Velvet Tiki

[kohaisama]

Gold-washed frangipani, vanilla flower, vanilla bean, coconut, hibiscus, papaya, pineapple, bouganvilla, passion fruit, and three orchids.

In the imp: Spicy fruit punch

Wet: Whoa. Floral. Straight floral.

Dry: Grapefruit bubble gum?

This one morphed all over the place. I was fully expecting it to be fruit punch, but it isn't. It's sweet, lightly tart and yet, it has a bit of a shampoo edge with citrus.

[Bluestocking]

In the bottle: Fresh, tropical and fruity. This smells like a delicious cocktail, one of those colorful sorts that you sip out of a coconut shell—sweet, but with a little bit of juicy tartness. The pineapple, passion fruit and papaya are strong, with a very light, green, smooth coconut floating over everything. The flowers are in the background here, but of them, the hibiscus definitely stands out, a little bit tangy and bright.

On, wet: Less fruity, more plants and flowers. Close up, I can smell tropical greenery, along with the frangipani and a whiff of orchid. The throw, though, is still a YUMMY vanilla-coconut-pineapple haze, slightly creamy and sweet, like a great pina colada. Slowly but surely, the vanilla is revealing itself, but it isn't taking over.

On, dry: The fruit is back on top, blended with the vanilla and backed by the more subdued flowers. The pineapple, passion fruit and coconut are still fresh juicy-smelling, but now the vanilla lends them a sweet creaminess, so it's kind of a glorious tropical milkshake. Beyond that, I get heavenly little whiffs of frangipani and hibiscus from time to time. The orchids are really subtle here (especially for my skin!), but I like that they're just adding that sweet, soft, clean/rainy aspect to the blend, without taking away from the fruit or other flowers. Throw is much better than expected, too.

Later: Lovely, surprisingly light vanilla, tinged with coconut and tropical fruits. There's a teeny tiny hint of the flowers, but the fruit and vanilla linger the longest. It's a particularly good vanilla, too, smooth and slightly floral, not too powdery or too heavy/foody. It blends beautifully with the fruits.

Overall: This is the tropical scent of my dreams: fun, sunshiny, fresh, fruity and light, but smooth and slightly creamy. I could bathe in this! It strikes me as a pale yellow and pink sort of scent, absolutely perfect for Summer and warm weather, all the more because it isn't heavy. The vanilla and juicy fruit notes are delicious (esp. the pineapple and coconut), but the overall effect didn't strike me as foody; the florals aren't the focus of this perfume, but they're strong enough, and the scent is well blended enough, to keep this from going into foody territory. The throw was great and not obtrusive, and it lasted a moderate amount of time for me (6 hours) before starting to fade. A must-sniff for lovers of coconut or tropical scents.

 

 

[sprocket21]

This is by far my favorite of the Velvets. There's a big blast of coconut when I first apply, and then the supporting fruit/flower notes show up. The coconut just makes it so tropical and delicious. Sadly, as others have mentioned, this fades fast. But while it lasts, it transports me to an island paradise!

[LunaLovegood]

This is a lovely summer scent. Kind of like a tropical drink.

Unfurtunately for me, I can smell the pineapple like crazy and I usually dont get along with pineapple. Having said that, the pineapple is more subtle than in other scents, so I should be glad

[melisssa]

OMG! It's celery smell. Wha-? I had to wash this off of my arm because it really smelled like I had rubbed celery leaves all over my arms.

 

This happened to me too...it's all celery. I have never had a weird vegetable-morph before!

 

Serves me right for bragging about my "never-fail" skin chemistry, I guess.

[Lyrical]

In vial: ew! No wait, lets sniff for notes ... cloyingly sweet, rich tropical fruit and coconut with enough flowers to stop it being foody. I'm disappointed so far.

 

Wet on skin: mmmm - much better! There's a rich, golden warmth in this - it's no longer cloying, but subtle and lovely! The individual notes elude me, because they blend so well together. I'm so glad I tested this on my skin, rather than rejecting it on how it smelled in the bottle!

 

Dry on skin: ooh - it has throw too! Now I'm getting fruit and coconut again, but it's not like last year's Tiki scents (most of which ended up as pure spice after the bright fruit burned off) - they were fun, but this is their grown up cousin, much more sophisticated, and she sticks around longer! One of the fruit notes is getting a tiny bit sour, though.

 

Next morning: the trace left on my skin in the morning was a sickeningly sour fruity smell that I had to wash off! I must never put this on in the morning if I still want to smell nice at the end of the day! It was disgusting! I guess that's a skin chemistry issue, though, and wish everyone else better luck with it!

 

ETA:

Four months later this has settled into a really beautiful scent. The nasty parts have mellowed out, and it's all dark, sugary tropical fruits and flowers, over coconut and a trace of vanilla.

Edited September 2, 2009 by Lyrical

[caitilarkin]

In the imp: Fruit smoothie!

 

Wet on skin: Still fruit smoothie (I can't pick out the individual notes) but now with faint tropical florals.

 

Dry on skin: Harrumph. This one doesn't like me. Or maybe it's my skin chemistry this week. In any case, it dries down to a faint, generic, rather sour tropical melange.

 

Further testing of Velvet Tiki is needed.

[WidgetAlley]

This is going to be a quickie review, since this bottle is technically for my mother! I should also add that this just came through the mail, and I'm sure it will be a bit wonky because of all the shaking and temperature changes.

 

Bottle: Strong, lovely, slightly floral pina colada! There's something deeper and more complex underneath it, and maybe a hint of green too? I definitely get the coconut, pineapple, passionfruit, vanilla and orchids. Something like a sweet milk note too. I know what bouganvilla looks like (it's gorgeous!) but was unaware that it had a smell... Ooohhh, this is so summery and tropical and nice! It smells like how those big beautiful coral hibiscus look.

 

Wet: The coconut morphs into something huskier and drier and greener, which is really cool, and the pineapple dies back a bit to let the florals come out and play. These aren't shy retiring flowers; these are huge bright colorful blooms, nodding to one another in the warm, humid breeze. It's like a pineapple-coconut milkshake and the tropicals section of my greenhouse had a baby and then bottled her smell. Great throw on this one, too.

 

Dry: Fresh tropical flowers and even fresher fruits! While this is sort of reminiscent of Milk Moon '07, the milk here doesn't go sour like in MM. Velvet Tiki is one HUGE scent, not in terms of throw, but in terms of expansive joyfulness. It makes you want to dance around in circles on a tropical beach. Bust out the sarongs and the flip flops and the white sand and the beautiful sunsets! My mother is going to go completely nuts for this one, and I might just have to steal her bottle every once in a while.

Edited June 4, 2009 by WidgetAlley

[aquazoo]

Mmmmn, soft tropical flowers with a hint of smokiness. Maybe that's the vanilla. The fruit is there, too, only as a sweetness and not foody.

[Scanmike]

Wet, I get the pineapple and coconut, but mostly the pineapple. As it dries the pineapple disappear and the coconut is the dominant note. Thankfully, it's not the coconut in Snow White that turned into a car freshener on me and made me gag. This is more like the coconut in Black Pearl. Not getting much florals but as it softens it's a nice blend of coconut and pineapple with a touch of vanilla thrown it. Not sure how I feel about this one yet since I am starting to think I like the idea of coconut, better than smelling like one. This is not as fruity and light as hoped, more smoky on me. Need to retest.

[yeahbutnobut]

Velvet Tiki

 

In the imp: oh, this is wonderful tropical coconut, pineapple, and monoi.

Wet on skin: sweet vanilla, coconut milk and flesh, frangipani, pineapple, and ‘beach skin’.

Dry on skin: this is gorgeous! It reminds me of the best of last year’s Tiki blends all mixed. I smell lots of pineapple, but it’s a really nice pineapple, not too sweet or pina colada, but not too sharp either. I also smell tangy passion fruit. I also smell a crisp fresh floral which I think is the hibiscus. The frangipani is lovely, a soft sweet yet heady floral which is the primary note here, and I can also smell the coconut, which doesn’t go too dry, but smells like coconut milk or coconut oil. And the vanilla notes are lovely, a blend of floral vanilla and sweeter sugary vanilla, and there’s something here that reminds me of sun warmed beach skin. It doesn’t have the monoi that characterised Tiki Queen-instead it has a fantastic frangipani.

After a while: the scent dries down to a really interesting tropical floral-fruity skin scent. It almost reminds me of sun lotion, but not the really coconutty cliché sun lotions, but something a little more sophisticated, because of the addition of the other flowers and fruit. None of the floral notes are turning on me-not even the orchids. The pineapple/passionfruit are a little sharper at times but I quite like the slightly powdery yet lotion-y skin scent I get under it all, and the sweetness from the vanilla.

The drydown is a gorgeous skin scent of frangipani with a hint of coconut and vanilla and pineapple. The frangipani note in here is just stunning.

Verdict: I think I’ve found my two perfect tropical scents-Tiki Queen and Velvet Tiki. Whilst the Queen highlighted the beauty of monoi, this scent really highlights the glorious frangipani. This golden and heady floral note is the dominant scent here, but all the other notes complement it beautifully-the pineapple and passionfruit’s tangy fruit accents are just perfect, the coconut smells sexy and oily, the orchids and hibiscus stay discreet, the vanilla boosts the sweetness. This is one of those ‘summer holiday in a bottle’ scents, it doesn’t matter if it’s pouring with rain and it's freezing cold, I wear this and I’m whisked off to an island paradise-it’s fantastic. (I wore this when watching the stunning BBC documentary South Pacific, it went really well with the wonderful imagery in the programme and was the closest thing to actually being there…)

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? oh yeah.

If you like this, try: Tiki Queen, Tiki King, Upa Upa, Black Pearl, Ashlutum, Hi’iaka

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this smells like powdery pineapple and a bit of creamy caramel and burnt sugar. I don't like the pineapple, but the sweet, creamy notes in this smell delicious.

 

On my skin, there's a brief stage that I love where this is creamy vanilla, caramel sugar, and a hint of tropical fruit. In the drydown, though, this quickly goes powdery and loses the creamy sweetness. It's like very light, tropical fruit scented dusting powder mixed in with actual dust.

 

Velvet Tiki smells like tropical fruit dusting powder, but it's too dry for me. This is also an incredibly light scent. It clings close to the skin and doesn't last more than an hour on me.

 

All in all, this probably isn't something that I'll wear again (and I love Tiki Queen and a lot of the tropical drink scents).

[Monster]

Bottle: Yummy sweet topical fruits!

 

Wet: I agree with the person who said "beach skin". This smells like I'm outside on a beach with a tropical, fruity drink, covered with coconut oil and watching the waves crash against the shore. This is fruity, slightly floral and full of tropical goodness.

 

Dry: The bright, fruity top notes gently fade away and allow the floral notes to take center-stage. This isn't overly floral though, the background of fruit prevents this from being headache-inducing. I'm not too too familiar with the floral notes in this (with the exception of the orchid) so I really can't pick out individual notes. I think the orchid is contributing to the "dusty" quality some people are reporting. I agree, this definitley has a "dusty" velvet feel and I think it's becasue of the orchid. This one has a great throw and lasts all day on me. Very pretty!

 

Verdict: I just may have to order a back-up bottle. This is something I see myself wearing often. I've tried 3 of the Velvet Paintings blends so far and this one is my favorite

[copagirl]

I had much higher hopes for this one, but it ended up smelling mostly of pineapple on me. At first I smelled more of the coconut but it dissapeared quick. This ends up a little plastic-y on me. I give it a 3 out of 5.

[blacklacestatic]

In the bottle: Tropical fruits, cocnut and something boozy.

 

Wet On Skin: So apparently I amp pineapple! But this is okay because I like it. It's a very true pineapple scent, bright and fruity. The coconut comes forward and I start to smell exactly like a tropical drink. It kinda makes me thirsty. It's nice.

 

Drydown: This gets much softer as the flowers come through, bu there is still much fruit to be sniffed. It's a definite vacation kind of smell.

 

Overall: Lovely, will get much wear throughout the summer.

[Schmoozy]

 

A tropical floral explosion sweetened even more with lush fruits and vanilla bean. OMG this is stunning. Vibrant, lush, and totally screams tropical vacation. This is definitely a summer scent, and not one note is more prevalent than the other. Sadly it doesn't last very long, but I think it's because I didn't moisturize enough today.

[YoakeNoKami]

So at first it was amazing-- vanilla, pineapple, frangipani. Delicious! I was so sure I was going to need a bottle...

 

Then. After a while, I started thinking it smelled kinda familiar. Kinda... summery. Like the beach. Like-- oh no! argh, it went for tropical sunblock after half an hour, without fail. Even in the scent locket.

[stellans]

Like so many others said before, this is quite the morpher...but on me, it's not the success I'd hoped. I love most of last year's Atomic Tiki Lounge blends, and I thought this would be another love. But for some reason, the pineapple turned evil on my skin and though that went away fairly quickly, the faint florals (where the tropical POP?) which remained aren't enough to make me want to keep this around. Shame, too...this is the only velvet I bought in bottle-form unsniffed. Drat.

Edited July 30, 2011 by stellans

[naeelah]

This is what I had originally hoped for from Tiki Queen. Wet, it's primarily syrupy tropical fruit and coconut. As it dries, the vanilla comes to join the coconut. It's rich and creamy, and at this stage it smells pretty similar to Agape.

 

As it dries, the flowers become most dominant. The orchids and frangipani blend together in a rich bouquet with a slightly dry edge that seems to be amber. The flowers and amber remain strongest, with coconut vanilla and a squirt of tropical fruit in the background. It's sweet, very tropical, and probably the best all-encompassing tropical blend I've smelled from the lab.

[sylvanusurban]

In bottle: Pineapple, coconut, unidentified floral

 

On me, wet: Hrm. Coconut has definitely gotten stronger, as has pineapple, I think. My wrist smells like a fruity umbrella drink.

 

On me, drying: I am sorry to report that this smells more like artificial fruit than real. It’s not the worst ever, but it kind of lacks nuance. I think I smell like loud, cloying concentrated fruit, like a pina colada made from flavoured syrups.

 

Verdict: Not for me. Bummer! I was really expecting to like this. ETA: Good gravy, and it’s incredibly tenacious. After repeated scrubbings I still have de smell of de tropics on my wrist, mon.

 

[ralenth]

Bottle: Pineapple, coconut and various tropical fruits.

 

Wet: Very bright! Pineapple and papaya. Hello fruity umbrella drink!

 

Drydown: As it dries, the orchid becomes more dominant, tinged with a bit of amber. The pineapple is still there, but it seems to be receding into the background.

 

Dry: Still fruity and floral, though more the latter. A nice balance, in my opinion. It's tropical, but not fruity drinks in your face, thank goodness.

 

Overall: Not sure how much wear I would get out of this, but it seems like a great summer scent.

[hellomoonglow]

I was a bit unsure of the florals in this, but a vanilla that reviews with coconut, pineapple, citrus....how can I resist? It's wonderful, but it does need to age a bit. The thing about vanilla is that whenever I read the description before I buy, I think, "ooo! Antique Lace plus blah blah blah...." Usually I'm pleasantly surprised, and this oil is no exception.

[ladymissspyder]

This is a truly amazing scent. It smells like BBW's Coconut Lime Verbena + Xiuhtecuhtli, but is more than the sum of its parts. Frankly, it's the most perfectly tropical fragrance I've ever smelled.

 

Sadly, it fades very quickly on me, but I love it so much I'm going to make a scent pendant for it.

Edited June 28, 2009 by ladymissspyder

[jewelbug]

This test was courtesy of a MnS skin test—thank’s Lamia!

 

Wet, this was quite fruity/coconuty with some gentle florals. Very tropical and nice.

 

Dry, this was much more reminiscient of tropical floral blends like xiuchetetl (sp???), though with a little fruity twist. Overall, though, this ends as a clean tropical floral with a bit of a pineapple twist.

 

Overall: Nice, especially the coconut opening, but not something that I need to add to my collection.

 

[pinkstardust420]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! LURVE THIS! Every single note in this blend is absoultely gorgeous. Very tropical, sweet and a perfect summer fragrance!