Saw-Scaled Viper

[luckybuzz]

Snake Oil with cinnamon, cassia, and red ginger.

I smelled this and swooned. Seriously. I freaking *swooned*. It's like cookies...dangerous cookies. "Evil gingersnaps" totally nailed it.

I was just about ready to declare my eternal love....when my wrist started to burn.

Saw-Scaled Viper gave me what looks exactly like a fresh hickey on my wrist.

Thank goodness for scent lockets...

[sedona]

Well, this baby was a big surprise...

 

First of all I adore Snake Oil and every companion I've tried so far I have liked, even Green Tree Viper which fades quicker than breathing on me.

 

In the imp all I got from SSV was whoa...NUT overload!

 

Wet it was still nut, the kind of smell you would get from ones shelled and left somewhere damp for a week.

 

After ten minutes or so the ginger flares up and the warmth begins to show but I actually had to wash this off as I couldn't stomach the nut

 

Definite swap pile.

[Meg]

In the bottle: *killed ded* er... hyper woody violent... cassia? I don't know it well, but I'm guessing it's what I'm smelling. That and red ginger.

 

Wet: Cassia and ginger doing a little dance together. Smells like... dried kitchen spices.

 

Drydown: Still a hell of a lot of cassia, with slightly citrusy ginger. I can smell cinnamon fighting to get out, but the cassia just stifles everything. I smell - nearly taste - something sweet. Cinnamon, cooking cinnamon, I think. No Snake Oil to be smelled, which is good.

 

Overall: It smells musty and dark, like a wooden kitchen cabinet with spices that has been abandoned for years. It's really quite citrusy, in a good way... and for some reason I have strong scent associations with it, but I can't figure out quite which, yet.

[Tess]

I hear this is spicey like whoa. I love spice!

 

In the vial - GEEZ! The cassia is crazy strong, with a huge backing of both ginger and cinnamin. SO STRONG.

 

Wet - Yum, yum, yum.

 

Drying - The cinnamin is strong and mixes with the ginger in such a way that makes my throat dry. The cassia is quite nice in this, although I'm really hoping it calms down a little. Which is... bizarre coming from me. I'd love some more Snake Oil in this, although it is spicey and fun.

 

Dry (2.5 hours) - The cassia is, strangely enough, still holding on and still pretty strong. The cinnamin is still there lightly and a little powdery, but there's very little Snake Oil. It's rather light and... well "rooty," if that makes sense.

 

Overall - Hmm... I don't dislike it. I'm not super big on it, but it does have nice staying power, for something on MY skin. I think I'll keep it around and see what my thoughts are on it later.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Whoah! Ginger!

 

Wet on me – Ginger and cinnamon, this actually smells hot (and is slightly burning my skin!)

 

Dry on me – It becomes softer and sweeter and lasts like nobody’s business (17 hours and counting)

 

Overall – Once you’re over the hot, hot stage this is a warm inviting scent, which brought me two unsolicited compliments (something that’s practically unheard of)

[kawaiiferreto]

I really wanted to like this one. I love Snake Oil. I love cinnamon. I love cassia. But on me this is ALL ginger. I can stand ginger in small amounts as a complement to other smells, but this is too much! In short, this is nice and spicy, but not the spices I wanted it to be. I'm so sad.

[Jenesis]

I got this as a frimp (THANK YOU!) from someone I bought a decant from. Snake Oil was alright on me, nothing special though, so I hope this will be a good addition/mix on me.

 

Bottle: A whoof of ginger and cinnamon clears out my sinuses.

 

Wet: Pure, strong ginger.

 

Drydown: For some reason I'm getting toast out of this! Little slices of toast with cinnamon and ginger sprinkled on top.

 

Dry: A mixture of cinnamon, ginger and something smooth (presumably the Snake Oil) underneath. Delicious!

 

Dry (30 minutes): Must. Get. A bottle. Sweet vanilla topped off with cinnamon and ginger. I can't stop inhaling! Gooooorgeous.

 

Throw: Strong! Lasts a very long time too. Use sparingly, or the Viper will bite your nose off!

 

Final Verdict: It's Snake Oil - but darker, spicier, more sinful and infinitely sexier.

 

Rating: 5/5

[goddessrobyn]

On me... this smells EXACTLY like Chimera. If I didn't know which imp I'd applied from, I'd swear I was wearing Chimera today.

 

Luckily, I like chimera... but as it's much cheaper (and already in my hoarde) I'm sticking to that one and passing on this one... becuase well... if there's no difference, might as well stick with the cheaper version that's already a part of my collection.

[modernsaints]

.... Oh. THAT'S cassia.

 

*suddenly feels the urge to hunt down some monsterbait NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES*

 

This is barely Snake Oil on me - it's just a very faint background note. It's all sweet delicious dry cassia with a backup of ginger. I get the Chimera similarities here, definitely, but Chimera is more 'cinnamon frosting' and this is more 'dry powdered cinnamon', except it's not cinnamon, it's cassia, but you know what I mean. nom nom nom so good.

[angharad]

HOT HOT HOT. So spicy starting out. The ginger doesn't take over everything else on my skin, so that's fantastic news. I think red ginger must like me better than regular ginger because I was able to wear Pumpkin Queen, too. Anyway, I love how strong and sexy the cinnamon is at first, but the longer it's on my skin, the more the cassia peeks out with its much drier spice. I can smell the Snake Oil best when the cinnamon is strongest, but once it fades and the cassia takes over, that's pretty much all I smell. It's not very strong anymore, and I'm pretty indifferent to it at this stage.

Edited June 20, 2007 by angharad

[Rouge]

Ginger and cinnamon are two of my dream notes, so I couldn't resist buying a bottle of this without even trying an imp first. I love the label too!

 

In the bottle - Sharp and biting ginger with the fragrant dry heat of cassia. It reminds me a little of Al-Shairan in that it seems to be full of burning heat without necessarily any comforting warmth.

 

Wet on the skin - Simply incredible. It's full of hot and dry spices and puts me in mind of the sunbaked red earth of the desert. I can picture cacti and sharp desert grasses and dusty flat stones spreading out to an endless, stony horizon.

 

Dry down - The faintest hint of the Snake Oil base emerges after a few minutes of wear, providing a sweetness in the background but there's still the fierce desert heat to contend with.

 

This blend won't be for everyone, but for me it's very close to perfection.

[LyndaM]

This one is bold and ballsy. Love it! From first whiff to late drydown, it is intense ginger and spice with a slowly rising sexy and sweet undertone. Only hours and hours after application do I really detect the Snake Oil base, and the softened spice stays until the very end.

 

This is not a 'red hots' or craft store cinnamon scent, imo. More like walking into a combination bakery/whorehouse.

 

Immense throw and lasts for freaking ever. Usually over the course of a few hours, I become immune to the scent of my own perfume. Saw Scale is an exception. I could smell it clearly 14 hours after application, and the strap of my leather purse still smells faintly of it days later.

 

Another to stock up on and then mourn when the Carnaval leaves town. The Snake Pit is kicking my ass and stealing my wallet.

[laslibres]

I must admit, this one scared me at first. When I first got the bottle, I opened it in eager anticipation, but, egh. It smelled like old, wet garbage, with perhaps a little bit of vomit mixed in. And it was kinda depressing to me for a few days, because I'd really wanted to love it.

 

After those few days I got the courage to try it, and WHOA. Yeah, it smelled pretty nasty in the bottle, but that went away _rapidly_ once it was on my skin. I've never had a blend go from "eew" to "yum" so fast! This is GINGERBREAD. And I don't know that it's all that evil on me, either...it's a very sexy, resinous gingerbread, with a little bit of cinnamon. I can still detect a little bit of the Snake Oil base underneath, but overall, it's rather mellow for being a viper. It's a domesticated viper that curls up in your lap and purrs (do snakes purr, anyway? This one does).

 

I have the feeling that it's the ginger that was making this kind of ew in the bottle...ginger fresh from the lab tends to read as kind of lemony and tangy to me, but as it ages it gets spicier and more gingery. And I've had this one for a couple months, and it's done that, all right. So I would advise that if you're smelling the "ew" and getting scared away, do not despair! The viper only wants to LOVE you!

[Ceasg]

I had very high hopes for this one.

 

In the bottle, it didn't seem to be living up to my psyching. It has an intense woody smell and not much else, no depth.

 

On my skin, the same thing for a while. Just the woody cassia, which isn't unpleasant--it's just so dry smelling. After it dries and hints of the vanilla and ginger shine through the cassia and cinnamon, it really is lovely. It seems to last a good while, and out of the cinnamon blends I've tried (Bengal and Wrath), it is hands down the most truly-cinnamon.

 

My hopes were pretty much satisfied after all. Definitely purchasing at least one bottle.

[funkmoppet]

Well, there is nothing about this baby that I don't like.

 

Wet, it's a cinnamon and ginger spicy party of tasty joy. It's a far less sweet snake, both those notes lending it a woody quality that is just so languid and earthy. The strength of the cinnamon and ginger notes really cause the snake oil to lurk about in the background.

 

Drying down, both the cinnamon and ginger settle down with the snake oil for a cuddle.

 

Win? Hell yes. Adore this snake!

[alicia_stardust]

Cinnamon, cassia, ginger, Snake Oil. Red and spicy and enveloping. Sultry in its musks. This is straight-forward and yet complex. The notes swirl together into a strong scent. Lovely!

[Mixxi]

In the imp: Ugh. Straight up ginger. I don't mind sweet sugary ginger in small doses with other things mixed but this is harsh ginger. Makes me wrinkle up my nose & feel a it sick even!

 

Wet on skin: Yep same.. just this horrible amped up savory kitchen spice ginger.

 

Overall: I had to wash this off. I must just hate this kind of ginger! I don't like to give a BPAL blend such a horrid review but this just did not agree with my chemistry in general let alone my skin chemistry. I had hopes for this one to be a lovely cinnamon sweet snake oil but it didn't turn out that way .

[theshapeshifter]

Initial application: Spicy! And... there's some element in here that reminds me of TAL Brass Balls - something a bit medicinal (maybe the ginger?).

 

Within 2 minutes: Ouch! I rarely have bad reactions to BPALs, but this one seems to hate me. Oddly, my skin was fine where I applied it, but after taking a few deep sniffs, the skin above my upper lip (which is sensitive at the best of times) started to BURN. I had to wash my wrists, scrub them with makeup remover, and hold a cold compress to my face for a couple of minutes before things settled down. So this is definitely going to swaps! Shame, because I quite liked the scent.

[Dark Angel]

I got this in a decant circle back in the spring, so my imp must be about 6 mos old.

 

Right at first it's incredibly cinnamon-y, but a dry, woody cinnamon, not a candy-like cinnamon. It makes the back of my nose and throat feel dry.

 

After a while, the intense cinnamon tones down and it smells sweeter and lighter, much less dry. There's something underneath that smells lightly sweet and lovely--it doesn't remind me of Snake Oil at all really, but it's very nice. Maybe faintly vanilla but I can't really pick it out, whereas with most of the snakes I've tried I can definitely detect vanilla after a couple of hours.

 

I do like this but I think that what I got from the decant circle will do me--I'm not much of a bottle hoarder.

[Fright]

This one got quite a mixed reaction from me. I wanted it badly. It came in. I sniffed it in the bottle. My thoughts? "Christ on a cracker! Wtf?! EW! NO! Why?! I might cry.. maybe I imagined it.. *small sniff* OH! NO! I DID NOT! Is that.. that.. WOOD?! WOOD?! Did Beth stuff an invisible tree in this sucker?" I promptly stuck it back in with the impies and twitched.

 

I picked it up tonight, at, 1:10 in the morning. I figured if it's horrible, only me and the boyfriend would know. Wait, no, just me. He's glued to Neverwinter Nights 2. Just me. I put a little on my wrist. The cassia wafted up to my nose and I got twitchy. I held my breath. Bit my tongue. I held my arm away from my body. I waited five minutes, and slowly, carefully pulled my wrist up to my nose. It smelled GOOD. VERY spicy. VERY cinnamony. I LIKE this. This is NICE. Mmm. Yum. I may defenitly have to invest in a 5ml!

 

Actually, it goes quite nice with The Smiling Spider.

 

 

ETA: For spelling. Shame on me. Even with spell check.

Edited October 28, 2007 by Fright

[Summerpixy]

Spicy evil cookies.. but my enemy cinnamon won't allow me to enjoy this scent properly. Maybe I'll keep it for those rare days I feel like wearing cinnamon.

 

 

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited November 1, 2007 by Summerpixy

[heathercaley]

I went on a bpal sniffing binge and forgot how much I love this.. I used to wear it all the fricken time, but during the summer the initial burn would last a bit longer than in the colder months. The first couple of minutes after you put it on I get a super sweet spicyness, almost too much, but you just have to sit back and wait for the drydown. After it starts its dry down, you're sitting there and all of the sudden your skin tingles and starts to warm up and sting a bit.. but wait! It stops and OMG I smell Sooooooo good. So warm and cinnimon sweet and you roll your eyes and declare that you smell better than any other girl in a 10 mile radius. And a bonus...It lasts forever!

[fortytricks]

In the imp and wet on my wrist, it's all cinnamon. And I mean cinnamon. Uber cinnamon.

 

After about five minutes, however, the snake oil starts to slither through, and it becomes a smooth mix of snake oil, cinnamon, and ginger that wafts through the air every time I move my arm. It has a good throw and excellent staying power-Snake Oil and all the snakes I've tried so far are like this on me which makes me happy. I put it on in the morning, and it lasts all day.

 

Definitely a future bottle purchase.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Whoa!Cassia!

 

Wet: Mmm, snake oil and cinnamon! The cassia has settled down and become more approachable, which makes me happy, cause I was scared. It's very sexy and middle-eastern!

 

Drydown: The cassia is still strong, but not overwhelming! I might pair this up with another dot of Snake Oil if I wanted the cassia pared down.

3.5 outta 5, this will eventually be a big bottle purchase!

[theseagrows]

at first this smelled like musty cinnamon on me. cinnamon is OK to me but not amazing, as a skin-scent. now that it's dried, it smells a bit better, but i get pure cinnamon and cassia. it's kind of unremarkable with my skin chemistry, so i will swap it.