The Spanish Dance

[Champagne]

THE SPANISH DANCE
Chocolate, orange blossom honey, and pomegranate.

I let this little gem settle down a few days before writing a review. First of all as usual the cocoa globes are so thick that if you don`t mix well the oil you won`t get it in its own glory. After mixing: there is a blast of orange blossom at the start that made me nervous, but it fades fast in a lovely floral honey together with a dry pomegranate sweetened by cocoa. That`s it and it`s gorgeous!! It`s not foody but it will satisfy cocoa cravings and it`s a must for pomegranate lovers too.

[edenssixthday]

The Spanish Dance - Out of all the Anni/Yule II update blends, this is the one that, when opening my bottles and sniffing them, grabbed me the most. It smelled dark and sweet and fruity in a really juicy way. Once I realized there were huge globules of chocolate sitting on the bottom of the bottle, I shook and shook and shook it to blend it really well, but I was worried because I can rarely wear chocolate. However, when I applied it to my skin, the chocolate was immediately identifiable as the same chocolate note that is in Cthulhu in Love, Wulfric, and Great Sword of War, which means it's a chocolate my skin actually doesn't reject. The chocolate is definitely the strongest note when first applied to my skin, and when the scent is shaken up so the chocolate globules are evenly distributed throughout, it loses a lot of its juiciness. Instead, it's mostly dark chocolate and sweet honey with just a hint of the sweet pomegranate. While my skin doesn't "turn" the chocolate on me, it doesn't smell nearly as good on me as it does in the bottle (especially when the chocolate is sitting on the bottom of the bottle -- I love the other oils that sit on top, I guess). Once it dries down on my skin, it's very, very subtle, but the scent does last for hours. Still, I never catch it wafting around me, and have to shove my wrist up my nose to detect the scent. I do like it, but can't imagine I'd reach for it when there are so many other blends I'm desperately in love with, so this will be getting passed along (as I tend to do with most scents that have chocolate in them).

[Altaira]

In the bottle, this smells exactly like Tootsie Rolls.

 

As soon as it hits my skin, the scent disappears. I can hardly smell anything. Pomegranate (Pomona, Fruit of Paradise, etc.) does this on me: disappears in a puff of nothing, taking the rest of the blend with it. After about 10 minutes, something comes back, like strong black tea with honey. Then the bitter dark chocolate shows itself and a bit of the pomegranate, giving the impression of dark chocolates with red jam centers. After an hour or so, it is just faint honey and a bit of chocolate to deepen it, although I get faint wisps of cherry cough medicine from where it got on my shirt.

 

It's been about 4 hours, and I can barely smell anything at all. *sigh*

Edited December 16, 2010 by Altaira

[Mountaingrrl00]

At first sniff, this is chilly and almost ozone-like, as BPAL pomegranate often is to me. It warms up quickly on my skin, though, and morphs into a beautiful bittersweet scent that's like chocolate oranges, but lighter and with a bit of a perfume edge. It's yummy but not too foody. There's something that's almost like orange zest in the drydown. I like this a lot -- it's very cheerful in a grown-up way. It doesn't have much throw, but it does last a long time.

[greenranger]

There's a bittersweet note to this that's interesting. It smells like there's orange peel, not just orange blossom honey.

 

The bittersweet note fades into sweetness. It's nice, but I'll have to see how long it lasts.

[Antoinette]

First impression in bottle: Tootsie Roll Pops! There's a ton of chocolate floating around in the bottle. I shook it up before applying.

 

Wet on skin: The chocolate is not as strong as it was smelling straight from the bottle, now the orange blossom honey is front and center. Delightful!

 

Dry down: Not getting much of the pom, this is all orange chocolate on me and it's delicious. What I thought, from the bottle, was going to be chocolate overload isn't. It's a bright, sweet and fruity scent with chocolate. Super yum and exactly up my alley.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

I had to try this one because I love all the notes; I have a decant, so there isn't an issue about the oil mixing. Ohhh, this is some good stuff right here! I think this is my favorite of this year's Yules. I love Beth's pomegranate, so juicy and sweet--Persephone was my very first BPAL, so this note always makes me happy. Chocolate and orange is a wonderful combination--a rich gourmand scent with just enough tartness to keep it from being overly sweet. It smells like dark chocolate and dries down to a nummy honey. It reminds me of "13", the blend that returns every Friday the 13th, except better. There is no question I will be using up my decant, and I may need more.

Edited December 21, 2010 by Laurel the Woodfairy

[zankoku_zen]

I don't think the chocolate and pomegranate work for me. It's got a strong orange blossom component to the foodier parts and my brain just interprets this as weird chocolate.

 

PASS.

[Veronica]

I am any and all cocoa notes, so I don't know what I was thinking even trying this. It's straight chocolate on me, with a spicy background.

[grrrlennyl]

The Spanish Dance

 

On: Mostly honey and pomegranate.

Half an hour in: I can barely smell this. I'm getting a hint of chocolate, but that's it.

2 hours in: Vaguely sweet and powdery.

5 hours later: About the same.

Overall: This isn't anything special on me.

[angelicruin]

Lots of chocolate and pomegranate on me, though I definitely also smell the orange blossom. I love pomegranate scents, so this one is very pleasant to my nose. Kind of reminds me a bit of Pomegranate IV from this year's Weenies.

[crebbsgirl]

This was primarily pomegranate on my skin, with hints of chocolate. You really had to search for the orange blossom. I agree that it is similar to Pom IV from this year. It's sweet, and a little dusty. I quite like it.

[cherrycherry]

Mmmmm, honey, chocolate and orange blossom. This is easily one of my favourites out of all of this year's Yule blends. It's sweet, floral, deep and comforting. I look forward to wearing it in Autumn, once the leaves have turned to fire and started to fall. Gorgeous in every way and I need more!

[ljaylh]

I'm testing this from a decant, rather than a bottle, so I can't be sure about the distribution of chocolate against the other notes.. however there's a big dark globule of chocolate in the bottom of the vial and I know my decanter knows what she's doing so I'm thinking this decant is probably a good representation of the experience I'd get from a bottle.

 

When first applied, there's a slightly bitter-sweet top note that I didn't recognise, but it quickly went away. In its place I can smell the pomegranate (which on my skin, always, produces a very candy-like almost bubblegum-y smell) and the honey with just a hint of orange. Honey doesn't always place nice for me - sometimes it produces a funky, semi-cloying powderiness - but not here, it's beautifully soft and sweet and just a little bit dusky. The orange blossom isn't sharp or sweet overly obvious, nor is it a typical citrus type or orange, it's really soft and lovely.

 

Surprisingly, the chocolate isn't dominant - I kinda expected it would be when I saw the big glob of dark goodness in the vial - but it just sits in the background under the pomegranate and orange/honey. So although this may seem like it's a foody blend, I wouldn't put it in the same category as other chocolate-y things like the White Choc Strawberry or Dark Choc Cherry from the Valentine's LE series, or even the chocolate blends that came out earlier this year in the Truffle/She-Goat Chocolatier series (Dark Choc Lime Truffle etc). I can smell the chocolate in Spanish Dance, but it really isn't obviously a CHOCOLATE blend.

 

I'm really very happy with this one! So many of my BPAL chocolate blends smell delicious but I just don't wear them often because the chocolate is just too much. But this.. is gorgeous, and it stays lovely on my skin for a good two or three hours. I think a bottle of this will be required!

[Blood onmy hands]

The Spanish Dance is rather lackluster on me. The chocolate is hard to mix with the rest of the oil, and I can't really smell much chocolate even after it's blended back in. The pomegranate turns dry, bitter, and powdery, as it usually does. And the orange blossom is perfumey and oddly herbal smelling. I was worried that this scent would be too sweet, but it's not sweet enough for me :/. It's very dry and powdery and fades super-fast, only lasting about fifteen minutes on me.

[filigree_shadow]

Yikes, this one doesn't smell right on me. Almost acrid. There's a little bit of chocolate, but there's also something bitter combined with something that smells like a bathroom air freshener. (That would be the pom acting up -- it apparently gets a huge kick out of making me smell bad. That's one of its favorite tricks. Does it all the time.) The whole combination smells extremely OFF.

 

Not cool, pomegranate. Not cool at all.

[cupcakegernade]

I was rather excited when this one arrived, holding the bottle up to the light and seeing thick globs of chocolaty goodness. In the bottle, this is almost pure chocolate. The orange blossom honey is there, but it registers more as just orange. On my skin, this is still mostly chocolate and the orange blossom has become more honeyed now. The honey has also become more prominent now, so delicious. At this point, the pomegranate has yet to show up, but once things start to dry down, the honey begins to draw back a bit and make room for the pomegranate to shine through. This is a bright and somewhat sweet blend (but not not at all cloying), that is just so gorgeous. I just love this.

[astarinel]

This is one of those chocolate blends where I can see the globs of chocolate in the imp, and it's pretty hard to mix up. I think I got some of the chocolate, though, so onward with a skin test!

 

The chocolate and honey are most prominent at first, but the tart pom is somehow getting all blurred and musty underneath the sticky sweet notes. As it dries on my skin, the blend evens out more, but there's something in here that is just not working with both my skin chemistry and my nose chemistry. It just smells "off" somehow. I realize this review isn't very helpful, but even though the note list for this one is simple, I'm really not entirely sure what is making me not like this blend, but not like it I do!

[Iceblink]

I had a hard time getting the cocoa blended back into this so...it's there but mostly this is pomegranate honey. Sweet and tart! Pom tends to amp on me and this is going a bit strong as a result. This really needs the cocoa in there to give it depth but I'm sick of having to re-blend oils with cocoa in them so I'm going to pass on this.

[Schmoozy]

Pomegranate honey brightened by orange blossom with the tiniest hints of chocolate. It's a different combination, and although I was hesitant to try it, I really kinda like it. Not sure it's bottle worthy, but I'll definitely enjoy my decant.

[kelpsoda]

Wet - this is the most delicious chocolate, with a juicy pomegranate by it's side.

 

Dry - chocolate backs off to a hint of cocoa, but I can still smell honey and floral (orange blossom?). Yum.

[Voleuse]

Note: So I guess this blend has cocoa absolute in it, because my little half-decant of oil separated into a very pale oil and little globules of cocoa. A little rolling about remixed the blend, but that's always a danger with chocolatey scents like this!

 

That said, this is very strongly orange blossom at first--with an emphasis on the blossom, as I got a very strong hint of the greenery that underlies the bloom. Over time the chocolate sort of asserts itself, but generally this is a neat orange-blossom-and-chocolate blend. Not at all like orange chocolate, but like...drinking a cup of that nummy, thick drinking chocolate while sitting in the middle of an orange grove.

 

It's a long time before I get any pomegranate, but there is a bit of sweetness in the end that must be pomegranate, as well as a neat, chocolatey smokiness that was pleasantly surprising.

Edited January 20, 2011 by Voleuse

[thekittenkat]

In the bottle: Mostly pom and honey, and certainly orange blossom honey at that.

 

Wet: Sweet yet sharp at the same time.

 

The dry-down: This is a pomegranate scent, sweetened with lots of orange blossom honey, and with just a hint of chocolate as a base. The chocolate had settled to the bottom of the bottle, of course, so I spent not some inconsiderable time gently rolling the bottle between my palms to get it to mix back in. Even so, this is not a strong chocolate scent like most of the Lab's chocolate perfume oils. If anything, it reminds me in concept of last year's Dark Chocolate and Key Lime Truffle, which was mostly key lime on me, and just a touch of chocolate to make it sweet and not tart. If you like any of the Lab's pomegranate scents, this is worth looking into.

[Venneh]

In the bottle, this is chocolate and orange blossom: very similar to Vice, for me. On my skin, the orange blossom amps and whacks down the pomegranate and cocoa, save for a faint whisper. Dammit. This is not going to end well.

[milo]

At first, this is orange with a bit of chocolate, kind of like one of those chocolate oranges you can break apart. As it dries, it becomes dusty orange, disappointing, but this is what some cocoa blends do one me, especially coupled with fruit. Well, I figured this one wasn't going to work, as I don't like eating orange flavoured chocolate anyways. Fun to try, though!