Let’s just start now.

Olympic Orchids is giving customers 20% off with code LATESALE through December 15, 2015. This link is to her original site, which carries some goodies that her flagship site doesn’t.

If you haven’t yet made the acquaintance of these perfumes, now would be a good time to start. If you already know what you love, now is the time to nab it. These perfumes are the perfect gift of affordable art.

12 of my favorites to be heartily reviewed at another time, I introduce to you:

Dev 1: Growwwl. Hot. Sex. Summer. Furry Animal. Rrrawr!

Dev 4: Redux. Grrrrowl.

Lil: Challenging. Sharp. Spiky. Green. My boyfriend claims it smells like an off-putting combination of gasoline and the disinfectant haunting the hallways of an hospital. (I think it’s the geranium he objects to.) His reaction to it is so strongly negative that I literally only wear it if when I’m photographing all day right out of bed, and I’m going to shower well before he comes home… or when he is away. To be used with caution, à la Sex Panther.

Mardi Gras: Golden sunshine honey. Happiness, satin, & pearls. Dressing up fine with your fanciest shoes on. Good times. Happy times.

Olympic Rainforest: This was heavy in my rotation this Summer. Smells like a wet walk through its namesake. Mushrooms. Lichen. Loam. Moss. Moisture. I love spraying it in my hair, the spice of the loam wafts around and infuses a warm feeling of cool air into my every movement. Enchantingly odd.

Ballet Rouges: A vintage-vibe rose. Fully present, this is the rose blooming in rich soil, the leaves wet from the morning, Spring drops of sparkling water in the air, bejeweling garden webs. After your sunlit morning meditation, you are experiencing the moment of anticipation before the show. Ahead of you are the velvet, marionberry curtains, new and clean upon the grand stage. The act opens, you are poised on the edge of your seat as the ballerina is poised en arabesque penché. This is the promise of romance in its first moments of unfurling. Wear when love is desired or simply in the air.

Salamanca: The sharp tang of yellow clay dirt. Too much dirt, too much tang for me. Very argillaceous.
My boyfriend LOVES this. He and my father both detect the smell of engine grease crusted with a thousand miles of road dirt, the cool cement of the shop, and the feeling of being a man who can do for himself. Definitely smells more at home on my man’s skin than on mine.

Woodcut: Not my personal favorite to smell or to wear as it is quite literal, and I have sad associations with the subject, but it is so exacting, one whiff and you can see why it was a winner of the 2015 Art & Olfaction Awards. It is art.

Do stay away from the Tropic of Capricorn & Kyphi unless you want to reek of peaches, goat, and dead things.

Pick up Gujurat and take a trip to an Indian spice market, complete with curry, leather, and little mirrors shimmering all around you on embroidered fabrics.

Little Stars is one of my under-the-radar favorites for smelling steamy and a little naughty. It is innocent – but not. It’s a jungle excursion into white flowers and a moist nether region. Ya dig?

Also worth a sniff are Golden Cattleya & Kingston Ferry.

I haven’t been able to commit to Golden Cattleya, but it is golden, and sweet. It feels nice in the best way.

Kingston Ferry, like Olympic Rainforest, is a trip for your mind. When I first encountered this perfume, I didn’t know that the Kingston Ferry was one of the many that shuttle people from Seattle over to the other side of Washington. I was astonished to smell the ferry ride from Seattle over to Bainbridge Island in a bottle. I identified iodine, the smell of Seattle’s mist and fog over the water, and the green and forested smell of that place. It is quite particular. Ellen Covey has put all that into a bottle.

Mind. Blown.

That’s a pretty good way to describe any of Ms. Covey’s scents. I’ve smelled… pretty much all of them. They’ve all got something unique to say, that’s for sure.

A Merry 12 little Christmases to you!

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Also available at Tigerlily Perfumery in San Francisco, CA, where I first made their acquaintance. Limited selection is available at Olfactif.

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Orchid image by the generous Rona Black.