sudenmorsian

2025 version. I'm not often saying this but this was bit a disappointment for me. I was expecting spicier Snake Oil but I got a lot of the same sharpish red musk that's dominating new Snake Oil iterations. My experience is quite similar to Liquid Sword's above: heat from the ginger, sharpness, cinnamon, vanilla isn't showing up much. I like Gingerbread Glory Hole over this, but I'll let my Snek rest for a year at least. I hope it would get softer with time.

I fell in love with this. Gingerbread in this is definitely gingerbread dough, sweet and spicy. I've learnt that I really like brown musk, it often feels soft and cozy and it blends beautifully with spices and patchouli. Patchouli is beautiful in this scent and it's not screaming for attention. I like this over Gingerbread Snek as this is softer and more balanced.

Oh, this is sweet. I'm surprised because I don't get much of cherry - usually I can clearly smell cherry whenever there's some. On my skin this is mostly pomegranate syrup and vanilla resin. Definitely RED scent but in a candy-like way, there's nothing sinister or dark. Quite a playful and lovely scent.

This one needed at least a month to calm down, straight from the mail it was quite sharp and biting. But now when it's rested it's much softer and lovely. Yup, there's clove but it's not dominating at all on me. Pomegranate is very evident now but it really needed that rest. I get a lot of dragons blood (I always get when there's some), clove, musk and patchouli and the pomegranate is giving juiciness and sweetness to the whole. This is dark, resin-y pom scent with some spice. This is going to age beautifully.

I get a lot of candied pomegranate with Snake Oil's patchouli and spiciness. The pomegranate is exactly the same as in An Intriguing Observation (Shungas 2025), rich and juicy. Like said above, this reminds me of Sugar Plum Snake Oil but SPSO is dustier on my skin and SOaCP is more fruity and juicy. I'm happy I have full bottle because I am in love.

Once again, I did not expect to love this but here I am wondering how beautiful and impressive this is. In the vial and wet on skin this is mostly soft, brown leather, smoked saffron and ash, and there's a hint of something almost evergreenish (peru balsam) that's lightening things up a bit. During drydown sweeter notes emerges and while the most beautiful leather is still on front and it's still quite smoky scent, there's definitely sweetness from amber, myrrh and tiny bit of burnt sugar. This is masculine leaning scent but I love it both on my skin and on my partner's. It's unique and I don't have anything like it, and I'm going to get a full bottle.

2025 version. I got my Batty Snake Oil two weeks ago and at first, still suffering from mail shock it was furious: strongly medicinal without anything softening or gentle. I let it rest for a good while. Still in the bottle it's quite harsh leather and nothing else! After applying it morphs really quickly much, much more pleasant. Snake Oil is wonderfully beautiful in this one. Spicy, musky vanilla with soft leather. This reminds me a lot of Snake Skin but I haven't compared them side by side. After some time, maybe an hour or so I really can't recognize leather any more. It's mostly spicier Snake Oil with stunningly lovely dirty vanilla. I think Batty SO might be one of my favourite SO variants now.

I'm surprised this kitty isn't getting more attention yet! This is lovely simple fruit scent with zingy biting spice, spicy mango heaven as mentioned above. I agree the mango is more like dried or candied mango, but it's lovely fruit note here. At first there's certain spiciness that reminds me of ginger and the clove isn't too much recognizable, but whatever the biting tang is it softens remarkably as the perfume dries. Without the clove this would be nice scent for spring and summer, but clove makes this perfect for colder months too. I get amber only after couple of hours and the scent has mellowed to a beautiful, resiny cloud.

I got a bit scared reading reviews above that there's dirt, mud or soil note that isn't listed, as I just can't cope with them. I got my decant few days ago and had to test this one immediately and yup, there's definitely that earthy, musty note. Lovely, sweetish vanilla with dry tobacco and dirt, and sadly the dirt is keeping this from being wearable. But behold! I paired this with Black Butterfly Moon that I wasn't too fond of and suddenly it all changed. Dark tenderness of the BBM blended so beautifully with Vanilla and Tobacco Flower that the dirt note was buried completely, and these two scents are definitely more than sum of its parts. The combination is rich, dark and seductive.

This is beautiful dark but delicate floral perfume but not quite my thing. Violet rarely works on my skin but I do find it quite wearable in this one. I get mostly violet, tea roses and blackberry, not so much orchid, vanilla or black musk. Later I tested this with BBM duet Vanilla and Tobacco Flower when neither of them worked on me on their own, and it felt like pure magic: the combination was so much more than sum of its parts! The extra vanilla from the duet as well as kinda musty tobacco was just the right thing I needed with the BBM to tame its edges.

Ah, happy scents ❤️ I think my happy scents are most often sweet, a bit tropical or candy like and usually "summer scents" - light, fruity and airy. For example just naming few, Pink Moon 2024 (sugar-swirled strawberry milk with frothed marshmallow cream), Machu Picchu (sweet tropical fruits burst through deep, wet rainforest boughs, enormous steamy blossoms, over thin mountaintop breezes, mingled with the soft, rich golden scent of Peruvian amber), Stoned Bunny Blow Mold (a sun-faded, plasticky shell of rice milk and marshmallow illuminated from within by 420 watts of weed-wafted glowing green amber) and The Serpent in the Berries (strawberry-infused Snake Oil with a froth of marshmallow fluff and a hint of vanilla sugar). ETA: Oh, how could I forgot about Kobold Barista (freshly brewed coffee with ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and cream)! It's definitely for the cold season, but it's a true mood booster for chilly autumn or winter days when all you need is a hot cup of coffee and a snuggly, spicy coffee perfume.

I did not expect to like this one but I grabbed a decant anyway, and now I'm considering a full size. Still I struggle to describe the notes I get, it's definitely well blended. Surely I can say I recognize the oolong tea, smoked tonka and quiet sweetness of the vanilla husk and amber but this is so much more. This is quite spicy, dry-ish and sweetish smoky scent, surprisingly cozy and warming.

Thank you Assimbya, I'm relieved. I've been aware that they are two different things, but I've heard that some people find them similarish. I've been avoiding nag champa note because of that, but now I think I have to give it a chance.

This might be a foolish question, forgive me, I'll explain! I really like nag champa incense and burn it a lot. I'm not familiar with BPAL's nag champa note, but I've found out that champaca note doesn't act well with my skin chemistry, and it becomes something I almost loathe. How similar or different are those two notes, nag champa and champaca? How would you describe those two in perfume oils?

It made me surprisingly happy when I noticed that Assimbya reviewed The Night Priestess above, because it is the first ever BPAL perfume I got to try years back, I fell madly in love with it and it always has a special place in my heart. I've never reviewed it myself but I've been mentioning it many, many times in other threads. I've also found out that The Night Priestess never got a massive amount of attention. I've been loving it so much that I managed to find a backup bottle so I never have to live without my dear, dark Priestess. Before finding the backup bottle I was hunting for alternatives that might resemble to TNP but nothing really attracted me. One I tried was New Orleans but I did not like it. Alkemia's Seduction Vanille (Mexican vanilla pods, luscious Tahitian vanilla orchids, jasmine flowers, and crystalline sugar cane, enhanced by a blend of delicate white and vanilla musks) is the closest I could get, but it's softer and lacks the feeling of night. On me The Night Priestess is mostly about jasmine, clove and vanilla orchid. White floral and spices, scent that somehow captures the feeling of a chilly night when the moon is full and lightens your path. Jasmine and clove are a bit sharp in this, but orchid rounds it a bit as I usually find some kind of waxiness in orchid notes. I do get a hint of cardamom. TNP is a rare floral perfume I find so delightful and wearable. Nowadays, sadly, something in this doesn't work any more with my skin chemistry and after couple of hours the scent turns a bit iffy, sharp. I bought my first ever scent locket (The Triple Dagger 💘) so I could keep on wearing TNP without skin chemistry issues.