And Now, For Something Completely Different -- Vetiver Dance by Andy Tauer

Today, as promised, I'm sniffing Andy Tauer's Vetiver Dance, which I was lucky enough to get as a pre-release sample during Andy's blog giveaway.

"grapefruit, black pepper, clary sage, lily of the valley, cedar wood, ambergris, tonka and dark vetiver from java"

Wow! Initially, this smells like citrus and grass. A tart burst of grapefruit, over fabulous, sweet, just mowed grass where the mower--a push mower with no smelly engine--caught a few light blossoms as well. It's really incredibly light on me at first, which is interesting, given the notes. I catch a tiny bit of the pepper, but it's in the background. And the ceder, which my skin normally amps like crazy until I smell like wood shavings, is, for the most part, well behaved.

As the dry down happens, I'm getting more than a bit of the lily and the grass note--which I'm assuming is the vetiver, although it could be the clary sage--is fading a bit. I wish I knew what vetiver smells like alone. Darkrose really liked it on me at first, but now she's more "meh" about it, which is probably because she loves her some grapefruit and the citrus has faded into the background, as it will. I'm also getting just a whiff of some incredibly expensive soap, which isn't actually a detriment to wearing this; although I'm not a huge fan of "clean" scents, this is just a faint touch that works. Right now, about a half hour in, it's a greenish floral on me, which is odd because I expected it to be a lot darker and more woody.

And now, about 45 minutes in, there it is, now it's woody and a tiny bit dry, but it's still a light, green, almost effervescent kind of wood. There's still a faint lily soap note, but not enough for me to dismiss this out of hand. I think "dance" is the perfect name for it; this scent is light on its feet and while it knows the classical ballroom dances and maybe even a little ballet, it's not above dancing like no one is watching when its favorite pop song comes on on the radio.

I kind of wish I'd tried this totally blind because knowing it's from an incredibly well-respected niche/indie perfumer whose stuff sells for around $80-$90 for 50ml makes a difference, I think. And actually, when you realize that a BPAL LE goes for $20 for 5ml, that's not outrageous, even if Tauer's stuff is either eau de parfum or eau de toilette. But my point is, to me it smells expensive and I don't know if that's a) because I know it's kind of pricey, b) because he uses high quality ingredients, c) because it's an alcohol based perfume and that "feels/smells" more pricey just by association or d) some combination of the above. I know he uses the best materials he can, and of course you can never ever dismiss association out of hand when dealing with scent, so I've got to go with D.

Ultimately, it's a scent that reads very unisex to me, although I can see it being put on the masculine side of the aisle at Sephora or Nordstroms. It's about as far from anything I reviewed last week as possible and it's almost a shock to my nose after all the sweet pomegranate--and no, that still doesn't look like a real word to me. But it's a good shock, a fresh sharp shock that really works for me. It's got very good staying power and the throw/sillage is excellent when you consider that I only used one spray. I won't reach for this often, but on days when I want something unusual, I'll go for it. He's releasing it sometime in October and while I feel that yes, it's a fall kind of scent, I'm glad I got it now to help me combat the heat of a Sacramento summer.