patina

I'm glad I tried this, this does smell exactly like the way green maraschino cherries look and smell. The peppermint can be a little weird when it pokes out and this isn't for anyone who can't stand anything cough syrup like. But overall it blends surprisingly well into an unnatural tart green fruity scent. Good for summer.

Grassy green jasmine tea. Deep down it has an almost vetiver like note which makes sense because of the lapsung souchong. There's a little soapiness, maybe the ginger. It's like tea and some high quality, odd, partially burnt Japanese incense sticks left in a box with a few spices and soaps. Not bad, but this isn't for me.

Smoky dark red roses and by "smoky" I don't mean charred. More like colored by the resins. I almost smell jasmine here, maybe the oud is indolic? Anyway this has an old movie glamor feel to it.

Notes unseen I thought this had a heavy dark wool, like the wool in Druid, along with a clean, bright lemon musk smell and some vanilla.

I had hopes for this one, unfortunately it seems the "lemon" could easily go sour on my skin and the darkness of the tobacco sometimes combines with it to produce something like a sour, abandoned washcloth. That isn't a strong effect, but just the faintest suggestion is enough.

 The scent was very clean and cozy when I first put it on, though.

I skipped this one in the past, possibly because I used to expect lemon in perfume to automatically be a citrus bomb. Instead this is dark, sweet, crumbly wood with a bit of lemon for illumination. I'd compare it to woody incense or the inside of a terrarium. I don't get a lot of smoke, but there's a faint hit of singe. Not an absolute favorite, but remarkably pleasant and a bit sultry.

Sweet opium. It would be perfume opium except for the ton or rugged boot leather, oak, and something that smells like nettles reduced down to a green soup. As it is, the opium smells like a stand-in for a humid dark night.

I like it, but it's very creepy woodshed.

First wear: very carnation: pink, somewhat powdery floral. Soft clove. The Snake Oil background is not prominent, somehow there's an occasional whiff of suede leather in the background. I think my brain is mistaking the patchouli and musk for leather. I'm reminded of The Bow and Crown of Conquest. Up close I get Snake Oil. The Snake will likely get stronger with time.

I'll have to test this one later. As Snake Oil blends go this isn't my favorite so far because I'm neutral on carnation. But Snake Oil blends also intensify with time and I do like clove.

Day two, warmer: the vanilla, spice, and amber(?) are really coming out.

So, since I haven't done this one

narcissius= white floral almost a fruity melon

myrrh=snuffed candle

opium= latex, a not-quite-rubber that I somehow enjoy even though I dislike rubber

Sheer black silk and slightly melony.

At first, ginger ale. Just ginger ale and very accurate!

Then the Snake Oil comes out and the scent waffles back and forth between champagne and Snake Oil. The ginger threatens to go soapy without quite actually doing it. The ginger is strongly rooty/airy wood to me. This is good because it smells sophisticated and bad because it can go a little bitter. But I think aging might fix that. I still think I'd prefer a more citrus/ floral sparkling vanilla ginger ale or else just plain Snake Oil. It's lovely and probably difficult to achieve this balance but not for me.

Edit: Spoke too soon, maybe. It eventually resolves into something that isn't trying to be soapy. I like it.

On opening, it smells like a light leather. (Leather's the best comparison to the mushroom note I can make.)

Then I get blended green musk and clover. I love the clover here. There's a trickle of flat champagne. It's perfect for the early beginnings of spring here, where flowers haven't started to bloom yet but the grass is turning green. A March/St. Patrick's day kind of feel.

This is a nice green scent, but I wish there was something that gave the scent more dimension and the champagne more sparkle. Maybe a grain of frankincense or amber.

Cooked pumpkin smell, popcorn texture underneath with some caramel.

Sometimes I could swear there's cumin and mild dry chilies in the mix. But it quickly disappears and the cooked pumpkin caramel comes back.

Cozy.

In vial: hazelnuts, surprisingly strong hazelnuts.

On: This reminds me strongly of Oak Moon 2011 with a brown, almost caramel tinge and watered down mint. Sweet.

Image: A dark grove with a huge oak tree in the middle. It's dimly lit by cool green fire playing around its branches.

This seemingly has more leather than Snootier Bat, considering that it doesn't get lost in incense or musk. I don't think most people would find the clove overwhelming, unless they simply dislike clove altogether. It's not sharp, more just slightly peppery. Pimento as Lilacea said. The Nag Champa is certainly there, adding its floral backdrop.

I think I like this one better than its snootier cousin, simply because the clove and noticeable leather adds some balance to the sweetness. I'll have to test more, though.

In bottle: Buttery waffles? You don't put molasses on waffles but that's what I smell. 

Skin:

I've been making gingerbread, so along with the super real molasses I sort of expect a ginger. But no, this isn't that kind of perfume. Gourmet haters might still want to stay away, but this isn't a pure foody scent either. The amber helps with that. Sometimes the cinnamon is nearly edible spice. Sometimes it's a cinnamon wood. Sometimes it's smouldering against the dark molasses. I guess "seductive" does work for this one. It's almost like it's flirting as it turns weaker and stronger, more molasses or more cinnamon.

Not a huge throw and with the morphing, no notes overstay their welcome or become obnoxious.

This is a spicy black musk, at first in the bottle I got straight amber and black peppercorns. This accounts for the fuzziness. I'm finding this more congenial than Death: My Irony. Of course it would be sweeter because of the amber. A sticky sweet fur, definitely a cat rolled in incense.  I don't get red musk like some reviewers have but a lemony note has come out on top of everything and the amber is smoothing out.

I can see the comparison with Streets of Detroit. They both have rounded oily resins and both are simple. This is less industrial. A bit spicier though I wouldn't call it fully spicy. Again, a cat rolling around in amber.

Edit This is developing a strong grape tinge. It no longer seems to have peppercorn at all, still love it.

I guess I have to compare this to Streets of Detroit. There's also the sense of something industrial in this one. Toner ink? I get the sense of a dark, dull burgandy mixed into the black.

I've tried Siberian Musk SN before. If I remember it correctly, Death My Irony is less sweet, drier and flatter. "Desolate musk" might fit it well enough. Aging sometimes changes scents a bit though.

In general: Dry-ish, matte, inky.

In the bottle this is quite a lot of blackberry, but I also smell brown roots, bitter and poisonous. That's got to be the cypress and mandrake. For a moment on my skin, I smell dusty roots, like a storeroom. Then blackberry takes over on my skin, initially a subdued and watered down version of Blackberry Moon (of course it would be without the musk). Blackberry can turn sharp, but I think the myrrh may be keeping it sweet. This is good and bad because it both isn't turning sour and is a little artificial (is that vanilla in there? Are these blackberries cooked?). I guess it depends on your point of view. There's almost some depth but those blackberries are just so strong now.

I don't mind smelling like a pie so I may be keeping this.

 Nag champa can sometimes get unpleasantly powdery or soapy on me, but there's so much black musk and sugary incense that it smooths the whole thing over. Don't get me wrong, this is primarily a champa perfume.  I get leather, but I can't really separate it from the rest of the scent. Then again my skin eats leather rather than amping it.

This is a scent about swanning into a head shop in a big black cape. It's not bad on me, it's super smooth but I'm not entirely sure about it either. This may be too cloying for me and I'm someone who likes sweet scents and musks. Maybe I'd like Snooty Bat better, but then that doesn't have the musk to smooth out the champa.

 it is indeed buttery pumpkin guts splattered over a dark/ozone/slinky wood background. I don't know what I expected. It reminds me of Jack, except the peach/spice glow has gone out. Still a bit spicy from the oak leaves though.

Pumpkin massacre aftermath would be a good alternate name.

Chocolate graham crackers, chocolate mint pudding, whipped cream. This is not strong and it's very much like the actual grasshopper pie I've tried. However, I can understand why some people would smell plastic. The whipped cream and chocolate part does smell a bit weak or waxy.

Oh no

The first comparison that comes to mind is Gingerbread Sin. Same dry but decadent red musk and patchouli with gingerbread. But this has a sweet molasses edge with vanilla frosting. It's a bit cola like,  which I'm absolutely a sucker for. Like rootbeer but deeper, more complex. And there are cookies. Candied ginger. This is the dark foodie blend of my dreams. I want to snuggle under a blanket with this. A cold weather blend for sure.

This is amazing. This is the best Snake Oil blend I've tried in a while. It might be too strong for some situations but otherwise I love it.

This is not foodie on me. The gingerbread (really more like sweet ginger) mixes with the nice medium oud. This oud smells just like a sandalwood and patchouli soap I had once. Maybe the soap had oud in it? Who knows? But my brain is stuck on "sandalwood soap" when I smell it. It is a very dry blend and sweet.

The best other scent I can compare it to is Plunder from the GC. Dry spice in this one, not hot, not overwhelming. This seems like it would deepen and get richer with aging. Despite the comparison to sandalwood, this is very much an oud with oud habits of lingering sultrily in the background. It's not loud but it's very much There and vamping it up. (At least that's how it works on my skin.)

This one opens with a blast of powdered pomegranate flavored drink. I swear, it's just like something I've tried before. Occasionally it shifts to exactly the smell of Xerox copy ink. Pom is always dominant. Occasionally my brain also thinks the mix of the two scents is pineapple.

It gets less powdered drink mix and more juice as it dries but it is powerfully fruity. The ink never dominates. It's faintly metallic, coal-like. I'd love to smell this ink note in other blends.

Low throw on drydown.

Edit: after resting, this is more juicy less drink mix or "granular" I guess.

Maybe it's a bit early to be testing a Snake Oil blend, but here it is. Right away I can pick out the extra patchouli, though it blends. The patchouli may be stopping the red musk from stomping the snow. Frostbitten Snake seemed slushy, but this one has cold notes that are drier and fluffy white. It's at least similar to Snow White's snow. It's very nice, but then of course it would be if you like Snake Oil.

My decant needs to sit a bit and age, but this seems promising.

Edit: there's the slightest edge of clean fluffy laundry to this one. I'm liking it even more

Troll is an odd scent on me,  like watered-down basil and wet clove charcoal with cumin. I wanted to like it and it wasn't unpleasant but it just smelled off to me somehow.

In Skogtroll  the "freezing and snow packed" bit along with the camphor, elemi, and eucalyptus add some pleasant bite and some softness too. It's a bit cologne-y. The clove is clearly present. The eucalyptus is also noticeable but doesn't take over.

I'll have to test this again but I think I'll be at least keeping the decant. Probably getting a bottle.