Fragrance Review: Olympic Orchids

Olympic Orchids is a house I’ve been looking forward to trying for a while, and I really appreciate how unique and interesting the scents were overall. I’m not sure how many of these I’ll end up full sizing, but I’ll definitely be using up these samples and probably ordering more when I next give myself permission to indulge in my perfume addiction.

Blackbird

Notes: Himalayan blackberry fruit, dry grass and leaves, elemi, cedar wood and resin, woody-amber accord, fir balsam absolute, musk

Wet: This smells like the best parts of a late summer day – dry grass and overripe blackberries dropping off the vine.

Upon Dry Down: Something unpleasantly sharp starts poking through as this dries down and threatens to overwhelm the grasses and berries that the scent opened with.

Later: Mentholated blackberries? Blackberry cough drops? Wherefore art thou grass?

Overall Thoughts: After it emerges from the blackberries-dipped-in-Vicks phase this settles into a nice warm-blackberry-jam sort of scent that, while pleasant, never quite recaptures the magic of those opening notes.

Café V

Notes: espresso-roast coffee, dark cacao, vanilla, cream, spicy chai, cardamom, leather, and well-worn wood

Wet: This is a dark scent, I get an immediate blast of strong coffee, leather, wood, and just a hint of vanilla somewhere in the murky depths.

Upon Dry Down: In addition to being dark, this is a very dry scent. I get a lot of woods that lean more in the vein of an antique wooden table than a freshly-cut tree – picture an old wooden side table next to a well-worn leather armchair in which someone has spent 80 years drinking black coffee strong enough to stand a spoon up in.

Later: In an absolutely tragic twist of the cruelest fates this turns coconut-y on me in the deep dry down. When I stick my nose right up in my arm I get those lovely leathers and coffees and woods, but in the air some combination of the notes just read as coconut and it makes me sad.

Overall Thoughts: Due to whatever war the concept of coconut is waging against me personally, this has not ended my quest for the perfect coffee scent. I should also note that this one does not project as much as I would expect for this kind of fragrance.

Chevalier Vert

Notes: citrus, rhubarb, tomato leaf, armoise, violet leaf, violet, orris, and peony, Sichuan pepper, and soft woods

Wet: Putting this on smells like snapping a fresh stalk of rhubarb out in the garden: fresh, juicy, and almost mouth-puckeringly green.

Upon Dry Down: As this dries down, the tartness of the rhubarb mellows a little and it begins to smell like being in garden or greenhouse in which rhubarb is growing alongside other plants. It’s a very, very natural green scent.

Later: This doesn’t change much and I’m glad it doesn’t, it stays crisp, fresh, green and mouthwatering like taking a snootful of pure springtime.

Overall Thoughts: This fragrance confirms the superiority of rhubarb in both pies and perfumes – I really like it.

Night Flyer

Notes: sandalwood, olibanum wood, vetiver, furry musk accord, wet earth, damp air, mineral notes, resins, leather, figs, banana, soft tropical fruits

Wet: I don’t really get fruit upon initial application, instead this is damp rocks, animal musk, and a hint of something endolic.

Upon Dry Down: This smells like a cave where generations of bats have been living and pissing, but somehow not in a gross way. I am confused and delighted.

Later: I fear this bat is starving to death because I still don’t get fruits. This stays very animalic and musky on me with a backdrop of cool, wet granite.

Overall Thoughts: As many have said before me, this is a weird, funky, earthy, oddly wearable animalic. I’m into it although I feel like I missed out on the fruits listed in the notes.

Woodcut

Notes: fractional distillations of pine and cedar, oakwood absolute, tolu balsam, olibanum, caramel, burnt sugar, vanilla

Wet: Does what it says on the tin folks, this is pure fresh cut wood and the sap gumming up your fingers.

Upon Dry Down: This is a fresh-cut pile of logs stacked up outside on a cold day, I can almost hear the chainsaws.

Later: Dry, simple, clean, and extremely realistic wood. If they weren’t listed in the notes I don’t think I would’ve clocked vanilla or caramel.

Overall Thoughts: I find this scent incredibly comforting – I spent most of my adolescence working in barns and this smells like standing in a freshly-cleaned stall bedded with woodchips. I am tempted to size up so I can soak myself in sweet nostalgia whenever I have Adult Task related nightmares.

The ADHDemons got me again when I put my order and I completely forget to get a sample of Olympic Rainforest. As an aspiring bog witch who happens to live in the PNW, I really want to try that one so expect a follow-up on some more Olympic Orchids scents sometime in the future…