Asp Viper (2006)

[alsatia]

Snake Oil with red mandarin, myrrh, and almond.

Expectations: This is hit-or-miss. I love Snake Oil and mandarin. My feelings toward myrrh are currently on the positive side of neutral. And I always think I should like almond, but it tends to be too bitter on me.

In vial: Strong, musky spices with a layer of nutty sweetness.

On skin, wet: Pretty much the same. Right now the individual notes are too distinct, but if all it does as it dries is blend better, I think I'll like this.

On skin, dry: It's gone a bit dry and incense-like. Boo. It's not bad, exactly, but it was better when wet. It's not as sweet now either.

After time: After 20 minutes, the scent has improved a bit. More blended, a tiny bit less dry. It's pretty faint though. At 30 minutes, it smells like Snake Oil plus some extra notes (finally!)

Conclusion: I don't like it as much as the original, but could definitely wear this. I'd probably like it more if I just applied some and went about my day rather than trying to review it.

[Lyrical]

In the vial: rich, warm orange and patchouli, with a hint of myrrh and almond.

 

Wet on skin: the oil is quite thick and gloopy! I can smell the Snake Oil but it's rich and smooth and briefly sweet, but the sweetness fades quickly (my skin always kills the sweet!). Predominantly spicy, orangy patchouli with a little almond.

 

Dry on skin: this is subtle and rich, a dark golden colour, and much much nicer than either of the imps of Snake Oil I tried so hard to like! I believe it's an aged decant. Yummy!

 

After a while the spicy patchouli of Snake Oil comes out more (I never did get vanilla from SO!) but it remains warm and golden.

[jentifer]

I get hit with almond cookies when I first put it on. Then it dries down to strong myrrh on me. I much prefer the yummy almond cookies, so I reapply often. Also starts off strong, but then softens quite a lot on me.

[akiko]

This might be the almond blend that doesn't go wrong on me.

 

Imp: almonds.

 

Wet: orangey and almonds, and a bit of snake oil.

 

Dry: soft, hint of almond, maybe myrrh? Nice.

[donnatron]

Imp: Boozy... sort of. Smells like some demented soul decided to make a bar mat show out of frangelico and amaretto. Intense and sweet.

 

Wet: All almond all the time. I get a slight dusty note--assuming that's the myrrh. The classi SO scent is lingering in the background. This still smells very, very edible.

 

Dry: Quite nice, actually. Still very sweet and foody, but it's calmed down into a lovely swirling vanilla-almond-patchouli-musk scent. Very dsitinctive and sufficiently different from the base oil. This is exceedingly sexy.

 

Throw: Excellent.

 

Overall: I just reviewed King Cobra and said I didn't need a bottle. Then promptly bought a bottle. My wallet is afraid--I may be haunted by Asp Viper for the next few days.

[DogNPonyShow]

I get pure almond in the vial. On, it's almond and a bit of sweetness. This is actually a nice scent, but I'm not sure if I'd wear it too often.

[Suu4LC]

Okay...I should start off by saying that I still don't "get" Snake Oil. *ducks* It just doesn't do it for me. Still, I found the idea of the Snake Pit very interesting and a good way to get me onto the Snake Oil bandwagon.

 

This smells excellent in the imp-nice sweet rich almond/marzipan-a little syrupy, but not sickeningly so. I'm worried this may end up too smoky/incense-y on my skin (which is my usual SO problem), but I have high hopes for this.

 

Oh wow, this is excellent! It's like a delicious spicy almond cookie! The snake oil grounds this from being too sickly sweet and gives it a smoky, sexy undertone. Fabulous! I'm going to give this some time to fully dry down, but I think is gonna be a winner!

 

Grrr...ok, I'm on the fence about this. My skin absolutely DEVOURED everything but the snake oil part of this >_< I lost that sharp sweet almond note! Booooooooooooooooooo. *stomps feet* Yeah, I think I will need to pass on this...I think my skin just eats everything except the smokey incense-y part of snake oil that isn't quite my thing. Doesn't mean I don't want to try more of the Snake Pit...just not sure any will work on me. *pout*

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Strong, spicy, sweet almond.

 

Immediately on skin: Spicy almond with just a touch of light mandarin. The myrrh adds a bit of warm depth to the blend.

 

After a few minutes: There’s just a light touch of almond and myrrh now. The base of Snake Oil is really strong, and this smells almost like plain Snake Oil on me now.

 

Later on: This is like regular Snake oil, only a little sweeter and powdery. It’s nice, but not different enough from Snake Oil to warrant having a bottle.

[DARKBEAUTY28]

This is the scent that I wanted Queen of Sheba to be. The same almond note is in this blend, but the base is much sweeter, which I prefer. This scent is Dana O'Shee + Queen of Sheba + Snake Oil. The drydown in the best part of this. It is when the Snake Oil appears. I'm glad that the almond note doesn't stick around the whole time as the BPAL almond note is very "dry" to my nose. It is not a sweet almond. Asp Viper is a great scent!

[Leopard403]

Of the four snakes I've tried thus far, this is my favorite. Snake Oil alone is a hard scent for me to wear; it makes me smell sort of sour. But here, tempered with the almond and the almost ammaretto-like top notes, it is very sweet. Slightly syrupy for the first few moments of wear, it mellows out to a nutty, creamy tang. And for some reason, it takes on a softly floral note after a while. Whatever is happening on my skin, it works!

[motdakasha]

In the bottle:

Rating: 4

Notes: almond, myrrh

Comment: I don't like the way almond smells in the bottle but it's usually OK on my skin.

Wet on skin:

Rating: 5

Notes: almond, myrrh

Comment: Don't smell the red mandarin, but this ends up way more gourmand than I thought it would.

Dry on skin:

Rating: 4

Notes: myrrh, almond

Scent Intensity: 3

Comment: Not as long lasting as the other snake oils. I also didn't notice any mandarin, but I definitely like how food scented it smells.

Misc:

Duration: 3+ Hrs.

Keyword(s): gourmand

Color: Copper

Smells like: N/A

Edited July 2, 2008 by Akasha Tsang
Removed Lab description AGAIN. --Shollin

[greenranger]

Wet, ALMOND.

 

Drying, still very very almond. Thankfully it is a toasted almond on me, and not amaretto, since I don't really care for amaretto, but love almonds themselves. Will it stay that way?

 

 

Dry, almonds and snake oil. Better than I was expecting, since I was expecting amaretto. I think the myrrh is beginning to make its move. There's the myrrh, sweetening and smoothing everything over and blending it together...mmmm.

 

One of my favorite snakes, I think, unless aging them changes something completely. Apparently when myrrh loves me, it loves me very very much.

[abejita]

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. It's one of my all-time favorites.

 

I originally got this as a decant in a 2ml shortie, on a whim. It was decently aged. I'm not a citrus fan in general, so I figured I'd try it and then pass it on. I didn't even try it for a very long time. I just more or less forgot about it. I picked it out of the box one day and gave it a go. Of course, I put it on while I had the laptop in my lap and spilled about 25% of it just below the keyboard. When I quit cursing over having spilled oil on a computer, I inhaled. Instant love. The citrus was subdued, not at all dominant. Myrrh and almond have always been two of my favorite notes, and together they meld beautifully. Couple that with the Snake Oil, and it's all beautifully sweet, dark, and smooth. This has become my surprise favorite of the Snake Pit, and has a place on my all-time Top Ten list.

 

This oil and Shub Niggurath are the ones that have garnered the most unsolicited compliments on me.

[QueenFae]

Ooooo la la, this is to die for!! This is an absolutely gorgeous interpretation of Snake Oil; sweet and sexy with an almond base. While the almond note is drool inducing, it's evenly balanced by the sheer sexiness of the red mandarin combined with the vanilla note in Snake Oil. This is the love child of Ravenous and Snake Oil. This is just one of those knock down drag out must have BPAL scents. I can't say enough good about it, I will certainly be purchasing a bottle ASAP!!

 

Positively fabulous, sexy to the max, strong and long lasting.

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: heavy almond. yum!

 

wet on skin: almond, and the Snake Oil peeks through just a bit.

 

dry down: mostly Snake Oil with a hint of that almond. i get no other notes.

 

in all: i'm sad that the almond all but disappeared. i'm going to try this one more time to be sure, but unfortunately, i don't think that this Viper bites in the way i had hoped.

 

 

 

[Stephanie]

Sweet, earthy almond cookies.

 

Dries down to a faint, slightly dusty patchouli.

 

That's all I get--and I it!

[zankoku_zen]

I am enjoying this much more than I thought I would. This is sweet almond cinnamon cookies. Definitely almond and cinnamon, with a warm, sugary base.

[Hawke]

Almost pure almond in the imp, which isn't a bad thing. I like almond.

 

More of the same, wet on skin, though the thick, syrupy Snake Oilness is there lurking underneath, waiting to spring out. I love the smell of aged Snake Oil so I can't call that bad, either, but I'm not sure that this is going to be all that different from Snake Oil itself. Or, I could be wrong, as this turns into a fantastic, crunchy cookie sort of scent as it's drying. I'm not getting any of the mandarin, but I'm not missing it. I'd like the recipe to bake whatever smells like this.

 

Dry, the almond lingers and I keep happily sniffing myself. I can make an imp stretch forevvvver, so I'm not sure that this calls for a big bottle, but the decant is staying with me for sure. I will ponder when I get a look at my finances and possibly have a chance to test this again.

[jizatt]

Almond over sugar and spice - hinting at the darker SO underneath

 

 

I think my almond needs can be met somewhere between this and Snow White =)

Edited October 1, 2008 by CaudaPavonis

[OhioSky]

This is only the second Snake Oil scent I've tried apart from the original, but it's my favorite so far! The loveliness of snake oil, only more grounded somehow.

 

The earthy almond smell is dominant when wet, then the SO peeks it's head out on the drydown. It's a gorgeous blend, sweet without being foody and earthy without being dirty. Super wear time.

[iiinterstate]

Note: This bottle is about 1 year old.

 

Almond is either lovely or horrible on my skin, and more often it's the latter. This time is different!

 

In the bottle, this smells like creamy almond, and on my skin, it's more almondy.

 

After a few minutes, there's a hint of mandarin in there, but if I wasn't looking for it I'm not sure if I could pick it out. Not in a "this not gets lost" kind of way, it's just so well blended.

 

This dry-down outcome is really interesting. In terms of throw (and this blend has quite a bit), I get almond and myrrh sweetened by Snake Oil. On my skin, the SO is much more apparent, I still find the mandarin, and the almond is less detectable. I can't stop sniffing myself. This is lovely! Boomslang is still my favorite (and most hoarded) of the Snake Pit blends, but I believe Asp Viper is a solid second place.

[Schmoozy]

Asp Viper didn't start off very well. At first it was all almond and red mandarin with splashes of myrrh here and there. It was almost too almondy if that makes sense, and I couldn't detect any snake oil at all. However, after it dried, the almond settled down as well as the mandarin and I was left with a beautiful snake oil layered with a hint of citrus and almond, and some myrrh for good measure. The morphing of the oil after dry down was really surprising, because for the most part all the snake pit scents have smelt as beautiful from the bottle/or decant as they do on the skin. Asp Viper was the exception of the pit.

[crebbsgirl]

I accidently swapped for this - very long story - and I am reminded of why I dislike almond scents. Or rather, I am reminded that my SKIN hates almond scents. In the bottle there is a complexity here I find intriguing. On the skin, it starts out nicely, the almond and mandarin adding a foody overtone to Snake Oil, while the myrrh adds a bit of depth. As it dries though, I get amaretto flavoured Snake Oil. Not good.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

This one is uber-sexy, for which reason my boyfriend and I refer to it solely now as the "a$$ viper"! This is a richer, foodier almond than any I've smelled from BPAL before and I say this as a devoted connoisseur of BPAL's almond scents. The snake oil stays well in the background in this one adding sweetness and a breath of spice, and that is a-okay with me because this luscious almond deserves to be in the spotlight. It's just been a nightmare deciding which snake pits to get big bottles of, since my financial situation will only allow me to get one or two. This snakey is coming home with me for sure, though. Sexy spicy almond amaretto goodness! A$$ viper, indeed!

[Coldfire]

 

 

 

Decant: woah. That sweet almond scent.

Wet on Me: more overly sweet almond. Can’t get

anything else from it.

Drying Down: the myrrh is trying so hard to tame the

almond on me, but they are clashing and making

something bitter on my wrist.

Dry: kind of a sweet spicy incensy scent now. Did not have

very good beginnings, but ended uppretty good. Glad I got to try the decant.