BPAL -- Snake Oil and Three from the Snake Pit

All BPAL today.

Snake Oil -- "By far, our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla."

Reviewing BPAL's Snake Oil is kind of like reviewing Chanel No. 5; everyone's had a go at it and most people who will be reading the review have probably already got a bottle in their possession. Which kind of makes me wonder whatever happened to my duty-free bottle of No. 5, but it would be just about 30 years old now and anyway, I digress. I ordered this because I loved one of the the Snake Pit scents (which are Snake Oil with extras) and wanted to see if it was the Snake Oil part I loved or that plus the extras.

At first sniff in the bottle, Snake Oil is pure headshop, right down to what I'd swear is a faint bit of patchouli, although most reviews don't mention it. The minute I get it on my skin, even before the dry down, the vanilla shows up. It is not a foody vanilla at all, but a sweet incensey scent, with a nice spicey background.

About 10 minutes in, I get powder, which makes me suspect that one of the Indonesian oils is amber. Strangely enough that faint hint of patchouli is gone gone gone, leaving me to wonder if it was ever there in the first place. What I've got now is an ambery, powdery vanilla, which I like but which isn't wowing me.

In the end, after about a half hour, the powder has faded down to acceptable levels and this is a nice, slightly spicey, slightly ambery, slightly dark vanilla, with pretty good staying power and a decent throw. I like it and I'm happy enough to have a big bottle, but honestly, I don't really think it's all that and a bag of chips. This seems to be common with me and BPAL; I'm usually only mildly enthused over the blends that most people love like crazy. I actually think I like the Temple Viper better.

It's always interesting when someone calls a perfume "sexual" because you have to wonder who its aimed at. The "normal" assumption is that it's sexy on women in a way men will like--yay heteronormative society! In fact, the reason you see so many vanilla scents these days is that recent surveys have shown that men find vanilla to be a very sexy smell. I wonder if any surveys have been done on what women like to smell on other women. What I'm trying to get at is: this smells good, but I don't know that if I smelled it on some random woman on the street I'd want to jump her. Darkrose will be home in a couple of hours; I'll have to see if she likes it.

Three short reviews of the Snake Pit, Act III of Carnaval Diabolique, which will be available until September '08. These were originally done for a forum and on the run; this is what a quick review looks like.

Australian Copperhead -- Snake Oil with acai berry, amber, cardamom, neroli, and smoked vanilla.

In imp and wet on me -- bright, sweet/tart berry!

Five minutes in -- Oddly enough it's got a faint "green" note to it although it's still mostly the berry.

Twenty minutes it -- now I get the amber and a little hint of the vanilla underneath the green/berry scent. This is nice and bright, "fun" scent. It's not very me though; I was hoping for more amber/cardomom/smoked vanilla than acai berry.

Green Tree Viper -- Snake Oil with four mints, bergamot and green tea.

In imp and wet on me -- Mmmmm...sweet mint green tea.

Dry down and five minutes in -- For once, this doesn't morph much; it smells just like it does in the imp. And, even though I put on lotion just before testing, I can tell that this is already fading.

Twenty minutes in -- It's mostly the mint now and even that is faint. :(

Overall Impression -- I really like it, but like most tea and/or mint scents, it's gone way too fast.

Temple Viper -- Snake Oil with sugar cane, frankincense, champaca, opoponax, labdanum, and hyssop.

In imp and wet -- Dry and resiny with a sweet undernote.

Dry down and five minutes in -- Oh my, this is nice. It's got the dry/incense notes of some of her scents like Cathedral along with the added sweet of the sugar cane and the vanilla.

Twenty minutes in -- It's smoothed out now and I really really love it. All sugary and incensey. Not sure I like it $20 worth but man, am I tempted.