Snake Oil

[ittybitty]

This is for the 2022 version. I had been dying to try this out considering it's BPAL's signature scent. 

 

Wet: I smell the patchouli first, followed by musk. Once it dries down for a bit, it becomes sweet and dark and a little earthy. The vanilla is warm, very deep, and musky. There's a touch of something powdery in a way that reminds me of how Oma (my grandmother, RIP) smelled, minus the sharp floral of her perfume--I think it's the patchouli. I don't think this is terrible in any way, and it blended really well with my skin, but I don't find it particularly great. After the first hour, I had to sniff my wrist to be able to smell it. 

[Threemoons]

Today for my birthday:  The very ends of a bottle of a very VERY aged release of this!  Delightful!

[Cali]

I don't know why i seemingly did not leave a review ~8 years ago, or- somewhere in the back of my mind, a little voice is going '...maybe it was scrubbed because it was too negative' if I did leave one. Y'all know. Spicy, vanilla, patchouli, AAAaaall that good shiz in a 'lil 'ol bottle. 

Welp. But, having the pleasure of trying it again this week after all that time... Oh how the turns have tabled......

Edited April 19, 2023 by Cali

[Tal Shachar]

I've never smelled Snake Oil on its own (I'm most familiar with it in Womb Furie) so I picked up a bottle fresh from the Lab. Strongly suspect one of the unnamed Indonesian spices is massoia bark, native to Papua, because to my nose, that's the buttery/popcorn note mentioned in reviews. That and the patch (cool-toned, rooty) are all I can really smell, the vanilla overshadowed by the buttery lactone notes until well into the drydown. I don't get any plastic or Playdoh nuances. Would I like this if I didn't know all the Deep Lore about SO? Hard to say, but I'll update the review after ageing!

[asoursweetsixteen]

a scent that needs no introduction. thee legendary Snake Oil.

 

upon first applying it... it is straight up church. sunday morning at like 9am and the priest is swangin that metal ball full of incense all around the people lmao. very... ceremonial.  the vanilla is very nice and warm, bringing a beautiful sweetness to the scent. it stays almost the same upon drydown, still very sweet and incensey.

 

unfortunately, I don't think I'll be wearing this in my day to day life. the scent isn't really my thing to wear out. but I'll definitely wear this around the house and in bed. I actually put it on the other night and could still faintly smell it after my 8 hour sleep. it's really nice, sexy, seductive, mature, smooth, ahhh. go ahead and buy an imp if you haven't already. cheers to snake oil!

[sudenmorsian]

Somehow it took this many years 'til I got my hands on the famous Snake Oil. And I always thought it would be strongly chai-spice-like - like Bengal - but it seems I was wrong. My bottle of Snake Oil is only about two months old so it's lab-fresh baby.

 

Snake Oil is soft, rich and sweet scent but not too sweet. Surprisingly foody but not too much. Vanilla is definitely the dominating note but it's not like pure vanilla - it's dirty, musky, spiced, honey-like loveliness. Maybe the dirtiness is patchouli or sandalwood. Someone above said that SO feels similar to Vixen and I second that. They are not alike but they do feel like one another. And Vixen has been one of my favorites for many years. 

 

Like Vixen, SO is seductive, warm and beautiful perfume that I'll happily wear. Great throw and lasts for hours and hours. I might need another bottle that I can store and forget to age. 

Edited February 3 by sudenmorsian

[theredkilt]

I got 2 imps of the recent SO, one must be from 2021 and the other one from 2020. I'm very bummed out because they don't smell anything like my 2016 bottle.

 

I get a very strong smell of sage on the drydown and instantly it reminds me of Western Diamondback. Maybe there was a mix up ???

[Weirdgirlpilled]

ignore all prior reviews. in the year and eight months since i gave snake oil a lukewarm review, i have since acquired like 5 vintage bottles, and spiralled into snakes hard. its now a real ride or die lol.

Edited November 3 by Weirdgirlpilled

[Tungerine]

Snake Oil is warm, dark, dry, and sweet. It reminds me of Aperotos Eros, but it's softer and sweeter with vanilla and perhaps patchouli. I'm picky about vanilla, and it's threatening to become overpowering here. Snake Oil is not really for me, but I can see why it's so popular and I'd recommend that everybody should try it a couple of times even if they think they won't like it.

[Weirdgirlpilled]

guys. snake oil creeps up on you. it really, truly is slithery. I love snake oil in “Gingerbread Snek” and the snake oil + amber combo and roses of snake in the roses. i’m highly interested in other snakes. anyway here’s some reviews of different snake oil years that i’ve tracked down in about a year or so and spent silly amounts of money on: 

 

NOTE: Important things to consider: i am very biased towards snake oil. i find it to be a masterpiece. it works well with my skin chem, and i find it so pleasing and sexy. 

 

ON TO THE REVIEW COMPILATION!

 

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

snake oil 2004: warm, rich, golden threads of vanilla pod. kind of papery incense with a touch of powder and musk i think. my 2 imps are both half used (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾

 

snake oil 2006: musky sugary warm incense vanilla extract explosion. “icecream?? mmm vanilla.” commentary from lovely girlfriend. I got 2 comments on my college campus while wearing this! love bpal. more papery, sweet hazy incense !!! It’s so sweet and sexy and soft and kind of… doe-like. The vanilla really makes it pull “who, me?” cute devilish vibes. I have an adorable lil half bottle.

 

snake oil 2007: this one was like actually impossible to find. I have 3/4 a bottle and 4 imps. if anyone has any PLEASE oh my gooooddd. I got sooo much positive attention recently at an event with lots of dancing and body heat. I find that body heat actually increases village/projection/longevity. this one is heavenly w/ my skin chem. man this had me wanting to snack on myself. Beth is a master perfumer. anyway: soft skin musk. slightly buttery vanillas, worn in and velvety smoky, incensey/ woodsy, patchouli. there’s layers there though- incense-y patchouli but also a soft textural incense nearby. The vanilla is kind of sugary and warm and buttery? it smells like the vanilla suspension gel/paste my mom has to use in her gourmet baking. this is truly, truly a masterpiece of perfume.

 

snake oil 2009: mmm sugared patchouli, heavy musky VANILLA vampire. i love this one i’ve used like ahahahha half a bottle? i have 2 its fine. heavy on the patchouli on this one not rly the incense kind just like. patch wow. i also maybe get some myrrh and cinnamon. this is a lovely change of pace, overall i rly like it.

 

Snake Oil (????) I actually have no clue what year this is and it actually could be from about 7 different years: powdery!! baby oillll. it reminds me of “Guerlain” Shalimar which i have a bottle of and i layer the two. it’s a powdery, sweet, incensey after-shower scent. It’s kind of “shimmery”??? it’s so powdery/baby oil/ girly it reminds me of those sweet cylindrical cardboard containers with glittery/sparkly baby powder residing within and a cute fluffy puff with which to dust this cute little fairy dust upon yourself. I appreciate this one. It’s cute and girly. i’m not really fussed about figuring out the year again or getting a full bottle -i only have a slonk size of this because it was decanted.

 

Snake oil 2014: generally, i like my ‘fumes to rest a whole 6 months before review. i LOVE to rest them a year. i think this got to me liiike 4-6 months agoo… yeah. idk i cld look at my emails but i’m lazy. anyway. i said that to beseech you: take my reviews with a pinch of salt. so. this snake, it’s a tad incensey? not the same kind of uhhh. golden papery incense of vanilla heaven. warm, hazy, relaxed, pretty

 

Snake Oil 2023: It’s sweet. So so sweet. Creeping tendrils of potential incense notes peak shyly out from beneath sweet vanilla bean covers. I wear this often enough justify buying two bottles of it at some point soon. must stalk the second hand market. i am halfway down on an imp which is relatively rare.

Edited November 3 by Weirdgirlpilled

[Jarek]

I have no idea when my little Imp of Snake Oil was made, but I'm going to presume 2024 as it's when I bought it. In fact it arrived just a couple days ago!

 

Snake Oil is very much unlike most other BPAL perfumes I've tried, though the dark spices reminds me of a couple that aren't entirely my favourites, but I thought I'd give it a try after reading the description. I'm still pretty new to BPAL so I didn't realise all the history surrounding this one until quite recently! It's fascinating. :3 Well, on to the review!

 

In the imp: spiced vanilla musk with a hint of patchouli. Like really exactly what it says in the description. The spices and vanilla are most prominent but everything else is there too. I'm still learning the smells of things but I think I've tried enough to be able to pick these notes out. I like it!

 

Wet on skin: more of the same, a touch more spices and patchouli. Not getting sugary, vanilla isn't coming through as strong or sweetly, it's a pretty dark scent overall and I'm liking it a lot.

 

Dry on skin, 1/2 later: Vanilla is mich more subtle, like still there but it's blending so well with everything, mostly underneath everything. There's some patchouli base to the spices and musk but it's mostly spices and musk now. With hints of vanilla and patchouli.

 

I haven't been super into spiced perfumes from BPAL yet, though I want to be, and I find I quite like this one so yay! Not sure yet if I'd get a bigger bottle but I've got time to decide and figure out how I feel about it. I'm going to enjoy wearing the Imp.

 

Edit: so I have a slight change of opinion after wearing this all day. Still going to wear out the imp I think. Like that's the goal. But maybe I won't. We'll see.

 

Like I really wanted to like this one, it sounded amazing and I do like vanilla. But the vanilla kind of fades away really quickly on me, and I'm not so big on the remaining blend, even though I like all those notes individually. Less so on spices but I sure do like some spices. So yeah, unfortunately I don't think Snake Oil, at least this version of it, is really for me. I'll give it another shot in a few weeks to a month, maybe it needs to settle from its journey through the mail.

 

Edit 2: So I still smelled it a bit on myself the next morning despite showering the night before and sleeping and it being at least 12 - 16 hours since my last application, and you know I think the vanilla is still there, and has possibly been there the whole time, I just find the spices especially kind of hide most of what I think of when I think of vanilla. But it's one of the longest lasting components, I think. So yeah I will revisit it a few more times anyways and get back to either write a new review or just add to this one once I get a better grasp on it.

 

Edit 3: So my last edit was Nov. 9th, but now it's Dec. 1st, and I tried it again. I find I like it a lot more if I'm not putting my wrist right beside my nose, which is okay, I can do that. The spices and musks and patchouli and vanilla all blend pretty well but up close it's a very dry dark spices moreso than the rest and I'm less certain I like that.

 

I wore Scherezade yesterday and the spices are a little similar but not quite, I think maybe I'd like this more with those spices or musk, but this is still pretty nice. I'll keep the imp and wear it out, and I'll do my best to age it a couple years as I do hear it gets better with age. My Scherezade is 2+ years old, so that might be connected.

Edited December 1 by Jarek
added later thoughts, again

[LacedDoll]

I got an imp in 2024 so it's not aged. This is such a gorgeous scent! It's a little dirty, a little sweet, a lot of sexy. Wet, it smells like spicy dirt but dry? It becomes a vanilla and patchouli tango on my skin. 

[skyturtles]

The day has come. After years of BPALing (yes that is a verb now), I have a lab frimp of the legendary Snake Oil. I have had it less than a year, so it has not aged in my possession. It is fabulous, exceeding expectations. I am keeping this, and I will probably use it up to warm me up this cold winter.