King Cobra (2006)

[Tramp]

Snake Oil with orris, frankincense, and copal.

Something in here reminds me of licorice - black licorice - with an almost earthy tang at the end or maybe tree bark. It is a morpher on my skin. It is a proud, confident blend.

[forspecial_plate]

King Cobra is a BIG scent....dark and dramatic, resinous. I can definitely smell a lot of frankincense and maybe the copal too.....I'm not sure I can tell them apart. There is a powdery aspect to this, as resins often do to me...this might keep me from wearing it more often, but I do want to have it on hand to wear when the mood strikes me.

 

For the first few minutes, I could smell the spices and vanilla of Snake Oil. Now they're still there, but intermingling with the resins in a swirly dark dance. It's like different shades of color so dark that they're hard to tell apart....but slowly twisting in harmony.

[The_Witching_Hour]

King Cobra is a very smooth wear! Its not dark but it has a HUGE, cavernous feel to it. Probably one of the hardest of the Pits to describe so far!

 

I don't smell a distinction between the frankincense or copal but orris is the front runner in this blend. The drydown is one of the most gorgeous incense blends I've worn so far in my BPAL history. Its not heavy but more like a puff of intoxicating smoke that lingers under your nose just long enough to keep you chasing it after it.

[ceej]

Dark, mysterious, dry. Incense-y, definitely, with the spice far underneath. The orris pops to the foreground.

 

Aged-blackened benches, bound with dark metal, creaking as you sit. The vaulted ceiling arches up into darkness over your head. Men in robes file past, utterly silent.

[Ina Garten Davita]

Smooth, sweet and rich, but in a different way that Snake Oil is smooth, sweet and rich. I don't always have good luck with incensey blends, but this is one gorgeous blend.

 

The orris is lending a sweet floral edge that is keeping the incense from going sharp, which is oft my biggest skin chemistry issue with incense blends. King Cobra is smoky but with a rich roundness, very sensual and comforting.

 

[edenssixthday]

King Cobra - This is the one I was most excited for, and sure enough, it's a winner. It's probably my favorite among the Snakes and is definitely the most classic, beautiful and versatile of the scents. It's earthy and incensy. It's gorgeous! It's sort of like a cross between SO and Xiuhtecuhtli with its resinous and incensey dry sweetness. The level of throw is just perfect, but when it fades, it disappears almost instantaneously and leaves behind a very, very faint trace of plastic, but it's so faint I just really don't care, especially considering how amazing the rest of the scent is. The wear length is about average. I don't normally like incense scents, but this one is simply exquisite. I've said this a few times about BPAL, so take it with a grain of salt, but right now, I think this may be the best BPAL scent EVAR!!! It's definitely my favorite of the Snakes and before it goes away, I am stocking up on bottles!

[zenvodunista]

This is very incense-y - and very dry at the same time. I really think this would be great on a man. There's a sweetness in the undertone though.

 

It's beautiful, but I feel ambivelent.

 

N.

[twistygirl]

Mmmmmm. Snake Oil goes to High Mass. The resins bring out the best of the Snake Oil and it all merges into a smoky, somewhat darkly sweet, and totally addictive scent. Long lasting, with a decent amount of throw. It's sexy as hell. Could easily be worn by a man or a woman. This one is a real winner, perhaps a candidate for the BPAL Hall of Fame.

[Blood onmy hands]

On me, King Cobra smells like someone removed the sweet parts of Snake Oil and added in some woodsmoke where the vanilla sweetness would have been. It smells like some sort of dark musk & wood smoke, and it's just too sharp and acrid for my tastes.

Edited June 26, 2008 by Tania

[Scylla]

In the bottle, King Cobra did not smell like Snake Oil at all to me. It smelled like a resinous, deep, dark floral blend. I think that this may be the "morphiest" BPAL blend I've ever tried.

 

Upon application, it smelled downright venomous. Er, I mean, it smelled like Snake Oil mixed with my first BPAL love, VENOM! King Cobra must share a resiny component or two with Venom.

 

However, after about an hour of drydown, it changed and the resinous smell from Venom has dropped WAYYYY back. It's there, but not as much as I would like. But I can't detect any hint of Snake Oil.

 

I would say that the BPAL blend King Cobra smells like the most (upon drydown, and on me--YMMV) is The Living Flame, mixed with a bit of resin from Venom.

[LiberAmoris]

King Cobra is incensey heaven. It's not showy in the bottle, but on the skin it absolutely unfolds and is maybe one of my favorite incensey BPAL blends ever. The Snake Oil is the true and recognizable base here, with the orris, frankincense, and copal rounding it out and giving it a lot more sillage. The definite and immediate association for me is church incense, although it also smells like some decidedly secular loose incense I bought on the street one time on St. Marks.

 

I just need the tiniest bit of King Cobra to send scent absolutely everywhere in the room, it's that strong. Mmmm. Very nice.

[marietta]

On me, King Cobra . . . is what I thought plain Snake Oil would be like, except for the orris top note. This smells like oris flower not orris root to me, as it is a distinctly floral note and does not take on the grounding near muskiness that orris root usually does . . . it is also quite sweet, although this may be amplified by the Snake Oil yumminess.

 

The combination of the orris with the resins is just bE-yoo-teafulllllll. Like I said, I imagined Snake Oil to be more resinous, but with all the sweet vanilla goodness others kept mentioning, and this is exactly what this is. This is not dry on me. It is a sweet incense, and yes, I do see this as being a distinctly unisex fragrance, but only because I suspect it is complex enough to smell reeeeally different on different people, so no worries about smelling like your boyfriend.

 

I find this wears pretty close to the skin, but I also have that experience with fresh Snake Oil, so I'm pretty sure the sillage will increase as the base note ages.

 

I think someone said this seems like a good oil to layer, and I'd like to confirm that. I've worn it with Anne Bonny, Sed non Satiata and Penitence and all the combinations have been great!

 

The King is grand. Long live the King!

[eternalargus]

Usually sweet smells mixed with resins go sickly sweet on me, but as I said before, I love King Cobras so I had to try this. Luckily I wasn't disappointed...it starts out as sweet Snake Oil but then dries to wonderful incense. Defintely a keeper.

[shelldoo]

in the bottle: frankincense, and orris.

 

wet; almost all frankincense.

 

as this dries, it becomes a resinous, incensey take on snake oil, just as i had hoped. and it is amazing!

[Trish]

I find this quite hard to describe actually. It starts off resiny and sweet, but as it dries it becomes softer and drier and what I imagine is the orris comes to the fore. It's a little powdery (in a good way) and a bit floral, with the vanilla and spices of Snake Oil buried in the background. The frankincense barely makes an appearance however, which is strange because it usually quite likes me.

 

I like it, but I'm not enthralled. However I'm hoping aging brings out the vanilla and frankincense more.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: lots of orris and frankincense.

on: a bright incense scent.

1 hour later: sharp and earthy incense.

2 hours later: earthy.

3 hours later: a bit powdery.

overall: this is nice, but not for me. if you like earthy, incensy oils, this would be perfect.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: it’s the very first snake in which I recognize Snake Oil so easily. And yes, there are tons of frankincense as well.

 

On my skin: even more frankincense and spices too (maybe copal? I'm not sure I would recognize copal anyway).

 

After a couple of hours: it gets more resinous and drier too. I’m having problems to describe this scent as it seems to change every two minutes.

 

Verdict: it’s beautiful, but I don’t like frankincense enough to imagine I could wear that often.

[The_Merf]

In the bottle: This is a "vast" scent, as other people have said. It has an airy quality, because the frankincense and orris are light, and yet manage to block the heavy Snake Oil base from wafting up to hit your nose.

 

Wet: This is sweet resiny at first--the frankincense is sweet and the orris takes on a floral quality in this blend.

 

Drydown and wear: The sweetness starts to go away (at first this actually reminded me of Dance of Death), and we get the creaminess from the Snake Oil base. This one doesn't have as much throw as the other Snakes I've tried, and I will have to test it again to see if I want to keep it, but as always, orris tends to make everything better.

[Brianne]

In the vial:

frankincense

 

On me:

I have a wierd relationship with frankincense. See, I see frankincense in a blend and I think, "I know that you almost never work on me frankincense. But maybe... just maybe... this will be the time when you smell good on me". And then I try it and it usually doesn't smell good on me.

 

And this is no different. There is just something about frankincense that smells overwhelming and "old" on me. Being paired with Snake Oil does make it smoother and slightly sweeter, but it is still just too much "church incense" for my tastes.

 

Final note:

Frankincense continues to just not work on me, it's far too incensey for me.

[em_h]

This is oddly quite faint on me, though that may be a time of the month issue. It's a bit of an odd scent, kind of woodsy and musky -- it actually reminds me a little bit of Madame Moriarty. And there's a hint of something that smells like tea, for some reason. I can only guess that this is what orris does on my skin, at least right now. Not as incensey as I'd expected. I don't smell any Snake Oil at all.

 

It's interesting, but I'm unsure about it. It'll need another test on another day, and maybe some aging. It's not bad, though.

[ilona]

Sweet, dry, powdery incense.

 

I was looking forward to this one - I usually love incensey blends. This is nice, but just a little to sweet for me. I can't discern any Snake Oil at all. Powdery scents tend to make me think of old ladies, so I can't see myself wearing this too much...

[juniperus]

Bottle: dusty orris at the fore, and I can discern the frankincense juuust barely

Wet: frankincense and copal stronger, I can't readily identify the snake oil by itself anymore

Dry: lovely resiny snake oil, and the orris is playing nice with others

Later: more of the orris now, but at least it isn't amping to high heaven. it's surprisingly light for a king, but very regal.

[gingersnapp]

This keeps fluctuating between "soap" and "Johnson's Baby Oil" on me.

[copyshopclerk]

In the imp: Woody incense

 

Wet: Resin sweetness, but still mostly just a woody incense

 

Dry: It's a nice woody incense, but that's the problem for me. It's just "nice". This one's just not my style - it's pleasant but not mind-blowingly fabulous, and it's not one I can see myself reaching for (especially when some other snakes have rocked my socks!)

[melissadragon]

KING COBRA:

 

Imp: Just spicy Snake Oil. Bad spicy (yeah, I wish I could pull out the notes but my nose is not that sophisticated ). - applied to middle of right forearm

Wet: Yeah, it's not pretty.

Dry: Ooo, this pretties up. Nice spicy now.

1 hr later: Huh. Now its just weirdly spicy.

Verdict: Not a keeper.