patina

Faint red rose suspended in labdanum and myrrh, like one of those flowers captured in paperweights.

I love both labdanum and myrrh so this was an easy choice. I expect the rose will get stronger with age.

Immediately in the bottle, I think of ginger. Fresh, not very spicy ginger.

Then a liquid amber comes out. These resins meld together so well I can't really pick them out, though. Sweet, maybe a little baby powder in there but mostly liquid resin. This makes me think Byzantine, even though the amber is not the super bright gold you'd associate with the era. Dusky soft blue-black and dull pallid gold.

This is indeed an amber silk scent. I can imagine it would be better diffused by spraying and might smell better that way but it isn't exactly weak on me either. It probably helps that oude usually plays nice on my skin. The ginger doesn't go bitter on me and right now the sweet gold amber is triumphing over everything else.

 I think I may actually like this one more than The Serpent in the Carnations, probably because of the peony and the opium as a base note. It's a bit sweeter up top and the base is dark instead of the Snake Oil red musk. This doesn't overwhelm the carnation. My favorite Luper so far.

This disappears fairly quickly which is a shame

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.

Edit: Aging helped remove the occasional soapiness. This may, in fact, be 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.

After some aging the clove really is evident. The Snake Oil has come out and overtaken the carnation, making this red instead of pink.

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. It smells like new tires without smelling like gross burning rubber. Or maybe 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.