YAY! Posse Peeps!

Portia from AustralianPerfumeJunkies back with you all and utterly thrilled that the PerfumePosse are letting me scribble all over their beautiful wall each Friday. He He. Today I am bringing you something special. Funnily Tom also looked at this wonderful fragrance house yesterday here on Perfume Posse

Golden Cattleya by Ellen Covey for Olympic Orchids 2010

If you have been down the the Fragrance Wormhole for any length of time you will definitely have heard of the amazing Doc Elly, Ellen Covey. She is a research scientist based in the Seattle metropolitan area who has many other parallel lives; orchid grower, runner, theatre person, and lover of food, fashion, travel, and other good things in life. (edited from her blog intro) Doc Elly has succeeded in so many ways concurrently that I am incredibly in awe of her. Not only that but in my dealings with her is so lovely. It gives me pleasure to wear her fragrances, like I can grab a little of her ability, warmth and presence through her scents.

Golden Cattleya by Rosalie Scanlon Stolen fineartamerica

The first fragrances that Olympic Orchids did were all about representing in perfume the glorious fragrances of orchids. If you are expecting their early fragrances to smell like anything you’ve ever smelled in a department store or drugstore then think again. These are the scents of the world’s jungles, sometimes way up in the trees, at others around the boles of trees or hidden in rockfaces beneath waterfalls. Many bloom only at night and smell so luxuriously debauched that you have to take a second sniff to believe its coming from a flower so lovely and delicate. This is the place Ellen Covey started from to weave her fragrant magic…

Olympic Orchids site gives these accords: narcissus, daffodil, orange fruit, orange blossoms, honey, pollen, and cream soda combine with amber-tinged resins and musks, calling Golden Cattleya a Floral Oriental.

Photo Stolen perfumenw

So what does Golden Cattleya smell like on skin?

Until reading the notes I was unaware that the opening is mainly narcissus and daffodil but now that I have read it, it’s so clear. A big loud peal of these flowers mixed with lovely orange flowers in an intoxicating and dazzling way, almost overwhelming. It feels freakishly ancient, like the Queen of Sheba could have worn this. Or perhaps this is the scent from M J Rose’s The Book of Lost Fragrances, the one that can work magic for star crossed lovers. The honey and amber are constant players here but always displaying at different strengths, so the perfume evolves. No that’s not quite true, the perfume revolves. It plays through a set of accords, each glistening slowly over time and then repeating itself but in a slightly different way. The sillage and longevity are excellent, around 8-9 hours till almost no fragrance discernible; and stays this lovely skin scent till around 16 hours, which is mammoth on my skin, and that was dabbing. When decanted and sprayed Golden Cattleya is a quieter fragrance, a much more subtle and sensuous, muskier version of herself with a lighter, more transparent sillage that still goes to the long lived skin scent, but gets there sooner. Interesting because usually spritzing adds bulk.

If you are looking for something dazzling and different, want to run away from the pack, then I recommend you jump across to Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes pronto and order you a very reasonably priced sample pack. I cannot stress enough to you how well priced this collection is, and the quality is amazing.

Please do also pop across to AustralianPerfumeJunkies (<<JUMP) and have a look, we always have something fun, mad and/or interesting going on and we’d love to have you come join our fragrant family.

I hope all your scent-ual dreams come true. Till next time,

Portia xx