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Post by Azar
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Happy New Year APJ!
I am a citrus junkie. I love eating and smelling the new crops of grapefruits, pomelos, lemons, limes, oranges and tangerines that come into our local markets in November through early December. I also adore the flowers of the early winter blooming (Northern hemisphere) Cattleya orchid hybrids that, coincidentally, often smell like citrus fruits or flowers. On December 15th Ellen Covey introduced her new White Cattleya fragrance happily coinciding with the arrival of fresh citrus in the stores and the opening of cattleya blossoms in greenhouses everywhere.
White Cattleya by Olympic Orchids 2015
White Cattleya by Ellen Covey
Olympic Orchids give these featured accords:
Citron, lemon, neroli, jasmine, heliotrope, orchid accord, light vanilla, musk.
White Cattleya was created as a wedding fragrance but to me it is the ultimate semi-gourmand citrus perfume opening with an oily-sweet lemon zest. Imagine the pores of a yellow lemon rind exuding droplets of fragrance and you have an idea what I smell right off the top. There are almost fifty varieties of lemons grown commercially these days. In our local stores we see a lot of “Meyers” lemons (a lemon x orange hybrid), “Villafranca”, Florida’s leading lemon and “Eureka”, the top US commercial variety. For me the zesty, sweet opening of White Cattleya is very close to the fragrance and flavor of the sweet Persian lemon “Limoo Shirin” (C. limetta). This mildly sweet, slightly bitter, low acid fruit has a smooth, thin skin and is about the size and shape of a tennis ball.
As we all know certain citrus top notes are flighty and evaporate within moments of application. Not so in White Cattleya. What I perceive as Persian lemon zest stays in place on my skin for at least 30 minutes before its starts to shift to the scent of one of my favorite Italian liqueurs – Limoncello. As Limoncello comes to the fore I begin to detect one of my least favorite florals, the dreaded heliotrope. Fortunately for me, the gooey sweet marzipan aspect of heliotrope is tempered with jasmine and the tenacious citron. The floral/citrus heart of White Cattleya stays in place for hours, eventually morphing (but not fading) to an ethereal vanilla and musk. White Cattleya is a powerful fragrance with strong to moderate sillage, easily lasting for 14 to 16 hours. Also, on my skin, it does not wash off even after a hot shower. If you are not a lemon lover, be careful how you apply this fragrance! That being said, lemon and jasmine scents are both known to sharpen our wits and help us feel better about ourselves
Further reading:
Olympic Orchids has $65/30ml + Samples
Azar X
myprettypaints
White Cattleya GIVEAWAY
WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 5ml refillable purse spray of White Cattleya
P&H Worldwide
HOW DO YOU WIN?
Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged. Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know.
You must tell me how you follow APJ
and
Please tell us if you love or hate lemons. BTW – have you tried the new White Cattleya?
HOUSEKEEPING
Entries Close Thursday 14th January 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Sunday 17th January 2016 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.