The left hand of God, or shelldoo as everyone else knows her, responded to my ISO! A bottle of the Adder will be winging its way to me tomorrow. I'm very excited about this one actually.

I didn't like Snake Oil when I first tried it, because it was just so bland on me. It was slightly sour vanilla, not unpleasant, but very bland, and too strong - I got a headache from sniffing my wrist too hard! (But then I get scent headaches very easily.)

Lately, after finding that I actually quite like vanilla (helloooo, Dorian!), I have considered giving the Snake another try. However, I'm (obviously) not willing to make a Lab order for one Imp, and I don't want to buy a bottle, have to wait a month, pay $13 shipping and find it doesn't work. Same logic for the Swaps forum, I know how awkward it can get when people only buy single Imps! I also forgot to add an Imp of SO to my 13 order. D'oh...

My solution? After trying and (mostly) liking Saw-Scaled Viper, I started investigating the Snake Pit more closely. You know how when you first get into BPAL and have tried your first few scents you go through the catalogue and think "That will never work on me"? I did that with the Snake Pit at first. I thought that since SO was bland, any scent based on it would too. Thankfully, I got SSV as a frimp in a swap because it was late (aww!), and found a new love for the vanilla of SO! So I looked through the Pit and checked out the notes. I'm terrified of florals as 99% of floral blends turn to rank old-lady-soap on me, but the one that got my attention was Death Adder: Snake Oil with vetiver, black coconut, vanilla, and opoponax.

The key attention-grabbing note there was opopanax. I LOVE opopanax. Before I got into BPAL I wore Dior Poison, in which the base note was opopanar, and my favourite BPAL ever is Geek, which has opopanax listed as a main note. I love the sultry, sexy, musky smell of it, and it smells faaaaaaabulous on moi! The fact that the Adder has vanilla and coconut only (literally) sweetened the deal. I was a little worried about the vetiver, which is a rather finicky note on me; it can be lovely and tangily refreshing, or it can smell like fag ash, but then it occurred to me that without it, the blend would be so sweet that even I wouldn't be able to wear it. And I have a sweet tooth the size of China.

I really hope that after all that I like it!