cyberpuff

In the bottle: Like the two above me, I'm getting a hit of 2009 Boo. It's the buttery/salty thing that never happened again- until now. Like when you make rice krispy treats and you're at the melted stage of everything. On application: Same as above. The scent gets warmer, toastier. Total marshmallow dream. Dry down: While I wish this had more throw, it's still got some power. It's a great marshmallow that doesn't disappear or become super sickly sweet or too vanilla or too foody. I never get any of the sugar crusted part of it. Verdict: Hoard worthy! I have had issues with some of the vanilla or marshmallow scents turning plasticky on my skin (I'm looking at you, Stekkjarstaur ) and this does not. It's like a marshmallow cloud, or like sticking your nose in a jar of marshmallow fluff. I also agree that having this in bath oil or hair gloss would be amazing.

Golden Champa Attar is my sneaky little holy grail scent I didn't know I was looking for. In the bottle: Years ago, someone gave me a nag champa soap bar. I loved it. I thought I could get more but I think it was a one off thing. This is what Golden Champa Attar smells like in the bottle and freshly applied to my skin. Dry down: The smokier incense parts start to emerge! But the floral resin is still king here. Hours later: Up close, when I really huff at my skin, it smells like the cleanest parts of incense burning without the musty funk. Verdict: Yes and more yes! I will be buying another bottle before it goes away. This oil is the base, bass and beat of some of my favorite BPALs- it evokes Panther Moon, Snake Charmer and Midnight on the Midway, in a brighter floral way.

Let me first establish that I am not a member of the Stinky Hippie Family. I have lived amongst the Stinky Hippies my whole life and have actively if not violently separated myself from that tribe whenever possible. It's an ongoing ordeal. Ask The Nearest Hippie was something I uh, got for a friend. Yeah, it's not mine, it's my friend's... I tried it on and got a very toned down patchouli. It doesn't scream cannabis to me, but my apartment hallway is constantly a cloud of that (again- not me!!!) so my nose might be desensitized to a more subtle rendering of it. I sense a bit of leather. You know what this smells like? Soil and money. If this is a hippie then it's the one who lives on Mount Tamalpais with an eco friendly home who hosts fundraisers for Al Gore with $35 bottles of Sonoma Chardonnay from the 2011 reserve. Or she lives in Laurel Canyon and has her own bamboo/modal tshirt company and loves to tell she'll totally let you stay in her place in Bali- did you know it has a saltwater pool? Wow, that was a tangent. But that's what this scent does- it conjures up that level of hippie lifestyle. It stays close to the skin. It makes me feel like I should follow my bliss. It doesn't seem like it would get the drug sniffing dogs barking, it is patchouli with earth and an extra very rich j'ne sais quoi. If it also helps, I wanted to love Banshee Beat, which smelled like dirt syrup on me, and OccupyWallStreet was a nice idea for me but a disaster in reality. This is a patchouli for the patchouli haters, a gateway patchouli, if you will. My friend has to get her own now, this one is mine.

Well, hello there you little weirdo scent! In the imp, this does have a sharp scent which I'm going to say is the green leather. It smells nothing like any of the other bpal leather notes I've tried and loved. It's almost briny, if that makes any sense. On my skin, that briny scent is non-existent. Now the dragon's blood and musk are warm and close to my skin, sweetly swirling and playing nicely. The honey adds a thickness to this. It's nice. There is maybe the tiniest hint of that sharpness of green that hits every so often. And then twenty minutes later... HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. This little weirdo Creeper Dragon right here? It's of the same stuff as Snake Charmer right now. Is this me or is this the Creeper Dragon? They're both in the reptile family, and the sharpness seems to be advancing, then receding, then advancing. So nice. The dragon's blood and musk seemed to have merged into one thing. I almost did a blind bottle purchase on this, but I was trying to be smart with my Lupers so I just got a decant. I wouldn't have been disappointed with the bottle, now I just need to decide if I need one or two.

Champaca magnolia, bourbon vanilla, blonde tobacco, and white honey. This is from a bottle straight from the lab. First impression- Wow. Definitely a cousin of Red Lantern, or maybe even a closer family member. That's the blonde tobacco, and it's all sweet and lovely on the first skin application. Next on the dry down, I'm really getting a sugared floral, which must be from the champaca magnolia. It reminds of something BPAL that I've smelled before and loved, and can't quite place. I hate when this happens. The tobacco and honey seem to anchor this with a warm heat- there's no giant honey overtone like Womb Fury, and the vanilla is not sticking out, it's an all around player. At this point it just seems to be a Day Walker, or lighter, version of Red Lantern. I tried this last night before I went to bed, and this morning right when I woke up, I thought, Midnight on the Midway. That's the other BPAL this reminds me of, and on today's retest, I can definitely say they share similarities. Overall, it's a fantastic blend and I'm glad I didn't hesitate on this blind bottle purchase. Since it's lighter than Red Lantern I'll get more wear out of it, so a backup may be necessary before the lupers come down.

In the bottle: I get a deep dry chocolate and slightly spicy fruit/sweet woods smell. The combo immediately makes me think of Candy Butcher. Wet on skin: The vanilla bean peaks out a little, the fruit/wood smell, which I'm guessing is the anatto/anaheim chili combo, kind of hovers above everything, which makes this feel etherial and incense-y, grounded by the dry chocolate. Drydown/hour or so later: To my nose this doesn't smell chocolately at this point, it's a blend of the vanilla/fruit and mild spice/light smoke. It's magic on my skin. My only complaint is that it's faded a lot, or my cold hasn't quite gone away and I can't smell it as well. Overall: How many holy grail bpals can one have? I feel like I've found another with this one, and for whatever reason I'm lucky that I didn't get the BO smell. I'm surprised that I don't get any cinnamon from this but that's okay- this is definitely going in the top ten, and now I need to figure out how many backups I'll need.

I had friend pick this up for me at Bat's Day and he just got it to me today. So it's been aged almost two years. This starts off as rose, rose, rose. It's a young rosewater type, and goes on my skin that way. On the drydown the rose calms down a little bit. I can't detect the opium tar or the leather at all. An hour in and I smell rose bubble bath. There's maybe a hit of leather but it's more like a light drapey suede, not a biker jacket. It reminds me of a crabtree and evelyn product I used in high school but I couldn't tell you which one. Overall: Not what I expected. More sweet and approachable than the goth I was. The nostalgia of this scent is fun, but I was hoping it would be a little more of a disturbing scent.

My first impression of Witch Dance is that it's a lovely red musk version of Halloween: Los Angeles. The bonfire/burning note is up front first, and what I smell most for the first 30 minutes after applying. It is grounded by the sweet smell of musk I recognize from Blood Kiss. It seems to fade into oblivion after about two hours. Maybe my skin eats this, maybe it hasn't had enough rest after travel. The two hours that I have it on it doesn't morph much. I'll edit if anything changes, right now I hope nothing does except maybe a longer staying power. It's a keeper for me for sure- I've already received a "you smell good" compliment.

Upon first whiff of this, I do get the Schwarzer Mond comparisons. That sweetness burns off pretty quickly upon skin application and then Siberian Musk becomes the heartbeat of another one of my favorite scents- Panther Moon. But it's free from the intricate edges and accessories, if that makes any sense. I sort of understand the Snake Oil comparisons, but the end result is much different on me. Colder, like mentioned above. I've only smelled Snake Charmer once and would say Siberian Musk is closer to that. It's deep, solid and sexy.

I've been using Snake Oil Hair Gloss for almost three weeks now, and it's been great. I was worried about the silicone because that stuff seems fine in my hair at first but by the end of the day, it seems to pull every environmental microparticle piece of yuck to my hair. This has not happened with the Snake Oil Gloss. It really agrees with my hair- which is softer, smoother and amazing smelling. I work it into my hair when it's still damp, and I've also used it on dry hair (in a much smaller amount) to re-style. It doesn't weigh my hair down at all, and seems to have helped to breath some life into my very over processed hair.

In the bottle I get an almost identical scent to Lemon Sugar by Fresh. I've used it in the bath and as an after shower oil, and the scent has good staying power, but it does change from the bottle and gets deeper and more carmel-y. It's a great one to layer with other sweet scents or light florals.

#occupywallstreet is my second BPAL lava lamp. Meaning: There is a layer of goo at the bottom of the bottle, and large dark chunks floated around when I rolled it. Then those chunks stuck to the side. And there's still thick goo at the bottom. People, we have cocoa absolute! Now that you have the visual: In the bottle: Perfect patchouli, with a hit of cocoa and vanilla. Wet on skin: The patchouli that others have describes as astringent comes forward. But I coaxed a dark chunk out of the bottle with a toothpick (i know, I can hear screams of horror over this unorthodox testing ) and it makes the patchouli less cleaning solution and somehow more floral. 20 mins later: This is gorgeous on my skin. It's a very rich, sweet patchouli that somehow doesn't scream "OMG, Hippy!" I don't get dirty from it, I get deep, dimensional grounding. The sweet is nothing like the dirt syrup experience I had with Banshee Beat. 1 hour later: Same as the 20 minute mark, but less throw. Not a lot of throw to begin with on me. Overall: This has surprised me. I really thought I was just buying a scent to support the lab's donations, because I really appreciate that they do these things. I was afraid this would turn into a Banshee Beat scent and I wouldn't get to enjoy wearing the scent, and also because part of me still instinctively recoils in fear when I see patchouli listed as a note. I guess I'm just a hippie at heart ( ) because the stuff smells great on me. And I agree with others about the aging on this one- should be fantastic. I feel bad for people who are getting the pencil shavings/cedar, I have none of that here. edited cuz my spelling typo was just embarrassing

! ! Some of you around here might be as old as me, and remember when Madonna's Like A Prayer record was released. The first release of it had patchouli scented sealer for the shrinkwrap. That's the first thing I thought of with my first whiff of Sentimental Initiation. And this scent goes way deeper than some patch scented plastic wrap. I can't even review this in my usual way. This scent is earthy, dirty and bad good. In the first hour I had it on my skin I wanted to curse every time I smelled it- in an emphatic dirty talk kind of way. I have a hard time keeping at bay the primal urge to call up exes that I should never talk to ever ever again, and just recite a play by play action of our greatest hits, if ya know what I mean... Sheesh, where was I? I get spicy, I get musky, I get earthy, I get a small amount of wood . While I normally amp clove, and it's ruined scents for me before, the clove stays balanced and now (2 hrs later) it's faded into the background. I'm left with a scent that embodies a little bit of guilt, with a good time had by all. It packs a wallop of a throw on me. This one is a troublemaker. All the right kind of trouble, hopefully...

Oh wow. This might just be the Holy Grail Scent that I didn't know I was looking for. In the bottle: smells like cake batter and sangria. Drydown: Total and complete Afterparty In A Teeny Apartment smell. The kind that makes you leave and hope some magic elves come do the cleaning for you while you're gone. Really super sweet and cigarette-y right now. 20 mins later: OMG. Hello, hella foxy! This is exactly Grown Up Cake Smash. I do amp most sweet notes, so it's not surprising to me that I'm getting wine soaked cake and the sugared tea of Dorian. There's incense too, and a little bit of smokiness, which makes it seem like I've been up to no good. Every so often I get a hit of frosting. 1 hour later: The same, but with less throw. Overall: Totally my cuppa. I totally agree with Bluelena about getting in close to earn a whiff. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't detect the Snake Oil in this, but hey, that's what Snake Oil itself is for! Now I need to decide now if one or two back ups are necessary- this one is going to be a daily driver for a while, and I'd love to have some to age too. Fantastic job, Beth!

It's hard for me to review this in the way that I normally review. First, opening the bottle I get a smell that's part mild turpentine, part salad dressing. Nothing I want to smell like, and I'm kind of disappointed. But I put it on my skin. It stays the same for a few minutes, then the fruitiness of the pear comes forward, along with the floral of the orchid. It stays bright like that for about fifteen minutes. Then it totally disappeared. Then later, about an hour after the disappearing act, I am catching whiffs of the most graceful, elegant scent. It's like the ghost of Madeline Elster, the blonde character Kim Novak plays in Vertigo. The scent doesn't have a huge throw, plus it's sneaky- what's with that long disappearing act? I think what I can pick out is the orchid, maybe a tiny bit of dark green from the violet leaf, and the musk. There's a slight spicy warmth to it-probably the grounding of the opopanax and patchouli, and I can say that those two things are probably what's keeping the rest of it from going off into the ether. It's lovely and quite different than any BPAL I own. It's something to wear when you need the boost of elegance in your life. I'm normally like Judy Barton (the less glamorous, more mundane version of Kim Novak in the same film) and Black Moon makes me feel like I can be that other, more upscale version. And if you get some of this- please skin test it! I'd never think what I smelled initially would turn into something so sophisticated.