Australian Copperhead (2006)

[juniperus]

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

Bottle: sweet, slightly sour, berry..complete with a sharp hint of green stem
Wet: the cardamom is discernable, but still behind the berry, and this remains sweet
Dry: the sweetness of the berry/neroli has backed off some, and the neroli is playing nice. the smoked vanilla is really wonderful behind, and isn't amping at this point.
Later: the sultry snake oil is finally coming out underneath the sweet berry/neroli. I'm getting no more spice at this point..it's a little sweet for me, however...doesn't smell bad, or strangely amped...but I don't know that I'd wear it often.

[Loligo]

At first this scent is all tart, juicy berry, but it soon turns to nasty air freshener, like in a gas station restroom. After 3-4 hours that fades away, and I get a nice smoky, spicy vanilla throw from it, but if I stick my nose close, I can still catch traces of the foul chemical note. ::sigh:: Scratch another Snake Pit blend.

[gingersnapp]

This is a lightly berried snake oil. The cardamom and smoked vanilla give it a darker touch, delicately spiced and smoky, and the amber adds its powdery mystique like it always does on my skin. This is a really warm scent on me, a very nice way to dress up Snake Oil.

[lushlovely]

Holy juicy fruitiness!! For the first 30 minutes I got very wet and vibrant swirl of tangy fruits coming at me. It's like there was a different reaction on each side of the forked tongue of this snake! Snake Oil on one side and juicy, tart fruit on the other. After an hour this had dried down to soft, powder vanilla on me. I much preferred the first hour, but I'm so glad I received a decant of this from such a kind and generous forumite!

[Emma2403]

I have no idea what Açaí berries may smell like (or taste, for that matters), but let’s go.

 

In the bottle: it’s all fruity. Blue fruits. A tiny bit chemical like blueberries can smell as well.

 

On my skin: still tons of fruits, plus neroli. And maybe vanilla, somewhere, in the background.

 

After a couple of hours: amber and vanilla (I wouldn’t really say it’s smoked though). No recognizable snake oil. Most of the berries have faded away.

 

Verdict: it’s a weird scent, it morphs a lot…I’m not convinced.

[sixthsentinel]

Oooh! this hard! I smell berries immediately. After a few minutes, it's creamy berries! No Snake Oil can I find in this blend, & honestly, I don't miss it; the 'creamy-berry' scent is so ungodly beautiful on it's own, it doesn't need any help from SO. I'm so thankful the cardamom didn't show up for me. It always ruins everything when it makes itself known. I felt kind of crummy when I woke up to a rainy day (which I usually love; go figure), but I put Austrailian Copperhead on & it brought me up right then & there. AC makes me happy, just like Drink Me. Now I have two cheery scents for blue days instead of just one. Yay! Ninety-five percent positive I'll have to snatch up another bottle before CD uproots & takes off, but thankfully I have awhile.

 

I feel like I love this more with every sniff. It's so mellow & pretty.

 

eta: Two hours later & here comes the amber! Or did I just miss it earlier? Either way.... I need at least another bottle of this, probably more like two. Insanely beautiful.

Edited February 24, 2007 by sixthsentinel

[Iceblink]

Another snake that slithered off my arm within minutes. And it smells so good in the imp too. Once on my skin I got berries + Snake Oil, and after 10 minutes I got nothing.

I think I'm going to age these snakes for a few weeks and try them all again.

[empi girl]

In the imp, very fruity, sharp and soapy. I put it on with trepidation. On, it remains fruity and soapy and sharp, but i can detect Snake Oil very far underneath. Pretty quickly the soap fades, then the fruit fades, and the SO rises to the fore. It is still a little sharp, but since that is the way fresh SO is on me, I think that isn't an issue. It settles into a slightly sharp SO with a hint of sweet berry beneath it. It's a little sharp for me right now, but I think this one will age really well, and will hold onto my imp, possibly getting a bottle.

 

eta: it gets a sweet undercurrent, a beautiful sweet vanilla, once it's been on an hour.

Edited February 26, 2007 by empi girl

[Koumori]

Tangy, sharp, bright berries; at first application, I actually thought of grass clippings. Upon drydown, more of the Snake Oil comes out, and the cardamom asserts itself a little more, deepening the berries into a "riper" scent. I wasn't sure I liked this at first, but I will give it another try.

 

ETA: Gave it another try. No thank you very much.

Edited March 4, 2007 by Koumori

[ilona]

I also found this to be pretty sharp at first. Definitely a tart fruity berry scent.

 

I was hoping this would dry to something warmer, but it stays tart and even gets a little bit soapy (the neroli?)... I never get any spicyness or warmth. Can't detect cardamom, amber or Snake Oil. Guess my skin likes fruit!

 

Much later: the vanilla finally came out. It's been at least 2 hours, and it's faint, but it's there. Creamy fruity vanilla.

[em_h]

I took a chance on this one -- berries are a dangerous note for me, but all the others are fairly reliably good.

 

I was scared right at the start, because when I first put it on, it was a strong blast of berry scent; but pretty soon (15 minutes or less) the smoked vanilla and amber started to kick in, and after that it was really nice. Soft, gentle, but not too girly, and quite a bit less sweet than the other vanilla and amber blends. Just a touch of cardamom, with the berries very much in the background.

 

The drydown gets a bit powdery, but on the whole this is a really pleasant and kind of relaxing blend of notes for me.

 

I still haven't really smelled Snake Oil in any of the Snake Pit scents, though ... maybe a bit in Boomslang, but nowhere else. Wonder if this will change over time.

Edited February 28, 2007 by em_h

[slave1]

AUSTRALIAN COPPERHEAD

 

In Bottle: Resinous berry love

 

On Skin: Oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, calm down. I LOVE this. This is by far one of the most gorgeous scents I’ve fallen in love with just one sniff. I can’t explain how unique and alive this is. It has the beautiful Snake Oil base but it is faint and not very spicy here, and the fresh juicy acai berry jumps out and sweetens the heck out of it. The amber and the neroli help amp the snake oil resins a bit… and the smoked vanilla also echos the vanilla in Snake Oil. After about 15 minutes the Snake Oilness of the scent is much more obvious. I just love the berry edge, this is one of my favorites of the pit for sure!! Medium throw and short wearlength… I do wish it lasted longer.

[Nadirah]

This is something I didnt expect. at first it smells of Neroli and Berry, then the amber comes out and it is still sweet~ as time goes buy I can smell more of the notes in this. It reminds me of something I just can't place. It is a lovely scent and I usually do not like scents with any kind of citrus in them but this works. It is potent too, it lasts a while and it slithers into different notes so quick its hard to pin down. But after a couple hours of wearin I can definatly smell the snake oil in it. This is a great oil It was a surprize hit for me, I am so glad I tried it!

[copyshopclerk]

In the imp: Fruity, sweet, almost bubble-gummy kind of fruitiness

 

Wet: BERRY. Not noticing the Snake Oil very much, or the smoked vanilla, either. But I'm getting hit upside the head with the acai berry!

 

Dry: Still smells very strongly of berries on me. Husband sniffs, says the vanilla is what he can detect the most, with the berries secondary. Strange. After a while, the Snake Oil comes out more, and the berries chill out, but it's very heavy berry for a while. Though I like the smell of berries, not sure I want to feel as if I'm smelling strongly of them!

 

I think I'm going to hang on to my decant -- when the Snake Oil becomes more prominent I do like it - I wonder how it'll come across in a few months.

[isyche]

On me this is a thin, sharp red berry note (neroli + acai?) over Snake Oil, but a lot fainter than Snake Oil usually is -- I can't smell it unless I put my wrist right up to my nose.

 

It's not bad, but Eat Me does the berry + vanilla combination better on me and dries down to something like Snake Oil, so I'll probably swap my decant of the Copperhead.

[wolfie13]

Initial sniff: Strong, candy-like berry. Concerned.

 

Wearing: It is now, strangely, a shampoo-like berry. It smells like Garnier Fructis products. I hate fruity shampoos.

 

Drydown: HOURS later I get a touch of Snake Oil. No smoke, no amber, no smoky vanilla. This one did not work on me at all.

[Em-]

Mmm, spicy vanilla berry sex.

 

Erm, yes. Thank you. I shall be having with this.

 

My only, and I mean, only, reservation about this blend is that it is not the most long lasting if the Snakes. Many of them will last a full 10-12 hour day, but this is but a hint of lovely sweet spice after lunch now.

 

But oh, it is lovely.

[melissadragon]

AUSTRALIAN COPPERHEAD:

 

Imp: Mm, berry-'nilla goodness - applied to right wrist

Wet: neroli-vanilla-snakeoil.

Dry: Mmm, this blended well. The vanilla remains the easiest note to pull out but I just love this blend.

1hr later: Sharper than the Asp Viper, a different sort of sexy. Red silk.

Verdict: Keeper.

[wikkidraven]

i guess there simply isn't enough snake oil in this snake oil variant for me. i can only guess that it's the neroli making this smell so...GREEN. i don't get any vanilla or spice at all...just berry and a bit of amber.

 

will see what a bit of age can do, otherwise it's off to swaps for this snake.

[Miss Lynx]

As I commented in my Boomslang review, I couldn't resist ordering decants of a few of the Snake Pit oils despite being one of the few people out there who doesn't like Snake Oil.

 

This was one of the ones I had the highest hopes for, but it doesn't really seem to have worked out. I'm not sure why - berry notes are usually good one me, though I've never tried acai specifically before. Amber and cardamom are all good, and neroli's usually OK. I don't know... It doesn't smell like Snake Oil to me, so I don't think it's that, but somehow despite most of the other ingredients being things I like, this one doesn't seem to quite come together for me.

 

The acai berry seems to be by far the strongest note in here, and while as I mentioned I'm usually all good with berries -- Bewitched is one of my favourite scents -- this particular berry comes across as cloyingly sweet and a bit overwhelming. It didn't help that the first time I tried it, a friend helpfully told me that I smelled like fruit roll-ups. And there's something a bit... synthetic-smelling about it, too.

 

My wife actually liked it on me -- she said it smelled like some kind of peach wine with a dash of grenadine or something, but I didn't find it particularly boozy, though there are overtones to it that remind me of Swank. But Swank is one of those scents I sometimes like and sometimes don't, and the mixed feelings from that seem to apply to this one too. It's not bad, exactly -- the excessive sweetness does settle down after a little while, but it just somehow doesn't work for me. Oh well.

 

Grade: B-

[asciident]

Wet: Juicy açai berry (which smells and tastes very similar to blueberry, just not quite) with a hint of citrus.

 

First on: A bit of cardamom and smoky vanilla trying to poke through the berry.

 

Dry: It dries down into a more powdery smell, which I think is the amber even though amber doesn't always go powder on me. Snake Oil is lurking here somewhere, but the berry is so juicy and bright that it's hard to sniff it. The smoky vanilla gives it some extra depth. Very nice!

[SultryWolf]

in the decant: Very fruity, reminiscent of a B&BW lotion. (Not that that's a bad thing!)

on: Much the same: bright and cheery. I do not get much Snake Oil from this one.

[GoldenRubee]

I can smell light berry and a little spice with smoke thrown in for good measure. I don't get Snake Oil from this but rather a scent all its own. I first smelled this at will call and thought it was terrific and purchased a bottle. Right now it seems too 'new'. Think I will age it a bit and try it again later.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Unsweetened cherry koolaid

 

On me:

This makes me think of my childhood when wet. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, so when you'd make Koolaid and it calls for one cup of sugar, we only put in half a cup. So it smelled more watery and tart, and that's exactly what this smells like when wet! I have never smelled acai berry before, but I like it for that impression. The neroli is there too but it smells a little green to me - it disappears after this stage though.

 

When it dries though, it's definitely not watery and tart anymore. It's deepened quite a bit and it's got that golden and smooth quality from the amber. The spicy cardamom too has become very patchouli like in my opinion - it has that deep spice and kick to it. The Snake Oil is definitely apparent too.

 

I have to admit that I'm kind of shocked that I didn't see any comparisons to another beloved oil - Snake Charmer - obviously, it doesn't smell exactly like it, but it is quite similar in my opinion. Smokey Snake Oil with a deepness to it and a fruity note. It's very nice and I love this for the same reasons that I love Snake Charmer and Mme. Moriarty.

 

Final note:

Surely it can't just be me getting the Snake Charmer impression. I really feel that it's quite similar and I find this oil to be much deeper and sexier than I had thought it would be (I was expecting something mostly fruity and sweet). Very nice!

[dcmo]

On first applying, the berry was very tart and sharp. I did get the apple feel that a few others have mentioned. As it dries down though, it becomes less tart and less sharp. It smooths out smelling more creamy and slightly spiced. Don't really pick up much of the SO element as I do in some of the others. This stays very close to the skin with pretty much no throw. I like it, it's pretty but not as much as some of the others in the snake pit.