Rich Hippie is a company that makes perfume
“using the traditional methods employed by perfumers before World War II and the advent of the chemical industry.” It means that their fragrances are produced by combining organically farmed or wildcrafted extracts of flowers and plants and 100% natural "spirits of wine" or wine alcohol distilled from grapes organically grown in the wine regions of California. Rich Hippie’s promise is to offer scents that are safe both for their wearer’s health and for the environment. I must very honestly admit right here and now that I care very little whether the fragrances I wear are made from all-natural or entirely artificial ingredients or (as probably most often is the case) are a mixture of both. All I want is for my perfume to smell
good. Rich Hippie most certainly fulfills that requirement.
Rich Hippie website describes this perfume as a “hip, bohemian, seductive floral with extracts of African flowers, Madagascan vanilla bean and light notes of Guatemalan cardamom.” I don’t know about hip or bohemian, but it is indeed seductive.
Rich Hippie is a glowing, rich, bright scent one should wear on a honeymoon in some exotic location; it is a happy scent full of summer sunshine. The official list of notes does not include lemon or any citrus fruits, but Rich Hippie starts with a very prominent lemon note, so sweet it makes me think of lemon lollipops or hard candies. That candy-like citrus accord is soon toned down and then completely replaced by a softly indolic jasmine note. It is a beautiful, gentle note that I find very enjoyable. Cardamom note is quite apparent and also very pleasant at the later stage, and vanilla does not overwhelm the drydown, allowing the floral accord and cardamom to be evident till the very end. This is not a loud scent and it stays very close to the skin.
I certainly would not mind owning a bottle of Rich Hippie; it is a beautiful, very wearable, extremely enjoyable scent. Now that I have tried it, I am very curious about other perfumes in the line, however the price of sample sets offered on Rich Hippie site is rather prohibitive, $85.00 for 6 samples. Full size bottle of Rich Hippie costs $85.00 for 1/2oz or $185.00 for 2oz.
*The photo of the bottle is from Richhippiestuff.com. The image is from Jason-Brooks.com
20 Comments:
Dear Colombina
With all respect to organic farming (I buy a substantial amount of my food from organic production): From a point of view of scent quality I do not think that there is a big difference in alcohol for organic or non-organic sources. I am not so sure about the essential oils. I think there is a difference, but often not due to the starting material but more to careful handling and distillation.
And I agree 100% with you. In the end it is the fragrance smelling GOOD and being wearable that is important.
I burst out laughing when your page loaded -- thanks! Sort of a nice change from l'Air d'Whatever. And aren't you sick of people writing those looong, semi-personal odes to vintage perfumes? ;) Anyhoo, while this does not sound like my thing, I'm glad I read it. Like Christina I am a little surprised at the price point, but hey, I guess if you're a rich hippie (or just want to smell like one)...
Christina, thank you! I was rather predjudiced against these scents, because of their name and the organic ambitions and their price too. But Rich Hippie was much, much better than I thought it could possibly be. So now I would love to try the rest of the scents. I can't imagine however paying that kind of money for samples.
Andy,
It is very interesting to hear the opinion of the specialist, which you definitely are.
I guess if I or someone close to me had some sort of health concernsassociated with fragrance (allergy, asthma), I would have cared more. As it is, again, I just want it to smell GOOD. :-)
Marhc,
Yeah, those people....LOL
Funny thing about this scent is, it doesn't smell hippie-ish in any way. It does smell on the expensive side, but the "hippie" part I did not get (thankfully).
As for the price, the 2oz cost I find marginally acceptable. It is the price of samples that annoys me.
I think this is probably TOO lemony for my tastes. I find it pleasant, but have no desire to wear it. . . Perhaps I will like it better in the summer. There's been a lot of swooning on the board about "Wild Thing," so I'm curious about that one, but I'm afraid that perhaps this line is, um, just not my thing, man:)
According to one site that sells organic alcohol:
Juniper Green, A UK-based producer of Organic Gin, has experienced that organic grain "creates fine alcohol naturally, because it has a better biological cell structure than grain grown with chemical fertilizers."
According to the company, "no chemical fungicides are used to assist in the storage of organic grain resulting in natural microorganisms which aid full and deep fermentation."
Some people just prefer organic stuff, which is the simple answer ;-)
To me, it's just all about the natural juice, and the carrier is up to the preferences of the blender or end user.
That said -- their sample prices are crazy. They must be like me, just hate to make samples, and are trying to discourage requests, lol. It seems to work for them, yes?
J,
The beginning was very lemony on me too, and I though, whoa, dude, this is way too lemony, man LOL But- poof, and the lemony sweetness was gone :-)
Thank you very much for letting me try this by the way!!
Anya,
Thank you very much for the info. And I agree, it is all a matter of preference. Also, you are right, it does seem to be working for them quite well. I, for one, am going to save my pennies and will at some point buy a sampler.
As for your dislike of making samples. I love doing that, will be glad to help :-D
Hmmmm. . . maybe I need to give it more of a chance. I got a decant in a swap and never was able to get past the lemon. I will try again--and if I start lemming it now, I will know whom to blame:) And you are quite welcome.
J,
That's OK, blame me if you must. I have adopted Luctor and Enablemus as my motto LOL
V,
Exactly! They can call whatever they want, organic, synthetic, whatever. If it is done well and smells good, it's all I want.
You know I just know that somewhere around here I have a vial of that someone sent me to sample... I am really lucky I guess, in that a local boutique carries these, so I can try a number of them out (they are fairly good with making sure there are testers of everything they carry.) Unfortunately, I swear I can't really remember a thing about any of them, except they all seemed to lean on the sweet side to me. I haven't even given them a second glance lately (they carry the Lola cosmetic line, so I tend to waste my whole time there playing with the makeup instead of the perfume) but I'll have to give some of them a test run again in the future. Now in the meantime, I have to figure out where I "filed" that sample vial away!
*gasp* Katie, playing with makeup instead of perfume?? Herecy! :-D
In my defense, Lola does have the most adorable packaging, like, ever ;) That and their color range tends to suit my pale skin exceptionally well, which makes me very pleased. And Lola does do smelly stuff, the perfume oil and the Glo La body oil (which is hands down my favorite magnolia scent, even though it's a body oil rather than a perfume oil.) Have you seen the Lola pressed powder compacts? They are in a word, perfect.
Oh I must second katie's mention of Glo La body oil, I love it too.
I'm really interested in trying this one now that you say how sweet the lemon is. Jalaine's Citrus Dream is the sweetest citrus I have ever smelled and I love it. So maybe I will like this one too.
:O)
K,
I love magnolia scents and am always on a hunt for a new one. Thank you for the heads up, I am going to look for that body oil!
Victoria,
I must warn you that it is really lemony and really sweet only in the very beginning :-) After that- a soft summery floral.
I have a sample of Rich Hippie "Wild Thing" and must dig it out! Actually kind of like the tongue-in-cheek names, but the prices are rather high. Glad to know at least one of the fragrances is worth wearing!
R,
Please do dig it out and let me know what it's like? How wild a thing is it? :-)
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