Water Snake

[Usagi]

A new year's blessing! Peony, China's national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, and peach blossom for longevity, with a splash of blazing red of dragon's blood... to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.

Water Snake!
It came in the mail yesterday, so please bear in mind the new, fresh state of this bottle when reading the descriptions. After a day of wear, I have the feeling it will settle into something even more wonderful in a month or two.

Bottle: It has an effervescent citrus kick, and a subtle heady floral quality-- kind of earthy. I'm thinking maybe Indian jasmine.

Wet: Going on, the strong, almost citronella citrus kicks up, bringing along something a bit syrupy. The floral is there, and it still reads a lot like deep jasmine to me. It isn't high-pitched or offensive. But there is a certain spiciness to it. I have to keep sniffing my wrist. The immediate words I get are 'deep, contemplative, floral Sweet Tarts'-- not very helpful, I know.

Dry: after about an hour, this becomes more subtle, slinkier, more creamy and calm. It's almost the gorgeous, sunshine water skin scent of Water Dragon, but just a little different. Water Snake is more clean, and a touch floral still. Nine hours later, it is very faint on the skin, a delicious hint of liquid joy.

I have been anticipating this blend since Water Dragon, but I tried not to let my love of the one color my impression of the other. They do bear some similarities, but each has unique characteristics that make Water Snake a new and exciting wearing experience.
Water Dragon is still my favorite Lunar New Year scent. But Water Snake is nice enough, and unique enough-- despite similarities-- to warrant keeping this bottle.
This will get good wear during balmy summer days. It's a very happy, prosperous scent. I highly recommend trying it, whether you loved Water Dragon or not(but especially if you loved Water Dragon-- because it's completely different in the same vein).

[Katlyntje]

I bought an entire bottle of this because I loved the later stages of Water Dragon, once the herby notes had died off. In the bottle Water Snake is a syrupy, bubbly citrus overlayed with the fruity notes of peach, lychee, and quince. Wet on my skin it is still fruity-citrus but as it dries the pine resin comes through a little, not a lot but enough to be noticed. 20-30 minutes later and this is staying pretty much true to the beginning of the dry down, not much morphing at all. I am very glad I sprung for a full bottle, this is exactly what I wanted Water Dragon to be, none of those herbal notes getting in the way.

[zankoku_zen]

This one was a juicier floral on wet than the previous Lunar New Year blends. On the drydown, I smell PEONY, hints of lychee and peach blossom.

 

Pretty, juicy, floral.

[Floria]

Mixed sweet and tangy fruity floral, with a syrupy quality right out of the imp - not as overwhelmingly sticky-sweet as Pet Magah Bird, but there is a bit of a melted-popsicle quality. It's pleasant enough, but strikes me as kind of a middle-heavy scent, that would be more interesting with the addition of more base notes and/or something light and airy. I like the balance a bit better once the dragon's blood comes out - its sort of dewy but resinous lilac scent is a good complement to all the sweet and tangy stuff.

 

I think I might appreciate its fruity punch qualities more once the weather warms up.

[kolibri]

Decant, acquired through ralenth's Lascivious Lupercalia decant circle. Preceeded by White Chocolate with Mate, Hazelnut, and Banana Cream.

 

 

In the imp: Pretty zingy. Lots of citrus and something cool (like, minty cool), with a side of florals. The deeper notes are present, but murky for me. I can't smell the dragon's blood at all.

 

Wet: This blend has a great soprano section - lots of high, bright notes that support one another. (I'm reminded instantly of the 'ordered cacaphony' section of

.) The citrus stands out first, then the florals bloom on top of that; the peony stands at the apex, on top of a pile of fruity-flowers. Love the lychee in this. For a little while, the fruits turned it into an almost gumdrop-like scent, but not for long. Something about the narcissus and pine combo introduces a cool bite that makes me feel like I'm wading in a swirling mountain spring.

 

It started to fade before I left the house to go about my day, so I did something I never do: I hit the imp again. Throw seems to be pretty much in keeping with the amount you put on, which is a trait I like because it allows me to better gauge how much I'm wearing (I hate to be that That Girl who's overwhelming the world with her smell).

 

Dry: I'm glad I hit the imp twice, because it's faded quite a lot. (I'm not sure if this is related to Water Snake or me; I've had several typically long-lasting BPAL perfumes die quickly when worn, and I'm beginning to think my skin is eating them.) The swirling quality of Water Snake wet has blended into a sophisticated unity of lightly floral snake skin with a fruity sweetness underneath.

 

Later: I never got a bit of dragon's blood out of this one, but I'm certain it must be playing a supporting role to balance out the sweetness.

 

 

Overall: I was almost scared away by the dragon's blood (which had a tendency to stink on my skin), but with all of those sweet florals and crisp citrus notes, I couldn't resist ordering it. So far, anything offered by the lab with a 'snake' in it has been a big hit - and this was no exception. It's a bottle for me.

Edited March 25, 2013 by kolibri

[Blood onmy hands]

This smells similar to all of the other blends in this series (Earth Rat, Fire Pig, Earth Ox, Metal Tiger, Metal Rabbit & Water Dragon). They're all really soapy smelling, tart, perfumey fruity-florals. Water Snake has some extra emphasis on the mandarin and peach blossom on my skin, but is too soapy & sharply perfumey floral for me.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: An aquatic fruity-floral blend.

 

Wet: The narcissus coming trampling through all the other notes, and something sharp and metallic, too.

 

The dry-down: Still a bit metallic, and I suspect that the narcissus and mandarin combining. Most of the Asian-inspired don't work well on me, alas.

Edited April 1, 2013 by thekittenkat

[milo]

Slightly citrus and sweet at first. After a bit, it becomes more floral, but in a soft, unoffensive way. I'm still getting some of the fruit in the background. This to me is a 'younger' fragrance, something maybe a teenager would like. To me, it is quite different than other chinese zodiacs. There's definitely less citrus here.

[mymymai]

ITB: This one is more citrus and peach when compared in Water Dragon. Dare I say it, but I'm not picking up any quince.

 

Wet: King mandarin, kumquat, peach blossom, tangerine, plum and just a little peony. This one I'm liking as I've always been a fan of citrus scents.

 

Dry: It's lightly floral with a hint of citrus. It's feminine and mellow, which I like. I'm tickled that the quince did not spoil this one for me.

[Magycmyste]

In the bottle: I'm getting a lot of peach more than anything else, but there's something stinky too.

 

Wet on skin: More mandarin now, and still something stinky. I'm getting pretty sure narcissus hates my skin now.

 

Dried down: I'm kind of wondering if I dare let it dry down, or should I wash it off immediately. It's putting off some powerful throw, and I'm getting peach with hints of orange in that. Not getting the stink there. In fact, the longer I wait, the nicer this becomes. And I can even sniff my wrist without wincing! Whoo! (I just looked up narcissus, and realized that it's either the same, or comes from the same family as daffodils. This explains why Crowned with Calm Leaves She Stands so did not work for me). I haven't tried too many of them yet, but this is the first of the New Year's blends that has remotey worked for me, and I might even enjoy. It looks to me like they all have the same ingredients, but maybe in different concentrations.

 

Throw: Throw is fairly light after it's been on my skin for a few minutes, mostly peach and floral, and rather pretty.

 

Verdict: **** I think I gave it an extra star just for showing that I can wear a blend with narcissus in it if it's not too prominent. If it rears its ugly head at me, that's going to go down to a one. The peach and floral is very nice, though.

[quickdrawkiddo]

This went on like Flintstones chewable vitamins -- extremely sweet and citrusy, to the point that I almost had to wash it off. It's now been almost two hours and it's settled down quite a bit, but it's still not really my style. Almost all I'm getting is lychee and peach, so if that's your thing, you'll love this. It's really similar to those lychee martinis, actually. I'm not a fan of those or of sweet/fruity scents in general, so I'll be swapping this out.

[sunlitgarden]

In the bottle this smells almost like jasmine or another really potent, stinky white floral. I think it's the narcissus - it's pretty dominant in my bottle of Leather Phoenix and it's a similar scent here. The narcissus is mostly what I smell in the bottle, but I can make out the King Mandarin in here also (I have its single note, and it's just like a juicy chunk of fruit), but compared to Metal Tiger (the other Chinese New Year scent I have) the orange is more subdued in this one.

I probably wouldn't have bought it if it was just based on the bottle scent but I skin tested it at Seattle Will Call back when it came out and realized I like it on my skin much better. That potent floral combination is less overpowering on my skin. The scent on my skin is really... juicy, and kind of acidically tart, like lemon juice. It's a little bit aquatic in a freshwater sort of way. The sourness mellows out as it dries. I can imagine an aquatic snake swimming through a stream with wet dew-heavy flowers and fruits hanging above the stream.

A lot of these scents that have a lot of notes end up kind of muddled on my skin. I'm not really able to pick anything out once it's dry. That strong narcissus note from the beginning is coming back out to the forefront, along with the "watery" fruits.

Water Snake comes close to being too much -- too cloyingly floral, too dryer-sheety aquatic -- but doesn't quite cross the line. I like it, though I'm not sure I like it enough to keep my bottle.

[ShannonElisabethJones]

Oh, gosh...I've had this one for a while and forgot to review it! My bottle is almost all gone!

 

In the bottle it's very bubble-gummy, very sweet. I remember being a little put off at first, but I stuck through it. After a while the sweetness calms down a bit and it gets more floral/herbal. I was surprised that dragon's blood is in it because I don't do well at all with resinous notes.

 

If I can ever find this one again, I will get it. I love it.