Perfume Review: Rich Hippie Psychedelic

Rich Hippie create perfume 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. The company professes that their scents are safe both for their wearer’s health and for the environment. I have tried several of Rich Hippie fragrances and each time I have been impressed by the richness and smoothness of their blends (you can find my review of Rich Hippie here). These are not complex, sophisticated fragrances, but I find them to be well composed, full of character and quite enjoyable. Psychedelic, with notes of vanilla, ginger and orange peel, is a sumptuous, bright scent that has a delightful boozy-happy feel about it. It starts with a rich, warm note of vanilla; in a short while orange joins the blend and is almost immediately followed by ginger. I have been known to complain about the short-lived nature of ginger notes in fragrances, especially when paired with vanilla. In the case of Psychedelic, ginger stays quite perceptible till the very end adding a little sweetly-peppery twist to what otherwise could have been just another creamsicle-like scent. Make no mistake, this is still a sweet, gourmand composition, but it has a nice piquant kick and, without being overly foody, it makes me think of some wonderful, exotic sweet-and-spicy dessert, perhaps something from Thai cuisine. As I mentioned above, this is a rather simple scent, it isn't full of nuance and does not undergo much development, but its blend is very smooth and its notes are luscious. It is a joyful, pleasurable fragrance and I have a very strong suspicion that there might be a bottle of Psychedelic in my future. Psychedelic is available at Rich-Hippie.com, $85.00 for 1/2oz or $185 for 2oz. *The image is from Rich-Hippie.com.