“Orchidea Reale” combines flowers, fruits, white chocolate, caramel, rum and a slightly soapy touch that does not disturb the harmony. It is not a perfume for the day that is at its best in the blazing sunlight, but one that feels more at home during a tropical evening. A lady holding court in the fading sun. Wearing the scent, after a while, I got the feeling of it having disappeared. My disappointment changed the next day, when the clothes I had sprayed smelled fantastic. I was surprised, the perfume having become more profound with the hours. The sweet opening had moved on to something with more posture, more structure. The smell lingered till the evening. It has a very good durability. That I did not smell it very much during the first 6 hours might have to do with my nose completely accepting the scent as a part of me. The best advice is to use it not directly before you want others to admire it, but to put it on a few hours earlier and let it develop.
The actual smell of an orchid is very elusive. I must honestly say I have not yet smelled an orchid in nature. I have seen many beautiful petals of all colours, from white to all shades of pink to dark red, but the smell of orchids I only know from perfumes. One reads that it can range from sweet to spicy and unpleasant. Orchids smell only when they hope to attract butterflies and bees and when that is, depends solely on the respective orchid species in their natural habitat. Chances are not so good to smell a great variety of them in nature if one does not live in Southeast Asia – although a few species bloom in Europe naturally. Let us assume the orchids smell as heavenly as they do in orchid perfumes, from “Orchidea Reale” to Tom Ford’s “Black Orchid”. If that is the case, we can be happy the perfume world made that exotic and delicate scent accessible to us wherever we live and at every time we want to smell it.
The colour of the scent is creamy white pink changing to lilac.
It is not easy to learn the story behind Pineider perfumes and who makes them today. When you look up the company Pineider in the internet, you do not find any hints about the perfumes made under the brand name. Most entries about Pineider, in well-known perfume online platforms or online shops are outdated, even naming the wrong “noses” behind the fragrances and giving the impression that Pineider perfumes are still part of the bigger brand of that name.
The House of Pineider, founded in 1774 in Florence, Italy, has become and stayed famous for its stationary, writing instruments (mainly pens) and later also leather bags of the highest quality. Stars and politicians of international renown were customers of the brand over the centuries. The Italian state gives Pineider products to foreign dignitaries as presents because they represent ideal Italian craftmanship.
At a point in time, around 2009 or 2010, the Pineider management must have decided to expand the brand towards quality perfumes. The first perfume was launched in 2011, the last in 2018. The two “noses” associated with the brand were Luca Maffei and Maurizio Cerizza. The latter created “Orchidea Reale” in 2014.
In 2017 the company Pineider was taken over by Italian family brand Rovagnati. They produce mainly food products and it seems they did not continue the perfume part of the Pineider business, but sold it to Profumitalia in Milan. Profumitalia owns a few other brands as well and seems dedicated to continue the Pineider perfumes. It would have been too bad to have another lovely scent discontinued (not to speak of the other perfumes by Pineider, of which there are 10 in total). Whether Profumitalia still uses the same artisans to make the caps of the perfume bottles and the mahogany wooden packaging is not important as long as the Pineider perfume tradition is kept alive and one can buy the fragrances!
Since Pineider and Profumitalia do not have a homepage indicating the scent notes of the perfume, we do not know what the perfumer’s ideal blend was.
On the platforms Fragrantica and Parfumo you can read about hazelnut, cassis, bergamot, lotus, jasmine, ylang ylang, vanilla, patchouli, dark chocolate, and patchouli. I doubt most of it and stick to the notes described at the top of the article.
Orchid being such a noble and elusive smell, it is a lot about one’s expectations. Pineider’s “Orchidea Reale” is a perfect perfume for everybody who wants to experience how orchids must smell when they want to attract a butterfly.