Snake Smut

[zankoku_zen]

I made a little treat for myself: Snake Oil and Smut with leather accord, cardamom, and 7-year aged patchouli.

[abejita]

Can the entirety of my review be “Beth! Why didn’t you do this ten years ago so I could have it already aged?!”

 

More seriously, it’s lovely. It’s wearable and enjoyable now. The Smut and the Snake Oil meld, yet are still distinctly recognizable. It’s dark, rich, resinous, musky. I am going to break my no back-ups rule. 
 

I have a bottle of Smut from... 2006? It’s well over 10 years old. It’s so fucking gorgeous. I have Snake Oil from 2005, and it’s a goddamn treasure. I confess I’ve been tempted to mix them before, but now I don’t have to.

[torischroeder9]

In the bottle: The leather accord is the strongest note, with an after-whiff of cardamom. I do not get either recognizable Snake Oil or recognizable Smut at this stage. 

 

On my skin:

 

The oil has the distinctive darker color of both Smut and Snake Oil. Wet, it flits between recognizable Snake Oil and the leather accord. As it dries, even the Snake Oil recedes, so the leather accord note is at the forefront again. There is a touch of something spiced -- I can't tell if it's the cardamom or the spices in the Snake Oil -- behind that. 

 

I think... I at least need to rest my bottle a bit more. (It's been resting 5 days.) 

[storme]

Okay, so, Snake Oil and Smut are both flops on my skin, and so it shouldn't be surprising: this didn't work on me either. I just smelled like someone tried to cover up wet, dirty clothes with patchouli incense.

I was so hopeful based on reviews on facebook from other people who don't get on with Smut! My feeling is that I suspect if you have better luck with SO than I do that you'll have much more fun with this scent.

[boomtownrat]

Had BPAL been around when I was in my twenties, the collar of my black leather motorcycle jacket would've smelled like this from three nights a week of putting on my favourite oils and donning the jacket for a night out at the club. There are similarities to Snake Skin, but it's softer and quieter. I'm not getting separate cardamom or patchouli, but I can tell they're blended well into the rest of the notes. It lasts for hours.

 

Smut is one that I have to age for years to get the best out of it, but Snake Oil is a favourite of mine at any age. I already find that Snake Smut wears better on me than Snake Oil and especially Smut when they're fresh, so I can imagine that it will age gloriously.

[ReallyZeb]

In the bottle it’s all leather and saddle soap

Wet on the skin I can find the cardamon and it’s quite strong, with a background of old leather. The patchouli is playing nice.

Once it’s dry I get cardamon, leather, Snake Oil and Smut - but still no patchouli. This might well change after it’s rested for a while.

[Kanra]

I love Snake Oil and love Smut so this was a must add to my cart.

 

The Snake Oil and Smut, at least on my skin, are there in equal measures. There's not too much surprising about this blend in terms of smell because it's exactly how I imagined Snake Oil + Smut to be. The surprising part is that it's a lot lighter than expected. Snake Oil and Smut are both incredibly deep and powerhouses on me with great throw and longevity. Snake Smut... surprisingly is pretty light and tame, even mellow. It has the smell of Snake Oil and Smut but as of now lacks the power.

 

Since Snake Oil and Smut are two fragrances that, in my opinion, improve drastically with age, I assume this will too. Maybe it will even pick up the deeper and more complex nuances of aged Snake Oil and Smut. Well, either way, I enjoy it quite a lot, even if it's lighter than I expected!

[groovyrooby]

I know nothing of straight up Smut nor of Snake Oil. I have only known either in a blend, and I've enjoyed those blends immensely!

 

That said - this is not at all what I expected! Right out of the bottle, this is unmistakably Dr. Pepper. 😮 Sweet cola and bitter rooty candy, of the sarsaparilla or horehound variety - a little herbal and a little fruity. Not root beer - Dr. Pepper. I've had this experience once before - The Isles of Demons, which on me was a spicy floral I really enjoyed.

 

Rich cocoa is somewhere lurking in back. Husband thought he smelled something lemony, too. Maybe that's the cardamom? Bright version, not the warm baking spice version. I got no detectable leather, which is very good news for me. Patchouli crept in slowly but still withheld its power.

 

Surprisingly soft for all the elements here. This is going to age like a beast!

Edited April 14, 2021 by groovyrooby

[Vaporeon]

Testing fresh from the mailbox:

Lovely cardamom- spiked snake oil on an overlay of smut. Not a ton of leather right now. Smut on its own a is a little meh for me and this is probably my favorite use of it so far

[starbrow]

Like the sneakiest of snakes, Snek Smoot (as I lovingly dubbed it for Facebook censorship purposes) is a total slitherer. It arrives smelling all gloriously of aged Snake Oil and rich leather, with not a drop of smut in sight. A few days later, it was a lot smuttier. Now? It's turned into a root beer cola fest (thanks, labdanum/rooty patchouli?) with a side of leather, drying down over the hours into a vanillic Snake Oil with a bit more of Smut's smutty red musk. 

 

I have the feeling this one is going to continue morph both in the bottle and on the skin over time. I will keep checking in. I'm not in love with it at the moment but because I know it will undoubtedly change over time, I'm curious to stay along for the ride, so this bottle will be staying with me for a while. I don't hate it, but it's not yet the treat I want!

[HerbGirl]

Diluted Smut + a bit of patchouli is what I'm smelling. I let this rest for a while because of all of the strong personalities that were listed but there's nothing strong about it. I'm very surprised at how light this is. 

 

Eta: I wish I got what everyone else is getting.

Edited May 3, 2021 by HerbGirl

[Abyssgazesback]

Smooth, creamy, syrupy leather with a little dry patch crackling underneath. Root beer float, but the ice cream is leather, and there’s bondage in the root beer.

[firefae]

Preconceived notions: I've been...overindulging...my perfume obsession lately, so I told myself I was going to take it easy on the Lupers this year. And then the Lupers were actually released and there were a few I had a straight-up Pavlovian response to. Snake Smut was probably my most-anticipated one of these. I love-love SO and many of its variants, and have had a complicated relationship with OG Smut (it veers into a strangely soapy place sometimes on my skin...but then other times it's a sexy af musk-bomb, so idek), but the Smut variants from this past fall have played consistently nice with no hints of soap. And leather, cardamom, and patch are all big happy places for me. On paper, this is approximately one million percent up my alley. I have no sense for which notes will dominate in this powerhouse combo, but my expectations here are through the roof.

 

Test round 1, less than 15 minutes out of the mailbox (self control is overrated): Wet, there are some Smut and some SO similarities here, including the kinda plasticky scent fresh SO can have and the soapy angle Smut sometimes takes on me. The almost-lemony vanilla of the SO is warming up quickly, though, as are some of those smutty musks. After 10 minutes this has sorted itself out and hot damn. This is very much what I'd hoped this combo might smell like. Will test again when it's settled a little more, but I'll be pretty surprised if I don't grab a backup of this one.

 

Test round 2, two-ish weeks later (round 1 was a single wrist, this round is a full slather): Not even a hint of plastic or soapy anything this time! Wild. Wet, it's "snake oil and smut came to play at a leather party at that one local club circa 1992", and then it warms up smelling like someone pulled the whole bawdy gathering into a more intimate and maybe faintly smoky back room and I am really, really here for the whole wickedly sexy vibe this is giving off. My one real wish is that it had more throw and staying power--this goes big in the way I imagined these notes would for the first ten minutes or so but then dials itself back close to a skin scent for the rest of the wear, and it's faded quite a bit even from that after 3-ish hours. The patchouli-vanilla-leather-red musky whiffs I'm still getting of it are dang good, though, and this seems like a scent that's only going to improve with a few years of age as it gets stickier and even more glorious.

 

Verdict: Well, purchasing this was not, it turns out, a way to curb my overindulgence (I mean, not that I really expected it to be). Or improve my self control. Almost certainly going to grab a backup--even if this doesn't gain longevity or intensity with age, the lab-fresh version is so my kind of scent already that I'll easily work my way through at least two bottles of it.

[Jenesis]

Fresh on: Argh, cardamom! Pooh. I'll have to wait for it to rest and age for the curry note to die down.

[feyofthefellwood]

Seriously gorgeous. I actually find the throw fairly strong, although I think the longevity will get better as it ages. The Snake Oil and Smut blend really well into a bright, rich, sugared and spiced vanilla with sensual red musk. I can pick out the cardamom but not the leather so much, though it's probably making the scent more substantial. Glad to have a bottle; I'm sure this will age gloriously. 

[bulletslc]

Muuuuaaaaaahhhaaaahaaaahaaaa! This IS the seduction scent I've been waiting for! Too bad I'm post menopausal and on antidepressants and now have no libedo..... OR YOU'D ALL BE DOOMED TO WORSHIP ME (while wearing this....) 😌🦄

[Threemoons]

This one was a no-brainer for me as it has SO MANY of my fave BPAL notes--Snake Oil, Smut, cardamom, aged patch, and leather are normally my instabuy notes, and of COURSE I had to have them all in the same bottle.  Add me to the long list of people who are betting that this will age phenomenally, if I can keep out of my backup bottles long enough because I want to bathe in this.  I so, so, SO hope that this becomes part of Lupers rotation every year!  

 

Anyway, on to the review!  In the bottle!  A warm blast of spicy sweet patch; almost getting Silkybat vibes on this!  Then, two seconds after the first sniff, a nice dark wave of leather creeps up in the back of my nose.  OOOOOOH this is gonna be FUN!

 

On, wet:  Oh yeah, that's the stuff.  Some of the booziness of Smut starts to come forward, and some of the leather note gets pushed to the front more on a wave of that glorious musky smuttiness.  The cardamom packs little sparkles of itself on top of the wave also.

 

Drydown:  I have this gorgeous, slightly boozy sweet patchouli thing with an almost dusty brown leather undertone on it.  The elements blend completely together on drydown, which is amazing.  My only gripe is that I wish this lasted longer on me!  It may be because I put it on fresh out of the shower--so almost no skin oil to absorb it; will keep re-applying later in the day.  

 

EDIT OK second application seems to be lasting longer, YAY!  Edit to edit:  OK, second application lasting MUCH longer, really nice!!

Edited May 3, 2021 by Threemoons

[Casablanca]

This already seems better than when I first tried it a few days ago.

 

On applying this, the earliest notes for me are those from Smut: sugary booziness. Then I get cardamom and a blend of leather and Snake Oil.

 

Once dried, Snake Smut sits on my skin like sugar cardamom Snake Oil... In other words, delicious.

 

Although the notes are different, the mood of this blend reminds me a lot of Dalliance with an Amorous Bat Demon from last year: pretty badass. Although, with the sugar booze from Smut, the vibe seems to shift a little from "Don't fuck with me" to "Don't fuck with me... unless I want you to."

 

I was going to say no to a bottle of this, but now I'm not so sure.

[zankoku_zen]

Leather, SO, musk, and a whiff of patchouli. A seriously heavy SO blend, with points to leather and domination. Great throw and wear length.

[VetchVesper]

So, Snake Oil's nice, but a little tame for my tastes. Smut's pretty good, but I have other stuff that's similar. SNAKE Smut however... Well, let's just say I'll be buying one for now and one for later. 

 

The two fragrances together just seem more intense, lusty, and darker. There's a smokey richness and a woody bitterness, a deepening of the spices. There is nothing subtle about this delectably raunchy perfume. Moar please. 

[rivetted]

Snake Smut is delicious, as a lover of resin-y & sweet scents.

There's definitely a touch of something in the beginning that makes me think of citrus, or orange blossom perhaps, but maybe that's just the boozey smells swirling around and drying down.

The only thing I'm sad about is that it doesn't seem to last very long on my skin - maybe an hour or two? So I have to keep reapplying it. 

Oh well, just have to get two bottles if it's not going to be the lasting type. 

(Though maybe age will help!)

[Jenjin]

Slather this and sit back, close your eyes and enjoy. Imagine you are the Princess of an ancient empire, wrapped in leathers and the finest silks. You are taking part in a sacred ceremony, whips are cracking, passions are igniting and wonderful, delightful smells are all around, spices, patchouli, and musky vanilla. The sun is just setting and you can hear the soothing chants - hypnotic, enchanting and mesmerizing.
Still debating on whether to hunt down more of this, it does have a bit of a cola float vibe, but I kinda dig that part. Yummy!

Edited June 2, 2021 by Jenjin

[fairybites]

Snake Oil and leather with a little bit of patchouli. I don't get much of Smut except for a faint musky booziness. The leather isn't too strong, the patchouli and spices from Snake Oil are bigger players in this blend. It's dark and a little sweet, but I wouldn't say it goes near foodie territory or anything like that. 

 

Not my favorite Snake Oil blend, and I wish I got more of Smut, but I still like it! Will probably upgrade, hopefully some aging will help make Smut more prominent and the cardamom to appear.

[doomsday_disco]

I was frimped a decant of this and was surprised to discover I like it, given that I don't even like Smut. (Heresy, I know.) It's a musky, soft, well-worn leather and Snake Oil blend with some light patchouli. The grape-y musk that I really dislike in Smut isn't prominent here. However, it seems pretty soft for a Snake Oil blend (especially since both Snake Oil and Smut are powerhouses on their own). The cardamom never showed up on me.

 

I'm really glad I got to try this! I'm not sure it is something I need more of, since I'd probably still opt for Snake Skin for Snake Oil and leather, but if you want an extra helping of musk along with your Snake Oil, give this a whirl.

[melandie]

When the Lupers dropped, this one basically walked itself into my cart. I love Smut, and Snake Oil proper is just meh on me (but I love many variants), and this combo is gorgeous. Like others, I have to hunt for the Smut, but the leather and patch dirty up the scent a bit, while the cardamom adds a spicy clean twist. Someone upthread made a comparison to Snake Skin, and that was definitely something that occurred to me as well. The leather here is definitely more subtle though. 

 

I have a backup already in my cart, and I *know this is going to age into something even better than it is now.