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I've been curious about this one for a long time (the Oblations came down just about the same time I got into BPAL), and finally got a decant at the last Toronto meet'n'sniff. It's a very pleasant scent. I wasn't sure if the mango would work on me, but it seems like red musk (I'm one of those red musk lovers) can make fruit notes succeed more or less. Fruity red musk in the early stages, with, as others have noted, an oddly woody note -- I suspect that's the sage. Dries down into mostly sage and lavender. There's something about it that seems a bit masculine to me. I like this, but it's definitely much simpler and less nuanced than Beth's more recent LE blends.

Wow. This ... actually smells like a big sweaty guy. A big sweaty guy who's been running around in the woods. Which is to say, high points for concept. But not really what I want to smell like myself. Interestingly, my husband thought it didn't smell like anything at all, so there's obviously something pheremonal going on there.

I just got a partial of this, not much more than a sniffie, so my review may not be a bit glancing. But this really does seem to be just about the softest and prettiest rose scent ever. It's sort of a lovely white gown, flowing hair, candlelight type of scent (making it possibly quite inappropriate for me, but I can still enjoy it). It does seem quite faint, though; the amount that I got was barely enough for me to be able to smell it, when I put it on. To wear it on any kind of regular basis I'd have to use a lot. And since I can't wear violet at all, I'm not sure where that leaves me ...

Starts off as smokey caramel, but fairly quickly dries down into a sweet pipe tobacco scent. It's rather pleasant, though I'm always a bit iffy about smelling like tobacco. This is a nice tobacco, though, and definitely pipe rather than any other kind, with a little extra sweetness.

I like this one a lot. On me, it's mostly dark sweet myrrh, with a few harsh spears of cinnamon. I do like the resiny scents, and this is very resiny indeed, and just a bit smoky. Unfortunately, it is becoming clear that what my husband mostly likes on me is light florals. Which I don't like to wear at all. We've just got a difference of opinion on the perfume issue. Anyway, this is not really relevant to Priala, which is a fine deep scent, and which I'll definitely have to consider a bottle of.

Okay, this is going to sound unpleasant, and it's really not -- somehow the way the musk and the cardamom combine on my skin, this smells exactly like a guinea pig cage that's been sprayed with perfume. It's seriously weird, but it's really not bad at all. The chocolate, cherry and vanilla all seem to have gone missing, except insofar as they provide the general perfumey-ness. I can't guarantee I'll wear this often, but I'm quite pleased to have a decant, at least.

I think this is the only Snake Pit scent that I actively dislike (though Temple Viper was also not great on me). My skin just amps the sage in a crazy way, and adds in some Comet cleanser. I can sort of get the other notes underneath that, but the sage/Comet note is just too unpleasant. Luckily it's a fairly fast fade.

I completely did not expect this one to work on me. But it did! Okay, the first thing it did was to vanish -- for about ten minutes after putting it on, I couldn't smell anything at all, not even a whisper of scent. But then I started getting this very nice, and quite hard to describe, warm waft of dry moss and olive oil, but sweet and a bit dark. That probably doesn't sound very good, but it is. Not a knock-you-down sexy scent, but a good, slightly earthy, slighty syrupy blend that's not quite like anything else. I've been almost uniformly wrong about which Snake Pit scents would work and which wouldn't.

This is a rich mint-candy scent, but like all mints, on me, it fades rapidly and completely. There's just a hint of syrupy Snake Oil remaining, but really it's almost entirely gone within half an hour. It's quite a shame.

Marzipan Snake Oil, mmmm! The mandarin is barely detectable if I put my nose right up to my wrist. Mostly, this is really a very nice, sweet, slightly cookie-like Snake Oil variant. As it dries down, I start to get some dark smokiness from the myrrh, which is lovely (though the almond does get a bit hand-lotiony). Nice as it is now, I think it'll be much much nicer aged, so I'm probably going to set it aside for a while and let the Snake Oil mature. But I'm very pleased with this. It's yummy.

I think this is the first Snake Pit scent where I could distinctly smell Snake Oil; it's Snake Oil combined with green grassy notes and the sort of wet woodsiness of bamboo. It's probably really lovely if those are someone's favoured notes, but for me, I just kind of want to get them out of the way of the Snake Oil. (Yeah, I kind of knew this wouldn't be a favourite, but I got all completist about the Snake Pit). In a detached sort of way, I recognize this as a first-rate scent that other people will probably love.

This is another one that I liked more than I anticipated, since I'm not normally a fruit person. It does start off with a very strong blast of apple, but (as with Australian Copperhead) the fruitiness dies down quickly. It ends up as a warm spicy floral with a hint of apple beneath it, and a tiny bit of a resiny feel that must be the Snake Oil. Unfortunately, it is a fast fade; but pretty and comfortable while it lasts.

I took a chance on this one -- berries are a dangerous note for me, but all the others are fairly reliably good. I was scared right at the start, because when I first put it on, it was a strong blast of berry scent; but pretty soon (15 minutes or less) the smoked vanilla and amber started to kick in, and after that it was really nice. Soft, gentle, but not too girly, and quite a bit less sweet than the other vanilla and amber blends. Just a touch of cardamom, with the berries very much in the background. The drydown gets a bit powdery, but on the whole this is a really pleasant and kind of relaxing blend of notes for me. I still haven't really smelled Snake Oil in any of the Snake Pit scents, though ... maybe a bit in Boomslang, but nowhere else. Wonder if this will change over time.

This is nice, but once again seems not to have much to do with Snake Oil. It's a strong cinnamon/cassia, with maybe a hint of ginger. Striking and warm, but not very complex. I'd wear it again, though, certainly (I'm luckily not one of the people whose skin reacts badly to it). And maybe it'll develop more depth as it ages.

Hmm, I was looking forward to this, but it's a bit meh on my skin. I think the champaca is dominating it, and making it mostly a somewhat bubble-gummy floral. I can't smell any incense, though my husband apparently can. Right at the beginning I got a whiff of the opoponax, but it seemed to be crushed by the champaca. And not even a tiny trace of Snake Oil. It's not *bad*, it's just not that great, either.