Habu

[copagirl]

Snake Oil with ho wood, teak, black musk, and bamboo.

I love Habu! I'm so glad I picked up a decant of this! My fav is Snake Oil so of course I love this one, yet I don't love all the ones with Snake Oil. This one though is special. It's Snake Oil, yet I get something else, something lighter almost citrus that gives it a little tweek. I do think I should spring for a bottle since my imp has run dry...

[CitizenBree]

I would not have purchased this on my own, but it's not bad. I smell exactly what everyone else smells.

 

Very sweet in the bottle. On the skin, woody with a fruit undertone. And then there is this wet smell that is not really aquatic but something else.

 

Smells like a water garden or something. A fragrance I might use in the bathroom. I wouldn't wear it, and probably wouldn't use as an atmosphere fragrance either. But all that said, it's not a bad scent.

[doublehelix]

Very sweet and fruity when first applied. On the drydown I get more woodsy notes and musk... very little fruit, and no spices from the snake oil. Overall this is a pure woods blend with something sweet (fruit) lingering in the background.

[tailoredshirt]

Oh, man. This is the first time I've smelled a scent straight from the bottle and immediately needed to add 5 bottles to my upcoming lab order.

 

In the bottle: Sweet, woodsy. Vanilla and spice, maybe a bit of juicy fruit. Something aquatic. I want to bathe in it forever.

 

Wet: Same, only better.

 

Dry: I amp vanilla like whoa, so I'm glad that the vanilla here is subtle. This is so good. Juicy and sweet and mysterious and slightly spicy and very delicious. The woods faded on me, and the vanilla got stronger, but overall it didn't morph too much on me. It smelled wonderful from beginning to end.

 

Overall: I don't tend to do super sweet foodie scents, and the fruity vanilla would have scared me if I'd read too many reviews, but somehow it all works perfectly together. It is complex and indescribable.

 

Also, I am testing this from an empty, so I imagine this is aged a bit. I think I might need to buy several bottles so a few of them can sit for a while.

[HappyLoveJoy]

Mmmmm, vanilla snake oil. Deep, rich, woody and so aromatic. It as if there's some coconut in there as well as honey but that must be just the way the teak, musk and bamboo work together on my skin. I just got my first chance to smell and try this one last night and I have a bottle on the way already. I love Habu!

[b00cat]

ZOMG, I am in LOVE!!!!!! This was an imp given to me by the lovely enabler samarablackcat and I am eternally grateful because I would never have tried this by its description! In the vial all I could smell was the bamboo and I thought..meh, but then I tried it on later and WOW! I don't think I have ever smelled a perfume like it, but oddly enough it smells like a saltwater taffy/gift shop at the seashore , odd comparison I know but Heavenly to me. I really don't have the nose or vocabulary to describe this but it is stunning.

 

The bamboo phase doesn't last too long as the snake oil comes out a bit more, not sharp or very green on me at all...more like a lusher softer version of SO. My skin unfortunately eats it up (like most of my faves) so I put some in my hair and I can smell it wafting about my shoulders all day *sigh*

 

This will most likely be my first bottle order, cause I am in LOVE!!! :love!:

[claudia6913]

In the bottle: Immediately I get a whiff of wet greenery (the bamboo I suppose) and an undercurrent of Snake Oil. I love bamboo so I have high hopes for this scent.

 

Wet on skin: The bamboo blends with the woods and the sweet vanilla from the Snake Oil comes out. Thankfully this isn't going to flat soda on me like fresh Snake Oil does.

 

Drydown: This is taking a while to dry, and is very thin (compared to aged Snake Oil). The ho wood and teak wrap around the bamboo and the black musk seems to dry out the wet green scent of the bamboo. The Snake Oil is still there, attempting to sweeten the blend a bit.

 

Dry: It's lighter than Snake Oil, and a dryer sweet scent with a bit of spice under it all. I really want to see what this turns into after it's had time to age. Fresh I probably won't wear it much, if at all.

[GeorgeJr]

Nice snakey . Don't bite the guy wearing ya pleeze . So yeah , broke out my bottle today for the first time in a long time . Let's just say this bottle is aging veerry nicely . The woods & bamboo mix so well with the snake oil . Maybe even better then my favorite snake , Death Adder . Don't get the musk so much , but I'm sure it's there somewhere . This isn't a heavy wood scent , like maybe red wood . It is a little hard to describe without just saying it smells like teak or bamboo . It's a bit of a rich scent , but not in a heavy , overpowering way . It also ( for me ) really helps out the snake oil , which for me some times gives me the play dough thang . Not in this one though .

[CreamyJade]

In the bottle: Bamboo. It's kind of overwhelming, slightly aquatic. I don't like it.

Wet on skin: The bamboo note is still strong, unfortunately.

Dry on skin: Finally! Snake Oil with woods and black musk. Now it's lovely!

Final thoughts: The drydown of this blend is fantastic, though I've yet to give Habu a full try. The bamboo note is strong in the bottle and when wet on my skin (which I don't like), but Habu dries into a very pleasant woody and musky Snake Oil. The drydown is reason enough for me to keep the third of a bottle in my collection, but not for a full one (unless I buy a whole Snake Pit!).

Try if you like: The snake pit, Wood Phoenix

[SophieCedar]

Wet: smells like cereal drenched in fruit punch in a one of those old wooden salad bowls from the 70s?? Is my snooter broken again?

 

Drydown: still bizarre. More musk and still strange breakfast.

[RhinestoneHousewife]

Snake oil and green at first. Then some resins or spices come along but it's still really green. I bet this smells amazing on some people but it's just 'meh' on me.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL from mistressfizz.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I thought about trying Habu when I first came back after my BPAL hiatus but was put off by the bamboo. I can tolerate bamboo in some scents (Neo-Tokyo, for example), but it's not one of my favorite notes. I find it to bright and sharp. The rest of the notes sound great, though, and when I found a mostly full bottle at a good price, I had to give it a shot.

 

First sniff:

 

WTF? Apples? Seriously, I get what smells like pink lady apples straight out of the bottle. There's a hint of Snake Oil here, too, but it's mainly a sweet, juicy apple scent.

 

I see from reading reviews that I'm not the only one smelling apple in here. I guess the general consensus is that the phantom apple is bamboo, but I've never misread bamboo as apple before. First time for everything, I guess.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Still apples. It's sweet, juicy and softly fruity. I find it hard to believe that this is bamboo I'm smelling, but I guess it must be.

 

Dry down:

 

The Snake Oil has started to come out now and I get a very soft layer of dark wood, but it's sweet, fruity dark wood, like a teak cutting board that's been used to slice up a very juicy apple.

 

The bottom line:

 

This is nothing at all like what I'd imagined based on the notes. I was dreading Snake Oil + bright, sharp bamboo and hoping for Snake Oil + dark, rich wood and didn't get either one. The actual smell of Habu is completely out of left field, but I like it.

[Incendiare]

Habu starts off extremely fresh, lush, and juicily green in the bottle, like sweet bamboo. It instantly gives me images of a rainforest. Wet, it's practically the same, although the aquatic notes are a smidgen stronger. Almost ten minutes later, the woods join the party. They're slightly dry but they had a bit more depth to Habu. I don't really get much Snake Oil in this. There is just a touch of it at the end but it's barely noticeable. Habu is definitely very unique and refreshing, and if you like fresh green scents, give this one a try.

[biocarolyn]

This blend breaks my heart- something about it goes so OFF on me. I suspect the black musk, as we've quarreled before. But I adore bamboo, and that is front and center in the blend. I can barely tell this is a Snake Oil variant, but I may be distracted by the horrendous thing my skin does to this- burning bandaids. This is really sad- I wanted to love it. This may not be a great bet if heavy musks don't work for you...

[Circaea]

About every third purchase from the For Sale forum, I end up with a frimp of something I'd never heard of before, which instantly becomes a Mad Love for me. Habu is that one, this time.

 

It's thick and brown, and I don't know how aged it is, but I suspect it is somewhat aged. My first impression was... huh? Chocolate? but on reapplying I smell something green and fresh, a little like the balsam note in my beloved U. The Snake Oil grounds it in familiar, sweet, comforting territory, but the scent stays indefinably individual. It is both warm and sexy, and fresh and wild. I feel like a vixen, but literally: I am a mother fox dropping a warm, dazed mouse down for my pups to eat (or ignore), settling in with my long bushy tail wrapped around them, and licking the sweet soft fur on their pretty red-brown heads.

[sharkdiver]

I managed to swap for a bottle of this, and I am so happy with it!

 

I'll preface this review, by saying I've never tried/sniffed Holiday moon, which some have compared this to.

In the bottle: I'm smelling the greenish bamboo notes with a bit of resin behind it (SO).

 

Wet on skin: the greeness of the bamboo mingled with a bit of an aquatic note mostly present - this has a very "clean" and "zen-like" feel to it, I love the description I read in this thread earlier, that it was reminiscent of being in a bamboo tree house in the middle of the jungle, while it was raining - that is a great way to describe this scent!

 

drying on the skin - as it starts to dry, and sink in, the SO starts to peek out a bit - after a little while, I can almost pick out the teak as well as the Bamboo, and the headyiness of the snake oil.

 

after about 1 hour: this is straight up Snake Oil on me at this point - the bamboo, and teak have faded, and now glorious, rich vanilla snake oil is here in it's place.

 

I love how this scent changes over time, it starts out completely one way, which is lovely, and then over the course of an hour, has pulled a complete 180, and is a totally different scent which I also adore!

 

this is a total Keeper!

Edited March 5, 2012 by sharkdiver

[The Planet Queen]

I really love this. To me it starts off almost smelling somewhat like brood xlx. It's spicy, but not too much. I just can't put my finger on it. All I can say is I wish I had more than half a bottle.

[WidgetAlley]

Bottle: Strong, lovely Snake Oil and an almost.. bready smell? Maybe one of the woods. And, unfortunately, that weird powdery scent I get from black musk.

 

Wet: Snake Oil and an almost chocolately scent that's a lovely combination of wood and musk. It smells almost a bit like Boomslang but less overtly sweet and foody.

 

Dry: A lovely soft wood-and-Snake Oil blend, but the black musk just isn't quite working for me. Off to a new home!

[heathercaley]

There's something that goes JUST RIGHT in this in which the snake oil masks the dry woody sharpness that I completely expected. I hate woods, but this is magnificent! I won't need a whole bottle, but I will totally cherish and sniff Habu often. Looking at other reviewers, I too got fruit - specifically apples.

 

So to my nose this is snake oil, apple, and a woody undertone that isn't OMGFRESHCUTTREE.

 

 

Love!

Edited September 12, 2013 by Purrsnikety