DifferentDances

Bottle: Wintery fresh evergreens. Wet: Wintery fresh evergreens. Drydown: The berries are surprisingly juicy, but there's something here starting to cause my nose to itch. After looking through my spreadsheet, I think I'm allergic to the evergreen note used. Removed this from my skin because I like having a clear throat for breathing.

Bottle: Cream vanilla cheesecake. I can't even test this; the cheesecakiness is giving me nausea.

Bottle: Cleaning fluid, soap, lavender, with a slight lychee squelch at the edges. Wet: Pale warmth (resins?), lychee juiciness, and lavender. Drydown: Clean soap. Dry: Clean soap. My rating: 1/5

Imp: Leather and alcohol. Like a bar, but without BO, vomit, or lingering, lung-clogging smoke. Wet: The rum and leather are sweetened by something like vanilla. Tonka, perhaps? Drydown: Leather. Slight tobacco and booze. Beautiful warmth...especially in the throw. Dry: More warm leather. My rating: 4/5, but not really a scent I'd wear.

Imp: Floral mix. Wet: Sharp, sharp, sharp green; almost rotten greens, actually. Drydown: The green backs off. Beautiful rose mix comes into play! Dry: Subtle, rosy feminine scent. Cozy. My rating: 4/5

Bottle: Faint florals, eucalyptus, and a faint rim of frosted pines around the edge. Wet: Fresh-cut pine branch with cool, refreshing eucalyptus. The flowers fade in and out. Drydown: Smoothly blended pine and florals. Dry: Slightly creamy blended pine and florals. My rating: 2/5

Bottle: Initial whiff reminds me strongly of TAL's White Light; second whiff brings out more of the evergreen and either the berries or rose. Wet: Holly and evergreen with the slightly itchy, spicy scent of thyme. Drydown: Same holly, evergreen, and thyme with more woodiness. There's something allergy-tickling in the throw of this, though. BAH. Not even going to finish testing this - I can feel my body reacting negatively to this.

Bottle: A remarkably smoothly blended mix of flowers and fruit. I can smell the guava juiciness every now and then. Wet: Very muted initially. Hibiscus and guava and something like vanilla. And the encroaching strength of lemongrass. Please, please, please don't let my skin amp it or the grapefruit for once. Drydown: Damnit, this is so muted now. It's actually a lovely, feminine scent, but it's so faint... Dry: This is terribly faint, but there's something really wonderfully feminine about it. My rating: 3/5

This is the 2004 edition; I think this may be my oldest bottle of anything ever. Bottle: First whiff - fruity bubblegum candy; second whiff - wintery coolness. Wet: Fruity bubblegum. Drydown: I smell like drugstore candy, like Dots and whatnot. Nummy. Dry: Slightly alcoholic, slightly plastic gumdrops. My rating: 3/5

Decant: Initial whiff reminds me of Tiger Balm. Humid ozone with a warm tingle and a hint of berries. (My brother says it smells like medicine) Wet: Cypress, ozone, with a very quiet, underlying layer of something sweet and vaguely fruity. Drydown: Musky almond-y woods, slight berries, touch of frost around the edges. Dry: Medicinal, woody warmth. My rating: 1/5

Bottle: Heavy perfume like my grandma, only with with weird acrid scent reminiscent of the very plastic, artificially scented 'nail polish' I once received with the purchase of a toy makeup set or a Barbie doll or something. Wet: Ozone, floral. A little warmth overlaying the floral. Drydown: Florals with aquatic with weird acid edge. Dry: Floral with slight aquatic/ozone. Lovely skin-close scent, but takes too long to get there and I don't like the prior stages all that much. My rating: 1/5

Bottle: Ah, that lovely warmth that is amber, only slightly lighter than normal! Hint of ozone, and something vaguely citrusy. Wet: Whoa, the sage jumps to the forefront. Slight hint of the amber against the almost minty sage, with almost a translucent layer of that slight citrus. Wonderfully subtle nommy throw. Drydown: Huh. This is reminding me of many, many of the Yule blends using snow and pine notes, only it's a great deal warmer with that slight citrus note. I'm guessing the sage and oakmoss are somehow tricking my nose. Dry: A low-key warmth. My rating: 3/5

Bottle: Strong whiff of the lily, and maybe the violet or wisteria. Wet: Still heavily floral, but there's a lovely greenness to the scent. Drydown: This is not promising - it's all a vague floral one-note. I wish the sandalwood would pop up, as I'm rather fond of woody scents. Dry: Faint, pale florals with a subtle greenness underlying it. My rating: 2/5 This scent makes me wish I liked straight up florals. Alas!

Bottle: A dark warmth and coziness of pines layered thinly through. I have a feeling I'm going to love this. Wet: Pine trees and cold dampness; a hint of something animalistic padding through. Drydown: Animal warmth dusted by snow and anchored by wood. Dry: Slightly musky snow with a touch of pine and sugar. My rating: 4/5 <3

Bottle: There's a general floral mix with a touch of something I don't think I like, with a sudsy layer of soap. Wet: A hint of cucumber amidst what I think is the iris and violet. Something vaguely like gardenia is itching my nose. Drydown: Floral soap with something clean and fresh floating underneath it. Dry: Just a generic, floral soap to me. I imagine someone else would love this more with their skin chemistry. My rating: 1/5

Bottle: Damp snow and berries. Wet: Faded swiftly; snowy powder. Drydown: The snow is very faint and giving way to a soapy smell. Dry: Faint baby powder with a bare hint of berry. My rating: 2/5 It's nice, but I have so many similar, stronger scents.

Bottle: Chocolate liqueur, musk, juniper berry (I love this note in the Yule blends...) Wet: Rum, cherry cough syrup, tint of juniper. Drydown: Some sort of alcoholic juniper. Dry: Slightly sugary, slightly boozy juniper. My rating: 2/5

Imp: Weird smell. Not sure what it is. Wet: Still weird, but vaguely familiar. I think this reminds me of the Eat Me or Drink Me scents. Slight ozone overtone? Drydown: Very very faint, slightly sour, foody/cakey/thick. Dry: Slight fake foody smell. Rating: 1/5 I was hoping the roses would offset the foodiness, but I guess me and baked good scents are just not going to be BFFs.

Imp: Reminds me of a country club. Wet: Fresh, clean, soap. Sour tint of gardenias is making this a little strange. I smell like one of those fussy rich ladies. Drydown: Faded soap. Dry: Faded soap. Rating: 1/5. It's a pretty scent in the imp, but it's not for me.

Imp: Hard coffee candy that's been in a tub with hard butterscotch candies. Wet: Faint, faint coffee scent. Like I passed by a Dunkin Donuts or something. Drydown: Somewhat plastic coffee, but with a sense of warmth. You know, the kind of warm and cozy you feel after a good bowl of soup or a delicious mug of chocolate. Very, very faint, though. I can picture doing a double take if a man walked by wearing this, but thus far it's not a scent I would actually wear. Dry: Faint plastic with a teeny hint of cheap coffee. Rating: 2/5. I'd like it more, I think, if it lasted.

I found an old, lab-fresh imp of this in my backpile of imps to test. Imp: ...This smells like my best friend with her Armani perfume. I kind of don't care anymore if it sucks on my skin or not; the sheer nostalgia factor is tugging at my heart. Wet: Sweet, gooey vanilla diffused by sophistication. I'm picturing the type of lady who has a high end outfit in white, with camera-perfect makeup in classy, almost au naturel colors. Drydown: This is fading very, very rapidly. The cloying vanilla has been cut sharply. Sniffing close to the skin, this reminds me of Bath and Bodyworks soap. Also, it reminds me of pricey department stores. Dry: Faint, ladylike vanilla. My rating: 1/5 from a pure, 'for me' scent perspective; I'm just not a big vanilla person. 5/5 for scent memory.

Bottle: Damp cypress with rose and violet just barely skirting over it. Wet: ....where did it go? I'm getting just the barest hint of cedar, which has a tendency to amp on me. Drydown: Muted cypress with roses. Lovely, but almost undetectable. Dry: The sweetness of the rose is coming to the forefront, much like my beloved Rose Red. It's tempered just slightly with the cypress and cedar, though. Not rating this one yet, as I think it needs to be retested after my period. If my suspicions are correct, though, I think this is a blend I won't be able to wear regularly. Cedar tends to overwhelm everything else on my skin, and while it's lovely right now, it's very, very faint.

Bottle: Aquatic ozone with a hint of warmed florals. Wet: Oceanic sagey incense. Drydown: Faint ozone with that fresh sagey edge. Dry: Warmed sage ozone. Not rating this one...I think it needs to be re-tested when I'm no longer on my period.

Bottle: Ozone-y warmth. Wet: Ozone/aquatic warmth. Very masculine-cologne in feeling. Drydown: The ozone is less sharp now, and the vaguely warm quality is brushing to the surface. Dry: Warmed ozone. My rating: 3/5. I don't think this is my thing, but I kind of want to douse a guy in it and see what happens.

I like to apply TALs to my third eye when working with specific intent or energy. Attuning, however, is one I've had to try to find alternative uses for, as it burns my skin and distracts me from meditation and energy work. It's not a very effective blend for me, but I tend to be very dense and obtuse. It does help tune me into my own instincts and intuition, though sadly I don't listen to either very well.