Red Cattleya

This is the heady scent of being blessed by The Goddess. Be light handed with this one, as your offering. One spray will have you at her temple. You instantly pick up on the lush dense florals of the orchids laid at the feet of her alter. The basket of fruits meld for a sweetness that pushes past ripeness. There is also a solid undertone of woody spices, perhaps similar to Gonesh incense? All very powerful upon first smell. You become one with the exotic and precious feminine energy. As time elapses, the scents smolder, radiates and trails off the skin. Embrace The Goddess. Tested on a hot July evening of 95*F in central Texas (no wind and dry heat). I personally recommend this for all seasons except spring (just my personal opinion - winter is best ). Applied to my collarbones for a social outing at a trendy cocktail night spot. Longevity: about 6+ hours (I was not too heavy handed {2 sprays} in my application but this juice is very concentrated ). Sillage: Continuously radiated within arms reach and left a distinct trail. Impression: The lush , exotic embodiment of the feminine Goddess. Warm, sultry, hedonistic musk. This is a syrupy sweet scent for a woman who will not be ignored. It drips sexiness and has no tolerance for the shy or the meek. It does actually have the presence of the hothouse orchid scent supported by other "tropical" miscellaneous florals. Bottle design: 5 out of 10. My bottle is plan and simple, not like the posted pics. A plain rectangular glass container with no features and a black top. It was divinely wrapped when I ordered it. Beautiful red tissue paper with a gold metallic seal. Tip: Wear alone without any scented lotions, cosmetics or hair products. It should be experienced on your unique skin. Appropriate for ADULT women who know themselves. ;) I love this creation. Definitely a prize wrapped plainly.

Ellen Covey, the creator of this fragrance, is known for her award-winning but sometimes challenging scents - if you haven’t experienced any of them, check out Bat and Blackbird to see what I mean. Interesting fragrances, ground-breaking even, and I can appreciate their originality, but.... I can’t wear them. Red Cattleya is nothing like those. Far from being challenging, it is approachable and immensely wearable. I’m going to try to do this justice, but whatever I write here, just know that in the flesh, it’s even better than I can possibly describe. Right from the get-go, I get a blast of the juiciest peach/apricot that fills the air; the effect is somewhat like smelling a bowl of freshly sliced peaches and apricots lightly drizzled with honey. There’s no honey listed, but something is giving this a syrupy sweetness. It’s not cloying, but rather dense and rich, creamy. Vanilla then starts to make its way to the front row, but never overtakes the fruit. The middle portion of this scent is my favorite part...fruit and flowers and honey and vanilla....all humming along in harmony. Hours later, in the drydown, the softest blanket of woody notes makes its appearance, and stays until the end. Each stage of its development is gorgeous, and the sum of all its parts, blended together by a very talented perfumer, is what makes it so. It’s strong, it projects, and it lasts. I get compliments, but I wouldn’t care if I didn’t. I love it. I’m on my third bottle, and would not ever want to be without this. Top ten in my fragrance wardrobe.

Another unique perfume from this inspiring perfumer. Opens with a rich apricot juice infused with something sour and sharp, steeped in brandy. It's complex and potent; difficult to untangle each olfactory thread while inundated with this level of diversity. After 10 minutes the sour note reveals itself to be melon-citrus which is fused with the juicy apricot; it's a similar note to the passionfruit in African Orchid. Purple florals surge up in the perfume's heart. I get hyacinth-lilac dominant, with violets and gardenia giving a plush velvety vibe in the background. Vanilla and a lovely dry cedar-sandalwood provide a warm atmosphere from around 30 minutes for the 3+ hours I can smell it. It's powerful and perfumes the entire room in plush scent. I love orchids and hothouses but I don't get the impression I'm standing in one. Hothouses are full of life and corruption & are far more pungent than Red Cattleya (Night Flyer is more like a Victorian Hothouse) but I do very much like this and so does my husband. He rarely comments on my (200+) perfumes, let alone enjoys them, so bravo Ellen Covey! Distillation: sour apricots in a purple-flower mist pleasing my husband

This is a dense, fruity floral that can start out just this side of sickly sweet, but wait a minute or two and it settles into a heady mix of dewy orchids, melons, and peach nectar. Fortunately for me it never develops the powdery/musky notes others have mentioned. It definitely has a tropical vibe that would work in summer, but I think it would also chase away those mid-winter doldrums! This might be a little oozy sweet for some but I'm absolutely smitten with it, and so far so are the people around me that could smell it! Popcorn/foody smell? Whaaa?! My nose picks up nothing even close to that. Still, it's intriguing to hear about all the different interpretations of a perfume.

26th My favorite OO scent and this was FB worthy to me, if you love peaches. I love peaches, but nice ones are hard to find and this is a fresh, strong peach with some floral aspects, though not any specific flower that I can pick out. There is a very vague sweet melon note in it, but it fades so fast and does not make me nauseous (I hate melon/aquatic notes). Not much of that plasticky peach note either. Goes on strong like all OO scents, but wait a while and it keeps giving beautiful breezes of the best peaches (sweet, tart, floral, fresh). Great all year round. 9/10

normally... i hate powder.. but I love this! so... JUICY! FRESH! and i have smelled this orchid in particular; this is spot on. the heat of the greenhouse, the sweet fruity fragrance... oh my this is heaven! it reminds me... of... vanilla custard with fruits and flowers! A safe blind buy, how people can't like this one; I can't fathom. it's changing dynamic, and not your standard celebrity fruity floral crud. and... secretly.. even if it dries down to a powder on my skin I dont think I care! I love it anyways.

I have a habit of finding fruity fragrances too sweet, but this particular one seems to balance it just right! To me it hints at a floor of sandalwood with a lovely, soft sweetness over top--smells like a dewy morning in the garden of our family home in India. I'd been worried about this one having read some of the reviews describing it as so sweet, but this one knows its manners and comes along gently for the ride. I love this fragrance for brightening up reluctant mornings.

A delicious fruity mix with cool nuances of melon, gorgeous flowers, very playful ;o) At the beginning it's fruity-sweet joyful mix, then it becomes more floral and this part I adore.

This is lovely with many notes I adore. The gardenia is faint thankfully, allowing the other florals and fruits to peek through. Well executed and tempting, natural and feminine.

This has been on my wrist for almost 7 hours now. Overall I really enjoyed it I think, but I cannot overall form an opinion on what was special or so likeable about it, because this seems to be very forgettable and easy to wear. One might say - what is the issue then? There is none to be fair, this is a very nice everyday scent, very inoffensive, good quality and very wearable, but during the 7 hours I had this on I think I spent only the first 30minutes sniffing my wrist and fully enjoying the scent. I wasnt in rush all day, but I simply did not feel like going back to this therefore for me this did not feel as special. Overall, the opening is very fruity and peachy with a hint of powdery and herbal violet on me. It stays like this for first 30 minutes then shifting to an aquatic and musky heart, flowers for me reappear in the drydown phase, some 2 hours in and it keeps likeable, nice and feminine for next 7 hours and maybe even more. Easy to wear spring, summer scent! As far as "niche" goes this is not very expensive, but the artistry of the scent also did not give me what I hoped for. This is the first one for me from this brand and even though I enjoyed this I don't see myself seeking out more samples.

A fruity floral gourmand with the performance of an 80s powerhouse. It starts extremely sweet and loud, almost to the point of being overpowering. This is sweeter than any designer fragrance à la LVEB, but also completely different. To be honest it's a little too much for me at first, even though the scent itself is pleasant. The opening reminds me of a fizzy sweet peach flavored drink. An obscure peach soda I found in a kebab shop near my home or the peach flavored Coke I tried when I was on holidays in Japan. The fragrance has a slight lactonic facet in its fruitiness, as peach and apricot fragrances often have, which is emphasized by the sweet vanilla. The melon note is not the typical aquatic kind of melon, if anything it's an extremely ripe cantaloupe. Underneath the sugared peaches wait some classic floral notes. Violet powder and a certain flowery sourness from gardenia and hyacinth that almost gives this a vintage touch. When Red Cattleya has dried down completely, it's actually much more floral than the opening suggests, but still peachy. It's a multilayered perfume with a lot to discover.

A fun and different fruity floral with a creamy musky vanillic base. Like most everyone here has said , the top notes scream peach and melon which calm down after about 15 minutes when the florals and creaminess start to come through. The florals are blended well and I couldn't really identify any of the purple flowers but the Gardenia is the most noticeable to me. I don't get much in the way of woods. It is sweet but I dont find it cloying. It fades fairly quickly and after an hour was faint on my skin. I've never smelled any fragrant orchids so I'll leave it to those who know to draw the comparison. But I'd love to smell this flower if it smells like this! I will happily wear my sample but don't love it enough right now for a FB. So far it's my favorite from the sample pack I received and I was skeptical when I included it at the last minute. Definitely worth a sniff to get a different take on the fruity floral (which are almost bad words in perfumista land).

Super fruity opening. Lots of peach and melon. Orchid flowers often have these fruity openers. Then the gardenia and other blossoms. A really nice touch of gardenia in this fragrance. Never overpowering or cloying. I love the energy of the initial fruit and the lingering tropical effect of the flowers and vanilla. The dry down also accurately represents the scent of certain orchid blossoms. This is a fragrance I would wear anytime of the year. In summer and spring to match the season, in fall and winter to remind me of a warmer climates and orchid houses I have known.

Victorian hothouse is an excellent description, as I really can imagine smelling this at a fussy old manor. Admittedly I do find it a bit mature for me, but Red Cattleya is a very unique scent rather than necessarily seeming "old". The peach and apricot smell quite sophisticated, if not a touch dusty, and never pull too sweet. No particular flowers stand out as much as giving the impression you are surrounded by them. The scent indeed feels Red.

I did not get peach, per se, but I did notice the light, smooth fruitiness characteristic of melon notes in fragrances. It is, of course, accompanied by honey. Unfortunately, melon fragrances tend to be extremely short-lived, and this one is no exception. I think it was almost entirely gone from my skin in around 2 hours. I tried it side-by-side with Golden Cattleya, which lasted longer and projected more strongly.

Woah. Really interesting. Very floral and fruity spicy sweet. Not sure if it’s the woods giving it spice, but it’s rounded out by sweet creaminess which I assume is the peach and gardenia, and powderiness of the hyacinth. Others are right, I get lipstick from this! The only thing is this makes my throat feel a bit funny. Bummer.

This is a gorgeous fruit salad surrounded by flowers, and it is amazing. Sweet but not excessively, juicy, flowery, a bit tart. The perfect scent for spring and summer imo. The performance isn't beastly, but it ain't bad either. A few hours. A dreamy offering from Olympic Orchids.

I agree with the previous posts. It starts out fruity and then shows more of its floral side in the dry down. My nose isn't acute enough to tease out the subtle parts of each phase, but I can say that it has a nice, flirty, summery feel. Longevity on me is about 4 hours.

spicy fruity sharp floral; unique; sweet; mainly peach and apricot with a sort of off/tart/sour note in among the sweetness; this is make-your-teeth-ache sweet; can't detect even a hint of orchid

I like the melon in this, but it is very light on me and fades quickly. While it does last I get lots of honeydew with lilac and hyacinth in the background. A very nice spring/summer scent.