ND¢

I can see how this initially resembles an amped-up version of Dorian-- it is sharper, and I'm not sure what is causing that (perhaps a combination of the musk, jasmine leaf and fougere.) Jasmine isn't my favorite thing to have in a fragrance, but it's not the overly sweet jasmine flower smell. This also has an acquaintance with Severin, probably my favorite everyday scent.

Snake Oil smells quite similar to Snake Charmer on me, which is a great relief and a comfort, because now I don't have to sweat about $40.00 5mL bottles! Lighter than Snake Charmer, but with the same characteristic sugary-vanilla/incense scent that is sexy and utterly feminine.

A lighter musk than I expected from the description. Strong and heavy at first in dry-down, and I smelled a hint of orange in that stage only. Dried to a straightforward, elegant musk with a hint of sweetness.

The florals are most prominent on application and remain so on me. It overwhelms the possibility of smelling other notes. When I exhale, there is an unpleasant acrid 'aftertaste' in my nose that I've had from a few other BPALs. I wish that the orchid/cereus hadn't drowned out the other notes, but I tend not to prefer florals by nature; they tend to seem too audaciously flowery on me.

From this I get a too-sweet smell off the bat, floral, not the honey. (Laurel? I don't know.) Then a very dusty smell comes in... the scent becomes dust and rose.

The wine is strong on me, and combines with the honey in an unfortunately unsavory bitter/sour smell of cooking Marsala.

The cedar, which normally goes out of control and powerful on me, is muted and deep (smoky) and compliments the leather very well... almost making it seem like leather-cubed, as if the sharp tang of leather and the tang of cedar are potentiating each other. I think the musk adds to this effect, making it almost too vigorous for my skin chemistry. Fir rides along the top, giving me the 'autumn' feel. I'm not sure I'm capable of detecting the amber.

The second I put this on I thought, 'This is Snake Charmer's smarter, darker, wryer older sister,' and my first impression stands. The patchouli and red musk make this so worldly without ever venturing into the hippie stereotype patchouli seems to have. It is a bit reminiscent of menthol cigarettes on application, which bothers me, but balances itself out on my skin with the sweetness of plum and vanilla. (I wish it was a little less like menthol cigarettes, but feel confident that impression will change with the aging of the musk & patchouli.) I can only smell the notes when I concentrate on them specifically; this doesn't scream any one note, and I look forward to owning it by the bottle, having tried a decant.

Yeah.... rose scents? Yeahhhhh. I'm gonna need you to.... NOT smell like dill pickles on me? Yeahhhh. In this case, the dill pickle is very gentle, peeking out from behind mostly-rose and a bit of sandalwood (which didn't go out of control.) Herb and grass scent might be adding depth to this, but not enough.

As has been mentioned, this is also reminiscent of Big Red gum on me. The cinnamon is dominant but softened by the rose, so it's not a sharp, spicy cinnamon.

Though I love the green color of the oil, the Vicks Vaporub scent doesn't really rub me the right way.

Perfumey in the bottle, drying to a sharp eucalyptus/medicinal herbal smell. Green herbs, a sharp pine sap... and a hint of something sweeter... Irish Spring? As I was typing this I smelled cat pee and thought 'If one of those cats peed....' of course the punchline is it is Djinn. I truly smell a note of cat pee.

Two ample samples traded to me by the generous cuervosueno. First reviews to be found here (XXXIV) and here (ML). XXXIV: Apple with a bitter green vegetable I eventually identified as celery. It strongly suggests hard cider and dries to an Apple Jolly-Rancher sweetness with a tiny kick left over from the original bitter scent. ML: In the bottle and wet on the skin, starts off with a rich green/resin bitterness that is just intriguing. I've never smelled anything like this. In drying, the bitterness (which is something organic-smelling, like leaves? recedes without entirely disappearing. It leaves a high, not too sharp, sweet floral note floating above a green/ aquatic scent (the aquatic is noticable on exhaling.) I don't smell the bergamot, but I'm also not great at identifying scents.

A well-blended, very green floral that reminds me a bit of the smell of Vitabath and a bit of aquatics. It's a very nice floral, not overwhelming the herbal smell.

In the bottle: Incense. On me: A sudden burst of flower. Search me; I don't know what's making it do this. People are referring to the sweetness of the sandalwood, so.... It gets a dangerous hint of the soapy... looking through other perfumes that got the same soapiness, the only one I'm coming up with is Sleepy Moon, which has 'white sandalwood.' Man, it's the same exact soapiness, but unlike Sleepy, the soapiness doesn't jump off my arm and bite off my sniffer. I don't get the patchouli much if at all. Nope... not at all. A sweet and spicy, vaguely woody but not at all sharp smell, soft and light, evocative of places I've never been. Dries down to a soapiness much like Sleepy. Sigh.

In the bottle: Somewhat tobaccoey, somewhat coconutty. On me: The tobacco becomes much more obvious after it is on about two minutes. Before that, it's all sweet spice. Then it's tonka and tobacco all the way, with a touch of leather (the same level of leather I get in, say, Severin, which is my favorite GC so far.) Sweet and dirty. Might need a bottle.

In the bottle: Dirt, like fertilized dirt from the garden store. On me: Still dirt when wet, a good dirt as other people have said, but also reminiscent of the pickle smell that Lear and other cedar notes don't quite turn into on me, but which was a dealbreaker with Burial (only much less intense in this than in Burial.) It does mix with a warm, faint scent like vanilla. And why is the oil so much stickier than all the others I've tried? Some musk seems to come in after a few minutes.... mostly eliminates the dirt smell and turns into a very nice, evenhanded vanilla(?)/musk with a hint of dirt. Nice.

Got an opportunity to sniff this locally. More than anything it reminded me of Snake Charmer (my number one guy): warm, snappy, and for all the world like my sugar jar: an airtight container filled with organic sugar and a vanilla bean to keep things moving. I sniffed and sniffed with my eyes closed, forgetting everything but the smell in front of me. Lovely.

In the bottle: Sharp, thin, not much scent, just a bit of a stinging whiff. On me: I wanted it to be as wet and fresh as Rose Red, but it didn't get there. If the leather had been apparent, that'd have been something, too, but apart from an occasional unpleasant causticness at the beginning of the dry-down, I didn't smell leather, either. It is a different rose smell than Rose Red: the stem and leaf are not present and it is much drier. Authentically rosy, just not what I was looking for.

In the bottle: Flowery and sharply sweet. On me: Sickly sweet jasminey smell that keeps getting sharper and sweeter the longer I wear it. Oh, dear.

A very unusual scent. Olive-y and gentle. Very faint, and quite relaxing. But yeah, it was almost like smelling green olives in olive oil for me, too.

In the bottle: Leathery spice/forest musk? Lots of things clamoring for top billing. On me: Sharp with the same acrid breathe-out whiff I had from Hexennacht. Really green, but I also get the leather. Cedar does not dominate, in contrast to... anything else I ever tried that had cedar. Even some things that don't have cedar seem to smell like cedar on me. Good thing I like cedar. A cinnamony spiciness, no patchouli. The greens fade into a wild-smelling leather with a soapiness that doesn't (thankfully) take over. And as a hint of soapiness it's nice, a gentleness that some of the notes would otherwise be lacking.

In the bottle: Sweet musk. On me: Spicy, like cinnamon, gentler than Samhain was on me (this is a good thing, though I also like Samhain.) Very sugary, but a spiced, caramelized sort of sugar. Makes me think of autumn, camping, and is simpler than Samhain... I felt less overwhelmed by it. I agree with all the emphatically positive reviews... until it fades. It dries down to a sharp, spicy musk that, though pleasant, isn't the same as it was initially (smoke, sugar etc), and reminds me more of a generic, spicy musk perfume. Awww.

In the bottle: Berries and buttery sweet cake. On me: This is more cassis than blackberry for my money, but no complaints... I prefer it. The buttery scent fades for a bit and there's a bit of sharpness after it dries some, probably the berry scent, which has gone caustic on me before. It smooths out quickly. Thank heavens. As I was smelling it at this stage, my fellow came in, sniffed the air (six+ feet away) and said, 'Smells like cake.' (This is perhaps the most positive review of a perfume he's ever given. Not one for perfume, my fellow.) I sniffed again... it does! The cake is back! Fades to a nice, light but rich, berry-cake. Bottle me!

Sure am glad I held off on reviewing this one for a while. I didn't like it at first sniff, and was going to get rid of mine... Happy day, I tried it again last night and had an entirely different reaction. Snake Charmer is a perfect feminine scent. And I'm not one for the sweet, fruity, and foody, or so I thought. This smell is outrageously girly, but dips down into a strong amber note to keep it from being too 'cutesy' and up into a fruit-sugar high note that adds a nice little kick. The notes blend perfectly, none standing out more than they should.