Asp Viper (2006)

[isisonearth]

Snake Oil with red mandarin, myrrh, and almond.

Imp: Amaretto, smoke and Snake Oil!

Wet: Awesome slightly cherryish amaretto.The SO keeps it from going plastic on me. Very nice!

Dry: It begins to get drier and somewhat more bitter...still I like it. Interesting take on SO. The myrrh starts to warm it up too. My imp is a keeper!

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

Snake Oil with red mandarin, myrrh, and almond.

 

the almost-cherry-almond-y scent in regular Snake Oil is amplified by about a jillion here with the addition of almond, and so that's all i can smell here. i feel like i must reek of Jergens.

[fairnymph]

Sniffed in imp: Benzaldehydey (i.e. almond extract) almond. A tiny bit of bitter-smoky myrrh underneath. No mandarin or snake oil to be seen. I'm reminded a tiny bit of Lupanar from BPTP, but this is more ALMOND.

[GardenCat]

OMG - Almond snake oil?!? I came to BPAL for the florals, but the spicy Snake Oil snared me! Then, when I sniffed Asp Viper - it was all over. *faints* This IS my favorite of the snake pit (and my DH's). It's spicy almond love!

[ShadowsDance]

Oh man, almond extract in the vial.

Wet it's the the spices of snake oil with almond, delicious..

As it dies down the almond smells a bit less like extract, and a bit more like ground almonds. This is really delicious.. almond meal with a faint hint of those spices. Really a nice scent.. actually, reminds me of what I thought Queen of Sheba would be like.

 

Ugh, sad to say, it seems my skin absorbs almond.. because, it's gone. Lasts about 20 mins, then nothing.. I really love it though, so scent locket maybe? Or frequent slathering and reapplying.. I could live with that!

Edited May 21, 2009 by ShadowsDance

[Electric Maenad]

Jeebus - I can't believe I forgot to review this. Okay, so on initial application, a fresh bottle of this stuff smells almost exactly like pure almond extract, which is fine, because I like the smell of almond extract. There's a faint hint of citrus underneath, but not much. After a couple of hours, the spices in the SO come out and it's like spicy marzipan. Spicy sexy marzipan.

 

I recently acquired an aged bottle of Asp Viper, and the almond takes on a bit of a burnt quality (again, not unpleasant) and the myrrh (I assume) is much more prominent. Basically, all the notes are much more in harmony, although I notice that the mandarin is pretty much drowned out by the other notes on me. It's still a really sexy, sort-of-foody, but above all exotic scent. It's in my top five easily.

 

ETA: It also lasts a super long time - at least seven hours, although by the end it's just the SO and maybe a tiny bit of myrrh.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Electric Maenad

[aquazoo]

Starts with the almond, with the snake oil right behind. The almond fades out fast.

 

[Venneh]

In the decant, I get almond and Snake Oil, and it smells absolutely amazing. On my skin, the almond and myrrh mix with the Snake Oil for a spicy scent reminiscent of Saw-Scaled Viper. A nice scent, but, again, will be fine with this just as an imp.

Edited October 12, 2009 by Venneh

[laslibres]

Why yes, almond and Snake Oil IS an awesome combination! The almond is very creamy and sweet, but it's not the kind of sweet almond that the Lab sometimes uses that becomes burnt plastic on me (which is rough, because half of their almonds are amazing and half are icky, and it always just says "almond" so I don't know what the difference is!). I can smell a teeny bit of myrrh, but no mandarin, mostly almond and Snake Oil. And the almond is sweet enough that it pulls the whole scent into the desserty/foody category. It still retains that powdery quality that unaged Snake Oil has on me, but it'll age out of that and become AWESOME, like all the SO blends do.

[Redillon]

Oh yeah, the imp is definitely almond. But it's nice and comforting. Like a big, fat cookie!

 

On the skin: The almond disappears and out pops some myrrh and sugar. A sweet blend on me.

 

Dry down: As usual on me, the scent doesn't last. It still has a slightly spicy scent if I shove my nose to my wrist but I'm starting to get a little wax scent also. My skin tends to do that with a lot of blends. I like it, (except for the wax) but it's not a blend that lasts.

[DeltaCat]

Wet it has a spicy cherry amaretto scent. On dry down the cherry goes bye bye and I'm left with spicy amaretto. The more this dries the spicer it gets! Nice! Excellent throw as well. I wish the mandarin would have come through....

Edited January 29, 2010 by DeltaCat

[CiaoBonefish]

I was excited to try this blend because I've heard of it as a softer version of Snake Oil. Snake Oil is lovely, but a bit much for me for everyday wear (I'll have to try it aged, hopefully that brings out the vanilla more).

 

In the imp this smells glorious! All delicious almond a slight fint of snake oil underneath. This isn't the cherry-ish almond note that I get from Dana O'Shee either. It's more of a warm sweet well rounded almond like in Bastet. I'm pretty positive the myrrh is adding to the warmth and rounding out the scent beautifully.

 

On my skin this blend goes slightly smoky as snake oil does for me and becomes deeper as the scents blend seemlessly into each other. As the hours go by, the scent is still going on strong! Average throw but GREAT wear length. Also the blend gets smokier too as the almond slowly fades without ever fading completely. So gorgeous!

 

It never gets off my skin either!

 

I really love this blend. It was kind of a stealth favorite of mine, and I didn't realized how much I loved it until yesterday. I'll have to acquire a bottle of this eventually before the Carnaval leaves town!

 

ETA: I get no mandarin in this... which I was actually quite happy about hahaha.

Edited February 1, 2010 by ciaobonefish

[Saya]

Delicious! The almond note is dominant and wonderful with the Snake Oil. Lasts a long time and has decent throw. A bottle purchase, for sure.

[doublehelix]

Oh, yum! This is soft snake oil with cherry amaretto. Very nice, and foody!

Once dry, the almond note is very dominant. Like a spicy marzipan pastry with very light snake oil.

[Bamels]

In the bottle I can smell the cherry amaretto very strongly. On and wet I can smell bakewell tart. It's a little bit foody for me I think, but maybe it will chill out. It's still quite foody as it dries, I was hoping to smell the manadarin. I don't think I can keep this, it's just slightly too foody.

[benthic]

I can't believe I have never reviewed my favorite blend ever.

 

Two notes first: I've only tried this aged (I have two and a half bottles which are all two years old, though I do have one brand new too), and I've never tried plain Snake Oil. One thing about this blend though is that I can tell immediately what Snake Oil smells like when I use it, because that's what it dries down into. Wet on my skin it's thick, rich almond with that spicy background which must be the SO. The almond fades eventually, after maybe an hour, and I'm left with the rest of the blend. Not having tried SO, it's hard to imagine the difference between them, but Asp Viper fades into a sweet spicy sexy almondy vanilla, very warm and comforting and inviting. I dislike foody blends and I amp spices a lot, but this works on me like gangbusters; it's soft enough and non-foody enough that my skin turns it into what spicy/foody blends probably smell like on people whose chemistry can handle them. That's why I love it so much, because it's so hard to find an exotic spice blend that I don't amp to Hell and back.

 

People have said this is a softer SO, which scares me off of trying SO, because on me Asp Viper is plenty strong enough and it lasts forever. I can still smell it eight hours later, though it's mostly a spicy dark vanilla by then. It has great throw and staying power without being overwhelming. My perfect BPAL blend, because I can wear it in any season and mood and know I'm going to smell good all day.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Snake oil and almond

 

On Application

Strong almond with a snake oil backing. Almost leathery.

 

Dry Down

The almond backs off to let the myrrh through with a strong snake oil component. I get a tiny wee bit of citrus. Almond is not a favourite note but it is quite nice in this because it behaves and gives the whole blend a depth. This ends up slightly smoky and the myrrh gives a dryness which is delightful and almost peppery. Not my favourite snake but nice and bottle worthy.

 

Rating (0-5)

4

[ianastar]

Or A$$ Wiper as it's come to be known my house because I misred the label on the decant. LOL

 

At first this was all almond and creamy, then it started drying down and began to smell like dirty armpits and stinky feet mixed with almond and vanilla.

 

The finish is pure Snake Oil, which is heavenly. Overall it's very nice, I love these Snake Oil adaptions/blends but this one needs a while to get over the stinky feet hump before calms down to something actually very nice.

[CreamyJade]

In the bottle: Almond, sweet mandarin, Snake Oil.

Wet on skin: Sweet mandarin, almond, Snake Oil.

Dry on skin: Slightly almondy Snake Oil with a touch of resinous myrrh. Mmm.

Final thoughts: I was afraid of the almond note in this, because it generally doesn't suit me well, and of the citrus being overwhelming, but I was pleasantly surprised with this blend: another Snake Pit win!! I'm very glad I finally tried it, I bought a bottle shortly after. Yes! Always more snakes...

[Ishtar]

On me, Asp Viper is straight almond Snake Oil... which is a good thing, because almond Snake Oil turns out to be downright scrumptious.

 

Although mandarin and myrrh are listed as components, they never really make their presence known. I imagine that a lot of the warmth in Asp Viper probably comes from the myrrh, but I cannot smell myrrh as a distinct note. As for the mandarin, it's completely MIA.

 

The almond component is quite obvious in this blend, yet it never becomes overpowering or sharp as is sometimes the case in other scents.

 

After complete drydown, Asp Viper fades to a sweeter version of Snake Oil that is good enough to eat.

[dreamingjune]

In bottle: All kinds of cherry/almond with maybe some of the brightness of mandarin?

 

Wet: Almonds!! Sexy, warm, creamy almonds. The spicy vanilla of Snake Oil is there in the background but I don't get the in your face red musk of straight Snake Oil.

 

Dry: The almonds fade off a bit but still compliment the vanilla beautifully. I never really get much mandarin on the skin, which I am certainly not complaining about. I think the myrrh just softens things nicely and makes this even more wearable.

 

Overall: I have been searching for the perfect sexy almond blend and this may be it. I wish the almond was a bit stronger but overall this is an amazingly sexy blend. It manages to be sexy, slightly resinous, and sweet while not being overpowering.

[fetish911]

I thought I reviewed this? oh well. My bottle is quite aged. Here we go- Almond, then snake oil. Thats it. The almond disappears quickly on me as all almond notes do. I love my SO so all is well =)

[Incendiare]

Asp Viper sure takes me for a ride. It simply smells like almond Snake Oil in the bottle, yet as soon as I apply it, it turns into freshly-baked super almondy biscotti on my skin. The Snake Oil basically disappears at this stage. But as it starts to dry, the myrrh is taking over, but it smells rather flat. Luckily on the dry-down, the myrrh is a bit incense-y. The almond took a major chill pill a long time ago and at this point, it has practically vanished. I was hoping that the almond would hang around but this is still nice. It's like a very faint, slightly sweetened Snake Oil layered with myrrh.

[Verios]

This wasn't a snake oil blend that I originally thought sounded all that appealing to me...however, it's a gorgeous cherry amaretto snake oil on me--really glad I got a chance to try it (and I'm thinking this may be a bottle buy for me, at some point!)

[yakiguri]

I really, REALLY wanted to like this as I love Snake Oil and love almond/amaretto. Asp Viper sounded right up my alley, and with great delight and excitement I dabbed it on the inside of my arm. I definitely smell the almond (joy!), and it's STRONG, I'm glad I only dabbed a little bit! Unfortunately something in the background gives this blend a dusty, dry quality that I just can't get over--I suspect it's the myrrh. I tend to despise citrus so I'm happy that the red mandarin never makes an appearance, but the myrrh just ruins Asp Viper for me. Dammit.

 

I'll keep my imp in the hopes it'll work out later, but I'm extremely iffy on ever picking up a bottle as there are much better almond and vanilla blends out there.

Edited July 31, 2011 by thatbrownelf