chromeheartxiv

This one was an instant favorite for me. First whiff smells a bit like S+S Lord of the Sacred Eye, but it turns into magic when I put it on and the woodsy base notes last for hours. I'm regretting that I didn't grab a second bottle before it sold out. I'm not sure about increasing productivity, though. I put it on before taking a test in my online class today, and ended up taking a lot of random breaks to sniff my wrist .

Got a bottle on the etsy. Initial impression upon sniffing the bottle is that, well, it smells like Vicks. After I put it on, the Vicks scent (camphor) faded quickly, leaving behind a dead ringer for a cemetery on a clear, crisp night. Cold stone and frost covered vegetation with a hint of fading funeral lilies. I'm not getting any smoke or fire, but I'm going to guess my skin chemistry is a bit strange since nobody else seemed to pick up a floral note. I actually like this a lot, it's an unusual and somewhat surprising unisex scent that tends slightly feminine on me.

I nabbed an imp of this since it seemed a little wrong that I obsess about the limited editions but haven't tried the most popular offering from the permanent line. In the vial: vanilla sugar syrup mixed with an old/rancid oil smell that I couldn't put my finger on. Movie theater "butter" (artificially flavored canola oil that's almost always slightly rancid) per the last review seems like an accurate description. The overall effect is like the food stands at a country fair: hot sugar, vanilla syrup, fake-buttered popcorn sitting under a heat lamp, funnel cake fry oil that hasn't been changed in a while. There's nothing even slightly resembling spice or woods. I have other spicy perfumes that smell kinda bad in the bottle and turn into magic on my skin, so let's put it on and see. On my skin: sickeningly, syrupy sweet; musty vanilla that evokes rot when it mixes with the sweetness; faint undertones of rancid canola oil. Still no spice or woods, but we've gone from the country fair to a recluse burning stale vanilla candles in a dirty, dusty room that hasn't had the air changed in at least a few years. Sickly sweet in a way that doesn't directly smell like rot but suggests it. Half an hour: the vanilla and stale/musty notes fade but the sugar doesn't, leaving me smelling like rancid oil mixed with simple syrup. Still no spice or woods. This is nothing like the product description, or the hundreds of testimonials describing the scent as spicy, sexy, etc. It doesn't even resemble the "meh" reviews calling it a basic vanilla perfume. Starting to wonder if I got an off batch or an entirely different product from the rest of y'all. 45 minutes: The sickly sweet smell finally faded, bringing the rancid oil component to the forefront. It's becoming very strong and also turning soapy, so now I smell like expired oil poured on top of a very expired Olay bar soap my parents unearthed in a bathroom renovation. At that point I scrubbed it off. Didn't last an hour. Conclusion: snake oil literally smells like bad oil with sugar on top, and fades to expired bathroom products. Amusing if you consider where the phrase "snake oil" came from, but as a perfume... I'd rather not. Historically the BPAL scents that I dislike are top quality products that just aren't my preference, so I'm very confused by this.