puellacaerulea

I'm generally kind of meh about original Snake Oil because I tend to find it too heavy and incense-y. On the other hand, I've been avoiding gourmands lately since they tend to go sickeningly sweet on me. Snake Milk manages to find a perfect happy medium between these two things. The SO spices go a little sharp on me as the scent dries down, but once it's dried down, I get a rich, caramelized creme brulee with SO muskiness in the background, keeping the sweetness in "just right" territory. If you liked Please Scream Inside Your Snake Oil, you'll probably also like this.

So BPAL honey notes can be hit-or-miss on me. Some work great, while others are simultaneously cloyingly sweet and strangely sharp. Unfortunately, this honey note is the latter. After drydown, the honey settles and lets a rich milk note and sweet, musky ambrette come out...but only temporarily, as later in wear the honey comes back. The milk and ambrette are lovely, but the way this honey note goes on my skin is making this blend a miss for me.

Skipped this one during its original run and later, after learning that I really like palo santo as a note, grabbed a secondhand bottle. In the bottle and once applied, it's soft, dry palo santo with distinctly lemony and anise-y undertones, along with smooth frankincense. I was worried about the palo and frankincense combo being too heavy, but the frankincense mostly adds a resinous depth without getting too dark or heavy for everyday wear. I'd probably find this too resinous if the frankincense ended up becoming the dominant note, but on my skin it's a background player to the palo santo. Overall, soft, dry, cool palo santo, subtly deepened with frankincense. Glad to have tracked some down to add to my growing palo santo collection.

This one starts with a fresh-laundry cotton note -- fresh, but borderline screechy and astringent. The marshmallow (which initially almost put me off this scent) shows up after application and adds some sweetness, but it doesn't get cloying -- instead it helps tone down the sharpness of the cotton note. The frankincense is very subtle, but it adds a smoothness at the base of the scent that helps the whole blend hold together. Overall, a fresh cotton blend that could work in both spring and fall.

This starts off a balance of herbaceous lavender and green notes. As it dries down, the lichen note amps up and becomes dominant -- it's clean, fresh, green, and kind of soapy in combination with the lavender, but not in an unpleasant way.

Took a chance on a decant of this despite BPAL's white tea note often going too astringent on me. White tea and neroli are the most obvious notes at the outset. While I do get a brief astringent phase with the white tea, it fades on the drydown, leaving a very pale, light neroli with a little extra white floral punch from the champaca petals. Overall, a pale, bright, low-key white floral that sticks very close to the skin. On the fence about whether I need a 5ml of this, but I'll definitely keep my decant for warm-weather wear.

So I went for a decant of this one because TAL Isychia taught me that I do in fact really love blue tansy as a note. This scent is complex and morphs several times during its wear time. It starts out with deep, resinous, slightly sweet frankincense, with the blue tansy adding a bright, herbaceous floral note. As it dries down, a dry, soft sandalwood note amps up and calms down the resins. Eventually, after drydown, the frankincense becomes dominant again, but there's a faint breath of fuzzy sandalwood behind it, while the tansy is still there adding brightness. It's beautiful and complex, but the resin notes are dominant enough that I'm not sure I'd reach for it often enough for a full bottle.

This blend is a cozy, warm, hazelnut-forward scent. The hazelnut cream and wool notes are at the forefront, but the cedar and vetiver are definite background presences, taking this blend beyond "cozy semi-gourmand" territory. The vetiver isn't loud or smoky, but blends with the cedar in a way that adds a deep, smooth woodsiness in the background. Still primarily a warm, cozy scent, but with a backbone that sets it apart.

Cool, clean sage and bright, slightly tart lime. The sage starts off a little sharp, but calms down as it dries down. Simple and fresh.

This blend starts out gardenia-forward, with the labdanum giving it a heavily resinous edge that reads almost medicinal alongside the gardenia. As it wears, the labdanum overtakes the gardenia -- more dark resin with a hint of white floral than the other way around. I'm not loving the medicinal quality I'm getting from the labdanum, so this one may go to swaps.

This blend is warm but dry, non-foodie vanilla, with a bit of added warmth and sweet earthiness from the hay absolute. The nutmeg slowly amps up on me as it dries down, adding extra sweetness to the vanilla, but not going into full-blown gourmand territory. Overall, a warm, approachable vanilla blend. Haven't tried Antique Lace, so can't make comparisons there, but lovers of Hay Moon or Cedarwood & Smoked Vanilla will probably also enjoy this.

In the decant and on my skin, the bourbon tobacco is the more prominent note -- dark, sweet, chewy, just a little astringent. The bergamot is a background player but is definitely there, adding a slight but distinct citrus brightness and astringency that plays well with the tobacco. Tobacco lovers shouldn't miss this one. Considering a full bottle for my fall/winter rotation.

Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin -- soft, slightly powdery orris and gentle white musk. This is a pale, low-key, very understated scent. Sticks close to the skin, but has great staying power. It's very pretty in its simplicity. Might be a bottle purchase for me.

2021 version: I don't know if it's something with my skin chemistry, but this was much, much different than what I expected. I pictured something lavender-forward (and lavender is more prominent in the decant), but once it's on, the pale amber and ambergris amp up in a way that is -- surprisingly -- like a kind of vanillic, old-books smell. It took me straight back to rooting through the small under-the-stairs closet where my aunt stored all the old board games at her beach house. While I love the scent memory, it's not necessarily what I want to smell like day-to-day, so just going to stick with my decant.

This is a really gorgeous, mature, unique rose blend. This is a deep, dark red, jammy rose, backed up with soft, almost lemony palo santo. Rose often goes powdery on me, but this one doesn't -- I don't know if it's this specific rose note or that the palo santo is balancing out any powderiness. Over its wear time (which is very long; this stayed strong on me for over 12 hours), the rose slowly softens, gets less jammy, and fades in favor of the palo. This is likely to be a bottle upgrade for me just because I don't often find rose scents that don't go to baby powder on me, and I don't have any rose blends quite like this in my stash.