Coral Snake (2006)

[tailoredshirt]

Snake Oil with blood orange, red apple, lemon peel, plumeria, and gardenia.

 

I really should have known that apples, oranges, and the vanilla from the Snake Oil would not be good on me, but it sounded so yummy and I really wanted to try it.

The scent didn't realy morph very much while it was on. Right away, I got very sweet apple-citrus and not much else. It did smell very edible, but it was really too sweet for me to wear. After about 3 hours, I got some of the Snake Oil spiciness, which toned down the sweet fruitiness.

It did have good throw throughout. I did a couple of swipes on my wrist and 3 hours later could smell it wafting up at me while I had my hands in my lap. And now it's been 7 hours after applying, and I can still smell it when I sniff my wrists, so it does last a while.

Overall, it's too sweet and fruity for me.

[laslibres]

Apple! Spicy apple! And it's a _red_ apple, for sure, like a sexed-up Hesperides. A little bit of floral from the plumeria and gardenia (I love both of those). The apple is very fresh smelling, and juicy, and the Snake Oil adds a bit of vanilla and spice, but as a background note, just wafting through the air, not turning it completely desserty. The apple doesn't really _combine_ with the other notes, though...this apple is a diva and wants to take center stage.

 

It really is predominantly apple (oh wait...tiny bit of citrus, too! but you really have to huff to get it), and with some light incense, spices, and vanilla breezing through the background. Niiiice. Although I'm pretty sure the decant I have is fairly new, and the apple will retire from the limelight a little bit as it ages, as fruits sometimes do, and the little bit of citrus probably will fade even more. This is just a prediction, however.

[SophieCedar]

Wow! I can smell all the fruits and flowers when wet but the SO is having a hard time competing. Primarily spicy red apple and plumeria with a hint of blood orange wet. Gardenia isn't notable here. Lemon peel could be giving it the spice effect?

 

Drydown, the SO comes out. It's a lovely combination on me. Everything else is masking my ability to distinctly smell gardenia, which I love. I think it's changing the background composition slightly however! Love it. Supremely yummy and seductive.

[MonkeysInk]

I got an sample of Coral Snake from a generous forumite, and it was exactly what I hoped it would be. It smells like juicy red apples (some sliced, some still whole) next to a beautiful display of freshly cut flowers, and someone walked by wearing some Snake Oil.

 

As I wear it, the apples dampen down and the florals come forward a little, but always with Snake Oil lingering and wafting nearby.

 

The imp I received is aged, and I've ordered a new bottle, so I'm curious to see how they are different. If the apples have receded in my aged sample, then I can't imagine how juicy they're going to smell in a fresh bottle - they're still pretty forward in my imp, which the previous owner estimated to be two years old.

 

I love, love, love this fragrance. It's fresh enough to smell like summer, and the vanilla keeps it grounded and rich enough that I can see wearing this during the fall, too.

[RhinestoneHousewife]

In bottle: Apples! I love apples!

 

Wet on skin: Apple and green floral?

 

Dry on skin: Hmmmmm. Something between the apple, white florals and SO have turned it into a moth ball-y smell. It smelled good until I put it on my skin.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Apple, red and ripe

 

On Application

Beautiful apple with a bit of plumeria giving it a floral tinge

 

Dry Down

It takes a while for the snake oil to make an appearance. This is mostly apple with a dry, dusty background until the snake oil comes through. I am impressed with the staying power of the apple.

 

Rating (0-5)

4.5

[milica]

I wanted something a bit different than my other SO scents, so I went for this fruity floral. And it was a great catch, I love apple and citrus notes in this. Apple comes out first, then SO and orange, and it's perfect. After few hours, it's still fruity, but vanilla comes out more and for the last half hour on skin it becomes floral SO. I really love apple, orange and SO combo, it's sweeter than my usual scents, but it's still pure win!

Edited August 29, 2010 by milica

[pandorasmuse]

In the decant: Wow. Cinnamon. All cinnamon. I have no idea where that’s coming from.

 

Wet: Warm cider with a cinnamon stick! This makes me think of November/December.

 

Drydown: The only part of the snake oil base I’m smelling is the spices in with the cider smell.

 

Later: Very autumnal, comforting (weird for a snake, I know), and delicious.

[Gin]

Aw, where's the apple? And orange? I get a ton of plumeria and gardenia, but hardly any fruit at first. Th apple eventually makes an appearance, but it stays low while the flowers continue to sing. I'd much rather have an apple-orange-lemon Snake Oil than a plumeria-gardenia Snake Oil (though of the florals, they're two of my top picks), but I'm going to have faith and keep this snake around for a bit and see how it changes over time.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Aged 5mL from Midnight Aeval (from when the Snake Pit was released).

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I never planned to try all of the Snake Pit blends, but I'm getting there. There are only 4 that I haven't tried at this point, including Coral Snake. I originally passed Coral Snake up because I'm not a huge apple fan and I hate lemon and florals. But I read the reviews and saw people comparing this to apple cider and that did me in. I love the smell of apple cider. Fearful Pleasure is a year-round favorite of mine, so I'm hoping for something similar from this.

 

First sniff:

 

Definitely apple. Red, juicy apple. Not a Red Delicious; similar to a Macintosh, but not quite. It does sort of scream autumn straight out of the bottle, but it would be the early part of autumn, when it's still warm and the days are sunny. I don't smell any Snake Oil (although I do get some faint spices that are almost definitely part of it), lemon or florals.

 

Wet on skin:

 

I don't know if my skin is eating scents today or if Coral Snake is just fainter on the skin than in the bottle, because it loses a couple of notches in its scent throw as soon as it hits my skin. Instead of pure, juicy apple and a touch of spice, it turns into soft red apple, a touch of Snake Oil and a very faint hint of sweet florals (I'm guessing it's the plumeria, because it doesn't have the headiness of gardenia to my nose).

 

Dry down:

 

I think this is one of those scents that smells better in the bottle than on me. Actually, that's not necessarily true. The drydown is actually quite pretty, but it's not "me."

 

As Coral Snake dries, the florals come out more until I'm left with a pretty, feminine scent that's part sweetness with a hint of faint fruitiness, part gentle hothouse flowers (not heady or headache-inducing, they're softer and sweeter...more like honeysuckle than gardenia) and part faint orange.

 

The bottom line:

 

Honestly, I think Coral Snake would be quite pretty on someone else (assuming the drydown was the same on them, of course). It's pretty on me, for that matter. It's just not the sort of scent that I enjoy wearing. I do like it in the bottle, though, so I'll probably be wearing it a scent locket.

[mistressfizz]

Sniff: Tart apples!

 

Wet: Definitely apples, crispy and juicy. A hint of citrus. But the fruit is overwhelmed by florals, especially the gardenia. A very bright and vivid scent.

 

Dry: It's spicy fruit potpourri and burnt plastic! It's actually not bad, just a little weird on my skin. I really like the fruit and florals, but something acrid is sneaking around in there and pushing this slightly off balance. I think this would make a good room scent.

 

 

 

Edit for spelling fail!

Edited August 17, 2011 by mistressfizz

[detritius]

This is a bright, warm, uniquely perfect apple, with hints of sweetness, tartness, and spice. The notes don't stand out distinctly from each other, but I can detect everything except the florals. After the apple, the spicy vanilla of the Snake Oil is the most prominent. The lemon and the blood orange (a note I'm fairly familiar with because I adore blood orange tea) don't stand out as themselves, but they give the apple a wonderful, juicy, citrus kick that I sort of wish apples had in real life. I think this might be an autumn scent, somewhat reminiscent of Autumn Cider, but a scent this bright and energetic is welcome any time of year.

[ami226]

On the skin: Apple! Lovely apple. This reminds me quite a bit of the lab's cider scents. After a bit, I can smell the other notes hidden underneath the apple. Really, this is a bright apple scent with hints of Snake Oil swirling around. I would seriously love to be eating my arm right about now.

 

This is lovely, but I don't think I would wear it too often. The apple does kind of take over when I wish I could smell more of the Snake Oil.

[KittyHawk]

Wet, this is insanely intense spicy apples, very similar to the apple note in Autumn Cider and Punkie Night. That's it - spicy apples. Lots of them.

 

Dry, this gets much better. The apple recedes a bit and allows the Snake Oil to come to the forefront. I get some creamy floral note, which must be the gardenia, but it doesn't really smell like the BPAL gardenia I'm accustomed to. Throughout the day, it remains a fruity cousin of Snake Oil. Very nice, if that's what you're looking for, but it's not my favorite of the snake blends.

 

All in all, I'm happy I have a bottle of this for the transition from summer into fall, but it's not as great as I'd hoped.

[Mechanical Death]

Wore this 2 days ago-- lovely!! I'll update my review to have a fuller beginning to end, but this is definitely hands down one of my favorite fruity blends!

 

I don't get a ton of the heady snake oil, just enough to add a good amount of vanilla to blend and create a good wafting ability for the scent. The spices from snake oil sort of vanish, again just keep the fruit from fading fast.

 

It dries down to exactly what's in the description. Bright juicy apple(yum!) syrupy orange, a hit of citrus and blooms of perfume flowers wafting over vanilla and hints of decadent spices-- a little cinnamony.

Delicious and stunning!

 

It has incredible lasting power too. I still smelled it on me when I woke up the next day.

[mermaidsdream]

I'm not sure why this was the first out of the Carnaval scents I decided to try, but it's what I pulled out of the box this afternoon.

 

Out of the bottle, I'm not entirely sure what I'm getting -- definitely NOT Snake Oil; something fruity, but not over powering. It's almost as though the different notes were competing for my attention.

 

Applied (with a toothpick), I get crisp, ripe red apple, and nothing else. I normally don't like the apple scents, as they tend to be a bit overpowering on me, but this works. It's very fresh, very clean.

 

I applied to both wrists & my neck. As it's drying, my neck starts to itch & burn with what I normally associate with the cinnamon + clove combination. It passes after about 5-10 minutes, which is good, and it doesn't burn as bad as Bengal did on me.

 

Hours later, I've gotten a bit of the lemon peel with a bit of floral; now, I get something sweet, not quite floral.

 

I'm on the fence about this one. I don't get Snake Oil at all out of this, which is unfortunate because I LOVE Snake Oil. I'll likely give it another go later; I have many more snakes to try

 

ETA: Mystery of the itch solved -- I'd gone to visit a friend who was gardening today, and was wearing a tank-top. I just got a look at myself in the mirror and noticed the sunburn on the tops of my shoulders & my chest/neck area. Obviously, I need to get out more (with sunscreen).

 

Also adding: this has faded into something very soft, very pretty. I'd definitely need to be in the right mood for this scent. It doesn't draw me in like some of the other scents have, but again, with the very fresh, crisp apple scent, it works.

Edited March 11, 2013 by mermaidsdream

[themeaningofV]

For the first few moments, this is wonderful - it's fruity and happy-making and fun. In the decant, it was fantastic. I put it on my skin; still pretty great, not too different...

 

And then, everything went HORRIBLY WRONG.

 

Under the surface of the fruits lies something... not-good. Sour and acrid, like something left out to rot for a while. Are those the florals? The Snake Oil? I thought SO was all right on me when I tried it. Why is it doing this?! I was having such a good run with the Carnaval. Poo.

 

I'll definitely retest this, since I was looking forward to this so much. But for now, I think I need to wash this off. :/ So bummed!

Edited July 5, 2013 by vthesiren

[captnklaus]

I was given a decant of Coral Snake by a lovely and generous forumite and oh my!

 

 

Wet its all apples all the time, which makes me very grateful that apple plays well on my skin. After giving it some time to dry down and settle on my skin the Snake Oil starts to peek out and combine with the apple in a wonderful way. Its sweet, but not foody; comforting without being warm (I find Snake Oil to be a very "warm" scent, something I love to wear in cold weather vs hot). The citrus never makes an obvious appearance, and neither do the flowers. Instead they work together to keep this light and refreshing. Perfect for a fall day!

 

It doesn't have a crazy throw like Snake Oil on its own does on me, but it definitely hangs around and I love catching whiffs now and then of beautiful appley Snake Oil. It also sticks around all day to the point where I can still detect it on my wrists while getting ready for bed.

 

All in all this has definitely become a favorite of the Snake Pits, along with Australian Copperhead. Guess I just really love the pairing of Snake Oil with fruit Can't wait to get a bottle of this!

[mymymai]

ITB: It's rather sweet and floral - sugared blood orange, gardenia, fragrant plumeria, some lemon, ripe red apple, and vanilla-infused Indonesian oils.

 

Wet: Yum - juicy red apple covered in vanilla, heady Indonesian oils makes a gorgeously sweet base for the lemon peel, faint blood orange, and sugared plumeria. Delish!

 

Dry: It's sweetly floral with a lightly candied citrus and apple tone underneath the vanilla and sugar. Once dried, it's gorgeous!

[ShannonElisabethJones]

In the bottle, it's crisp fruits. When I applied it, the creamy vanilla of Snake Oil joined the party and I smelled like a very sweet, creamy, spicy dessert.

 

It's REALLY gorgeous. Sweeter and a little girlier than straight up Snake Oil.

 

It's warming up now and more of the spice is surfacing and the fruits are retreating, but still foody. Like the little girl is growing up.

 

I'm in love.

[GoddesShel]

Oh, wow. This is divine. I get spicy fruits first, and then apple. Then the orange showed up for a few minutes, and ah, here comes the Snake Oil. Tropical fruity snake oil. YUM!

[BeyondBad1313]

This blend is beautiful! It is as if sniffing the best apple cider imaginable. Sadly my skin eats apple, so the apple scent dissipates and I am left with the spicy vanilla of snake oil. It is beautiful for someone who can wear apple scents. I also think this one can pull off being worn year round, it's not too foody like pie, more like fresh red apples.

[ShannonElisabethJones]

I've had this one for a while....not sure why I haven't reviewed it yet* because it is FABULOUS.

 

It takes Snake Oil from smoldering sexy to fun sexy. This is my go-to going-out scent. It's sweet but not too sweet, fruity but not overpowering, and it's lasting.

 

One of my most favorite scents. I can't wait to try the 2016 version.

 

 

 

*Turns out I did review this two years ago. Whoops!

Edited May 4, 2016 by Sionann

[freyasfae]

Red apple, red apple, red apple. That's all I get. If I bury my nose in it, I can, faintly, detect some of the other notes. I have noticed this with a lot of red apples, so I think this is more my skin amps the hell out of red apple than the blend itself.

[Miss Landau]

My first foray into Snake Oil. I've tried several of BPAL's apple related oils now and so far they seem to work pretty well on me, both in terms of staying power and smelling as they should, as per notes and other reviews. This is absolutely mouth-watering, citrus and red apple, and the spiciness underneath it which I'm guessing is what Snake Oil smells like? If so, I'm a fan.