Australian Copperhead (2016)

[Myria Jean]

Snake Oil with acai berry, amber, cardamom, white sandalwood, neroli, and smoked vanilla.

The açai berry is dark, deep, and bittersweet. It's the strongest note. Neroli is a lovely floral touch on a background of Snake Oil and smoked vanilla.
Snake Oil never smelled snakey to me, but this manages to be both gorgeous and reptilian.

[aiobhan]

In the bottle: Super acai berry! Some sandalwood is also present.

On skin: The acai mellows a little and the vanilla, amber, and neroli show up to give the whole scent a sunny, deep warmth. The Snake Oil and cardamom are barely-there spice. The sandalwood rounds off the scent with a little woody dryness.

Dry, after a while: The acai and neroli remain bright, while the amber and vanilla amp up underneath to keep everything smooth and warm. (I amp both notes pretty strongly, so your results may vary!). The Snake Oil and cardamom are still just a breath of spice, and the sandalwood gives the scent just a touch of dry woodiness, but it's definitely waaaay in the background.

[suki]

In The Bottle: Oh, açai berry, you sassy vixen, how I have missed you! In the bottle she is juicy and ripe and full of sweet and tart promise. She's also the dominant note, overshadowing all others.

 

Wet On Skin: Still mostly the berry's show, but I'm getting traces of the smoked vanilla here and there, which is giving the açai something to ground to.

 

Dry Down: Oh HAI Snake Oil! I was wondering when you were coming to the party! SO is very faint, at least in this fresh-from-the-Lab bottle. We all know how SO ages and changes, so I wouldn't rule out the possibility that later it might become more dominant. It this current state, however, it's merely giving depth to the vanilla and berry combo- and rounding the whole thing out, making it really delectable and quite singular.

 

In All: I always thought my love affair with Boomslang would be the beginning and end of where I stood with the Snake Pit. But Australian Copperhead? Just hit it out of the part.

 

Hoard-worthy.

[Blood onmy hands]

Australian Copperhead was one of my favorites of the original snake pit. The lab's acai berry note is really fun and pretty, with a good mix of sweet and sour tones, and the smoked vanilla gives it a darker, creamy edge. My old bottle of Australian Copperhead was all acai berry and vanilla, and was very vanilla-y even before aging (and all of my Snake Pit blends have gotten sweeter and more vanilla-centric over time).

This 2016 version starts off reminding me of raspberry scented shampoo and Bath & Body Works' Sun-Ripened Raspberry stuff. It has a tart, perfumey/musky, clean thing going on, where the original smelled a lot more natural. That not-so-great stage sticks around for about 20 minutes, and then the scent shifts completely into something gorgeous.

Once it loses most of its perfumey/soapy edge, this starts to remind me of vanilla icecream with ribbons of berry syrup, and a background of sultry, smoky orange blossom and sandalwood perfume. I was worried about the white sandalwood going to baby powder on my skin (it almost always does), but it's a soft, woody, sandalwood incense feel here with the smoked vanilla and neroli.

Once it dries down, I think that I actually like this more than the original Australian Copperhead. It's more complex and nuanced. Sweet vanilla with hints of tart berry, neroli, sandalwood and a curl of incense smokiness. Very sultry. <3

[lizardqueen]

Looks like I never reviewed the previous version of Australian Copperhead, which I'm not terribly surprised by: I tried it, registered "cat pee," and ran away. Upon re-release, though, the notes still appealed to me so much that I decided to try again.

 

The acai berry really stands out in the bottle and fresh on my skin. As it begins to dry, something started registering to my nose as "dryer sheets"--could be the neroli or the amber. And then... oh... oh, no...

 

It's not cat pee--it's scented cat litter. I don't actually buy scented cat litter, but I've used it on occasion when cat-sitting, so take it with a grain of salt, but that's where my mind is going. If I press my nose up to the spot on my hand where I applied the oil, I can separate the scents out somewhat: a powdery sort of floral over a vanilla base. (I'm not getting the acai at all anymore.) But if I just wave my hand vaguely toward my face? Cat litter. Stupid body chemistry.

 

There are plenty of other snakes in the pit, of course, but I'm still bummed.

[zankoku_zen]

Acai, vanilla and Snake Oil. Berry, vanilla, over some amped up Snake Oil sandalwood. Low throw and wear length on me.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Very tangy acai berry. It smells artificial on me. I have sniffed the original, but not skin tested it, but it smelled a lot richer to me, maybe due to aging. So far, other than Death Adder, none of the snakes are actually very Snake Oil heavy on me, which is a disappointment, as I adore Snake Oil so much.

 

Dry: I am a little sad. This does nothing for me, in fact, it's kind of bad on my skin. I guess I had never really tried anything with acai in it before, and I don't think it agrees with me. It smells very artificial. Too bad!

[Teaker]

Wow, this is great. My favorite of the Snake Pit scents that I've tried. It starts off with a blast of fresh snake oil with a crisp, fruity edge that's just a touch bitter. My first thought was actually apple peel, but I'm assuming that's acai berry with the barest hint of neroli. As it dries I get less snake oil, but a gorgeous creamy dark vanilla. There's a little warmth to this from the cardamom and I think I can pick up the amber. I'm generally not an amber fan but this is very mild and nice. White sandalwood is a note that I can never actually smell, but its in so many of my very favorite blends and this one is no exception.

 

I'm thinking I might get multiple bottles of this. My one concern is that its very mild and doesn't have a lot of throw.

[Casablanca]

Wand: The bright tang of acai.

Wet: Tangy, slightly tart acai berry. At this stage, this is an almost garishly bright pinkish-orange scent. It's a scent of fun, but it's just single note at this point.

Dry: Acai with smoky vanilla, which is nice. I think I get a little neroli, too, but it's kind of hiding up in the acai palm. No sign of the snake oil base yet, unless the smoky vanilla counts. No trace of spice.

Three hours in: Oh, hey. There's a little snake oil here. This is quite pretty with just a bit of acai over it, now that the acai is calm. Took a while to get to this point, though.

This is pretty once dry, but kind of single note until then. I'm curious how it'll age.

[nolifeking]

It took me time to really apreciate Australian Copperhead because to me, the acai berry was pretty much Shampoo anf then powdery amber vanilla

 

Almost two month later, the acai is juicy and the neroli is quite present to my delignt in the wet stage:)

Once dry, I get a bit of sandalwood and reaaallly faint SO in the background. The smoked vanilla appears a few hours later with it's friend amber The acai/ neroli is still around at this stage.

 

Glad I took a chance with this one ♡

[Elspethdixon]

Australian Copperhead

 

Having patiently let my snakes sit and settle for a full month, the testing may now begin.

 

Cracking open the imp, I can smell the fruity-tart acai berry, as well as a hint of sweet vanilla and an underlying musty note. Once it's on my skin, the musty note becomes stronger and dominates. Curse you, patchouli, my eternal foe.

 

After a minute or so, the mustiness starts to morph into a medicinal, almost mentholated scent, and I can feel the cardamom stinging on my wrists/forearms, although there's no redness. The menthol/camphor-like note is strongest directly over the pulse in my wrists, and while there's a hint of freshness from the acai that makes it a lot more pleasant than straight Snake Oil (which smells like 50% medicinalness and 50% "a vanilla cookie rotting in a incense-filled brothel" to quote Nicnivins immortal description) it isn't the acai dominant scent I smelled in the imp. Come back, acai berry!

 

After about fifteen minutes, the cardamom sting goes away, the medicinal blast starts to fade, and the smoked vanilla becomes stronger, but the acai berry is still in hiding. When I tested this fresh from the decant circle a month ago, it was all acai. What gives, Copperhead? You are now milder/less musty snake oil with extra vanilla, and not fruity goodness.

 

After about an hour or so, hints of acai berry do come back. Now it's vanilla with a hint of acai, and the funky/musty/medicinal snake oil is entirely gone. Still not as acai-forward as the imp or my first testing, but worth keeping the decant. Not bottle worthy, though.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Elspethdixon

[milo]

I used to be crazy over the original AC, that was back in the day when berries were my forté. I will have to do a side by side, but there is not really much of a difference between this one and the original. Maybe the berries are not as pronounced, which is a good thing. I'm getting bright red berries, and a touch of snake oil. This one is bright and happy, and I love how it dries to smoky, slightly fruity Snake Oil. I think I'm falling in love all over again.

[Spaztic]

When I first got this one, I liked it enough to keep it but I wasn't super impressed

I should have remembered that this was a Snake Oil blend, because now I've had it for a month or so and I love it!

It's kinda like you get two fragrances in one with this blend. When I first put it on I get all berry and it smells like a nice body spray but as it dries down I get more and more Snake Oil, Smoked Vanilla and Amber and it's sooooo nice!

Might be my favourite Snake oil blend

[CitrusFiend]

Wet, it's Snake Oil mixed with a sweet floral. No acai here, which is too bad because I love acai! Surprisingly, the amber didn't amp and drown out everything else like it usually does on my skin. After drying, this is pure Snake Oil on me. The oil is a light orange compared to the thick brown of regular Snake Oil, but on my skin they smell the same.

[Lucchesa]

Decant of indeterminate age. This is my first açaí blend, and I will avoid this note in the future. It turns into an artificial berry on my skin and completely dominated the scent. No cardamom, no sandalwood, no smoky vanilla — no Snake Oil even. And unlike every other SO variant I have tried, it is gone after two hours. Not for me.

[Juliamon]

In the imp: Fruit and fresh Snake Oil.

 

Wet: Alright, acai, I get it, you're here, you can stop shouting at me! It's very tart and takes a minute or five to calm down a bit, at which point I can start to pick up the amber and sandalwood. I'm usually anosmic to BPAL's white sandalwood but in this case it's probably what's making the amber a bit more powdery than usual on me.

 

Dry: Having said its piece the acai has left, and this is now almost straight-up SO--no, wait, actually, I think it's a little closer to Snake Charmer. There's still a gentle fruity tang, dusty amber, and a trace of cardamom if I look for it, all over that good good SO base with all the longevity you expect from it. I never got any neroli (hardly the end of the world, I can take or leave it) but I wonder if it was what made the SO smell fresh in the imp.

 

This is leaning towards being a keeper, but that obnoxiously acai opening makes me hesitate. I may swap it if the right trade comes up but I'm in no rush.