Creed Virgin Island Water

I seem to be drawn to tropical scents this week. Perhaps I am longing for another honeymoon? After wondering what to review after an arduous day at a new job, I grabbed a sweater I had worn on Tuesday, when I first tried Creed's Virgin Island Water. Delightfully, I picked up remnants of the scent and thought perhaps I had worn Estee Lauder's Azuree Oil or Bobbi Brown Beach that day. When I remembered that it was Virgin Island Water I knew that I must review this one.

If Satellite Ipanema captures the beach, this scent has captures it times ten. While Ipanema evokes the pleasures of vacation and compliments a beach-going day nicely, Virgin Island Water renders its wearer a cool-smelling sun queen. With wet hair, tanned skin, freckles along the bridge of her nose, beautiful blue eyes, and smelling faintly of coconut oil, she enjoys an occasional game of beach volleyball and loves to swim. Lest I suggest Virgin Island Water is for the younger crowd, rest assured this scent is fluid and sophisticated enough for anyone.

Colombina of Perfume-Smellin' Things listed the notes beautifully: "essence of copra (the white inner portion of the coconut), coconut toddy (a liquid derived from the sweet sap of the palm tree), lime, bergamot, mandarin orange, hibiscus, ginger, ylang-ylang, jasmine, sugar cane, white rum and musk." The obvious top notes are lime, ginger and a sprinkling of coconut. The tart, cool citrus provides just enough bouyancy for the remainder of the notes to blend cheerfully. Although I cannot detect hibiscus or jasmine, when the citrus notes evaporate what remains is a lustrous merging of faint coconut, sweet sugar cane and tantalizing white rum. Overall, this light-hearted, pleasing scent merits a large decant for the dog days of summer ahead.

Creed Virgin Island Water is available in EDP, 1 oz. retails for $98, 2.5 oz. for $185 and 4 oz. for $208 at Neiman Marcus and other select stores.

Image source: 71percentwater.com, neimanmarcus.com