Snowball Fracas

[Sawasdee]

This means war. A scent tight with delirious adrenaline. Muddy dirt and frost-covered moss from the trenches rubbed into winter clothes and snow impact overspray. This scent hits like the sting from those dang icy hard snowballs... the ones that have been packed too hard by someone who is not playing nice... nailing you right in the face.

The more snow scents I try, the more I'm coming to the realization that it is not for me, as it tends to cause me a headache. Minty ozone/aquatic feel when on wet, but the dirt never showed up. Just snow. Then once dry, it starts to become sweeter snow and I can make out some of the moss, with the mint making an exit, which is nicer. Perfumey clean scent that would be good for scenting bedsheets.

[rayvn1]

It certainly nailed me in the face! I'm a pretty big fan of the snow scents, and this was no exception! I like the slightly dirty aspect to this that I haven't gotten from other blends. One of the closest I've gotten to a nice, wet dirt smell, though awfully shivery cold

[fairnymph]

Very pale gold oil. Soil and moss, very wet and evocative, with a little bit of the piney-hairspray snow note. Also, a bit of sugared fruit sweetness, which reminds me a lot of the sugar plums in L'Inverno in combo with that snow note they also share. This is a soft scent, not very sharp or harsh at all, surprisingly!

 

Less dirt (yay!), less sweet, more moss (oakmoss, yay!), more snow - colder, but also harsher, and a little soapy (?) - sort of cologney. I think it's the snow note in combo with something else. Again I'm reminder of L'Inverno though this is MUCH less sweet. Still, there is a resinous quality to this, and the earthiness makes this much warmer than you'd expect for a snowball. A weird contrast with the 'snow''s coolness.

 

All about the oakmoss and soil - much of the snow, which was never strong to begin with, has faded away, and this is only just barely a cool scent still. Mostly it's EARTHY, with a sweetness that's now not fruity, but that sweet soil sort of sweetness - reminds me of one of the Iteru scents quite a bit, the earthy aquatic, though this is less aquatic, it does have a bit of aquatic feel, and more so a hint of slightly sharp floral cologne.

 

This one goes more and more floral on me, in a really nice way that reminds me greatly of 51. I also love the oakmoss here. The sweet dirt note and the piney-hairspray snow fade quite a bit, but not enough to make this wearable for me. 51 with hints of sweet soil and harsh snow is not a bad summary of this scent. Much nicer than I expected a lovely evolution, but not quite right. Good throw and decent longevity.

[SpookyBunny]

Minty dirt, the same dirt I get from Nosferatu. When applied this smells very realistic to being surrounded by fresh smelling dirt - thick and crusted with cold snow. The snow note is a bit dusty at times, and sometimes I feel like there's something flowery beneath. This can go so many ways, it can be seen as rough and cold...or it could be seen as oddly pretty. I didn't know if i'd like it, I wanted a cold and kind of blistering scent and had to choose between Hypothermia or this, I hadn't tested either of them prior and just went for Snowball Fracas. I am glad, because the dirt note being here makes it smell more natural and realistic. I think choosing something else would have came across less snowy and more "minty" overall. This is great if you want to smell like you have been playing around in the dirt and snow to a shameful degree...I mean to a degree where you are messy with dirt caking your hands and ice coating your hair, as if you have been to war and back - a snow war...so I guess this evokes exactly what it was meant to. And yeah, maybe I am weird, but sometimes I do want to smell like that. If you do too, find yourself some of this asap.

[Lethran]

 

In bottle: This embodies the concept well. The sharp sting of the snow and moss rides over the lovely dirt scent. It’s a pleasant cousin to death of a gravedigger. Wet: Mmmmm… if anything the moss/wood/snow/dirt is even richer and more lovely than in the bottle. All this nuance comes out on the skin. Dry: The moss is a little overwhelming compared to the other elements, but it’s still doing some fascinating things.

 

[Invidiana]

This is actually what I was hoping for Black Ice (which went terribly wrong on my skin) to smell like. If I smelled this without knowing what it was I'd probably call it Black Snow, because that's what it turns out like on me; not "dirty" at all but a darker version of the concept of snow. It's actually minty, sweet and creamy, and the earthy notes don't come out as dirt or earth or anything green at all but give it a sinister depth. I'm so glad I took a chance on this one because it's lovely on me.

[Seismogenic]

Snow, moss, and dirt! Three BPAL notes that I know I like, so how could I not try this? Also, I think "fracas" is a wonderful word, and it should be used more often. Yes.

 

In the imp: Straight-up snow note - cold, fresh, and ever so slightly sweet.

 

Wet on skin: Fresh snow and a bit of dusty moss.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, snow is still the predominant note in here, but I get a little bit of moss and dirt behind it now. It's subtle, but it's there. At one hour in, the dirt and moss are more prominent, balanced in relatively equal parts with the snow.

 

Five hours later: Mostly moss now, fainter, but still present. There are hints of dirt and snow left, but I think the snow note seems to be transitioning to ozone around now.

 

End of the day: A little bit of moss and ozone.

 

Overall: I like this! It's light and wintery and playfully messy. It is, appropriately, largely snow, but the little bits of moss and dirt are a nice ground underneath, in scent as well as in mental image. I debate on whether or not it's a bottle candidate, though, since I have other things I like that include the snow note as well as a more complex backdrop. I'm absolutely hanging onto the decant, though, and I'll test a few more times in contemplation of a bottle.

[MerriAnneStowe]

This scent matched the description perfectly. The first impression was of icy cold - but not with any obvious menthol or mint notes. Just cold. That was followed quickly by mossy dirt, or maybe it was dirty moss. The icy/dirty/mossy smell stayed stable; no morphing. And it lasted - I was still catching whiffs of Snowball Fracas six or seven hours after applying it.

 

I like the scent and I love the name. "Snowball Fracas" is so much more evocative a name than "Snowball Fight". I think the name played a significant role in my decision to buy a bottle, and I'm glad I did.

 

 

edited for spelling.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2010 by IridiumFlash

[forspecial_plate]

Wow, the description and concept are really captured in this scent.......it really does hit like a sting! At first I thought I might like the moss and earth. After a while, though, there was a hint of ammonia that kept bothering me. Eventually I just couldn't take it any more and so I tried to wash it off. Six or seven hours later, after a shower, I was sitting at school and I kept thinking "Is someone here wearing bpal?", until I realized it was me.....I could still smell Snowball Fracas. It is so, so strong and tenacious, just like getting an icy snowball in the face......very effective but unfortunately not for me! It's okay, though, I have other snow scents that I really do like and are a little more gentle. : ) Also, I like the warmer earth, grass and bark of The Potter's Field more than the icy assault of Fracas.

[benthic]

So--the very first BPAL aquatic I tried was Visiting the Temple of Auspicious Fortune etc., which is temple incense, rain, and dust, iirc. The smell of that blend was so bad to me as to make me feel sick, both in the bottle and on my skin, and for months afterward I thought I hated aquatic blends. Eventually I figured out that I'm a big aquatics fan; it's only that specific aquatic which is just terrible on me, and I hadn't run into it in any blend since.

 

This is that aquatic, though. Snowball Fracas is the same blend without the incense, at least on me. I get that same weird "rain" note along with the dirty dust note. I've come to find that dirt as a note is absolutely disgusting on me (this isn't limited to BPAL's dirt, either; Possets's Sex Juice almost made me actually sick), so it might be that that aspect of these blends is what's ruining the aquatic for me. But the rain note from Temple is definitely similar if not identical to the snow note of Fracas. They are both surprisingly true to life, but on me they come out chemical and sharp, and agh, no. I much prefer the aquatic notes of the saltwater/ocean blends to these.

[khazakant]

In the bottle: Mint, and something really sickly and artificial. Ach.

 

Drydown: The mint vanishes, and so does the artificial feeling. Did not get snow, or dirt, or juniper, or moss, or pine. But certainly an aquatic. This smells exactly like when I was a kid and I'd run around after the rain and stick my face in the sheets drying on the clothesline. It really is an energetic, happy scent. After a while the dirt comes out a little and just a hint of mint comes back, the scent mellows some. It's gorgeous. I don't like clean scents much but my boyfriend does, and this is something I would definitely wear for him.

[cinnamonster]

I keep finding scents I thought I had reviewed, but haven't...this is one of them! It's minty, piney dirt. Not too piney, a natural hint of pine rather than an INYOURFACEDISINFECTANT smell. It's unisex, but would be incredibly sexy on a man, that just more than a freshly shaven and toothpaste-d kind of clean scent, with dirt to ground it more. I really love this.

 

And yes it does scent sheets beautifully, apply liberally to a clean flannel and pop in the drier Getting into bed was lovely after I did this!

 

 

And the best thing?? I didn't order this! The lab confused my order for snow-flakes I think if I remember rightly but it was a great mistake because I never would have ordered this

[gchris]

Strong bpal snow note - sweet, clean, and cool. On skin it is more of the same. I think this is simply the "snow note" in a bottle. Very hard to describe for those that have never smelled it. Anyone ever get pineapple? The only thing I could add to the first three words I've already used to describe this scent is fruity. The snow note is ok, don't love it, don't hate. you'll just have to try it for yourself and see.

 

Later is smells less wet and more ozone. I really love this stage. I kept smelling my skin, I was so in love. Then a little later it changed again, into a somewhat masculine version of the previous. I'm still on the fence about this one.

 

Edited because scent morphed.

Edited February 16, 2011 by gchris

[strahlend]

I've come to really love this scent, especially since The Macabray was discontinued. It's cool, minty, and clean without being soapy. I find it to be very soothing during the summer months when the heat tends to make me nauseous.

[Diva Urd]

In the vial: It's... snow. And some frozen mud. How... how do they DO this?!

 

On: A bit sweeter and slightly less cold than in the vial, but otherwise unchanged. It has good throw and seems like a scent that will stick around for a while. I'm not sure I am enough in love with it to find a bottle, but I can see myself wearing this multiple times during this sticky-hot summer we're having.

 

Later: Cool, slightly earthy and a total energizer bunny. Yes, I'm going to enjoy this this summer, though I still don't think I need more.

[madscientistdh]

I wish I had more to say about this scent, I recieved a decanted sniffie from a fellow forumite with just enough to test and well... it smells like Eau du Ghoul to me. It's as though someone attempted to wash said ghoul with cold water and cologne scented soap, and, shrieking, the ghoul was able to barely get away. That's Snowball Fracas on me. I was really hoping to get something icy, ozone-tinged and soil-trodden.

 

Oh well.