Opuhi

[pinkgyrl]

Ginger blossom and vanilla orchid.

If you like Leo 2007, Opuhi is its innocent and sweet cousin. I was afraid to purchase this because of the floral notes - but I'm so glad that I didn't pass this by! When you first apply this scent, it seems slightly overwhelming - but the drydown is fast - then it becomes a mellow, sweet, creamy scent to die for - I get sweet delicate vanilla with just a tiny bit of spice from the ginger - gorgeous!

[suileach]

This is tooth-achingly sweet in the bottle. Sugar-spun tropical frosting.

 

The ginger - a very rooty kind - takes on a wee bite on my skin, but it's still exceedingly fluffy and sweet.

 

I'm not sure what to make of this scent. There's something about it that my nose interprets as acrid/sour once it's on my skin for a few minutes (this is a skin chemistry thing, as I occasionally have this problem with certain scents). It's almost the metallic tang of canned citrus fruit. Probably going to let it rest for a while and re-test another day before making a decision.

 

...ew, no. I do believe that what it smells like on me is spoiled milk! I haven't had dairy milk in ages, so I didn't remember that particular smell at first. But...yes. Definitely a sour/buttermilk kind of scent on my skin. Ugh.

Edited May 3, 2008 by suileach

[terrenity]

In the decant: Swoonable vanilla with a ginger kick. There's a bit of a tea-feeling here, similar to Dorian, which I'm guessing is the vanilla.

 

On: Much of the same, until...

 

Dry: Burnt plastic. -cries- Dragon's Milk did this to me too, and the only note I can find to blame is the vanilla, although Dorian, Snake Oil, and Mouse's LST all worked on me. Dragon's Milk also smelled like burnt plastic in the imp, so that one may not have been a chemistry issue.

 

Hmm... I'm so heartbroken! I almost ordered two bottles of Opuhi, it sounded so good. Ah well... another good reason to order a clocket! ^^

 

Interestingly, this also turns a bit plasticky on Bear, though his skin eats it anyway so it doesn't matter.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Opuhi is Sudha Segara's crazy black-sheep cousin, the one who shows up drunk on fruity frou-frou drinks (the kind that come served in Buddha-shaped holders with paper umbrellas)--on first application, I got Hawaiian fruit punch (??), but luckily it settled into a beautiful warm ginger-vanilla on drydown. I like it; it's definitely a summery scent for playful moods.

[simpsonmeredith]

This one was really a disappointment. It sounded amazing but not on me.

 

The ginger is overwhelming and never mellows out on me. It actually intensifies to something not at all pleasant. The vanilla in the bottle disappears completely once it hits my skin. It's like sickeningly sweet spice that made me kinda ill. I'm not sure what about this didn't work. I love vanillas and I have a couple gingers that I adore but they are cut heavily with citrus. Maybe pure ginger just doesn't work with me.

[wikkidraven]

lovely, golden and warm ginger with sweet vanilla. simple, but beautiful on the skin.

[Rouge]

In the vial - An enticing, sweet and floral vanilla.

 

Wet on the skin - For some reason this blend reminds me of walking into a branch of The Body Shop - it has the same sweet and almost fruity edge I always get from their bath products.

 

Next stages - Although the ginger is noticeable from the outset, it lends a slightly dry note to later stages of the blend keeping it from being too sweet. The "Body Shop" edge calms down considerably and the blend soon simplifies to a warm, creamy and tropical veil of scent.

 

Similar scents - Mouse's Long and Sad Tale

[slave1]

OPUHI

 

In Bottle: Sweet gentle floral

 

On Skin: This is the lightest, most delicate tropical scent I’ve come across. It is absolutely beautiful. The ginger scared me off, but as a blossom it is a totally different note. No spice or typical ginger feel at all. Just a very sweet yummy floral. I think fans of Antique Lace might like it for it’s simple yet effective beauty. This is a perfect scent that feels like a relaxing mellow vacation. While it is tropical, it isn’t in your face or over the top. It’s is subtle and I love it for that. I would love to also use this as a linen spray since it is so relaxing and comforting, yet clean and fresh. A perfect summer scent. I wish I had gotten a bottle. Very light throw and short wearlength.

[tinyvulture]

a gorgeous vanilla floral combination, breezy and romantic, ginger is sometimes too sharp or astringent on my skin, but it’s delicate here, and sweetly spicy. this makes me think of sudha seghara plus a large dose of vanilla. it's light and creamy and sure to be in heavy rotation all summer.

[akuaa]

it's hard to fairly judge opuhi in the presence of upa upa. opuhi is sweet and fruity. for whatever reason the smell is circular to me. it swirls around and around... it's a brisk flirty sunshiney day, with a little tiny yellow umbrella the vanilla comes out as this dries. it's quite lovely.

[zomathesadist]

 

Opuhi was another tiki that I was excited about--the vanilla orchid just sounded absolutely lovely. Normally I stay away from floral notes, but I'm game to try it!

 

in bottle: sweet. very sweet. vanilla with light florals. it would be a good fragrance for something like an outdoor wedding, or a bonfire.

 

wet on skin: sweetness amplified. drat! it seems a little powdery on me. well, hopefully that will go away.

 

after 5 minutes: still WET! dry faster, you!

 

it's difficult to say how this is gonna go--it seems like it might be fairly strong.

 

after about 15, it's honestly still kind of wet! but the ginger blossom has come out more! more vanilla, more ginger, and unfortunately, more powder. d'oh!

 

the powder isn't really bad--it's soft and sweet, but not really my thing. that's okay. i knew it was kind of a crapshoot with my dislike of floralsl

 

it's really gorgeous, though. I think I'm going to have to wear it a few more times.

 

in a nutshell: very sweet soft floral. slightly powdery. this isn't a "sexy" scent, but more beautiful. work appropriate.

[CordeliaSeduced]

I was a little put off by the "floral" reviews, since florals often don't work on me, but I'm very happy I gave this a shot--although there's a soft, flowery scent to the vanilla and ginger in the bottle, it disappears the instant I put it on my skin. All that remains is a warm, almost baked vanilla spiced with hot ginger. It's sweet, yet not obnoxiously so, and exotic enough to suit many different moods without seeming out of place on occasions other than tropical-themed parties (which is honestly what I bought it for).

Dry, it retains its ginger-vanilla-frosting quality but gets just a touch warmer before fading. --which takes a while: I applied this at about 9AM, and reapplied when I left work about twelve hours later.

I wish I'd bought a back-up of this. Oh well. So much for being cautious.

[yeahbutnobut]

Opuhi

 

In the imp: barely there vanilla and a trace of ginger.

Wet on skin: gentle, almost soapy vanilla with some powdered ginger.

Dry on skin: ginger powder. This smells just like the ground ginger you get in a spice cupboard, or like a dried root of ginger. It’s ginger with warmth and spark, but without the juice. It’s also a pale ginger, not a red one or a sweet one, this is like the ginger in Vampire Tears. Around it, the softest of vanillas can just about be detected, sweet but shy. A hint of something almost like white musk or a watery note also lurks in here. There is, to me, a soapy aspect to the scent that I’m not sure I’m keen on, slightly powdery and a bit too soapy-clean? Maybe it’s the orchid or blossom aspect of the scent doing this. It’s also a very faint scent.

After a while: ok, now it’s got a little bit stronger, and I really smell the vanilla. This is the gourmand, spicy, warm vanilla, not the musky one, this is very much a foody, squishy vanilla tinged with something almost like cinnamon. It reminds me strongly of the vanilla in Perilous Parlour, Pumpkin Cheesecake, and the old Beaver Moon. There’s very little ginger now, and there’s still a soapy aspect to the scent…and sadly, now I smell a bit of plastic. And that plastic mixed with that particular vanilla brings to mind a smell I really hoped I’d never smell in BPAL…car freshener. Yup, like those little gel sticker/cardboard hanging things that make cars smell of cloying vanilla, mixed with the smell of seat fabric and seatbelts and plastic fittings. That car smell brings back unpleasant memories of being carsick and that smell just exaggerating the nausea. It seems this vanilla only works in purely foody contexts, not with floral notes that may turn plastic.

After a few hours, this actually gets a lot better. The car freshener smell dies down a little, the plastic fades completely, and the vanilla turns into that same stone-like and cool vanilla from Black Opal. I love Black Opal and it’s cool, mysterious, mineral vanilla scent, so this pleases me greatly…this is a little bit more gourmand-floral though, whilst Black Opal was musky and aloof. I think overall I prefer the Opal to Opuhi…having said that I really love the drydown. It takes about 5 hours to turn truly lovely. I really don’t know now. I love this vanilla scent I’m getting, like a sweeter Black Opal, gently powdery in the best way, but is it really worth tolerating the ‘car sickness’ stage to get to this?

Verdict: this saddened me a bit. I love BPAL vanillas, they converted me completely to someone who thought it smelt too sickly to someone who adores them. And this sounded like a lovely spicy-floral vanilla. But it failed a bit on my skin. The ginger is too dry and ‘powdered ginger’ like, not the ginger tea or gingerbread note I like. The orchid was too soapy, and the vanilla…well I hoped I would warm to it, but it went into the rather unfortunate stage of smelling like car air freshener (those vanilla ‘magic trees’ I think) which has bad associations for me. It’s a more plastic vanilla than usual. I must say, I do prefer this to Love’s Philosophy. And I really like the drydown, which reminds me of Black Opal. But I much prefer that scent because it doesn’t go bad on me at the beginning like this does, and if I want vanilla orchid, I’ll stick with Regan. I really wanted to love this because it is so popular, but I’m sure I can sell my bottle easily!

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? No. I’m saddened by this. Despite the lovely drydown, I wanted it to smell of vanilla orchids, not memories of being sick on long car journeys…

If you like this, try: Love’s Philosophy, Regan, Perilous Parlour, Beaver Moon (any), Sudha Segara

[Summerpixy]

The concept is lovely - but.. my skin eats this blend for breakfast and leaves me with a perky bubble-gum-esque scent. Not the sultry tropical flowers I was hoping for, too much fruit remains for me to love this, off to the sales!

 

If you like this try: Pink Moon

[taramarie]

In the bottle, Opuhi is vanilla and spice. On my skin, it turned to a light bubblegum scent, as if there's lotus hiding in it. Then it started to burn so I had to wash it off. Someone else can enjoy this.

[biggnerd]

I was totally excited about Opuhi - ginger blossoms and vanilla orchid? Perfect! To my disappointment, not so much.

 

In the bottle: It is a creamy, sweet, cousin to Regan - not as icy or cool. Very warm, very golden. I got so excited that I went, "Oh my god, yum!", and forced my boyfriend to smell it at dinner.

 

On the skin

 

Wet: Still nice and warm and sweet, with just a bit of ginger spicyness.

 

Dry down: Still has that ginger spicyness, but its not as sharp, more soft and still sweet. It actually smells just like Lush's Soft Touch body butter on me. The it begins to morph and it becomes kind of a sharp, sweetish, soft floral.

 

I can't quite pin it down. Its not unpleasant, but its not wow! either.

[cute_toaster]

Creamy, sweet vanilla amped up with a bite of spicy ginger.

 

//Laurie

[lilacea]

In the bottle this is super sweet, so sweet I was almost afraid to try it on my skin.

 

On my skin? I was hoping vanilla orchid meant this would be vanilla flower, but it seems that it is vanilla and orchid, that heavy, sweet BPAL orchid note. With vanilla. The ginger is not really present until the dry down is well under way, and it's soft floral ginger, like there is a pale floral in there with it stomping out all the spicey that ginger normally has. There's some light musk in the dry down too. For a sweet scent, it really does calm down considerably and become quite soft.

[zankoku_zen]

Ah, this one is a simple joy. Creamy vanilla and spicy ginger. It's soft and smooth, a little innocent and just pretty all around. I was worried the vanilla would smell like plastic. Not in this case.

 

I think I may need more.

[SarahScent44]

In the bottle, this is lightly sweet-spicy - equally ginger-y and vanilla-y.

 

On my skin, it's really distinctive - very light, very sophisticated. This will so sound weird, but there's some very effervescent and almost cola-ish about this that I really like.

 

It settles way down when it's dry; the effervenscence is gone, but it's still lightly spicy-sweet - a good work-day perfume!

[Myotis]

I don't know why, but the first time I opened and sniffed this straight from the bottle, my first thought was "ORANGE CREAMSICLE!!!"

So I dabbed a bit on. After a minute, it goes a bit powdery. But not baby powder, a soft powdered ginger. Tiny bit of vanilla in there, but nothing like Love's Philosophy to my nose...thankfully.

 

I like this, but I'm not sure it's something I'll wear more than testing it twice, maybe three times. We'll see!

[n3m3sis42]

In the bottle:

Strong, artificial orange and vanilla scent. It's either like a Creamsicle or that industrial bathroom cleaner they used to use in my grade school.

 

Wet: At first, it's the same as I described above. For some reason, this isn't entirely unpleasant, as you would expect it to be from my description. The "artificial orange" scent calms down quite a bit after this blend has been on my skin for a minute or two. It starts to gain a more floral element (which one would expect from the listed notes). I definitely smell a vanilla-like scent as this dries down a bit more. My skin tends to eat vanilla, but I am hoping for the best. Another poster compared this to a more grown-up Marshmallow Poof, and I can see where they are coming from. Poof works well on me, so here's hoping that this blend will, too.

 

Dry:

I think this one is a keeper. If anything changes upon giving it a full wearing, I'll update this post. But as of now, it's a very warm vanilla with a hint of fruity, floral spice and I really like it. Huzzah!

[milo]

Someone gave this to me with Love's Philosophy as a frimp. Something I woudn't have considered and I'm so glad to get it! I want to eat this, but it is not foody if that makes sense. I love the ginger and the vanilla orchid mix. The spice and floral mix is a perfect balance and stays pretty true throughout the day. I managed to track a bottle down, and really wouldn't mind more. A great summer scent!

[forspecial_plate]

I really like this, which just goes to show I don't know what I like any more. I thought I was pretty much done with the sweet scents, except for a few old favorites that I never get tired of. But this smells great. I like the simplicity of it. And mostly it reminds me of almost buttery vanilla with maybe a touch of coconut (even though there's no coconut). It's a sexy scent, and it reminds me of summer. So, out of all the Tiki scents that I tried, this one is the surprise winner so far. I still want to try the ashy one (Moai?).

[QueenFae]

This is undeniably soft, vanilla, feminine and gorgeous, but I can barely smell it!! I just applied it and it's already almost completely gone. At close sniff, it smells like a soft, sugary vanilla smoothed over with a pink smelling floral. Very very pretty, delicate and sweet. Sort of like a very very toned down Pink Moon, the second release.

 

I love this scent, my only complaint is that my skin sucks it up like a sponge and it's gone almost instantly!

Edited July 3, 2008 by QueenFae