rayvn1

I had heard so much about Snake Oil from other BPAL forumites but since I was starting out looking for the perfect rain/earth/wood/ scents I figured I wouldn't ever try this one. Then I started thinking "but what if I'm missing something good?" So onto the Wishlist it went. Two days later I was frimped an aged Snake Oil. I gingerly slathered it on. Oh. My god. This is all that is good and should be worn often. It's going straight to my "specials" box! The indonesian spices and vanilla mix together beautifully. I kinda smelled like a head shop for the first half hour or so, but after that it is a gorgeous cloud of perfection! This is probably TMI but abut 10 minutes after I put it on my mood swung to "...I need sex. Now!" And holy crap does it ever LAST! I woke up this morning and I still smell it clearly. The vanilla is most prominent at this point and is sweet and comforting. I probably won't be able to wear this to class as voice majors tend to get snippy about perfume wearers (I personally sing better with perfume on because the scents inspire different and stronger characterizations). But this is so wonderful I don't think I will be able to resist!

Mmmm! I'm haveing a hard time dragging my nose away from my arm This smells like butter and toffee and all sorts of goodness. As it dries I get almost a dark, burnt sugar incense flavor. I NEED a bottle of this puppy!

In the imp I smelled a coffee stand serving lots of hazelnut lattes Once on the skin this is an extremely warm, cozy smell. Sweet with the smoke in the background. Right now this is just a very comforting scent that really lends itself to the imagery the description evokes. Really good time and place scent. Nothing about it sticks way out for me, but it's pleasant and I'm glad I have an imp! Kind of foody - very appropriate for autumn.

This one is not quite what I'd expected. When I saw lavender in the notes I thought it would overwhelm everything else, but I don't really get much lavender at all other than a warm purple overtone. Currants and sweet fruitiness are the main body of this one one me. Surprising because in the imp all I smelled was 409 Yummy and nice, but not something I'll really wear.

Yeeeeeessss!!! Phew, I finally broke my mini string of "imps that didn't quite like my chemistry". This smells like smoky, leathery goodness Incredibly sexy! I think I may need to slather because it's very light. Not much throw right now at all. It's so intimately good though. Something sweet cropping up now. Doesn't whack me gently in the face with it's sexy dominance like Perversion does, but I know I smell good even if others can't smell it! Such a keeper! Thank you frimp goddess! You broke the mini streak

<sigh> I'm getting a little worried since the last three imps I've tried that I assumed I'd love just haven't worked on me. I really, really wanted the rotting wood from this. Very strange, because while the other reviews talk about a piercing, green scent - all I get is warm, brown generic fragrance. It smells like two essential oils I used to have several years ago called "Angel Heart" and "Ivy". Drat! C'mon wood! Work with meeeeeee! I'm not sure what notes are in Angel Heart perfume since my old essential oil was supposed to be a smell-alike of a commercial product, but I think I'm getting some ivy and something else that gives it the warm, brown feel. Amber? Hard to say.

Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. Eek! It's wet on my skin and I'm enveloped in a drooping, foamy cloud of wet dog! Thank god this is a morpher on me. Now it's a wetter, musky incense smell that I'm still not crazy about. Hopefully the tea, cocoa, and tobacco notes I adore will come out as this dries even further Later: Yay! This turned around after a few hours and became a rich cloud of manly, spicy goodness

I really liked this blend and was sad it doesn't seem to last long on my skin. Rich and warm, the smell of almost tropically voluptuous blossoms. The smoky incense was layered beneath that. Just beautiful!

Very nice! Exceedingly aquatic as you would expect. A bit of ozone, and saltiness. What sets this apart from say, The Phoenix or others in my beloved aquatic family is the plant quality of a large part of the scent. This gives it a deeper, darker scent evoking the world beneath the waves as opposed to the others I have that bob on the surface or float just above the water.

When this one was announced with the Halloweenies I yipped with joy I can't get enough of grass, dirt, and leaf scents and this is better than I could have hoped for!! Fresh mown grass clippings lying in the sun, but the freshness is offset with the darker, smoky leafiness of last year's October LE. Heaven indeed! I will be running out for a bottle of this and Graveyard Dirt as soon as humanly possible! Oh BPAL, my love for you grows and grows at a frightening pace (as does my stash). Edit: Wow, this has great staying power on me. Hours and hours with a light smell of mowed lawn on my arm ahhhhh....

I've been looking for a BPAL blend with Nicotiana in it since it's a summer evening smell I associate with my folks' garden. This is very hot smelling and I'm guessing that's the amber and khus. Also floral, but not sweet. The lab really made it match up to the idea that these are flowers being snuffed out for the year. They smell old and tired (in a character way, not a rotting flower way) missing the fresh springiness of the other florals I've tried. I wish I'd gotten smokiness, as that's what I love so much about October, but this is strong, dark, and delightfully depressing. Can't wait to try it as a room scent also.

Thank the BPAL gods! I love earth scents and after beating around the bush buying scents that contain dirt or loam I finally went straight to the dirty, wonderful source. This is so unbelievably amazingly dirt-smelling Or technically, it smells like dirty mushrooms, or spore filled dirt that you catch a cool, calming breath of because you stuck your head under your porch to see what was going on under there There's a slightly burning, peppery, hint of incense when fully dry for me. This is freakin' awesome! Bottle for me, please!!

This one is so interesting! I'm so excited to try it and grateful that it was included as a frimp with a recent purchase. Was told my avatar inspired the addition (Yay Poison Elves pirate!) This is a double personality scent on me. On the lower wrist pulse point I get hot leather (Sexy!!) and on the inner elbow pulse point I get a light bloom of ...midnight ....floral? It's really hard to put my finger on it! Going from one to the other it's like cuddling up to your masculine pirate on deck at midnight and breathing deeply of his salty leather clothes, then turning your face to the breeze that blows hints of a tropical port island of your bow. It's VERY evocative. I can't think of a scent that is so completely different on the two spots on my arm. It's so appropriate that this was Beth and Ted's wedding announcement perfume, because the two personalities of masculine and feminine adventurers comes through so clearly! What a frimp!!!

Whoa! In the imp and on wet I get strong patchouli and amber. Reminds me of Harley Hippies the old Tacoma, WA store. The smell of that New Age/hippie shop helped define my undergrad years. Once it's dry though, there's this subtle golden burst of peach. Sweet and delightful. I wish there was more throw and more delicious peach, but maybe I need to slather a little more. Yummy

In the bottle there is the sharp scent of those plants that grow on the forest floor or beneath evergreen trees that smell almost unpleasant but alluring in their strength. Very weed-like. On dry this is delicious! Sap and wood and smoke with that sharp, biting green in the background! It smells like getting the yard ready for winter Unfortunately this fades extremely quickly on me. I will require much more than an imp of this for the future!! Perfect for fall. Doesn't seem very "masculine" to me - quite unisex.

I've been eagerly awaiting this one. It was one of the first BPAL descriptions I saw that made me think "I need THAT!" It is my birth month after all and I am nothing if not a thorough Scorpio Now that it's finally here, I don't really know what to say. It's a very strong ozone in the bottle and on wet. I almost think of Phoenix when I smell this because it's a little salty on me. There's something there beneath the ozone that's sweet and I can't really pin down what I think it is. I don't get any wood notes as others have... The best way to describe this for me is the sharp bite to your nose as you step out the front door on the day when everything is coated in thick frost. The sweet freshness of a mild dew is gone and winter is fast approaching. It's very dramatic and strong. I really like it though it makes me scratch my head about what exactly that lower level scent is.

Oh my oh my oh my!!! This may be the one, ladies and gentlemen!! I put this on today and had the "Eek, this is so me!" feeling. I love so much of my BPAL, but Gennivre is a winner with every single note. In the bottle there is a sweet freshness. On the skin it stayed very true through the wet stage and dry with a citrus/mint and sugar top layer followed by a slightly floral tea finish. So unbelievably refreshing and feminine. It's not foody, just sweetness personified. I think I'll love wearing this in the spring especially. And she's good luck, too!! I got the job I really wanted today after I wore Gennivre to my interview. Made me feel very confident and I would sneakily sniff my wrists when no-one was looking

This is from a 2006 decant. Oh so nice! Warm, comforting and very "pumpkin baking in the oven" as in a squash, not a pie. The spices are there and also a hint of the patchouli. This isn't foody, just a perfect representation of a warm house with a fall scent squash-ness to it. I kinda love it Edit: I just received a decant of Samhain 2008 and the experience is very different! I almost get black tea from this one - faint, but black, earthy, smoky and spicy. It's like the smell of darkness - no pumpkin at all. Wow!

Herr Drosselmeyer has everything going for it as far as I'm concerned I love the character in Nutcracker, and I am always up for leather, woods, and tobacco. The weird thing is that on me it smells really thick in the throat sweet like maple syrup. This just blossoms off my skin into a golden cloud. Kind of foodie with a little cedar in the background. I'm so tempted to track down a bottle of this but husband doesn't like it <sigh> says I smell like a Hallmark store

This is another example of how I'll never stray from BPAL because they make scents that just shouldn't work on me, but magically do! Lovely innocent vanilla with enough spice and sensual rose to suggest a real woman

This one came as a frimp by a generous BPAL'er and I'm glad they included it! It's very fresh and in the vial I had a hard time picking out individual notes without looking at the description. Melon? Ahhhhh yeah that's definitely grapefruit. Ooh! and now that it's drying I'm getting some sweet minty floral as well. Whoever described it as Orbit mojito gum was pretty on the money for me when it was in the wet stage. Very cool and clean! To paraphrase Captain Hammer "Not my usual, but nice".

Y'know, in the bottle I could have sworn I smelled coconut too! Wet: sweet, sweet tea with cream. Yummy! Dry: As this starts to dry the tobacco really comes to the fore. Still a wee bit coconutty too Makes me think of eating a coconut cream cookie with a perfect cup 'o' tea. Cuddly does come to mind. There's also a bit of "my way or the highway" I get from this though - that Shadwell stubbornness, but that could be my imagination Delightful!

In a twist of fate where the universe laughs at me: Calico Jack who apparently smells just like my husband's grandmother (I still think it's totally unfair his grandma smelled like a pirate specifically, my favorite pirate blend) meet F5 which smells exactly like MY Nana. She must wear some kind of green tea perfume, because this is my Nana. It smells just like when I lean down and hug her This is not a bad thing! Anytime I want to be transported straight to her house in scent form I will pop the cap on F5. Yup, green tea and mint. Who knew?

I think on the whole I like Lear. I often crave wood scents and when that mood is upon me I will reach for Lear. It has the unfortunate psychological effect on me though of smelling just like a freshly cleaned and filled box of our kitties' (and my) favorite litter Mountain Cat. I can't say I ever thought it would influence my nose and brain to affect my perfume smelling, but I guess smells go pretty quick to the memory realm. But I like it! As long as I remind myself this is like cedar furniture or cedar trees or cedar ANYTHING except cedar cat box Worked well as a base for a touch of Doc Constantine too.

I'm always on the lookout for grass and earth smells also I've tried the Hay Moon Limited Edition recently that contained a note called Hay Absolute. On me I got lots of the other notes in that particular scent, but as it dried down I got a nice summer pasture smell. I think if you put Hay or Grass or Soil or Dirt into the Search engine at blackphoenixalchemylab.com it will show you the perfumes that have included those particular notes. Hope that helps and good luck!