Javanica by Olympic Orchids

Some of the Olympic Orchids offerings are just too dense and gunky to make the transition from intriguing ideas to successful perfumes. Javanica has an altogether lighter touch and a more mainstream feel but has a trick or two up its sleeve. A refreshing and pleasing citrus and spice opening starts proceedings. This is familiar territory marked out by a legion of colognes aimed at male buyers, except Javanicas citruses have none of the chemical screech of those offerings and the nutmeg is radiant and lively, not a dusty bore. But then, hey presto, the opening morphs seamlessly to a dreamy vanilla ringed with light floral sweetness. This phase keeps shifting all the time as frankincense and rosewood ascend in ones perception. Rosewood which is a woody note inflected with floral and spicy tones is an inspired choice, rounding off the composition and no doubt reminding the perfumes creator of the scent of her beloved orchids. Sadly a few hours in, all thats left is a faint creamy vanilla with a trace of spice. While appreciating the deftness of its execution, I found Javanica a bit short on presence.

An interesting scent from Olympic Orchids. At first, it's got a cream soda feeling, complete with sparkling freshness, but with a complex mix of fruits and flowers on top. As the effervescence faded away, a rosewood note came in and became, at least on me, the focus of the scent. Rosewood often reminds me of the smell of tobacco leaf, a sort of brown paper/papyrus smell that shares a vague similarity to heliotrope but is much drier and lacks the sweet almond smell. Javanica smells like this, but with a non-specific fruity sweetness on top, a slug of edible spices, and vanilla underneath further sweetening everything. It's vaguely musky, but in a soapy way, and it reminds me of a less sensual, more naturist take on Ava Luxe's Love's True Bluish Light. This is well put together and, in my opinion, one of Olympic Orchids' most fully realized perfumes, both in terms of structure and maturity. The longevity (except for the lingering vanilla) is somewhat low, but as is expected from something very high in natural ingredients. My neutral review is only because I don't care much for that papery rosewood note when it turns up in perfumes, but I still think this is well done.