reynardine

We’re running out of room at the Lab, and it’s been a long, long time since we’ve had a trunk show. When Brian and I were rifling through the prototype and snafu shelves a few weeks ago, we dug up two busticated Snake Oils – one that was a mispour of Lemon Scented Sticky Bat, and another involved an Aggravated Vanilla Incident – and we unearthed the very first Samhain prototype from 2002. We don’t have time to do a full-blown trunk show right now, so we’re offering these three for sale. They’re in very, very limited quantity. I happened to like Lemon Scented Sticky Bat when I tried it years ago and Snake Oil is magic on me, so I thought what the heck, give this F@ck-up a try. First impression from the bottle--wow, this smells weird. No other word to describe it. Snake oil with citrusy lemon, but not like Coral Snake citrus. On me, the description is note-perfect. It's Snake Oil...Wait, no! Sticky Bat!...No! Snake oil! It morphs back and forth between the two. Finally, it ends up smelling like the kind of home-made lemonade that you find at county fairs. No tea note at all that I could pick up. I think it would be wonderful in the summer. I like it!

Every holiday season should be full of lewd suggestions and filthy double entendres, right? This is a new take on past Lick Its - a peppermint candy cane with an extra jolt of sugar, coated in more sugar, with sugar on that sugar.
 I'm a fan of the Lick It series. Lick It Now continues the minty goodness tradition, although this one is a bit softer than the last couple of years. It's still very minty, just not slap-your-face minty. A winner!

Last year's stale candy corn. I love, love, love candy corn so I had to try a decant of this! It's a weird scent. Wet, it does smell like stale sugar or maybe old honey? It dries down to a strong sugar, but there's a plastic note under it that warps it. Might just be my skin, though. I'll be interested to hear how it works on other people! But for me, that plastic note ruins it.

Usually the marshmallow note works well on my skin, as does sugar, but for some reason, this scent went off on my skin and smelt like stale peeps. I had to wash it off. Pass.

This was my favorite of the dead leaves that I tried. Very nicely balanced between the three notes. None of the notes overwhelms any of the others. Still, the dead leaf note just doesn't work on my skin at all.

The maple sap blends well with the dead leaves note, but it doesn't work on my skin.

Carnation isn't my favorite, so I was curious how it would blend with the dead leaf note. Answer: extra aquatic. Not for me at all.

This is the 2018 version. I tried it back in 2010, and thought it was okay, but it works better on me now. A lovely, mild cider. Not as sharp as Punkie Night (which didn't age well anyway). I ended up getting a bottle of this.

I tried a decant of this a few years back, and the 2018 version is very similar. Very boozy in feel. The saffron amped on my skin, which rather ruined the effect. Pass.

Dusty with a touch of sweet incense. However, the dead leaf note just doesn't seem to work well on my skin. Interesting scent, will pass along the decant to a friend.

2018 version, decant. Well, this one worked a LOT better on me than the last one. Blackberry & cream and MAGIC on my skin. No cough syrup this time! Lovely!

Agree with above, more spice than pumpkin. That being said, it is a lovely blend. There is a burnt-kinda Brûlée note I'm picking up, but it's in the background. Foodies should enjoy this one.

Pretty much exactly on target with the description. Snake oil with Cream Soda. And they play well together! Definitely Cream soda and not vanilla on my skin, though. My husband wasn't much impressed with it in the bottle, but he said it smelled wonderful on me. This one is a winner for sure!

Sweet strawberry candy with a bit of spicy pumpkin. It's a bit of a weird scent but it works. Delightful!

Very fruity in the bottle, but the minute it hit my skin it turned to ... marijauna? The fruit note disappeared and I got this grassy spice scent. Eventually as the drydown happened, the pomegranate note came back, lightly, balanced with the snake oil spice. I'm going to let this one age a bit and see if that improves things. Otherwise, it'll have to be worn in a scent locket.

Very light, very pretty. Not much of a throw, stays very close to the skin. Mostly peach and a bit of tea. I didn't get any musk at all (which usually doesn't work with my skin anyway). I really like it, but it only lasted about an hour, so I think I'll just make do with my decant.

Just as the description implies: BPAL's Snake Oil blend plus bubblegum. It hovered on the edge of plastic on me (NOOOO) but then settled down nicely. My husband suggested I get more, he liked it that much on me. Good throw and longevity. Doesn't replace Snakes in the Pumpkin Patch as my favorite, but certainly a contender. A good warm-weather scent.

Oh, hell yeah, foody. Again, the description is spot-on. I agree with the post above: very close to a single-note Red Velvet Cake scent. Medium throw, long-lasting. I'm using it as a sleep scent and it still is going strong in the morning. Definitely going to snag more of this.

[No additional description provided.] When I saw this on Etsy, I pointed it out to my husband. He doesn't care to wear scents, but he likes Atmos Sprays and the description had several favorite notes of his. When the bottle arrived and we gave it a test spray, we both exclaimed, "It smells just like Christmas!" Just a touch of cinnamon. The sugar cookie dominates, with a good background of egg nog to give it depth. Good throw and durability. It was so good we ordered another bottle!

I grew up in north Texas, and used to wander around the woods, creeks, and fields near our home (all gone now--the area got developed, the woods were torn down, the fields plowed up, and even one of the creeks filled in to make room for more houses). Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes were everywhere in the spring (it's hard for me to think of one without the other). They were very pretty, but actually neither one had that much of a scent, so I was curious to see what the Lab would come up with. This is a lovely floral, soft and green, very much like wildflowers. Medium throw and stay, but very pretty. Perfect for spring.

I had to get a bottle of this--wild honeysuckle is one of the scents of my childhood in (then) small town Texas, where I would catch a hint of honeysuckle while walking down side alleys on a hot summer day. And yes, the Lab got it perfect. Pure honeysuckle, soft and sweet. Definitely a hot-weather scent, wonderful!

Had to try this one. The pumpkin/pomegranate mix of Pumpkin III (2005,2006) is one of my favorite Halloweenie blends. Freshly opened, I got a blast of cherry, but on my skin, the pom started coming out. The pumpkin is very faint, but definitely present. As a previous poster stated, this is a very RED scent. I want to like it, but cherry just doesn't work well on me (one of the few fruits that don't), and in the end, that's mainly what I got from this. Pass.

Strong citrus at the beginning, then dries down to a strange blend of candy corn with spicy pumpkin. Then just candy corn. I do like it, but not enough for a bottle--I'll just use up my decant.

Just got my decant for this. On me, the pumpkin drowns out everything else. There is a hint of plum, but mostly spicy pumpkin. Low throw, gone in 30 minutes.

Wet--deep, sweet pomegranate. Very fruity. It dries down to a darker, richer scent. Absolutely beautiful, I'm going to order a backup bottle!