Green Tree Viper

[childoftime]

Snake Oil with four mints, bergamot, and green tea.

I'm so glad I put this one on before I read the notes, or I may never have given myself a chance to love it!
And I definitely love this! I'm not usually a big mint lover (in fact, I have been avoiding it for years), but this is the perfect blend of honest mint with Earl Grey and Green teas blended. Not-fake/overpowering at all. The mint is making this sweet and fresh and light without being strong in the least. Love, love love.

When it dries, the mint mellows a bit and the teas really come to life. I am SO glad I have a whole bottle of this! Edited December 10, 2009 by ChildofTime

[reynardine]

First, to tell the honest truth, I don’t much care for Snake Oil. But the CD Snakes have so far been wonderful!

 

In imp: fresh minty scent with a touch of spice

 

Wet: Ooooh, divine! The mint and spices completely compliment one another. Also getting a touch of the bergamot and tea.

 

Drydown: Very light, spicy blend. Really gorgeous.

 

Later: Mint and spices. I am so getting a bottle of this!!!!

 

[Jenn2D2]

Oh, my. This is what I imagine in my head when I think of snake oil

 

In the bottle: minty, with a spicy undertone

 

Wet: the mint and tea blend together for a fresh green smell, with a thread of spice slithering underneath

 

Dry: all of the elements blend into one constantly morphing fresh, green scent with each element peeking out from time to time

 

This has rocketed to the top of my favorite perfumes. The scent is bright and green, with mint and herbs playing with the serpentine spices I associate with Snake Oil. Unlike Temple Viper, this didn't feel like a 'watered down' snake to me, but the full, bright, coiled serpent in all of its different moods.

 

[hmelt004]

Green Tree Viper reminds me of the end of a very posh, sexy dinner party. There is a plate of after-dinner mints sitting in front of me and tea is being served. Someone across the table is drinking green tea, and someone farther away is having Earl Grey, but most of what you can smell is the sweet, heady vanilla musk perfume of the woman sitting next to you.

 

I do not like Snake Oil, but I love this stuff.

[DeltaCat]

Oh sweet sweet heavenly mints! Oh hi green tea! This scent is perfect for Spring. When the weather is just beginning to feel a touch warm and the air smells fresh again. Grass is starting to get green and the birds have come back. This just smells so fresh. Once dry the Snake Oil does come out, but it behaves and doesn't overpower my mints. The green tea adds a very nice herbal note. Such an amazing scent. 5mL in my next order is a must!

[kelpsoda]

MINT MINT MINT MINT! - I'm not getting much else.

 

After 15 min, I get a lighter mint with an undertone of snake oil. I don't know what I amp in snake oil (red musk?), but it doesn't really appeal to me.

 

ETA: ok, now I get nothing but mint. Nice, but not for me.

Edited January 30, 2010 by kelp

[fairestrocza]

Note: This is an aged (reportedly ~2yrs old) bottle of Green Tree Viper, purchased from a forumite.

 

In the Bottle: a rich scent; the mint is definitely present, but not sharp or intense; the scent definitely draws me in

 

Wet on Skin: deliciously minty and snakey

 

While Drying: at this stage it feels slightly disjointed, but still delicious… slinky, slithery, and slightly fuzzy.

 

After a Little While: The mint is restrained, but still bright enough to lift up the snake oil; I keep thinking I might be able to pick out the bergamot, but it is subtle here. I can't smell the green tea directly, but I can believe it is in here adding some subtle nuance to the blend. By the time it dries, this whole scent pulls together beautifully, and a vanilla undertone emerges. Yum.

 

Later: Mmmm, spicey vanilla, with a touch of zing. The zing slowly fades away, as does the scent in general. There is a brief period of the not-so-nice musky phase that SO gives me, but it is brief enough that I didn't notice the first time I played with GTV. The lingering scent is nice, but has low throw. I may need to slather this in the future like I did the first time I played with GTV.

 

Final Thoughts: I only tried Snake Oil by itself once before gifting my imp to an out of town friend, so it is hard to do a direct comparison, but I don't remember being overly excited by SO ('nice, but it's no Vixen'), whereas I find GTV enchanting.

Green Tree Viper earns a 4/5 on my skin.

[strahlend]

I'm a big fan of mint, but for some reason it took me quite a while to get ahold of an imp of Green Tree Viper.

I'm totally in love. It reminds me strongly of the mint in Mad Hatter, which is to say pennyroyal (I believe) and I totally love it. I had no idea how mint would blend with Snake Oil, but I am delighted with how it ends up. It's everything I love about mint PLUS an extra dimension of super amazingness. I can't describe why it works so beautifully, but I can tell you that it does.

~runs off to check the sales page for Green Tree Viper~

 

*edit

After a obtaining a bottle and wearing it quite a bit I realize that the overtly mint part wears off pretty quickly every time and I'm left with a gentle snake oil that ends up fading off faster than it seems like regular snake oil does. Hm. I still love it a lot but this might end up working better in my locket.

Edited May 8, 2010 by strahlend

[heywilma]

I haven't gotten around to trying Snake Oil just yet, so I have no frame of reference for that particular scent, but Green Tree Viper is a completely different creature from bottle to skin. In the bottle, mint mint mint. Really nice, subtle changes, and I'd definitely say I can pick out at least two different mint notes, but that disappears quickly after application to skin, where it becomes musky/spicy, which I can only assume is the Snake Oil.

 

It's not something that I'd generally go for, but I do really like this. I just wish the mint stayed for a little longer.

 

ETA: randomly, after a night's sleep, the lovely musky scent is still there, and I love it. Maybe this means I should spring for some Snake Oil.

Edited May 1, 2010 by heywilma

[crebbsgirl]

So, I was a little wary of the mints, because when I first applied this, I get a BLAST of them on my skin. Quickly, the SO comes out, and it's tempered nicely by the mints. Usually SO is warm and heavy on my skin, here it translates as cooler. The bergamot is very faintly detectable as is the green tea. Both act to provide a lightness to the depth of SO. I quite like this.

[Greensleeves]

In the bottle: Delicious minty green sweetness with an undertone of something seductive.

Wet: Indonesian spice oils to the max, mint is being shoved back.

 

Dry: Seduction in a field of mint, a cool balance of the freshness of mint, coupled with the darkly suggestive hints of vanilla and spice.

 

After a few minutes: Whee, hot sex on a bed of cool mint, while drinking green tea with citrus. Alas, it does not make my husband want to hump my leg, but I think I want to hump my own.

 

Then, after a few more minutes, something really bitter has crept forward, it almost smells like tonka, but not nearly as loathsome amidst the leg-hump inducing goodness. The vanilla and sugared oils have beaten back the mint again, but there is still a hint of cool freshness and tang.

 

After first hour: Powdery, almost icing sugar like vanilla, underscored by faint, raunchily sweet spice, possibly cinnamon, nutmeg, and hint of tonka and a very faint hint of mint and citrus.

 

After two and a half hours: Vanilla and soft spice underscore d by a faint hint of green.

 

After 5 hours: Vanilla and something tangy and vaguely bitter, but still slightly pleasant.

 

Final verdict: A complex scent that leaves me with complex feelings. I wanted this to work for me because I wanted a piece of the Snake Oil mystique to call my own while still being true to myself. Unfortunately the essential notes that I could most readily identify with in the blend were the first to go. I think more experimentation is warranted.

[Suusje]

Mint + me = not a great combination, but this is just spectacular. It's a gorgeous, cool and refreshing snake oil. I absolutely adore it

[sarielswish]

In the vial, it smells like a mint cookie! I think that's because of the tea. Color, tan with a tinge of light green.

 

Wet on my skin, OH HAI MINT! I seriously smell like a mint Milano cookie! So far, this is the one Snake Pit scent I've really dug. It has a slightly medicinal scent, but sometimes you'll get that with mints and I don't mind at all. :-)

 

10-15 minute drydown - Very nice. Minty vanilla-y goodness. I can see a bottle of this being added to the list, too.

 

1 hour drydown - Most definitely getting a bottle of this. Very nice indeed.

[Amaranthus]

I expected this to smell more prominently of mint, but I like this better.

 

Upon application it smells of sugared tea with mint leaves floating in it. The mint becomes a little stronger as it wears, but it is never a sharp or overwhelming mint.

 

After half an hour or so, this smells like delicious vanilla mint cookies! Like gingersnaps with mint instead of ginger!

 

On the dry down the spicy aspects of Snake Oil emerge, creating a cool/warm contrast that I enjoy partly because it creates an unusual sensation, but also because it smells amazing.

 

I expected this to be something that would be refreshing to wear in the heat summer, and it is, but with the rich vanilla spice background I will be happy wearing this all year.

 

[mxtine]

I loved the cooling sensation on my wrist when I applied this oil. <3 This is a lovely scent, I can smell spearmint and peppermint, and soft vanilla. The mints really tone down the Snake Oil. I want a back up bottle of this stuff.

[Wolfie79]

In the bottle: I smell the snake oil, but it is softened by a sweet mint. I don't really detect the green tea when I sniff the bottle.

 

On my arm: Holy mintyness, Batman! I ADORE sweeter mint scents, and Snake Oil has that musky vanilla scent, so this is intense, sweet, sexy mint. After that initial sniff, I can detect afterthought of green tea, and just a teensy 'citrusy' whiff on the dry down.

 

This is one of my ALL.TIME.FAVORITES. I must buy all rogue bottles of this scent, and purchase a 5ml of it everytime I place an order from the lab!

[azurephoenix]

I'm really glad I'd doing DC circles of the Carnaval, I'm finding scents that I absolutely love that I would never have picked for myself. This is one of them.

 

In the bottle: orangey vanilla mint

 

When I first apply it, it's whoa MINT! This lasts for about 5 minutes. Within 15 min. my skin devours the mint and it pretty much disappears, it might be there brightening the scent but I'm not smelling it. I get a lighter yummy version of Snake Oil - GTV takes away some of the powder and tosses in a scoop of vanilla icecream. I could sooo love GTV if it just stayed like this, but after a hour GTV morphs again and turns into a gorgeous medium weight vanilla musk. Pure win!

 

Bergamot and green tea don't show up as noticeable notes at all. Sometimes I just love my skin and the wonky things it does. It rocks with Green Tree Viper!

Edited March 27, 2011 by Shollin
Removed Lab description

[mari4212]

Tested from a decant of indeterminate age, gifted by a very generous fellow forumite.

 

In the imp: mint and vanilla in about equal proportions.

 

On wet: Mint takes the lead, but it's a soft mint. Those who have compared it to the little after-dinner mints are right, because this is the slightly softened and sweetened mint from those, not the blast of straight peppermint extract that you get in altoids, or the artificial smell of chewing gum.

 

Initial drydown: it's a bit sharp, possibly from the green tea. Unfortunately for me, the bergamot/earl grey doesn't come out at all. I love to drink teas, but their scents don't tend to work on me at all. Fortunately, the green tea fades away fast.

 

Final drydown: The vanilla comes out to play, and this becomes sweet minty-vanilla goodness with just a hint of spice. Like Boomslang, the only other snakepit blend I've tried, this seems to instantly skip over the problems I have with fresh SO in favor of the wonderfully aged smell.

 

I'm not sure if this is a bottle-worthy purchase yet, but I'll love my little half-decant.

[Sultaana]

Snake Oil goes so well with so many things, but I have found it's soulmate in Green Tree Viper - MINT! Cool, tingly, creamy - this snake has bite. I'm not getting much tea, but truthfully I rarely do. I'm not sure I'll even be able to part with this decant and I know I'll need a bottle!

Edited August 7, 2010 by Sultaana

[coralprincess]

Yummm, love this one. Might be my favourite of the snake pits. I bought an aged 1/2 bottle unsniffed because I love mint & snake oil.. It's the kind of mint in snowblind, more mellow & spearminty to me than the OMG TOOTHPASTE of Lick It. It's just lovely & rich & not harsh at all.

[Ishtar]

My bottle of Green Tree Viper must be about 2 years old by now. The mint is a little less bright than it used to be, but it is still quite, well, nice and minty.

 

Green Tree Viper feels lighter to me than the other Snakes - not only does the mint impart a certain airiness, the Snake Oil base itself seems less heady than in, say, Boomslang or Asp Viper.

 

I think that the bergamot - or maybe a specific kind of mint that I wasn't able to detect before - is coming to the forefront with age. It is most noticeable 10-15 minutes after applying, when this ever so slightly sharper note interacts with the spices in Snake Oil to create an almost medicinal feel.

 

This stage is rather fleeting though, and I am soon left with a delicious combination of warm spicy vanilla and fresh mint - the contrast between the two is spectacular.

[calivianya]

Green Tree Viper just jumped to the top of my bottles to buy list.

 

The Snake Oil is there, but very subdued on my skin unlike other Snake Pit scents I have tried. Mostly, this blend is just minty fresh with a little bergamot. This is instant love.

 

 

...I'm not sure if my skin chemistry has changed or what, but lately it's been going slightly soapy before vanishing altogether within an hour. I'm sad; I really liked this one.

Edited June 17, 2012 by calivianya

[AnyseLawsBray]

In bottle: (Note: this is a newly mixed bottle, super fresh from the lab, so I will update when it has had a chance to age as well) Minty, touch of sweet citrus (bergamot).

Wet: Creamy, soft mint. Mmmm. An impression of definitely cold-blooded but verdant green.

Dry: I start to detect the warm vanilla of the Snake Oil base, smooth & warm. Much less aggressive than straight up SO.

The green tea is peeking out underneath the mint, and joy of joys- the bergamot is bursting forth in all it's glory. I love bergamot so I am thrilled that it comes out in GTV for me!

 

Verdict: I adore this blend. It reminds me very much of Alice, but where Alice has a warm, glowing feeling, Green Tree Viper is the cool & shady side. The mint doesn't stick around for too long, but I love the drydown so much that I don't mind! This is Snake Oil for people who didn't like Snake Oil.

[invisible iris]

In the bottle: Minty, with a hint of bergamot and tea.

 

On skin: The vanilla of the snake oil is immediately evident, and it goes really well with the bitter orangey bergamot. There’s still a fairly minty green tea present, as well. Oh my, I love this. It’s fresh, cool, and deep, and a great blend for warm weather.

 

Dry: The mint is still there, with hints of bergamot and a leafy, matcha-like green tea note, so that the whole top of this blend is cool, green, and refreshing. The SO, as the blend’s base, contrasts so effectively with the cool top notes, that this scent almost defies logic. It is green and cool, and simultaneously deep and vanillic. I find it to be the BPAL equivalent of green tea ice cream, but with a hint of SO spice.

 

Verdict: Another variation on SO that, while substantially different from the original, works extremely well. Green tea vanilla coolness. Green Tree Viper is amazing and I love it.

[halation]

Both in the bottle and wet on the skin, I actually don't get much mint from this -- at least, not as much as I'd expected based on reviews. I've been using a lot of Grr lately, so my mint tolerances might be askew. The vanilla is sweet and very much in the foreground, but it doesn't overpower the bergamot and green tea; they're lovely. It reminds me quite strongly of a green earl grey tea. There is an underlying coolness that must be the mint base, and as it dries it strengthens. I never get a straight-up peppermint or spearmint, but I get a back-of-the-throat tingle from what seems like pennyroyal or perhaps catnip. It reminds me a little of Black Cat, but without the doom-note of rose.

 

This is definitely the scent of the summer for me. Usually my skin eats scents up, but GTV actually seems to get stronger on me as time passes. An hour or so after application it blooms fully and the throw improves. I got this strictly because I'm a mint fanatic, but I think now I'm actually tempted to get some straight Snake Oil and see what all the fuss is about. I wasn't interested before as I thought it sounded too sweet, but the vanilla in this is beautiful. I'd love to layer it with other scents. There's just enough mint-and-green in GTV to make me think I wouldn't want to combine it with other scents.

 

GTV is not what I expected, but I quite like it all the same, and it is quite cooling, even if it's not aggressively minty. As a bonus, it seems like mosquitos aren't too fond of it; at the very least, they left me alone when I wore it last night.