Velvet

[darkitysnark]

Envelop yourself in the soft, sensual embrace of gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh.

Velvet

A barter with rhubarbbear. I had this wishlisted because I sandalwood, and I chocolate, but I would have never thought to combine the two. The resulting mix of these two notes (along with the vanilla and myrrh) make for a very compelling, albeit non-foody blend.

In the bottle: dusty, medicinal chocolate. This isn't snackin' chocolate, but something more... theraputic. There's a dry woody bottom note that turns the chocolate away from being foody. This smells like a poultice, but in a good way.

Wet/drydown: sweet incense momentarily overcomes the chocolate, which recedes almost to the point of disappearing. I'm getting a flashback to hours-later Danse Macabre here.

Later: the chocolate comes back. Oddly, it seems to be what is adding the gritty, earthy base to the high and sweet incense. Interesting.

This is the most unfoody chocolate I've ever smelled. I love it!

ETA: lab description Edited September 29, 2007 by Shollin

[malanna]

Bah. Like a lot of reviewers, this starts out as a lovely dark chocolate scent, which quickly gets drowned by the sandalwood. For the next few hours, it smells like jj_j's description, although I would say it smells more like pencil shavings in a hand sprinkled in cocoa powder, rather than melted chocolate. The myrrh comes out a bit more at the stage when the scent has receded into the skin and is quite light.

[perfumediva]

this smells like spicy mexican hot chocolate..

 

its very potent and mesmerizing---there is an "oily" woodiness to this..

 

the colors i am getting with are dark velvety brown and marroon hues--like the curtains at a hookah bar that are saturated with spicy chocolatey incense--picture a very dark den..

 

this makes me want to hibernate in a cave.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Definitely a rich cocoa note, with the dry sandalwood and myrrh lifting it up and making the note soar.

On me: It ends up having a rather nutty chocolate fragrance on the skin. It is nice, but not great or even unusual. Just nice.

[little_miss_gogo]

In the bottle I smell spicy cocoa and sandalwood.

On my skin, when wet and first applied, it is a really warm, very nutty [hazelnut?] cocoa. as it dries, it is hard to make out the cocoa scent at all because of the overwhelming nuttiness. i have learned in the past that if something has that "toasted, nutty" bpal note, its going to get weird on me. I wasnt expecting velvet to have that. I was hoping for more of a hot-cocoa type of cocoa.

After a few minutes the nutty stage subsides and a dry, woody sandalwood takes it's place.

A half an hour later all I'm left with is pure sandalwood on my skin. All the other notes have disappeared. Although it smells nice, I am not really into sandalwood all by itself.

This will be good for sandalwood fans, though.

 

 

Edit: this has grown on me over the past few days, and now I really enjoy it. i like to layer it with a touch of something else sweet to cut the 'pencil shavings' smell people are talking about. tonight i layered it with kali, because it also has a chocolate note. yum.

Edited December 19, 2005 by mothra pestis

[terrierhead]

I should preface this by saying that I've only been able to test a droplet of Velvet; a kind and lovely forumite threw in an empty bottle as a freebie in a trade. Empty? Hah! There was a tiny smidge at the bottom which I coaxed out and applied to my wrist.

 

Oh, the love. I knew I had to get that droplet out as soon as I sniffed the bottle. Warm, wonderful sandalwoody chocolate, with soft vanilla tying it together. It smells the same on - I got none of the troublesome pencil shavings note. It lasted for about five hours, which is pretty impressive for such a small application. I must buy more of this.

 

ETA: Ok, I bought more of it from a fabulous forumite. Unfortunately, this (newer?) sample smells like chocolate Play-Doh with pencil shavings on me, although it's lovely in the imp. I'm willing to bet this is either an effect of skin chemistry variation or is a sign that my tiny bottle needs aging. Either way, it's annoying.

Edited January 10, 2006 by terrierhead

[Victory]

In the imp, the strongest note is the cocoa, and that's also true when I first put Velvet on. About fifteen minutes later, all I can smell is incense- very strong, church-y incense. The type that gives me a migraine if I'm around it too much. I had forgotten about the myrrh. Luckily, there's not much throw, so it isn't that bad. I had purchased this for omeone else, and I guess it's lucky that I;m not too fond of this, because I'm not tempted to keep it!

[BlackWingedRoses]

Velvet... I had high hopes for you.

but after a while there is this musk that takes over and I'm afraid it will end up being too strong for me. I'm thinking that the sandalwood is having a wicked reaction with my skin.

My solution was to put it in a scent locket. Ah, much better, now I can enjoy that warm cocoa and cedar scent that comes out that is really nice. My friend smelled it and she instantly thought it smelled like a church. Well, it's been a while since I've been to a Catholic church but it must be the myrrh.

a really unique scent with a powerful throw.

[tinyvulture]

i love the way BPAL does cocoa. it’s powdery and warm and rich and not too sweet. it is so perfect here in combination with the sandalwood and myrrh. the cocoa is dominant at first. the sandalwood provides a nice dry woodsy base. it smells like there’s a bit of cedar, too. reminds me of pencil shavings. over time, the cocoa fades and the sweet resiny scent of the myrrh takes over. flawless.

[jasper17]

I love, love, love Velvet. More than Bliss which, to my chocolate-loving brain, is somewhat unfathomable. My first thought was that Velvet is the grown up older sister of Bliss.

 

The scent of chocolate is what I get in the bottle, when I fist put it on and basically until the scent completely fades away - and over 12 hours later, this is just now happening. With my chemistry, the scent remains essentially the same all the way through, which I really like.

 

I also like that it's not an overpoweringly sweet chocolate scent - it has a slight bitterness like dark chocolate has and the sandalwood and myrrh add a great warmth overall without altering the scent too much from the bitter chocolate.

 

This is definitely on my list for a big bottle with my next lab order.

[Em-]

Velvet saved the concept of a chocolate note perfume for me, and has me further convinced that cocoa is fine, but chocolate is not.

 

I like this more than any other predominantly chocolatey blend that I've tried, because while the cocoa note is strong in this one, the myrrh, and the sandalwood and the vanilla make this so much more - a complex sexy blend that does not feel like wearing a candy bar.

[angharad]

I'm so in love with this scent. It's a subtle chocolate with just enough vanilla blended in to make it sweet and smooth. The longer I wear it, the more the sandalwood comes out, but I never get any type of pencil-shavings scent. This is just smooth and pure velvet. I half-expect my wrist to feel like velvet when I sniff it. It's that good. Velvet has average throw, but it lasts for HOURS. I love it.

[maewitch]

This smells absolutely edible in the bottle, but sadly, the vanilla cocoa all but disappears on me within a few minutes. The sandalwood and myrrh are initially quite strong and sharp, with the sandalwood hitting a high note that makes me think of cedar rather than sandalwood.

 

It does mellow considerably with wear and develops this powder-dry, sweet, very smokey character.

 

I'm not sure how much I like it, but I do find myself compulsively sniffing my arm. It's good, but I perhaps a bit too powdery overall. I think I'm going to have to give this one a few more tries before I decide.

[moon_lemming]

Well, something in here doesn't like me. At first I thought it was the cocoa, because Velvet almost had the same pencil shaving tone as Bliss on me, but that calmed down. I think it's the combo of sandalwood and myrrh that's not agreeing with my chemistry -- it's sweet in a woody way that just doesn't work on me.

 

Ah well, I'll always have 13 for all my chocolatey needs.

[jazlyn]

Velvet's quite interesting... once it's on I smell chocolate, but white/vanilla-y hot chocolate type of chocolate. Soon after, the sandalwood and myrrh appear. This is a unique blend, but I doubt I'd wear this.

[couscous]

AngelFireHeart lived up to her namesake when she sent this imp along with her swap. I have always been curious about it, but there was always something else, and I kept forgetting to buy it. Thank you so much for letting me try this!

 

I agree with everyone who described this as "cocoa" rather than chocolate. Though there are moments when the blend sweetens inexplicably and Velvet drifts into the brownie batter, this is mostly a dry cocoa, with slightly medicinal resins, grounded by the sweet wafting of sandalwood. Chocolate, myrrh, and sandalwood are all very present in the blend. I do not get vanilla as much, and I get something slightly (and I mean slightly) bitter when my nose is flush up against my wrist. Yum.

 

It's BEAUTIFUL. I love it. More importantly, my dog went NUTS over this one, sniffing me trying to find the chocolate bar I'd obviously hidden somewhere under my skin. This is the first time she has done anything so overtly positive with respect to fragrances. Usually, she is LESS likely to hug me after I've just applied something.

 

I'd buy a 10ml right now, except for one small problem: Velvet is light. VERY light, in the order of Dana O' Shee. I slathered myself in it today and now I can only smell the faintest hint of it on my wrist.

 

Maybe my skin cells thought I had a chocolate bar, too

Edited February 3, 2006 by couscous

[bifemmefatale]

Straight out of the bottle, the cocoa hits you first, backed up with the spiciness of myrrh and the sharp, almost alcoholic but darting-in-and-out tang of vanilla. On, my body heat emphasizes the cocoa and myrrh even more strongly. I smell like a cup of Mexican hot chocolate, rich, spicy and edible. The vanilla note fades away very quickly. As the scent wears, the sandalwood begins to come to the fore, making the scent less like food and adding a nice soapy depth. I'm surprised at how well cocoa and sandalwood marry. After at least an hour on, the sandalwood is the main note, while the cocoa and myrrh have faded to a foundation for the sandalwood. I really enjoy the mix of cocoa and sandalwood, but the myrrh's interaction with the sandalwood produces an almost unpleasant throat-itching note, which is a shame, because normally my skin loves myrrh.

 

I keep thinking this is what Salma Hayek or Tyra Banks ought to smell like.

 

Overall, this is a nice scent for those of you who like edible smells. I do not generally like food notes in my perfume, so this is not one I'll be ordering more of. Oddly enough, I can think of at least 2 friends on whom I think this might smell fabulous. Just not me.

[Bagfish]

This is a curious scent, it's not like anything else I have ever tried. When I first apply it I get quite a sweet chocolate/cocoa like most other people. As far as I'm concerned this is a *good* thing! As Velvet starts to dry down, it becomes dry and extremely woody. In fact it reminds me of a Sandalwood chest, or one of the Thuja root boxes Mr Bagfish and I were given as a wedding present. It's not pencil shavings, its MUCH better than that!

 

After about 2-3 hours wear I also get a slightly sweeter note for about an hour which remonds me just a little of the drydown of POTL after it has gone through the almond/cherry accord to the dry dusty grasses and incense smell a long time after you have applied it.

 

Velvet is extremely dry to the nose. Wearing it is a little like the experience of eating Lindt 97% cocoa chocolate. It makes your mouth pucker and feels a little unpleasant to start with, but is completely addictive and you keep coming back for more. I really can't smell the myrrh, this is sandalwood and chocolate and is very nice too!

[sthenno]

I couldn't stand this one. There's a note in here that I really dislike. I think it's the chocolate. I've already swapped this one away.

[melia]

Velvet came as a frimp with my Smut and Red Lantern order. After eagerly sniffing the two LES, I decided to test this first (who can explain it? maybe I like the gentle tease of anticipation...).

 

Anyway, just off the wand I was worried. Velvet is so strongly chocolate when wet -- I had flashbacks to my bad experience with Lump of Coal, which was too powerful and gave me an immediate and tenacious headache. But after reading the other reviews here, I decided to give Velvet the benefit of the doubt.

 

During the first 10+ minutes of wearing, I was getting clear images of Nutella -- very creamy chocolatey/nutty. Then the sandalwood came through and, for me at least, saved the day. While I love foody scents, too much chocolate doesn't work for me. But the spicy tinge of sandalwood grounded Velvet and gave it a pleasant earthiness that separates it from similar blends (Bliss, Vice). This has an unusual complexity to it that makes me eager to try it in public. I can't wait to see how others like it.

 

Thanks to the Lab for this freebie, and to creating yet another scent that takes off in directions I never saw coming!

[kaelei]

Velvet reminded me of my jr. high school days since smelled just like reese's peanut butter cup + a bit of pencil shaving scent. Aaah, the days of eating chocolate while doing my homework xDDD so nostalgic.

 

After 5 minutes of initial dry down, it quickly changed to art room scent for me.

 

It is very unique and I think I will try it again after this week.

[smallvoice]

I think the sandalwood is going extra crazy on my skin, and it's making me nervous. In the imp it was all cocoa powder and spicy goodness, but the sandalwood is beating me upside the head... but every now and then, the cocoa and spices peek out and soften the musty wood on my skin. I think I like it, but I want to try it on my Available Masculine Body, because I think it would smell HOT on him.

[populuxa]

YUMMM! - Honestly, I am not usually into foody scents too much but this is awesome. It's dark dark cocoa and warmth. Just, YUMMM.

[Neely]

Thanks to Kourika for letting me keep her imp just to review. Hugs and snogs to you girl! Unfortunately, I have to return it, and I loves me teh Velvet, hehe.

 

In the bottle: milk chocolatey goodness, very much like Bliss.

 

Wet: milk chocolatey goodness with a hint of something woodsy underneath.

 

Dry down: woodsy chocolately goodness. Less chocolate, more wood, but very very sexah!

 

30 minutes: doesn't change much, which is fine by me. Woodsy with a background of milk chocolate.

 

Conclusion: when I say chocolate, I mean mouth watering chocolate, but still not foody. This is a very sophisticated blend. A real treat, and so unusual. Chocolate with wood. But not like a pencil box with chocolate poured on top, or stuffed with chockies instead of pencils. This is such an odd mix, one I would never have thought of, and Beth and those labby geniuses took and made a fantastic blend. I love the "strange and unusal, as I myself am strange and unusual."

 

Rating on my skin, this is a 5.

[candygirl]

I love chocolate and I love sandalwood, so I thought this would be perfect for me. Instead I got a strange orange chocolate scent (which I hate). When Mr. CG was called over to sniff me, he said I smelled like an old lady. Yowza!