Different smells/colors, same perfume

[lejlkwiet]

I don't have this particular scent myself but I've come across this happening before. Anne Beany in particular - I have two bottles I got straight from the lab, and they act exactly the way you're describing. Maybe it's a particular component that does it :/

[annemathematics]

My bottle came directly from the lab, ordered when the yules dropped.

 

It's all uniform in color and texture. I shook it up, and a moderate amount of slow-moving bubbles did form, but it didn't get foamy or effervescent.

 

Hope that helps.

 

(Put some on. Smells beautiful.)

[faylie]

It definitely does smell beautiful. I think it is a bit more incensy than I expected and a bit more heavy, but the bottle smells wonderful. I had on Crystal Phoenix this morning which has worn off enough to give this a try now. Hmmm, it's good. Even if it is wonky I still like it.

[Kmichh]

I have a straight-from-the-lab bottle of Snake Oil from January 2019 that (after nearly 3 years) still is very fresh smelling. It's still clear and hasn't really aged at all. I think it's pretty bizarre because from what other people have said, they typically age much faster than this. I posted about it elsewhere and someone else mentioned that their bottle of SO from around the same time period was like mine-- still fresh and pretty much unaged.

 

I wonder what is different about this particular batch?? Is it ever going to do its aged Snake Oil magic?

[torischroeder9]

43 minutes ago, Kmichh said:

I wonder what is different about this particular batch??

 

It could be a different source for a component oil, different plants from the same source, or even different growing/harvesting conditions (e.g., weather) for the same plants. 

[Kmichh]

Hmm. Tis a mystery! Everything I bought from 2019 (all Snake Oil/variants) seems to be super slow to age.

[Rayleigh]

1 hour ago, Kmichh said:

I wonder what is different about this particular batch?? Is it ever going to do its aged Snake Oil magic?

 

My bottle of Snake Oil from October 2019 is thin and light in color. It still smells different than the fresh imp of Snake Oil I first tried, and it's rather weak. It has been developing a bit more depth with time, losing some of its initial popcorn-ish note, but it is a slow, slow process. I only noticed a shift in the last month or two. My imp, though, is from around the same time as your bottle -- January or February 2019, and it became rich and dark and extremely potent. So if your bottle is from the same batch as my imp, it may yet change. Maybe we did just end up with an extra slow aging batch.

[Estamets]

Aging is all about oxidation (that’s why imps age faster than bottles: more access to air). If you’d like your bottle to age faster, shake it occasionally and sniff it often!

Edited October 10, 2021 by Estamets

[hhelix]

4 hours ago, Rayleigh said:

My bottle of Snake Oil from October 2019 is thin and light in color. It still smells different than the fresh imp of Snake Oil I first tried, and it's rather weak. It has been developing a bit more depth with time, losing some of its initial popcorn-ish note, but it is a slow, slow process. I only noticed a shift in the last month or two. My imp, though, is from around the same time as your bottle -- January or February 2019, and it became rich and dark and extremely potent. So if your bottle is from the same batch as my imp, it may yet change. Maybe we did just end up with an extra slow aging batch.

I had the same experience with my Snake Oil direct from the lab in December 2019, and another bottle purchased in early 2020. They just weren't aging or changing very much and were hanging on to that popcorn smell. I am not really sure I've ever smelled the OG Snake Oil, whether aged or fresh. I do have an older bottle of SO I bought from a forum member that does not smell like popcorn, but it also doesn't have the rich heady notes I have read about, i.e., the notes that make SO legendary. It's more of a light powdery vanilla. It's a mystery.

[Amazonia]

15 hours ago, Kmichh said:

I have a straight-from-the-lab bottle of Snake Oil from January 2019 that (after nearly 3 years) still is very fresh smelling. It's still clear and hasn't really aged at all. I think it's pretty bizarre because from what other people have said, they typically age much faster than this. I posted about it elsewhere and someone else mentioned that their bottle of SO from around the same time period was like mine-- still fresh and pretty much unaged.

 

I wonder what is different about this particular batch?? Is it ever going to do its aged Snake Oil magic?

 

Same experience here.  My lab direct 2019 - early 2020 sneks and variants were also clear, and remain clear to this day.  And as @hhelix said....popcorn.

 

I have bottles of SO ranging in age from a Cobalt bottle up to 2018, so a pretty decent baseline for comparison.  

[Kmichh]

Hmm. This definitely confirms something has changed from how it used to be, but who knows what it is. Even SO variant imps from 2019 are fresh still.

 

For comparison, I have a bottle thats 7-8+ years old that I bought from someone. I also used to have a bottle from eBay that was (as seller said) 2+ years old. That one was dark and nicely aged. Not as much as the older one, obviously, but it was newer. Both aren't like the 2019 version.

 

I remember the old description of SO changing a while back too. It did make me worry that maybe it's been reformulated. 🤔

[Rayleigh]

I haven't gotten any popcorn from the Snake Oil variants I've tried, fortunately. Only from the bottle. Which is good, because the variants tend to work well on me. When Snake Oil comes back in stock, I'm planning on trying a fresh imp and seeing if it has any popcorn to it. It's a shame if they had to change something permanent; I'm sure it wasn't by choice.

[MissMiniRat]

I just ordered two bottles of Crowley but they smell completely different, I remember this was one of my favorites as I liked it immediately when I first opened it even before it settled. How long is enough time to let it settle? I’m honestly wondering if it was the right oil in the bottle or not 

[nok]

On 10/10/2021 at 12:31 PM, Kmichh said:

Hmm. This definitely confirms something has changed from how it used to be, but who knows what it is. Even SO variant imps from 2019 are fresh still.

 

For comparison, I have a bottle thats 7-8+ years old that I bought from someone. I also used to have a bottle from eBay that was (as seller said) 2+ years old. That one was dark and nicely aged. Not as much as the older one, obviously, but it was newer. Both aren't like the 2019 version.

 

I remember the old description of SO changing a while back too. It did make me worry that maybe it's been reformulated. 🤔

 

Have there been any changes to your Snake Oil since you last posted? You mention your Snake Oil was clear? Do you mean it's light brown but you can still see through it, or that it actually is translucent like water?

 

I've not ordered Snake Oil in maybe 10-12 years as I have plenty, but the imps and bottles I remember receiving around 2009 or so were dark brown, almost like the color of soda. I remember back then people on here often commented about the "root beer" nature of Snake Oil, and while I personally never got that smell I understood what they meant. The color was always very deep and dark through. Normally vanilla materials, either actual vanilla absolute or even synthetics like vanillin or ethyl vanillin will darken with time, regardless. The darkening process will be expedited if the material is sitting in a clear glass container that gets plenty of sunlight, whereas putting the vanilla material in a cobalt or amber glass bottle (such as the ones the lab uses) and also hiding it away from sunlight will mostly prevent anything but the faintest of discoloration over time. I always noticed my imps of Snake Oil in the clear glass vials would darken much more quickly than Snake Oil that was stored in the amber bottles. In my experience, the aging and discoloration of vanilla never had much effect on the vanilla scent itself, so I think the improvements that aged Snake Oil display are not due to the aging and discoloration of the vanilla but likely due to other materials, including patchouli. Aged patchouli smells much better to my nose than fresh patchouli, which can come across as harsh and spiky and void of the warmer and smoother character of a nice aged patch.

 

But I mostly just wanted to comment here and ask about Snake Oil as I see a couple people mention their recently purchased Snake Oil is "clear". I don't believe I've ever seen a Snake Oil that was clear, though I did receive a Snake Skin bottle a few years back which was Snake Oil and leather and that one was clear (and quite thin compared to the more viscous nature of my aged Snake Oil) but I didn't think much of it.

[Amazonia]

15 hours ago, nok said:

But I mostly just wanted to comment here and ask about Snake Oil as I see a couple people mention their recently purchased Snake Oil is "clear". I don't believe I've ever seen a Snake Oil that was clear, though I did receive a Snake Skin bottle a few years back which was Snake Oil and leather and that one was clear (and quite thin compared to the more viscous nature of my aged Snake Oil) but I didn't think much of it.

 

My 2019 bottles were completely clear and had no viscosity.  I poured two of them into an empty 10ml SO bottle, and the remnants of the aged juice have tinted the fresher stuff to a verrrry light amber color, but nowhere near as dark and syrupy as any of my aged SO.  When I skin test, there is no distinct color visible.  This is the popcorn batch.  Thankfully, the popcorn stank has died down to a more soily-dirt scent (patchouli? Is that you?).  I could not wear it for more than 30 minutes before I had to scrub it off, it was so overwhelming.  Today it's tolerable, but still not recognizable as Snake Oil.

 

Interestingly enough...the bottles I bought from the May or June 2020 restock are now much darker, but they have a sharper green (almost camphorous...spearminty?) scent to them.  I feel like that batch is closer to what historical fresh SO probably smelled like.  They do not, and have never had, that dirt-smelling popcorn vibe at all.

[stainedglass_siren]

please help! Is there a known difference between batches of rerelease Dorian?

 

I got my first bottle from the fb group, and I love it so much. it has a lemon astringency that is beautifully balanced by the sugary pale musks and it dries down to a sweet skin-like scent - that’s the best i can describe it but it’s very complex. I don’t really get any lavender and it lasts a long time on me. The seller said she believes it’s from 2015-2017.

 

Now, I recently swapped for another bottle, year unknown, but likely ‘16-‘18, which very different. I get more lavender in the bottle, and then a sort of Antique Lace ‘17 play-doh-y note. It’s sweeter and rounder smelling and the drydown is very close to Paper Phoenix. I also have an imp and a sniffie of Dorian from unknown years, which both smell like this version. 

 

Any info is appreciated! What does Dorian age like? is it possible that one of these bottles is actually much older than the other??

Edited March 19, 2022 by stainedglass_siren

[myoubi]

On 3/5/2022 at 12:28 PM, Amazonia said:

 

My 2019 bottles were completely clear and had no viscosity.  I poured two of them into an empty 10ml SO bottle, and the remnants of the aged juice have tinted the fresher stuff to a verrrry light amber color, but nowhere near as dark and syrupy as any of my aged SO.  When I skin test, there is no distinct color visible.  This is the popcorn batch.  Thankfully, the popcorn stank has died down to a more soily-dirt scent (patchouli? Is that you?).  I could not wear it for more than 30 minutes before I had to scrub it off, it was so overwhelming.  Today it's tolerable, but still not recognizable as Snake Oil.

 

Interestingly enough...the bottles I bought from the May or June 2020 restock are now much darker, but they have a sharper green (almost camphorous...spearminty?) scent to them.  I feel like that batch is closer to what historical fresh SO probably smelled like.  They do not, and have never had, that dirt-smelling popcorn vibe at all.

Good to know it's not just me. The 2019 bottles I have are still clear, and still smell like butter. I was hoping that smell would age out but 3 years later, it hasn't, and they are basically unwearable. I have 3 of them

[Amazonia]

@myoubi nope, it's not just you!  

 

 

[lilacea]

I stumbled upon this today and found the talk of Snake Oil post 2019 variation curious as I'd had a similar experience with a 2020 Snake Oil (I honestly thought I'd mis-labelled a bottle of Eat Me quite a few times, it was so different from any SO of past years). This probably isn't big news to regular BPAL fans, but I wanted to pull out all the Snake Oil I had (I thought I had more, but...). Super aged bottles circa 2009 really only had dribbles left, so I didn't decant from them. But I did grab some pipettes to draw some 2017 Snake Oil and some 2020 Snake Oil (the one I thought was Eat Me so many times) for comparison.

 

There's a dramatic difference in colour, scent. and viscosity The 2020 is a light colour, has a a lot more buttery vanilla sweetness, although aging it for three years it has gone through some changes, the spice is a little more prominent now than it was fresh, but is very different to SOs from my past, sweet and cake-y. The 2017 was a deep reddish colour, spicy, almost smells like a smooth, smoky vetiver is in there, very, very different.  The visual difference was very intriguing. See the photos here of the comparisons, top is SO 2020, bottom is SO 2017. First link is the oils in the pipette, the second link is of what remained inside the pipette once I put it back in the bottle.

 

https://ibb.co/YN6qVF1

 

https://ibb.co/cw2zMV1

 

The 2017 was thick, sticky, viscous Snake Oil as I've always remembered it. 2020 was so thin, it just glided back into the bottle with no effort at all. The older version clung inside the pipette, even while trying to wash it out (I use reusable glass pipettes for my own oils). 

 

 

I also put '17 and '20 on each wrist and asked my mum to smell each (with no context at all). I asked what she though of each. She said 2017 was "much nicer on the snoz" and not as strong as the '20 (I think that might be her perception of sweetness). She was quite perplexed they were the same oils. I also got an opinion on '09 Vs '17, with '17 being "slightly less overpowering" (but I think that's what makes Snake Oil beautiful, the longer it goes, the stronger it goes).

Edited November 8, 2023 by lilacea