manual is more to my taste in the strawberries and cream department.