elissamay

Warm, boozy, slightly tangy-sweet Snake Oil. If you like Snake Oil or Snake Oil variants, you aren't here to read a review, you're here to post one. You already ordered this one; who are we kidding? I can't shake the visual of Snake Oil simmering on a stove with a slice of lemon, but here we are. Pour it in mug with a shot of whiskey and that's this scent. Woke up with a head cold? Get yourself a hot, steaming mug of honey-lemon water spiked with Snake Oil (and whiskey). It's just good. For the honey-averse, it's here but it isn't dominant for me, at least.

This smells so realistically like the old-school lollipop on the label. That hard-candy-ness is not something I can describe all that well, but you know it when you smell it. It's very sweet, but it's almost as if you turned a lollipop into hard candy incense. Not smoky, but the "grit and petrichor" for me are coming through like a darkness to the candy. An absolute win for the cause alone, but I think this has some really fun layering potential, too!

Being newer to the BPAL fandom, I hadn't tried Dorian until very recently. The hype was enormous, and I was tempted many times to buy a bottle for many multiples above retail price. Then, a lovely BPAL gifted me a vial of 2016 vintage and I had the opportunity to experience it. It was lovely, wearable, and such a unique scent, but I was OK with waiting for it to come back into stock, which it eventually did. I bought a bottle, I enjoy it, and I've reached for it once or twice, but it's not one that I'd say is in my usual wheelhouse. I expect to be in the minority here on the back half of this statement, but I'll say it: I love The Picture of Dorian Sufganiyot and prefer it over Dorian proper. The funny thing is, I'm not a major gourmand lover, so the Sufganiyot genre hasn't appealed to me that much until Snake Oil Sufganiyot, which is sexy and spectacular. I'm guessing this perfume-filled Sufganiyot sub-genre is my jam, because Dorian Suf is really doing it for me. The fougere and the musks with the pastry and sweet vanilla tea are just coming together into something that I don't go crazy for when they're separate, but that I'm head over heels about when smooshed together. As with Snake Oil Suf, I found Dorian Suf to be pretty potent: one cap drop on my arm was smell-able for me for hours and hours, even into the next morning. That was just a skin test, so with a full pulse point application I expect that the throw will be quite nice (for me). I didn't find that it morphs at all. It's exactly what you smell when you apply it the whole way through, just fading a bit after many hours. If you're a fan of Dorian, I can't see how you wouldn't love this, but if you just like Dorian, you might also really love this (like me). It's not super duper gourmand, IMO, so if you are coming for the Sufganiyot part, it's there, but it's not as forward as others I've smelled. Now I've got my wheels turning on whether or not this becomes a yearly tradition, and which Beloved Favorites might make good doughnut fillings?! Alice? Morocco? Blood Kiss? O? Scherezade?! Phew.

This is a perfect dupe for Chanel No. 5 on me when applied, and I'm actually pretty confused! It's uncanny. The jasmine and amber take their sweet, sweet time showing up to move this out of powdery, Chanel territory. (Territory I have previously explored, but that is very much not my vibe.) I very emphatically do not like this at all until it's completely dried down. Once it gets there, it's a spicy, sexy, musky, jasmine-y bombshell with a perfect cupid's bow and pinstripes. She just arrives fashionably late.

This is my first hairgloss and wow, did I ever set the bar high. My hair is very fine, so I wasn't sure how it would react to hairgloss, but this scent combo (and Samhain HG) were ones I couldn't skip. To start, I towel dried my hair and sprayed this while my hair is damp, and then dried it. It ended up making my hair smooth and soft, not greasy at all. The scent is woody and Palo Santo forward, and if I had to guess, it's red patchouli here. The scent was present in my hair, but not strong. Once I'd tested it on damp hair and had a good experience, I tried it on dry hair. I sprayed it on my hand, rubbed my hands together a moment, and smoothed it on. The scent is definitely more potent when smoothed onto dry hair for me. Smooth and soft, not greasy. (I don't put it on my roots, just 3/4 down and to my ends.) The best combo was spraying on damp hair, drying, then smoothing on dry hair. And this, my friends, is why I need a second bottle! Recommended for anyone who loves these notes, and for anyone who has perfumes with these notes or compatible ones. It doesn't compete, it just enhances.

This was wildly weird OOB when it first arrived - sharp, off-putting, reminiscent of something kind of "assy" as Tom Bloom's Instagram review had already noted. However! With a couple of weeks rest, on the skin this is a very different experience! I picked this up mainly because I loved the creative concept of it, since oakmoss is often a non-starter for me. But, on the skin, this is what an impeccably dressed person smells like as they glide past you without making eye contact on a New York City street. It smells like the lobby of a chic hotel with an interior so flawlessly decorated as to make you question whether you have any business even wrinkling its sheets with your presence. It's bracing, herbal, fresh, and sophisticated -- with a little "je ne sais quois" coming through instead of what started out in the bottle sniff as more of a "what the actual fuck?!" It no longer smells off-putting, but instead complex, complicated, a little secretive, but yet absolutely self-assured. After being on the skin for a few hours, the sweet patch, vanilla, and sugar cane reveal themselves as the sharper armor of the lavender, spikenard, and oakmass fall to the wayside. I think this would be an interesting scent on anyone, but particularly on someone who can embody it on the given day. Is he, you know? This perfume implores you to fuck around and find out.

A curl of smoke at the end of a path lined with cypress. As you approach, you see the smoke is creeping out from cauldron bubbling with resin, smoldering on embers of tangled, thorny roots. Inhale, a deep breath of blackberries and sweet myrrh. The forest closes around you, a cackle off in the distance.

This started off like an amped-up version of Cathedral, which is one of my very favorite BPALs ever. I didn't really get the leather at all, just pure, already perfect Cathedral. As it wears and warms up I start to get a whisper of leather, but it's fleeting. It's like the leather here adds a little soft suede to the resins and smoke of Cathedral, and the bat's wings waft it all around to somehow amplify the whole. I would probably love just about anything blended with Cathedral, so ymmv, but this is a lovely little variant.

Very cozy, even fuzzy lavender cradled in warm leather, with a little extra herbaceousness from the chamomile and hay. I put this on after Halloween night revelry, and it was a lovely way to unwind while still keeping it just a little spooky. Definitely for lavender lovers, and if you aren't a huge leather person, this isn't a bold, brash leather. It's gentle.

This is Snake Oil and rugged brown boot leather, for me. It seems extra vanilla-fied, and at first I called it "black" boot leather, but on further reflection it really is more English saddle than Doc Marten. Super wearable, super classic BPAL.

I have never smelled any Lace before, Antique included. So ignore my review entirely if you'd like! I have no points of reference to help old BPAL heads. At first, this is a lovely sweet, caramelized vanilla with a touch of fuzzy musk. As it wears, I find the leather. For me, it's evoking elegantly huffing an expensive and oh-so-buttery-soft brown leather driving glove with a lace-edged linen handkerchief tucked inside that's been dabbed with caramelized vanilla perfume and the skin musk of a beloved. The leather is faint, and very well-worn. Lasted for several hours and still sniffable on my skin the next morning.

Snooty Bat slapped me in the face with a black leather glove, but if I allowed the sting to subside, I could ride it out and find its dark patchouli and incense heart. It was a lot of leather, though. Snootier Bat, despite its promise of "double the leather," is a pure black musk sugar incense dream to my nose, with nearly no leather to speak of. If you love Streets of Detroit or By Day She Turned Herself Into a Cat, you will want all the Snoot this Bat can throw you. It lasts and lasts, and I loved catching it as I moved or my sleeve brushed it. So dark, so sweet, so musky, and so wearable right out of the gate!

Perfectly chewy and rich, warm and comforting. One spray scents my living and dining area, and it accidentally scented me, too! I must have caught it in my hair, because I could smell it once I left the house, and that was a lovely bonus. A perfect complement to The Harvest Haunt perfume oil!

This is way more floral and way less clove than others of the "goth"-themed scents I've tried. The hairspray is very realistically evoked, maybe too realistically for me, lol. Not listed, but my brain went to nag champa or sandalwood, so that's probably the incense. I'm not sure about the velvet, but this is a very plush and heady scent. If you want a more ethereal, Victori-Goth vibe, this is a great pick. If you're looking for the clove, definitely go with Vampire Milk.

This is 100% orange ribbon candy for me. That's it! Super nostalgic.

Fresh, fruity, a little herby, teeny touch of pepper. Not in any way what I expected!

Perfectly blackberry black tea. Comes on strong at first but mellows out to a lovely skin scent. Comforting, familiar, happy, and lovely for a chilly autumn day.

This is not the sharp and smoky fire scent I expected. In the bottle, it's almost effervescent and Dr Pepper-esque. On the skin, it's deeply resinous, and the scent of the pine pitch blooms as it warms, but it is never harsh or sharp. It's the sweetness of pine sap, never on the medicinal end of the pine pitch spectrum. There's really no smoke here, just warm smoldering, glowing embers. This really evokes a scene at the end of a magical bonfire in the woods, but without that "campfire smell" you might be thinking of. Very good, very Halloween, and a bit hard to explain since it veered so much from where my expectations took the notes. Pleasantly surprised, even though I do enjoy a good smoky fire scent, too!

Googling this scent is a whole journey, so I'm glad you found your way here, lol. The condensed milk here smells a little caramelized, like the very beginnings of dulce de leche. The linen and tea almost evoke a lotus note for me, and the coconut is probably contributing to that, too. A little toasty, lotus-sweet and floaty, with a bit of the more grounded myrrh sweetnesd rounding it out. I don't get any of the acrid or bitter note I expected from bitumen, but it wouldn't be unwelcome if it appears, as this is a very sweet cloud at present. As it wears the other resins start to come through and add complexity that's very enjoyable. Sweeter than I expected, even with the "condensed" milk, but I am enjoying how it's getting more layered as it wears. I don't get any laundry notes or "clean/fresh" vibes, but the linen and tea does read sort of floral for me (lotus, specifically), though I personally definitely wouldn't call this a floral scent. Sugared milky resinous with the rest supporting.

WOW. Total black musk vibes even though that isn't here. I'm getting a Halloween brimstone version of Streets of Detroit and I am LOVING it. Leather is very muted for me at this stage but I will update after more wear. Updated with drydown - I don't get any strong leather, which for me is amazing! Dark, dark and musky with sweet amber and that very special touch of pepper and brimstone.

This is the kind of dead leaf note I can get down with right away. I usually have to either shy away from that note or let it settle for a good long while before it works for me. This one, on the other hand, delivers the dry, crunchy leaves with some maple-sugar sweetness. Not a ton, but just enough to allow it to work for me. (That might actually be the pumpkin that I'm mixing up with the maple leaves, but whatever it is, it's just enough sweetness.) The Bay Rum is a sensational combination with these dry, crunchy leaves, and the overall scent blend is evoking a well-dressed man strolling ominously through an autumn path, smoking a fine cigar, with possibly spurious intentions. I mean, he's got a pumpkin on his head, so how spurious can he be?! ? There was a mention once of a Bay Rum Snake Oil maybe existing, back when the Purge scents were introduced, and this is one that makes me want to smell something like that desperately!

Sweetly boozy, and the drier coconut scent of the coconut shells add to the "dust" and overall evocation of a scene. You put the skeleton key you found on the dusty bar into the lock of an old wooden door in the back of the tavern. It creaks open to bring into your view an altar in a darkened room and its ofrendas. A burning candle, a coconut shell with a shot of whiskey in it, and the gift of an unlit cigar ready to be smoked. I don't get a sense of foreboding, but of anticipation. Someone's been invited to this scene. It isn't you, but you'd like to stick around to find out who's coming and take your chances, make your deals. Halloween magic!

Ever-so-slightly scorched goat's milk and spicy clove. There isn't a ton of "goat" in this milk for me, but enough for it to have more depth and pleasant funk than your usual moo juice. Creamy and sweet, but very well spiced with the familiar, fierce clove, which is smoothed out and clotted up with this toasty leche de cabra. Update: End of the work day, and this is still going strong, and somehow got sweeter and toastier.

Sticky, resinous, deep, dark pumpkin incense. This is not a bright and shiny drug-store candle candy pumpkin. This is a spooky-ass, kinda warped and warty pumpkin that's seen some shit whilst perched on a porch on a rough street. Like if that smell of the inside of the lid of a lovingly carved, candlelit Jack o'Lantern was tranformed and captured into tears of resinous incense to smolder. Maybe a touch of the motor oil note making it just that much more blackened and viscous, or maybe it's a touch of very black musk. Whatever it is, it's exactly what I was hoping for, and pairs amazingly with Pumpkin Incense atmo spray!

This was very warm, sweet, skin-close, and a little smoky. I wore this for my year-and-a-day handfasting on the solar eclipse new moon and it was the perfect accompaniment for a promise in the shadows of a different sort! I enjoyed the caramelized notes and the overall warmth of the scent. Comforting, familiar, but yet unique.