VIC Orchid

Caswell and Massey developed Vic and their Orchid perfumes to celebrate the NY Botanical Orchid Show. Also a part of the proceeds from the sales of these perfumes support the work that is done at the NY Botanical Gardens to protect plant species. I think the way these perfumes have been developed by capturing the scents of the plants so they can recreate the molecules to develop the perfume is very interesting and a worthwhile endeavor. I love natural perfumes but let's face it there is a lot of destruction of plants to create perfume. But do these perfumes smell natural? And I am happy to say in fact yes, they do. Vic opens w/ a fresh green aromatic scent w/ a mentholated sigh effect and as the perfume develops a fresh spicy, mossy and powdery scent comes in as well as an earthiness. You can tell there is rose in this because I pick up a fresh spicy rose combined w/ the green orchid. This is a very mossy perfume; I think the green notes they used were eucalyptus. My husband flipped for his and said he would like a full bottle that we could share. This is very unisex but a unisex that I enjoy because it is unique and also not very citrus heavy. I wish more men would wear fragrances like this. It is an updated classic that smells renewed and a bit reinvented. As I am smelling this, I am picturing a forest floor covered w/ the greenest moss w/ blooming wild orchids. If you like nature and natural smelling perfumes Vic is green, earthy, fresh spicy, and woody floral that goes both ways. Dynamite for a man or a woman. Edit: 6/8/22 I love this fragrance, but I find I would rather my husband wear it, so I have rotated it out of my collection. He is wearing it today and it compliments, the Red Door that I am wearing. This is a very unisex fragrance, but I like it better for a man. Men, please wear more florals like this what is being marketed towards you today is really in bad taste.

Yawn. I wanted to like this. I really did, and not just because I dropped $35 on the smaller bottle. As a technical writer, I shouldn't have been swept away by the description, but it's compelling: "...derived from the Victorian-era Vanda Giganticus, the oldest living Orchid in the New York Botanical Garden's collection." And I even thought at the time, so if it's the largest living orchid, why are you touching it to synthesize perfume from it? Or there must be lots of these "largest living orchids." And then there was the fact that they brought out another orchid fragrance at the same time, this one called just Orchid. This one is from "...the Cattleya Orchid, a rare hybrid at the New York Botanical Garden..." bla bla bla. You have to wonder the politics behind bringing out two orchid fragrances at the same time. Did one of them have big New York Botanical Garden money behind it, more than just what it took them to get the perfumes made and sold by Caswell Masseyto begin with? Like some big donor saying "My orchid is better than hers, and I'll donate an extra $25,000 if you make my Vic fragrance too?" But regardless, rosequeen sprung for the Vic. And it's not horrible, but it's horribly boring. It has a quick gush of florals that lasts all of 20 minutes, and slinks away quickly. Within an hour you can barely smell it. It's gone totally in 2 hours. And it calls itself an edp, in about a 2 font at the edge of the label, perpendicular to the name. Like it's embarrassed and doesn't want you to know.

Vic is a very aromatic green fragrance that elicits an extremely vintage vibe, reminiscent of the great oak moss masterpieces of days gone by. I perceive of no floral sweetness that one would associate with an orchid’s perfume but only a dark, verdant earthiness that even for me and my gender bending taste in fragrance, find too masculine. Definitely well crafted and elegant as all Caswell Massey creations are known to be, I’ll pass this on to a classy man I know! 😉

This is such a beautiful perfume! I really love the fresh greenness of it. I didn't get any powdery notes or moss throughout it, just a lot of other fresh greenery. The orchid smell is also so refreshing. I feel like I'm walking barefoot on cool spring grass in a beautiful dress, and at one with the world. Ahhh