DifferentDances

I was frimped a small amount of very aged Snake Oil by a generous forumite. I've finally decided to try it. Imp: New age shop. Vanilla and incense. Wet: New age shop. Vanilla and incense. Drydown: The incense is falling back, leaving vanilla in its stead. Dry: Mild vanilla perfume with acrid incense edge. ...I don't think I'm one of its fans. Between this and my lack of success with Black Phoenix, I think I'm SOL with the Lab's signature scents. *wince* My rating is 1/5, and I'm kind of saddened by that, because there is so much hype about this scent that I was hoping it would be delicious on me.

Bottle: Oh dear, I'm not going to like this at all, am I? Wet: Nope. I feel like I soaked for three days in a vat of oldschool department store perfume most commonly worn by old ladies with garish makeup, cut with a big bucket of ozone/aquatic men's cologne. Dry: Less overkill of florals, more cologne. I don't get anything green from this scent, and I LOVE green scents. Bleah. My rating 1/5.

Bottle: The sticky remnants in a cafeteria garbage bin. Wet: Fermented, rotten fruit. Dry: Fermented, rotten fruit. This does NOT change on my skin at all. I wish it did. I'm going to try it again in a week or so, but I don't have high hopes for this.

I received this thanks to a very kind forumite, and finally got around to testing it. Imp: Doesn't really smell like anything. Wet: Ooooooooh. Like a crisply snapped mint leaf, delicate and lovely. Drydown: Oh no. Oh no. It's pulling that weird morphing nausea-inducing that Tokyo Stomp did. Does this have vanilla? Far away it has a weird tang that's making my nose itch, but up close to the skin it's still a clean mint. Dry: Weird acidic edge to what little is left of this. Bah. My rating: 5/5, 1/5 on my skin. Phooey.

There really wasn't much morphing with this blend. It went on soury-sweet (dragon's blood) with an undertone of cat musk, and while the musk itself actually submitted to the dragon's blood, the scent over all didn't change much. My rating: 2/5. Smells like cat soap to me.

Imp: Coconut with a hint of...flowers? I guess that's the orris? Wet on skin: Coconut. With a bit of soap. Drydown: Just a peek --a peek, mind you-- of something that is neither coconut or soap, which I guess is the blood musk. Really tame. Dry: Same as the drydown. My rating: Not bad, but not for me. 3/5

Imp: Rose. Wet on skin: Roses with a vaguely medicinal quality. Patchouli, maybe? Dry down: Lemon and roses. Soaked into a sandalwood fan. Dry: Faint, pretty, with a hint of pledge-yness to the lemon. My rating: 3/5. It's not a bad scent, it's just not very strong or particularly unique.

Wet in imp: Something really, really sharp. Wet on skin: wet wall paint. Drydown: Wet paint on cedarwood. Dry: Paint has dried on the cedar mulch. All that remains is muted cedar. My rating: 1/5. Not really my thing.

Imp: Whoa there! Settle down, you're moving too quickly for my shy, timid nose. Wet on skin: Frankincense so strong it almost makes my eyes water. But I'm hanging in there! Drydown: Lemony incense. Erm... Dry: Pledge-y incense. It feels like a pile of wet pledge wipes dumped in the middle of a headshop for no apparent reason. Interesting scent, and I can see why someone other than me would like it, but I'm going to have to pass. My rating: 2/5

This is a marvelously blended floral/rose scent that stays true from imp to skin to drydown. No noticeable morphing, though I suspect after a few hours it may acquire a more powdery texture, which is fine because most florals do that on my skin, given enough time. I don't know if I like it enough to ever indulge in a bottle, though. Hm... Given that it's not a crave-want-need scent, I'm going to have to rate it a 4/5. Very lovely though.

Imp: Too many scents, too nose-crinkly. Wet on skin: .....new car smell?? What the hey? Dry down: Medicinal trees. Dry: Smells like an old pair of my dad's leather shoes from four feet up. Shoe polish, maybe? My rating: 1/5.

Imp: Fruity candy. Wet on skin: fruity candy! Huh. Awesome! Drydown: Oh dear. Less awesome. Dry wood invading the sweet candy! Dry: Myrrh layered with amber with the faintest candy tone. My rating: 5/5 in the imp, 1/5 on my skin.

Imp: Hello, cherry-flavored jolly ranchers! I do recall you being my mortal enemy in that you never hang around for very long Wet on skin: Cola? Dry down: Woody of some sort --the myrrh? Dry: Myrrh. As cool as the initial scent of cola is, the rest of it isn't so neat. My rating: 1/5.

Imp: Faint suntan lotion. Wet on skin: Suntan lotion with a bit of perfumey flowers (I guess this is the iris) and alcohol. Promising. Dry down: Faint suntan lotion with a weird curdling scent. I think this may be the same thing which turns Fae all icky on me: white musk. Dry: Faintest, faintest suntan lotion. My rating: 2/5. Given that there are no known health benefits with this scent the way there is with suntan lotion, I don't think I'll hold onto this imp.

Imp: dark, smoky sweet. Wet on skin: Whew, cloyingly sweet almond liquor. Em....hoping it dies down. Dry down: Less sweet now, but still almondy. Uh oh, it's beginning to smell like generic soap! Dry: Soap/powder with a hint of something medicinal at the edges. My rating: 1/5. I'm not a big fan of almonds, and none of the stages were enjoyable.

Imp: Mmmm.....yummy. Candied apricot. Wet on skin: Oh, juicy, candied apricot. Dry down: Fading fast, but still candied apricot. Dry: Faintest bit of apricot lingering with an unpleasant bitter/sourness that I'm going to assume is the brandy. My rating: 5/5 itself, 3/5 on my skin. Still, I think I'm going to keep this one.

Imp: Very pretty floral perfume in the vaguest sense. Wet on skin: Ew. Something's rotting on my wrist. It's sharp and acrid in the middle of the perfume. Dry down: Much better. Powdery floral, which I assume to be poppy. Dry: Really, really powdery floral. Not my thing; I think that's just a personal taste issue though rather than evil skin chemistry. My rating: 3/5. It's not a bad scent, it's just not one that I like enough to keep.

In the bottle: Ooooh, this smells like I'm going to regret not getting more of this. Watery fruity leafy gorgeousness! Wet on skin: Weird, this smells familiar...oh wait, it's honey! Aw crap....Oh wait, it's nowhere near as overpoweringly nauseating as Milk Moon 07. And there's soothing planty stuff in this that's making me happy. Dry down: Down, honey note, down! I don't like you! Dry: ...If I press my nose against my skin, I can smell the delicious leafy matter beneath the oozing honey. But the honey is blanketing everything. Fabulous. I now know honey is a note that's amped by my skin. Not devastatingly so or I'd be gagging, but enough to take over a scent. Although on my right hand it smells deliciously fruity green with less honey. I applied first to my left hand and gently brushed my right hand against the bead of oil, so maybe the abundance of honey is all on the left hand? Final verdict: I definitely can conclude honey notes don't play nice with my skin. Bleah! Rating: In the bottle, 5/5. On my skin, 2/5. Well, I guess that means it's sort of good I didn't get more of this. Damn. It smells so pretty in the bottle! Although it smells 4/5 on my left hand...maybe I need to 'burn off' some of the scent on one patch of skin before putting it on another? Maybe BPAL application is like making pancakes - you have to disregard the first test patch. ETA: Changing my rating for on my skin. 4/5, baby! *drools*

In the bottle: is that what ozone smells like? Wet on skin: There's the briefest second when it hits my skin that it smells like a swollen sky just about to burst with rain and lightning, then that swiftly disappears. (Kind of like threatening thunderstorms, in a way. They always feel just about to pour forth, but then they don't...evil clouds ruining my fun.) I feel like I'm wearing aftershave. Lovely, masculine, cuddly aftershave, but aftershave with intense throw nonetheless. I like it. Dry down 10 mins later: Wait wait wait, where are you going? I *like* the aftershave smell! There's the faintest...lemon? Another 5 minutes later...15 total: Just the faintest whiff left. You've got to be kidding. This smells GORGEOUS. I love this, and it just vanishes? Well, it's a damn good thing I bought two bottles. MINE. I'll reapply every five minutes if I want! My rating: 5/5 despite longevity problems, which may or may not be resolved in a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months.

In the imp: Whew! Something wicked sharp yet somehow sweet lies in these waters! Almost too strong -I gagged and almost didn't even test this on my skin. Wet: Lilies of doom. Ack ack ack. Dry down: Oh, okay, this is better. The lilies have toned down, and there's something aquatic but dirty...like the wet patches beneath a rotting log after a rainfall. Dry: Subdued lilies, compost, and a sharp spike of something that reminds me of starfruit for whatever reason. It's almost pretty, if confused and jumbled, but not really worth waiting 45 minutes for. Plus, I'm not a big fan of lilies in general, and this one just doesn't cut it. To the swaps pile it goes! My rating: 2/5

Got this in a swap. Decided to try it because the imp seems to be leaking, which translates into "Quick figure out whether you want any item in your room to smell like this ASAP~" In the imp: Incense. Wet on my skin: Incense. Dry down: Itchy incense. Dry: Cedar. Just plain cedar. While I like cedar blocks to keep bugs/moths out of my clothes, I'm not so keen on first smelling like complete incense and then complete cedar. Might be nice if layered with something else, though. But it's really not my thing. My rating: 1/5

It's official: my skin chemistry is utterly, completely wonky. In the bottle: Unpleasant, fake lemon pledge tinge to the stomach turning BPAL mint note. (I like minty smells, but thus far BPAL mints have not worked on me so well) On me wet: Gag-inducing quick morphing of the mint note. On me dry: Perfect dupe for my beloved and much hoarded One to Tie, Two to Win. Say what??

Thank you!

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I had a question about CnS emails that I just didn't find anywhere else. (Mods, feel free to merge, split, migrate or otherwise play with the placement of this question!) I am awaiting two separate orders from the Lab and one from the Trading Post. Is there any indication on the CnS that would tell me which order it is? I've never ordered from the Trading Post before, so I don't know if the mail-from address is "Black Phoenix Trading Post" as opposed to "Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab." But in addition...how do people keep track of which order goes with which CnS? Does everyone just assume that the earliest CnS is the earliest pending order? Sorry if the answers are apparent or readily available elsewhere!

I received this as a full frimp from a forumite. I was kind of dubious seeing all the negative reviews, but I finally (after sitting on it for a month) decided to try it, mainly because I wanted to see if civet was a no-go for me since I'm contemplating getting a bottle of the Devil tarot oil and people seem to debate between red musk and civet as the base animal note. The former is a dealbreaker, and the latter...well, I don't know yet, so let's see how this 50/50 shot goes! Imp: Well, this is the weirdest thing ever. It reminds me of some form of childhood candy, I just can't recall which. Not grape candy, but some weird vitamin maybe? *shrugs* Wet: Mmmmm sexy woods. Where's this dreaded civet note I keep hearing about? Dry: Oh, there it is! I think...I don't have anything else that smells like civet, but I'm also incredibly unfamiliar with oakmoss. So it could be either or, really, since the cats my roommate has all smell like Red Musk o' Doom to me, so no cat pee references. This also reminds me of a country club from my teen years in Beijing, if that makes any sense. Maybe it's that varnish someone mentioned earlier? But oooh sexy man. Not girly at all, to be fair, but definitely something I'd want a man to smell like for a midnight romp in a misty forest. Oddly cuddly. My rating: 5/5 for sensory experience, 3/5 for a personal perfume (definitely not for my daily rotation!) Gonna keep my decanted imp -Imma gonna test it out on a boy someday, you just wait!