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65 Reviews
kittea
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Expectations versus reality: or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the peach
My grandfather used to grow orchids, had a greenhouse full of them. As he got older it became my job to carry them out of the greenhouse every summer, and return them as the weather cooled. When he came over for dinner, sometimes he'd bring a flower that I'd tuck behind my ear for the evening, usually a magenta cattleya. I was always a little confused when I got into perfumery as I grew up and saw people classifying orchid notes as 'fantasy', because those cattleyas absolutely had a scent to them. Turns out that the orchid most people are familiar with is the phalaenopsis or moth orchid, which has no scent. So we were both right.
Anyway, like I said, cattleya orchids do have a scent which I'm familiar with, and unfortunately Red Cattleya is not that scent. This is more like an artistic interpretation of the appearance of a cattleya, rather than anything to do with its actual fragrance. I don't know, I don't like to be the person who criticizes a perfume on an inaccurate name, especially since the notes don't claim 'orchid' anywhere, but I feel like it's worth mentioning.
So, the scent itself. The website describes it as "like walking into a warm, moist Victorian hothouse packed with the most exotic orchid species". Maybe this building I'm walking into used to be a hothouse, but it has since been converted into a candy store. A very nice candy store, one that uses real sugar instead of corn syrup and has flowers planted outside, but a candy store nonetheless. It smells like upscale red Twizzlers, or perhaps those pink-and-yellow candied peach rings.
Ignoring the name and the website description, then, do I like this? Yeah, I think I do. It's a fruity-floral that doesn't smell even a tiny bit cheap or synthetic, which feels pretty uncommon as fruity-florals go. I would wear this in the summertime, to a music festival or something. I don't know if it appeals to my usual tastes, but it's really well-made for what it is. Just meter your expectations accordingly.
Anyway, like I said, cattleya orchids do have a scent which I'm familiar with, and unfortunately Red Cattleya is not that scent. This is more like an artistic interpretation of the appearance of a cattleya, rather than anything to do with its actual fragrance. I don't know, I don't like to be the person who criticizes a perfume on an inaccurate name, especially since the notes don't claim 'orchid' anywhere, but I feel like it's worth mentioning.
So, the scent itself. The website describes it as "like walking into a warm, moist Victorian hothouse packed with the most exotic orchid species". Maybe this building I'm walking into used to be a hothouse, but it has since been converted into a candy store. A very nice candy store, one that uses real sugar instead of corn syrup and has flowers planted outside, but a candy store nonetheless. It smells like upscale red Twizzlers, or perhaps those pink-and-yellow candied peach rings.
Ignoring the name and the website description, then, do I like this? Yeah, I think I do. It's a fruity-floral that doesn't smell even a tiny bit cheap or synthetic, which feels pretty uncommon as fruity-florals go. I would wear this in the summertime, to a music festival or something. I don't know if it appeals to my usual tastes, but it's really well-made for what it is. Just meter your expectations accordingly.
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Baobaba
