Boomslang

[OhioSky]

Snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk.

Velvet meets Snake Oil.
I was a little hesitant to try this one because, as much as I like chocolate, I don't really want to smell like it.

Wet, this is just Velvet. Identical to my nose.
On the drydown, the Snake Oil peeks it's head out a bit and it becomes a really lovely scent.

I will have to try this a few more times to see if I like it neough to keep it. It's definitely nice, but may be a scent I would like better in a candle than on my skin.

[livingdead71]

Chocolate + Snake Oil = Perfection. This is truly a delicious scent. It really lasts on me and has a nice throw as well...and I'm sure it will only get better with age. This one might be worth stockpiling.

[marared]

This is SO yummy, and that's just the fresh bottle. It's a nice DARK chocolatey aroma, not the milky sweet stuff. I can't wait to see what this smells like in two months...

[oakmoss]

My first thought on smelling the decant was that this is almost identical to my three-year-old bottle of Velvet. On my skin, the cocoa takes a back seat to the Snake Oil, and after about half an hour, gets out of the car completely. The cocoa in Velvet aged so beautifully, I need to decide now if I want to get a bottle of Boomslang and see if it does the same. This is yummy, all on its own, but Velvet is still my cocoa love.

[laforetnoire]

Snake oil and very rich cocoa. After and hour or two, the cocoa disappears completely leaving a sweeter version of snake oil (rice milk?).

 

I am already sold to Snake Oil but I think I am starting to like Boomslang even more!

[porcelina]

mmmm. this is so thick and dark, light does not show through the bottle. it's a creamy snake oil with dark cocoa, but it's not foody. it's a very elegant cocoa, and a sophisticated scent. unfortunately (like regular SO) it doesn't last very long on me.

[angelicruin]

Chocolate-covered Snake oil is right.

 

This is a creamy chocolate with a hint of amber on me. It's not foody for me either, just a gorgeous blend of snake oil and cocoa.

 

Definitely a keeper!

[MisterShrapnel]

Since my first BPAL order I have tried making friends with my imp of Snake Oil repeatedly, multiple times, wondering desperately why I had to have the kind of skin that turns it into a magical aura of baby powder. And I was also heartbroken over my bottle of Boomslang for the first two months of ownership because the cocoa seemed to fade to nothing in minutes, leaving the only slightly spicy baby powder to mock me.

BUT THEN.

THEN.

Today I was suddenly hell-bent on forcing my skin into loving Snake Oil ("and you WILL enjoy this...") and dabbed some Boomslang on my chest today, not really expecting much but hoping anyway.

Studying at the coffee shop, two ladies walked in through the door near where I was sitting and said, "It smells great in here!", which may or may not be a kind of compliment (maybe it was just the coffee. *shrug* One did add that she wanted a drink with vanilla in it though).

And a couple hours later I was in Trader Joe's and suddenly the delicious scent wafting up from somewhere made me stop dead in the aisle ("can that be...?") and after furtively checking that there wasn't anyone looking in my general direction I quickly pulled aside the collar of my shirt, stuck my nose as close to my chest as possible and inhaled.

And kept inhaling.

Exhaling suddenly became a waste of time, a necessary evil.

And the whole time my wallet was panicking and going "oh no oh no oh no OH NO--" and my nose was going "OH YES. "

 

And that was that.

 

For me, Boomslang is an extremely delicious and smooth dark chocolate in the bottle and when it first goes on. This part of it hangs around on the skin for a little longer than when I first got the bottle, but ultimately the dark chocolate coating melts away to leave a center of a hard-to-describe spicy sweetness (almost medicinal-bitter in that "bourbon vanilla extract" sort of way, which I like) that has to be the Snake Oil. It's ridiculously addictive stuff. I can't tell if the teak and rice milk are easy to pick out (still a bit inexperienced). And maybe other people will still smell babies, but for me I now have access to a personal cloud of awesome. I'm so happy this works now!

 

And I thought I was going to save money by being able to pass this one up.

Edited October 27, 2008 by MisterShrapnel

[ghoulie]

Boomslang smells exactly as I expected and desired: Snake Oil infused with cocoa. I'm disappointed that it doesn't last longer, though. The original Snake Oil is very pungent and lasts an exceptionally long time on my skin. I have to be careful not to put too much on, lest it become overwhelming. Boomslang is the complete opposite. I think I'll have to slather myself in the stuff to make it last past half an hour. Maybe I should have ordered two bottles...

[Seismogenic]

The wonderful Persephone76 was kind enough to give me a testable sniffie of Boomslang at a MnS last weekend. For this summer's Carnaval Pecheur game on the forum, my character was the Boomslang, so I'm excited to get to try this one properly, even though a brief sniff at Will Call was already chocolate overload. But yes, here goes with my first evar CD review.

 

In the imp: Rich strong dark chocolate, with the slightest suggestion of something spicy behind it.

 

Wet on skin: Holy viscosity, Batman! This didn't want to come out of the imp! Now that it has, it's still a wonderful rich chocolate with some spice. I'm guessing that's the Snake Oil! Is this the part where I admit I've never tried regular Snake Oil? Also, there are brown spots on my wrists.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, the chocolate is still the main note, but the other elements are becoming more noticeable, even if I can't put a finger on what they actually are. I'm guessing the smoothish one is the rice milk, since it's not really vanilla-y. I can't yet tell if the edge to it is all the spices from Snake Oil, or if the teakwood is also involved. At an hour in, the chocolate has receded further; it's still an active melding note of the blend, but it's not the total foreground anymore. I'm getting more of what I assume is the rice milk, and I can tell there's something more woodlike (I assume that's the teak, though I'm not sure what that smells like on its own) among the spices.

 

Five hours later: Even less chocolate now. I'm definitely getting more of the Snake Oil spices (I assume) now, and a creamy wood smell that I really couldn't tell you if it's just teak or if that's the rice milk and/or vanilla getting involved. While it was chocolate with an edge before, now it's an edge with a little chocolate. The scent is still quite strong and present, and it's a lot more complex now than it was earlier on.

 

End of the day: More chocolate again! It becomes apparent that the other scents were amping earlier, rather than the chocolate fading away. Seems that chocolate has a longer wear time on me than the other stuff in this blend. Though the smell has faded some by now, it's still nowhere near being gone, and I didn't apply much.

 

Overall: When I sniffed Boomslang at Will Call, I dismissed it because I thought wearing something that chocolatey would make me crave chocolate all day. I'm glad Persephone76 gave me enough of this oil to properly try! I'm impressed how well the chocolate blends, and how it can become something complex and not inherently candylike. I like Boomslang, and I think it'd be a comforting scent for colder weather. I also have to say that I'm surprised to see other reviews that say this disappears so quickly - I have a feeling I'm still going have hints of this on my wrists when I wake up in the morning.

[Dark Alice]

This smells like Snake Oil mixed with milk and chocolate rice Krispies. (wet) As it dries, the rice milk comes out more and starts to sour alittle but not too much. I like my imp, but I don't think I will missing too much if I don't get the bottle.

[biz4brent]

Cocoa over snake oil ... too bad the chocolate fades in 10 minutes.

[LaurenO]

When I first got this, I thought that it didn't really smell of much. It's a little more aged now, and I like it. It's still close to the skin, but I can smell it more now. It's very truffle-like, rich but also with a hint of dry cocoa. It's recognisably perfume, rather than smelling like food. I'm excited to see how it ages. The only thing I don't really like about it is that it stains my (very pale) skin.

[Schmoozy]

This is a deep, dark cocoa note slightly sweetened with rice milk and drizzled over snake oil. It is is thick and gooey, and extemely yummy. I was worried when I tried this ages ago that it would be too sweet, but the teakwood, really balances out the rice milk and cocoa, and together with Snake oil make this very delectable. I am pretty pale, and didn't have any problems with skin staining.

[femmefatale]

When I first got it I tried it in my locket. I remember liking it, but not much more. So today I thought I would try it out on my skin. Well, I didn't have as much luck. It smelled of snake oil with a hint of....poo. I have no idea what's doing it, but it is not pleasant. And the fact that is was a rather dark brown on my skin didn't help. I don't want to smell like sweet poo and also look like it's been smeared on my arm.

Safe to say, this will be a locket scent.

Edited December 12, 2008 by Femme_Fatale

[Yoginispirit]

I'm sold.

 

The first time I tried boomslang I was so disappointed as the chocolate faded so fast and just left snake oil (which is not my favorite unless mixed with something else).

 

BUT I waited a few weeks and tried it again and ALL DAY I could smell spicy, dark, chocolatey heaven

 

I did roll it in my palms the second time so maybe that did the trick?

I'm praying to the BPAL gods that the chocoloate note doesn't fade much with aging as this is a fairly new bottle. Sigh, with all of these wonderful scents I fear I will be a very poor girl in a few months...

[mparker]

Bought unsniffed. In the bottle this smells really nice– A bit reminiscent of Wulric and maybe Velvet, but with a bite, which is appropriate.

 

Oh my, this comes out of the bottle looking just like hot cocoa! It’s so thick and opaque and chocolately and MMMMMM! Definitely chocolate and woody, with a pleasant bit of sharpness that keeps it from being foody or candylike. I love teak, and never would have thought it would go so well with cocoa. This was what I was hoping Velvet would be like, but Velvet turned on my skin horribly. This, however, is slinky, powerful and supremely sexy. The boyfriend says he smells a hint of babypowder, and if I concentrate, I think I can pick it up. It's the ricemilk and teak combo. The powderyness fades away quickly, and Boomslang remains as a smooth chocolatey, woody blend. Quite slinky and assertive, and absolutely gorgeous!

[goblinshark]

I had to try this because of all the hype, even though I absolutely HATE chocolate. Don't want to smell like it, don't want to taste it, just...no.

however this pleasantly surprised me! perhaps because it is so fresh? it didn't smell a ton like chocolate once it hit my skin; it was more like a bitter herbs+ snake oil combo that I really enjoy.

[Ravenclaw79]

Fudgy. Fudgy, and then patchouli-y, a lot. The Snake Oil part becomes so prominent that it pretty much buries the cocoa.

[crebbsgirl]

Boomslang on me was alright, but not anything spectacular. Wet, this was pretty heavily chocolate. As it dried, the SO came out more as did the teak. There didn't seem to be any rice milk present. Overall, the drydown smelled almost identical to SO. It was as if my skin just ate up the other notes that were present at the beginning stages. I wished it had stayed similar to that. I like Snake Oil, the end result here was just to similar to warrant keeping it.

[milica]

this is a work of genious!!! SO with pure cocoa powder, nothing sweet about this scent, just spicy and bitter chocolaty, pure heaven!!!

and it has a nice throw, and my boyfriend said that the whole house smells of it when I put it on!!!

 

also, my bottle is all black, with just few mm of clear oil when it's settled, the rest of the bottle is thick and black.

[ljaylh]

If not for me being such a refined young lady, I would use extreme expletives to describe how good this is.

 

Chocolate and snake oil - what a perfect combination, the rice milk sweetens it up in a creamy way, and the teakwood gives it a lovely depth, this really is divinely sumptuous. It glugs out of the bottle all dark and velvety, if I could find a bath full of this it could double as a fake tan lotion. It's very very thick, and the cocoa had separated in my bottle when it arrived so I had to roll it around to re-combine everything.

 

My only issue with Boomslang is that my skin eats up the cocoa real fast - can't say that I blame it for doing so, but that's a real bummer - I find that after about half an hour only the snake oil is left. So I have to put more on, because that cocoa is so damn good. I'm just going to have to buy squillions of bottles of this, so I can slather it on regularly.

 

Full of win!!

 

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

No doubt about it - Boomslang is scrumptious through and through. Rich creamy chocolate mousse with enough kick to keep a spice-lover like myself satisfied, plus the addition of snake oil's sexiness. I thought for sure this was going to be my number one Snake Pit, being a total chocolate fragrance freak, and it is slightly spicy chocolate snake oil - what more could a girl ask for? But at the end of the day, I'm not a total snake oil groupie, and this one is just a little too heavy on the snake oil side for my preferences, me thinks. You still won't see my swapping this one away any time soon!

[maika]

In the imp, spicy chocolate milk. But dark chocolate, not sickly sweet syrup.

 

Wet, this is chocolate Snake Oil. Yum! Am looking forward to this getting more developed. The teakwood is freshening this up too, which is all good.

 

Dry, this is beautiful. It's obviously a Snake Oil base, but the rice milk has faded, which removes the chocolate milk connotations. The teak and cocoa have just left me with something almost absurdly perfect. Am definitely going to be back for loads more of this!

[thewondersmith]

Though I don't really get along with Snake Oil all that well (it's way too strong and sickly sweet for me- sort of like vanilla coke swamped by burnt patchouli), I was pretty interested in trying out Boomslang, since I ADORE the lab's chocolate notes, and was hoping the cocoa would help calm the Snake Oil down a little. Unfortunately the first few times I tried it, I was unimpressed- the chocolate was nice at first, but was beaten down in a matter of minutes by the Snake Oil.

 

HOWEVER. A couple of weeks ago, as I was sorting through my imps, I accidentally spilled about a quarter of an imp's worth of Boomslang on my desk and just about died. It was so traumatizing! Without thinking, I grabbed my favourite hoodie off the back of my chair and dabbed up what had spilled. At first, it'd seemed like a really, really stupid idea (I mean, I didn't really like Boomslang all that much, so why would I want my favourite jacket to smell of it?) but ohh, mama, was I wrong. Now it's nearly impossible to take said hoodie off because it smells so damn good. The cocoa and rice milk are really, really prominent, with the Snake Oil dancing around the edges, giving it this delicious dusty, powdery coating. The throw is surprisingly good too, and I've had a couple of compliments already! Which is sort of nice

 

Basically, even if you don't like Snake Oil, give this baby a try. Though it might not seem that great on your skin, it works amazingly well on fabric, and I think it'd be fantastic in a scent locket too.