What is the Perfume Project?

This blog is a constantly evolving forum for thoughts on perfume, perfume-making, plants (especially orchids and flora of the Pacific Northwest) and life in general. It started out chronicling the adventures of Olympic Orchids Perfumes, established in July 2010, and has expanded in other directions. A big part of the blog is thinking about the ongoing process of learning and experimentation that leads to new perfumes, the exploration of perfumery materials, the theory and practice of perfume making, the challenges of marketing perfumes and other fragrance products, and random observations on philosophy and society. Spam comments will be marked as such and deleted; any comments that go beyond the boundaries of civil discourse will also be deleted. I am grateful to all of you, the readers, who contribute to the blog by commenting and making this a truly interactive perfume project.

Monday, January 7, 2013

A VERY FRAGRANT ORCHID: MAXILLARIA DENSA


The other day when I went in the greenhouse to get some plants for an order, I found Maxillaria densa in full bloom. It’s one of those weed-like epiphytic orchids that one would hardly notice when it’s not in bloom, and when it is in bloom, the main attraction is the fragrance, not the appearance of the flowers. It’s originally native to Central America and parts of South America, where it reportedly grows in pine forests. The flowers are small and white, with touches of pink on the lips. They emerge as a dense cluster from the side of a pseudobulb, where they barely peek up above the surrounding sheath like a huge bouquet in a florist’s paper wrapping cone. The flowers always look droopy, like they’re not quite open.

So much for the flowers. The fragrance, on the other hand is one of the most spectacular in the whole realm of orchid scents, for all the world like a fine vintage perfume. It’s rich and strongly floral, spiced with cinnamon; it’s powdery, musky, and woody. If you were to smell the fragrance without knowing its origin, you would probably say that it’s a really good Guerlain. Really. It’s gorgeous - one of the best orchid scents around. It doesn’t smell like a flower, it smells like a perfume.

Two days ago I was sniffing my tiny sample of Guerlain Djedi, and find that the Maxillaria densa fragrance is surprisingly similar. Just when you think you’ve smelled it all, some orchid will come up with a complete surprise. Maxillaria densa blooms like clockwork several times a year, so I look forward to many sniffs of this fantastic fragrance. 

5 comments:

  1. Makes you wonder if the Guerlain patriarchs took some original inspiration from orchids...did any of them grow orchids??

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  2. Marla, I wonder the same thing, but I think it's probably just coincidence because I also have an orchid that smells just like a Chanel fragrance. If I had to guess, I'd say that maybe some people in the perfume industry did grow orchids, but I imagine they were Cattleyas or some other common, showy kind, not the little weedy ones with the extraordinary fragrances.

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    1. I know Bertrand Duchaufour raises orchids, but not sure how many are the fragrant varieties. I'll bet there are others, and I'm sure quite a few grow roses and peonies and jasmine and so on! I'm pretty sure J-C Ellena grows jasmine of various sorts. Fascination with smelly plants and perfumes pretty much go hand in hand (or hand and nose).

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  3. LIttle orchid crazy here but this blog has inspired me to go out and Get M. Densa.
    Thank you So much for your writing -- its exciting to me to find people who find fragrance as essential as I do.

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    1. I'm glad you found this blog. I hope to write about more orchid fragrances as new ones bloom. Here's to a happy, fragrance-filled new year!

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