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roryedgeste – :
You expect a musky floral but this is not. Yes, it is floral. yes, it is musky. But, it has obvious clove in the top and carnation with musk and sandalwood. The rose, jasmine and orange blossom are present. But the clove, carnation, musk and sandalwood are the main players. This is not a heavy scent like a Bellodgia or a Rumba, but it projects and is a strong scent. It is like the vintage florientals with an airy quality injected into them. Or maybe a watery quality since there is no depth to this of civet or patchouli.
hamer – :
The last reviewer put this well “Jasmine, orange blossom, rose and sandalwood” bomb. Drying to a lovely sandalwood and carnation actually. Not what most people think of as tropical. Even though, as others have said, there is no carnation listed on the notes on the site.
The initial blast is rough but transient.
I also later purchased online the WW hibiscus… this is a huge opening blast as well. yikes. I would only spray a half spray. It is like no other perfume, I can’t even pick out the notes they are weird. I would believe amber and after a while a little vanilla. and rose. Again, it dries down nicely. But yikes the top notes are crazy.
Prices were cheap, good for the money. I like them.
Like someone else stated this is a gender bender. A man could wear wicked wahine.
amellashyTems – :
Prepare to be blown away. This is no shy scent. Jasmine, orange blossom, rose and sandalwood – all shouting at the top of their lungs! Beautiful but so strong it could have been marketed for men. Impressed by it but has no room in my lifestyle.
One spray on me,
Sillage: more than a yard
Longevity: three hours but I suspect will be like aldehydes for rest of time
Rating: 3/5 for scent but 1/5 for sillage
rokr – :
I remember smelling WW for the first time in the 80’s as a kid. There was a Hawaiian import shop in my local mall in the Midwest (random, right)? I’ve been obsessed with fragrance basically from birth. So of course when I was at the mall with my mom I sniffed everything I could get my hands on… even as an elementary schooler.
I remember LOVING Wicked Wahine as soon as it got into my sticky little paws. My mom wouldn’t buy me a bottle, so I’d run straight to that import shop & smell it every time we went to the mall. I liked it so much that I remembered the name of it all these years later, and when it popped up during my internet travels a couple of years ago, I impulse-bought a bottle.
First: I like it, but it’s not the fragrance I remember. (That said, who can, with 100% accuracy, remember a fragrance they sniffed as a child?) I remember WW in the 80’s being white floral, with a characteristic of sultry warm roundness, a touch fruity, and with an undercurrent of spice.
Cut to today. Wicked Wahine surprises me by being a very carnation-forward scent. No, really! I know it’s not listed in the notes, but: trust and believe! It reminds me very much of two other carnation-forward fragrances I love: Comme des Garcons Red: Carnation and also Lush’s Potion (that’s a body cream but when it was a Lush forum fragrance years back, I bought a bottle: carnation and clove, yum).
Because I love spicy carnation scents, I really like WW, but for those who are expecting a traditional island floral scent, you may be disappointed. Instead of the silkiness and creaminess of plumeria/tiare/frangipani, this is a vibrant red carnation with hints of spice. Long-lasting, and hours later the spice has dissipated, leaving the scent of a clean carnation soap. Unexpected, and not necessarily tropical-feeling, at least to me, but I still really like it!
1944gog – :
First tip to Hawaii (Maui) April 2017, and stumbled across this. It is is MY memory of Hawaii. It may not be a traditional Hawaiian fragrance, but it embodies all the memories made as we traveled both Maui and the Big Island. Spritzed it on before taking our morning walk along the Ka’anapali Beach walk to the Starbucks for coffee. It is exotic. Can’t tell you what is in it just by smelling it, but whatever is in it, I love it. Day and night.
Jamescamer – :
LOVELY if surprising.
First off, my bottle is quite obviously not new. No doubt newer versions are as thin and short lived as reviews here imply. This version has ‘your grandmother’s dressing table’ written all over it. I don’t know if I have the vintage cologne or the vintage perfume, but longevity on my wee bottle is moderately good and sillage is also after the initial first half hour. It’s dark and musky liquid, with incredibly old fashioned attitude.
<3 I can literally Smell the Past. <3
As others have mentioned, NOT a Hawaiian themed fragrance in the typical sense. Today’s artistic and charming packaging can be rather misleading! Nothing beachy about this….
Wicked Wahine reminds me of several vintage treasures I have tested over the years, from Royal Secret (but that was dusty-musty by comparison) to Old American Spice (the original, female version of Old Spice for men, quite similar but more powdery than the men’s). More than anything, Wahine conjurs up visions of Houbigant Raffinee. While Raffinee is orange blossom and spice-heavy, they are both powder delights in the boudoir tradition.
Notes here at Fragrantica are undoubtedly what Royal Hawaiian supplied, but what I’m smelling above and beyond all else are CARNATIONS. That must be what all the above fragrances have in common. 🙂 Oh, such carnations – soapy, velvety, and strangely dark. Blended with rose, flowers, civet, musk, sandalwood, and Billowing Puffs of Powder…
Tropical lovers would do well to avoid – only carnation lovers need apply!
Zmeyonish – :
Fragrance Review For Wicked Wahine
Royal Hawaiian
Notes
Rose
Orange Blossom
Jasmine
Musk
Sandalwood
“I will love you longer than forever”….
This is a beautiful drugstore cheapie. It is not a Hawaiian breeze type of scent, nor is it very tropical. It smells like a Hawaiian wedding bouquet. The wedding scene at the end of the Elvis Presley movie Blue Hawaii comes to mind: the raft, the bride and groom surrounded by island natives, and a scent of island flowers in the air.
This is a rose and jasmine perfume, sweetly blended and powdery. It is more on the chemical synthetic side but as such I find it suitable for spraying the house with. I use it to scent ever room when I have guests not for the need to mask any odors (I don’t have any pets) but for the sheer pleasure of scenting the air with flowery smells.
This is pretty heavy as a floral so as a personal perfume it’s best applied with a light touch, maybe just spritz on your pulse points: wrists. This is sweet as a floral perfume with a dry down of some musky wood.
Not bad for a cheap drugstore scent. I haven’t explored this line yet but if they are evocative of the Hawaiian islands I know i’m going to enjoy it.
Alex1978 – :
Ordered this scent from Amazon along with the lotion. Once it arrived I sprayed it on my wrist and then spent the next hour trying to wash it off. It smelled to me as if it had gone rancid. I asked my daughters if they liked it and and my youngest replied “no, that smells like pet shampoo.” Chemical and rancid. No flowers of any kind. Amazon may have sent an old bottle. I couldn’t even give it away at our yard sale.
ArrossetE – :
Update: I purchased a vintage bottle of this, and the new reformulation in the box pictured on Fragrantica and the vintage Wicked Wahine have no relation to each other. The vintage Wicked Wahine has a lot of aldehydes and jasmine. The drydown on it is very powdery. There is a spicy wood note, but it’s not strong. It’s very floral and smells very ’60’s. I like it much more than the modern, and the modern one I’ll probably use to scent my bath water. I can see why the sales clerks on Maui wondered why I was bothering to search for it.
First review: I have never had the chance to smell the vintage version of Wicked Wahine, but the modern version sold now in the box image pictured above is mainly all white musk, with just a little synthetic sandalwood on the drydown. I get no beautiful Hawaiian florals in it, nor do I even smell any rose or neroli or orange blossom as they claim on the back of the box. Apparently another victim of reformulation. For those of you who get a beautiful floral, how old is your box of perfume?
Alexey_ip – :
A flower bomb !
At first I was overwhelmed — like too many flowers racing for my attention.
I got rid of my bottle – but now thinking about it – this did smell very natural– a big powdery dry-down and very very feminine. Very lipstick-powder-purse smell and good longevity. Good for the price as well!! I’d try it again but now I see they make a gardenia SO my wish may come true for a “Gardenia Bomb” frag for under $20.00 !
xoxolvova – :
I bought a big bottle of this, hoping it would transport me back to the islands. Unfortunately, the musk is so strong with my chemistry that I smell like … cat pee. Any traders?
uol860Diobtetty – :
I have an older version of Wicked Wahine than this clear juice shown in the picture. I have no idea whether the one I have is still made, but it is my second purchase of the fragrance, since I long ago used up the bottles I bought in Hawaii back in 1988! It’s my husband’s favorite scent for me to wear, despite it’s low price. From the first moment I smelled it, I was brought back to a place in time I cannot identify, but it must have been a very happy memory. I believe there were at one time in my distant youth many scents like Wicked Wahine, but the original WW scent is the only one I know of which still smells like that point in time. How to describe? It is spicy and floral, not sweet at all, but possibly an aldehydic opening. I smell carnation, roses, and the rest is rather indefinable to my hose. Obviously the base underneath is one which no one attempts to use any more.
Infefsesona – :
I used the *original* Wicked Wahine back in 1975 while doing anthropological fieldwork on Kauai (tough job, but somebody’s got to do it). I adored its soft floralness without the traditional Hawaiian notes of plumeria and pikake.
Trusting my limbic system to remember WW accurately, this is not the original, but a spicier daughter. It’s a very nice fragrance with about 1/2 of the original’s notes, but a lot more spice. I think it might be missing the orchid note, the soft, powdery, “round” smell.
“Take me back to my little grass shack in Kealakekui, Hawaii …”
vitaliyxe – :
I have a decant of this, but I’m afraid it might have ‘turned’. It was a neroli/white floral with a musty staleness in the beginning. Then it was just faint neroli, then gone in 2 hours.
ivanivaniz – :
I have owned this for quite some time. I received a bottle years ago as a gift from a friend who spent some time in Hawaii. I was recently invited as a guest of my daughter on a once in a lifetime 15 day Hawaiian Island hopping cruise. I didn’t purchase this one since I still have some left, but bought the Hibiscus version for my daughter, & the Rose version for myself. Both new Wicked flankers are unique and strong, just like the first. The Hibiscus version is absolutely unisex and smells a lot like the Red Cigar cologne my husband favors. The Rose version smells like shampoo, the base of the original, and a fruity blush wine all in one with a bit of a synthetic rose after smell thrown in. I love all 3 of them and suggest you try Wicked Wahine if you want to wear a unique, heady, warm, floral spicey scent that will absolutely stand out from a crowd. I own hundreds of scents and there is nothing I can even vaguely compare the original to. It is completely unique.
I sprayed ONE small spray from the tester in the ships duty free shop and it garnered compliments from all around the store with plenty of “what is that beautiful smell!” Questions to the sales people in the store. Everyone wanted it!
I sprayed two squirts of the Rose version in my hair and could still smell it the next morning on my pillow and sheets and on my hairbrush.
Long lasting, quality perfume for around $22 or less and you get a HUGE bottle.
This could easily be a signature scent.
If I could compare the uniqueness of the scent, the depth of the notes, or the blending of the florals and spices, I guess I would have to say it has the “feeling” of XoXo’s Khundalini.
Besitos! xo
Yriy_n – :
I Have Never Been to Hawaii, But Thats first Place on Earth If I could go, Id want to be. I know I could never afford to live there, right now I’m stuck in Oregon in a major snow storm and expecting a major frezzing Nasty Weather to follow all next week. Yuck!!! If Money was no Object say I was a Muti Millianare , Won the Lotto, The Hawiian Islands Here I Come to Stay! I was never a snow bunny, so I close my eyes and dream of the Tropics 70 to 80 degrees all year long and blue clear water to match, Clear Blue Skys. Plam Trees instead of Pine and soft warm Ocean Brezzes and Lush Greenry with out the Winter Yuck!!!, Feasting on Pineaples CoCo Nuts and Mangos, Sipping Pina Colatas at the Beach, That’s Heaven!! Wicked Whaini takes me there. I got a bottle when I was living in California, Had to Leave there. Love All the Royal Hawiian Line of Fregerences, Sweet Exotic Florals and Warm Comfting Spices, that Lasts and Lasts and Turns Heads too, These Sents also remind me of Happier Times. I Also Love Hawwian White Ginger, wich is a bit more white exotic floral, Wicked Wahaini, is a bit more, spicy, warm, sultry oridental with an exotic floral tropical vibe. One Spray and Welcome to Pardise Aloha!!!
Undenegoota – :
Wicked Wahine
I love Hawaii. The scented breezes, the warm ocean water, the romance, the sunshine, and especially the flowers. When you fly to Hawaii, the first thing that greets you is the scent of flowers in the warm balmy air. This is what I look for in Hawaiian perfume…I want Hawaii in a bottle.
I love vintage Hawaii, and the picture on the label of Wicked Wahine, which is a nod to the Gauguin paintings of Tahitian women, made me love this perfume before I even wore it. I imagined myself as one of the women in Gauguins paintings, smelling of lush flowers, salt water, grass skirts, and coconut. It was a lot to ask of a vintage “drugstore” fragrance, I know, yet this perfume gave me so much more! It was deeper, spicier, more lush and more beautiful than I could have imagined. They even managed to bottle the warm balmy breeze!
I thought the “wicked” in the name referred to the spiciness and warmth. I realize now that wicked actually means DETERMINED, RESOLUTE, TENACIOUS; a woman who knows what she wants and uses all her intelligence, beauty, and determination to achieve it. I immediately thought of the US’s true Royal, Princess Ka’Iulani, who’s real name was Victoria Kaʻiulani Kalaninuiahilapalapa Kawekiu i Lunalilo Cleghorn (1875–1899) who was heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Kaʻiulani was known throughout the world for her intelligence, beauty and determination. To me, she is the poster child for determined women everywhere. She never stopped fighting for her kingdom, she was the epitome of Grace, Beauty and Intelligence in the face of adversity. This perfume pays tribute to her and “wicked” women everywhere; it’s beautiful AND fierce, balmy, soft AND powerful. What a treasure!
Chicago – :
“Wicked Wahine” — what a name, what inmages it conjures! Ocean waves rolling up on a warm sandy beach. A medly of heavenly, heady tropical flowers: Night blooming orchids. Jasmine. Frangipani. Ginger blossoms. Ripe, luscious fruits. The opening does smell like a basket of coconut and tropical fruits. It was very sweet but it didn’t last long on me. After this almost candy-like smell disappeared it became cool and green, all soft white roses with woody and fern undertones. It smells amazingly like Millot’s great classic, “Crepe de Chine”(much more so than the remake by Long Lost Perfumes). And how ’bout that picture on the box? I love it that the woman is curvy the way a woman is supposed to be. My one complaint: the bottle looks kind of cheap. But it’s the juice that counts and “Wicked Wahine” is pure nectar. Get yourself a bottle, this one should be in every collection.
heavensmile – :
I used to wear this eons ago when I lived on Oahu. I just spritzed some
An hour ago at a gift shop at the Honolulu airport
Expecting it to smell cheap and ordinary. It has a sharp opening but then warms
nicely. Very full and rich bouquet. Will test the other
flankers soon and report!
Update, the current WW begins just as I remembered from the 70’s; but sadly is gone within an hour. There is just no drydown there, I couldn’t detect it, and neither could anyone else; so it wasn’t just anosmia on my part.
Of course, this led to the search for an old bottle; and I finally was able to get one for less money than I paid for the new one. I have been wearing so much I am not choosing it because I don’t want to run out. This makes me feel like a young girl again, because the last time I wore I WAS a young girl…but it doesn’t really “smell” like Hawaii, which I associate with plumeria, coconut, pineapple and scented orchids. Nevertheless, this is a beauty, and I think the difference is that there is no longer that gorgeous sandalwood base.
billTweri – :
Wicked Wahine is really a very nice perfume. It has a soft, floral oriental vibe to it. When I first spray it, it comes out a little strong, but give it a few minutes and it settles down and gets better and better towards drydown. Rose and sandalwood dominate the composition and musk, orange flower and jasmine are muted and not as obvious. All the notes combine together and remind me just a little bit of a soft, woody rosy jasmine incense stick I used to have. Don’t get me wrong though – the incense is very faint in this, and that’s how I like it.
Sillage is very moderate and longevity is pretty decent. All told, a nice buy and very reasonably priced. I have the Original scent but I do see they also have a Hibiscus one (not in database) and a Rose (also not in database). Would love to try them all.
tqusernamej1 – :
I was completely surprised by this fragrance. I’ve sampled some of the other fragrances by Royal Hawaiian and every time I thought ‘Yep, just what I expected. Stereotypical drug store scents that are boring and not worth the 16 bucks/3 ounces to buy. Then I took a whiff of Wicked Wahine Hibiscus and fell in love!
I was expecting another cheap, monochromatic flowery yawn-fest but instead was immediately seduced by a deep ambery slightly fruity/floral delight! Where did that come from!?
Then I read the box which says ‘A mischievous combination of the fresh, exotic Hibiscus blossom, infused with sweet fruits, candied almonds, and soothing vanilla and amber…’
Ah ha! My nose has NOT gone off the deep end and lost its senses! The description they give is perfect and what I smelled after all! This is totally worth the 16 dollars I paid at the ABC store in Hawaii! It’s longevity, projection and sillage are all actually quite good as well! And the surprises just keep coming with this fragrance!
I completely recommend giving it a sniff. You can order it online through the ABC stores in Hawaii. I’ve ordered everything from coconut syrup to colorful towels online from the ABC stores, when it would cost more for me to carry it home on the plane, and can say that they are an excellent site to purchase from.
I’m not affiliated with ABC stores or Royal Hawaiian perfumes in any way, I’m just a fume head that also happens to love Hawaii as well…