Showing posts with label unisex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unisex. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Dorian - Sarawen Perfume Art


First sniff: 
A very potent single floral note - not rose, maybe lotus? With a sharp green note as well.

First applied: 

Woo, this is a head kicker - I sneezed a few times immediately after applying. The floral note is still right out there but I don't think it's lotus. It's definitely not iris or violet, it's familiar but not common to me. Mystery! There's a teeny bit of something that is maybe vanilla... or possibly coconut. It's got that slightly tropical edge. I like this - it's definitely floral but not old lady-ish. Jeez, it's really strong though. Sorry in advance, office!

After 30 minutes: 
I had a doctor's appointment first thing this morning and while he was talking to me he suddenly started sniffling and then sneezed. He said, "Sorry - sensitive nose." At the time I thought he was referring to hay fever, but I realised later on it was my perfume that set him off. Oops! At the 30 minute mark it was still pretty strong, and I still can't figure out what that floral note is. 

After 3 hours: 
Almost gone. Wha' happen? It was super potent for a while and then it seemed to fade really suddenly. I can smell it if I hold my wrist up to my nose but it's definitely only got about two hours or so of real life in it. The base is more mellow, musky and less floral - I'm thinking there's coconut in there for sure. I like this one a lot so I wouldn't mind having to frequently reapply. It's probably more suited to the evening than the office though. 

Longevity: 
About two hours at full potency, then fades considerably. 

Actual notes/description: 
A beauty that never dies, which lingers in late nights with absinthe-induced fantasies as light musks permeate the air. The sweetness of his sins is covered in dark orchids and red florals, while exotic chypres and hints of coconut cream linger in his debauched luxury... main notes: musk, absinthe, orchids, (d'oh!), coconut. 

Availability: 
Sarawen Perfume Art
Fall 2014 - currently available
Sample and full size



Sunday, July 21, 2013

Field of Reeds - Possets Perfumes



Details: 
Field of Reeds
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
Relief and relaxation, paradise Egyptian style. Sweet sandalwood and two ambers, a touch of wood for reeds, and a kiss of golden musk, black pepper married with a drop of labdanum and this conjures the eternal happy golden light in which the elect must have bathed every day. A smooth and resinous sweet blend but with enough of the spice kick of a modern perfume to escape being downright primitive.

I was expecting this to smell more 'green' so I was a bit surprised to find it was nothing like that at all. In the vial it's musk, with what I thought was some kind of incense, though now I think that might be the pepper. The woody notes are quite sweet, and keep it on the feminine side of unisex. The amber comes out in the dry down but is not too overpowering - it makes it deeper and warmer. Sillage is quite high at first but it settles after half an hour or so. Lasting power is very good - I could still smell it just before I had a shower 7 or 8 hours later so who knows how long it would have gone on for. I liked this, but I didn't love it and I don't feel the need to buy a full size. It was just a nice perfume, nothing amazing.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 197!

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Chocolate Macaron - Candida Virgo


Details: 
Chocolate Macaron
@CandidaVirgo

Notes: 
Unknown. My guess - chocolate, coconut, almond... maybe vanilla or something else sweet. 

Well, this was a bit exciting. I had a DM from Candi a couple of weeks ago asking if I would test some perfumes for her. Never one to turn down the opportunity to try new smells, of course I said yes. And oddly enough, after being completely over foody perfumes for a while now, I've just started getting back into them now that the weather is cold and I want cosy smells. Timing!

In the vial this smells quite heavily of almond, with the chocolate there but not front and centre. There's something else there too. it's quite sharp and I can't work out if it's just the almond being potent or if it's another note entirely. Once applied the almond settles down and is almost imperceptible in minutes. The chocolate comes out, then the coconut, and soon it smells like a rich, dense, moist chocolate mud cake. I tried this out after dinner on a cold night, and as I was sitting on the couch sniffing myself compulsively I seriously considered getting up and making a chocolate self-saucing pudding or something for dessert. (Laziness won - it didn't happen.)

The dry down is still heavy on the chocolate and coconut but something sweeter as well. Maybe vanilla, though it isn't a specifically vanilla-y note, and it's not sugary either. Whatever it is, I like it - it adds a nice balance. Sillage is medium, as is longevity. I could still smell it when I went to bed 6 or so hours later. I like this one a lot, and I think the blend would be really nice in bath and body products as well.

Rating:
4/5

Day 185!

Cenobite - Solstice Scents



Details: 
Cenobite
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
A deep and rich vanilla for vanilla lovers. 

The vanilla of vanillas. I have long loved vanilla-scented fragrances. Even before they became a thing and perfumes generally smelled like flowers, I would nick Queen's Vanilla Essence from my mum's baking cupboard and dab it on my arm so I could sniff it at my leisure (it's not creepy). In the 90s I discovered vanilla fragrance oil in a hippie shop and I was all over that for years, along with the classic version from The Body Shop. And then it was almost ruined when companies like Glade discovered it and started making vanilla scented toilet spray, which had the effect of then making most vanilla perfumes smell like... well, toilet spray. (In hindsight maybe it's a good thing because it forced me to branch out with scents and become the hardcore perfume junkie I am today.)

Cenobite is most definitely not a toilet spray vanilla. It's a deep boozy gourmand scent that just smells divine. There's no point saying much more about it. It doesn't have any other notes that jump out at me, it doesn't change on me. It just is what it is, which is the perfect vanilla. Sillage is high - this is a potent perfume. Longevity is FOR. EVER. I have put this on first thing in the morning and I can still smell it on myself 24 hours later before my following morning shower.

Rating:
5/5

Day 184!

Monday, July 1, 2013

Smoky Mountain Mallow - Solstice Scents



Details: 
Smoky Mountain Mallow
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Wood Smoke, Fossilized Amber Resin, Lapsang Souchong CO2, Guaiacwood, Labdanum, Nutmeg EO, Marshmallow

I bought this maybe 6 months ago, but when I first tried it I got nothing more than smoke, so I put it away for a while to see what would happen when it aged. I still get little more than smoke, to be honest. In the vial it smells like a resinous smoky fire. Once applied, it's pretty much the same though there's an element of cigarettes as well. It's ever so slightly sweet, but just barely. It didn't really change on me at all in the 8 hours or so it lasted.

I have a lot of these smokey kind of scents because I really love them, but this is not one of my favourites. I wouldn't buy it in a full size. However, I appear to be in the minority as many people love this one, including Liber Vix, Amanda, and Rachel.

Rating:
2/5

Day 180!




Saturday, June 29, 2013

The Sacred Queen - Twyla Perfumes



Details: 
The Sacred Queen
Maia Collection
Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary

Notes:
Beautiful, ruthless and fiery - The Sacred Queen, with over 14 essential oils, is a deceptively sweet, complex and unmistakably regal blend of honey and smokey vetiver, amber and vintage patchouli, frankincense, neroli and bitter almond with smoldering spices, sacred incense and a heady blend of florals.  

I thought I would hate this at first because in the vial all I got was a big huff of patchouli. However, once applied it almost immediately sweetened and mellowed. I don't really get a distinct floral note but I think there's something flowery about it. It's very, VERY hippie-ish. Not my cup of tea, but not nearly as bad as I initially thought it would be. Oddly I can't smell the honey if I put my nose to my wrist and sniff, but I can smell it when I'm just moving my wrist around - I kept getting whiffs of it at work while I was typing.

The other day I was chatting on Twitter with some people about that fashion in the 90s for the semi-goth look, with long flowing velvet dresses, lace up boots, chokers, hair dyed black or red, etc. This perfume evokes that style for me. There's something about it that says to me: Wiccan, hippie, probably wears or carries a crystal. Sillage is medium - it packs a bit of a punch at first but settles down fairly quickly. Longevity was good - I could smell it on myself for most of the day.

Rating:
3/5

Day 177!

Monday, June 10, 2013

The Baker's Boy - Sarawen Perfumes



Details: 
The Baker's Boy
The Hunger Games
Sarawen Perfumes

Notes:
Spend a day frosting and decorating cakes with Peeta. A luscious, gourmand fragrance bursting with ripe strawberries (from Katniss of course!) and delicious yellow cake. Underneath the delicious-ness drifts soft vetiver, leather, and golden amber. This perfume is a unisex blend that borders towards feminine.

In the vial, and when I first applied this, I thought I smelled hay. Looking at the notes now I realise it's vetiver. At first this is a fairly masculine scent - the vetiver and leather dominating. The dry down however, is when all the sweet foodiness comes out, and I find that really interesting as it's generally the other way around. The strawberries are almost floral-smelling rather than fruity, and the amber is sweet and mellow and not overwhelming. The longer I wore this the more I liked it. Sillage is lowish - it sits reasonably close to the skin but I imagine if you lashed it about you'd make yourself known. The longevity is medium - I reapplied after about 5 hours as it was beginning to smell more faint by then.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 160!

Devilish - Arcana Soaps



Details: 
Devilish
Arcana Soaps (bought from The Rhinestone Housewife)

Notes: 
Shaking off vanilla's reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone. The devil really does have all the best scents!

Hold my hand guys, this is my first ever Arcana. Part of me is wondering what the heck took me so long, and part of me is wishing I never dipped a toe in because I predict I am going to become much poorer. I. FREAKIN'. LOVE. THIS. It's vanilla turned up to 11. In the bottle you really can smell sulphur, and that should be gross, right? I mean, my experience of that smell is trying to 'smoke' matches (don't ask) while lighting the bunsen burners in Science and then going into a coughing fit. Once applied, the vanilla is deep and smokey, with a touch of booziness about it but not too much.

The description of this perfume is spot on - I can't describe it better. It's quite masculine but still a bit sweet, and the sillage starts off reasonably high. When I wore it to work, Jacquie commented on it, saying she liked it but she wouldn't want to be stuck in an elevator with me wearing it. It does settle a little but it lasts a long time - I could still smell it at the end of the day.

Rating: 
5/5 I splurged on a full bottle and I am so glad I did.

Day 156!

Shaking off vanilla’s unfair reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone. The devil really does have all the best scents. - See more at: https://www.therhinestonehousewife.com/products/product-detail.php?iid=45#sthash.TYBCIETM.dpuf
Shaking off vanilla’s unfair reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone. The devil really does have all the best scents. - See more at: https://www.therhinestonehousewife.com/products/product-detail.php?iid=45#sthash.TYBCIETM.dpuf

Monday, June 3, 2013

Snake Oil Salesman - Enchanticals


Details: 
Snake Oil Salesman
Enchanticals Perfume

Notes: 
"Hurry, hurry, step right up! Find it here and here alone, the one, the original Snake Oil Liniment direct from the Santa Rosa Mountains. What does it do you ask?! It heals the sick, and grows hair on your head, rub it on your belly and watch it shrink overnight. Got a headache? Muscle aches? Just rub a bit on the affected area an VIOLA! Pain be gone! This stuff cures all that ails ya, and if you act right now, you can be the one millionth and oneth happy customer who has purchased this miracle ointment!" Ok, I'm lying but I think you might like this one! A sultry unisex fragrance created with tons of love and essential oils like this: Blended together are ancient cypher's, incense accord with frankincense, Egyptian sandalwood, a shot of whiskey, spices like ginger and cardamom, and a bunch of deep dark secrets that well, if you told you I'd have to kill ya ;)

In the vial this is a spicy incense; applied to skin I can smell ginger and what I think might be cloves. Some kind of strong spice, anyway. It's quite masculine and dark. After a couple of minutes it took a horrifying turn and became... fertiliser. I'm not kidding. You know in Spring when the council comes out and lays fertiliser in all the nature strips and it's kind of fresh and country-ish but also gross and manky at the same time? Yeah, that. I thought maybe I was imagining things at first - that I'd stepped in something and that's what I was smelling, but nope, definitely fertiliser.

Like the trooper I am, I stuck it out and thankfully after 20 minutes or so when it had dried down, the fertiliser smell faded and it morphed into a spicy resin, very masculine and not too bad but definitely not my thing. Longevity was low-ish to medium - it had gone completely in 4 hours. Sillage was high at first but didn't last long.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 154!


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Nevada - HEAT - Possets Perfume



Details:
Nevada - HEAT
Possets Perfume

Notes:
Nevada, it's HOT. It's exciting and it gets YOU hot! They work at that, and it's a natural phenomenon. Supersweet vanilla grabs a sassy orange/citrus for a fast ride through the desert at sunset. Resins drip into and out of the blend, and a blast of spice comes from nowhere to tie it all together. Heat isn't for everyone, and certainly not for the timid nor for the conformist, unless you really want to have a brief holiday from your hum drum existence. Gives you all the excitement of that last shake before you roll the dice. USA, spicy resin, long lasting.

There's an episode of one of Nigella's Christmas specials where she soaks a turkey in a bucket full of brine to which she has added a ton of seasonings like orange peel, cloves, star anise, vanilla pods, and so on. Oddly enough, this is exactly what Nevada made me think of when I first smelled it. It doesn't conjure up any kind of hot weather for me at all - quite the opposite. It makes me think of a cold, wintery Christmas.

In the vial it's mostly citrus, but the spice comes out on the skin and the vanilla sweetens it, but thankfully not in the same sickly way as Florida. The drydown is spicy citrus resin, still resolutely holiday food, but deeper and darker. 

Sillage is medium and longevity is quite good - about 8 hours later I could still smell it on my wrist. I don't know if I like it all that much - it's not bad but it just doesn't make me think of what it's obviously supposed to represent. I think this perfume should actually be called Nigella's Christmas Turkey.

Rating:
2/5

Day 153!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Conjure - Solstice Scents



Details: 
Conjure
Dark Spring 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
A magical blend of Vanilla, Amber, Cedar, Spices & Cauldron Smoke. 

As with Manor, I can smell something a bit leathery in this perfume, even though it's not listed as a note. In fact, this perfume is vaguely similar to Manor - quite masculine but also a bit sweet from the vanilla and amber. The spice smells a little bit like ginger and maybe even some nutmeg. (I have whole nutmeg - nutmegs? nutmeg nuts? - in a jar in my kitchen and secretly I like to just stand there sniffing it - gorgeous).

The dry down is a smooth, smokey woody vanilla. I do like this, but I think it's a bit like Old Cedar Magus, just blokier, and since I already have a beloved full bottle of that I don't think I'd spring for this one. Sillage is medium to high - I was quite aware of it most of the day. It lasted a good while too, I could still faintly smell it 12 hours later.

Rating:
3/5

Day 147!


Private Eye - Solstice Scents



Details: 
Private Eye
Dark Spring 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Cocoa Absolute, Myrrh, EO, Pink Pepper EO, Black Pepper EO, Tonka Absolute, Buddha Wood, Tobacco Absolute, Coffee EO, Guiacwood, Rosewood, EO, etc. 

In the vial this smells like dark, dark peppery bitter chocolate. It's woody and I can also smell the tobacco, a very masculine and intense fragrance. Once applied, the first thing that came to mind is that scene from Withnail and I when they drive past the school girls and Richard E. Grant hangs out the car window and screams, "SCRUBBERS!" I don't know what happened but it just went immediately acrid on me and I hated it. It was sharp and bitter and although I left it on for over an hour hoping it would morph into something else, it stayed stubbornly that way. In the end I just had to get it off. Definitely not for me.

Rating: 
1/5

Day 146!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Vanilla Pipe Tobacco - Solstice Scents



Details: 
Vanilla Pipe Tobacco
Dark Spring 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes:
Vanilla Absolute, Tobacco Absolute, Tonka Bean Absolute and Sweet Clover Absolute.

For the longest time this perfume smelled like nothing but pipe tobacco. My grandpa - who died about 30 years ago - smoked a pipe, and this is the exact smell I always associate with him. It's funny how there's something I find comforting and warming about pipe tobacco smell, but if someone was standing next to me with a cigarette I'd be giving them stink eye.

After about an hour I could finally smell the other notes - well, not really specifically, it just morphed into a warmer, sweeter pipe tobacco. I wouldn't wear this as a perfume - I don't want to smell like I smoke a pipe - but I really like it a lot. Sillage was medium, longevity also medium - about 6 hours before it was too faint to really pick up.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 145!


Midnight Oil - Solstice Scents


Details: 
Midnight Oil 
Dark Spring 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Cocoa Absolute, Blood Orange EO, Yellow Mandarin EO, Aged Patchouli, Labdanum Absolute, Coffee EO and Mushroom Absolute.


Well, this is a quirky one. When I first smelled it in the vial all I got was a big hit of patchouli and I was wondering what possessed me to buy it. Man, I really don't like patchouli. Once applied I could smell what I was convinced was grapefruit, but looking at the notes now I realise that was blood orange and mandarin. So for a while I had patchouli with a greenness to it and a note of (what I thought was) grapefruit hanging around, and then suddenly I could smell chocolate - a very dark, bitter chocolate. A couple of hours later the citrus was the most prominent note, but it was like citrus in a dark, damp, slightly musty cellar. Not quite earthy, but definitely... dark. The citrus was kind of threatening to turn into fly spray at any second but that never happened (thankfully). Sillage was medium and longevity was decent - 6 hours or so.

Rating: 
Undecided. I don't like the patchouli, but the other things in it make it a really interesting blend. I don't know if I actually like it, but I was sniffing it a lot trying to work it out. I think it's worth trying for curiosity if nothing else.

Day 144!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Manor - Solstice Scents



Details:
Manor
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Woody-Vanilla Musk, Vanilla Accord, Glorious Black Agarwood & Exquisite Aloeswood.

When I test perfume samples I pull them out randomly (unlike bottles, which I use as the review of the day if it's just something I feel like wearing and I've not reviewed it previously), but sometimes I pull one out and it's a complete mystery to me. I can't decide whether I like it, I can't pick what it smells like, I just find it confusing and I can't write about it because it makes no sense to me. Manor is one of these perfumes - I have pulled it out several times this year, tested it for the day, found it baffling and put it back in the drawer for another time. I suspect it might be partially because it's a warm perfume and probably more suitable for cold weather, and since it's finally getting cold here in Adelaide, I'm starting to get my head around it a bit. I still find it a bit odd - for example, in the vial and throughout its lifespan on my wrist I smell leather, which is not mentioned at all in the notes. It brings to mind an old, antique Chesterfield. The wood is definitely there - this is very resiny - and the vanilla is not distinct to me as vanilla, but there's definitely something there sweetening it up a tad.

Manor is quite masculine, those who like the more unisex kind of perfumes might enjoy this. The sillage is fairly high for at least an hour or so, and it lasts a long time. I've been wearing it since about 9am (it's just gone 3pm now) and I can still smell it when I move my arm around. I still don't know whether I like it or not - I certainly don't hate it.

By the way, be warned those who wear light-coloured clothing - this is one that will probably stain - as evidenced by the yellow mark it left on my wrist.


Rating: 
Undecided. This one is another mystery.

Day 137!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Pyrotechnik - Darling Clandestine


Details: 
Pyrotechnik
Darling Clandestine

Notes: 
Carefully blended and infused by me in small batches in vintage glass wine bottles, this fragrance is a sangria-spicy concoction with bold notes of cantaloupe and raw sandalwood darkened with smoke and earth. A multitude of different scent elements and weeks of methodical alchemy make Pyrotechnik no ordinary scented oil mix—it's a truly inimitable fragrance. The spice element in this one can warm the skin a bit, so take note if you're a sensitive type.

It took me ages to work out that what I was smelling was melon - in the bottle and when applied wet there was a strong watery element that I thought might have been cucumber for a while, but then realised it was too sweet. There is also a green note and something that smells like damp earth. I don't really get spice or sandalwood, though it does warm up as it dries, so maybe that's just those adding some heat rather than specific scent notes. This doesn't last a long time on me - maybe 3 hours, and although it starts off quite strong it sits close to the skin once it dries down. However, the bottle I have is huge so frequent reapplication doesn't bother me at all. 

This would be a lovely summer scent; the melon is fresh and bright without smelling 'fruity'.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 134!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Carny Wedding - Darling Clandestine


Details: 
Carny Wedding
Darling Clandestine

Notes: 
Carefully blended and infused by me in small batches in vintage glass wine bottles, this fragrance begins butter candy sweet and mellows on the skin to resiny wood and honeyed nectar. A multitude of different scent elements and weeks of methodical alchemy make Carny Wedding no ordinary scented oil mix-it's a truly inimitable fragrance. 

Jeepers creepers - in the vial this is sweet and smokey with a slight hint of candy, and when I applied it to my wrist I got a big hit of smokey bacon! Not at all what I was expecting. I don't quite know what to make of this. I have found with the few Darling Clandestine perfumes I've played with that they never smell like the (often scantly mentioned) notes lead me to think they will. And don't get me wrong, I love the smell of bacon. It's just so completely unexpected. When the perfume dries down that note goes away though the smokiness stays in the background.

Regular readers will know that within my perfume obsession I have a little side obsession with any kind of carnival/fun fair/freak show kind of scents, but they are almost all within a family of notes - foody, sweet, sticky, etc. I had expected Carny Wedding to be perhaps a more artsy version of one of those, and it's just not like those at all. Do I like it? I don't know. It's intriguing, and it's not quite like anything else I have. And I like that Darling Clandestine perfumes are often a puzzle.  As for whether I want to walk around smelling like this, I've yet to decide...

Rating: 
Undecided. A mystery!

Day 132!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Daydream Nation - Twyla Perfumes



Details: 
Daydream Nation
Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary

Notes: 
Musk seed, nagramotha, cardamom, dark patchouli, myrrh, clove, pomegranate accord, spice, amber and rose otto.

This is quite sweet in the vial, not in a sugary way but like the kind of spices you get in rice pudding. Applied to skin this is very heavy on the patchouli - at least for me. I'm not a patchouli fan, as you'd know if you read this blog regularly, and even though Twyla uses one of the few patchoulis I can tolerate, this one is too much for me, especially blended with amber. There's a spiciness to it and something that smells a bit like hay. It's very hippie-ish and could be worn by either men or women. I found this quite strong - the sillage is high for a Twyla perfume (it's one of the newer stronger versions), and it lasted a good 7 or 8 hours.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 131!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Swimming Horses - Twyla Perfumes




Details: 
Swimming Horses
Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary

Notes: 
Water lily accord, ginger lily, magnolia, seaweed absolute, choya nakh, white musk accord, and ozone.

I had no expectation of liking this. I bought it because it has seaweed absolute and choya nakh, which is 'the aroma of roasted seashells' and I just had to smell that. I was actually a bit scared of it at first, because I had a horrible thought that it might be fishy.

It's not fishy, thankfully. In the vial it's very fresh and light, almost nothing - ozone, I guess. Once applied it's more beachy. I hate the beach, not least the smell, but this was actually... not unpleasant. To me it smelled like fresh clean air with just a hint of something floral in the breeze. This was a sample from before Twyla increased the strength of her perfumes, and it disappeared fairly quickly on me - within a couple of hours. It's not a bad perfume if you like that sort of thing, but it's not for me.

I gave this sample to my friend Jacquie, who loves these kinds of ozone/seaside perfumes. Her reaction after applying to her wrist: "Oh, this is nice!" *sniff sniff* "Oh wow, I really like this!" *sniff sniff* "Oh my god, I LOVE this!" So there you go - if you like those kinds of perfumes, check this one out.

Rating:
Me: 2/5
Jacquie: 4.5/5

Day 128!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Snake Oil - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab


Details: 
Snake Oil
Ars Amatoria
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:
By far our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesion oils sugared with vanilla. 

It's been a long time since I wore some of my classic favourites, so I dragged a couple out for a run around the block, starting with Snake Oil. It's no surprise this is BPAL's most popular perfume - it's awesome. It's one of the few I ever get asked about when I wear it. My bottle is from December 2009, so it's aged a bit and I can't remember what new Snake Oil smells like. I have been intending to get a back up bottle sometime, but their shipping is so ridiculous (both cost and length of time) that I only order from them once or twice a year.

Anyway, Snake Oil is a sweet incensey perfume, very deep and sexy. I sent a sample to Nadja who said it reminded her of something else but she couldn't think what, and I've been having that same problem for years. It reminds me of one of those headkicking orientals from the 80s - like Shalimar or Opium, but it's neither of those. Damned if I can figure it out. The sillage on this is high - it's definitely not one for work if you sit in close proximity to others. Lasting power is excellent too. I put it on in the early morning and could still smell it the next day when I got up.

This is one perfume that I think everyone should try - you might hate it, but you might just fall in love.

Rating: 
5/5

Day 125!