CaFleureBon Profiles in American Perfumery: Dr. Ellen Covey of Olympic Orchids + “Not Georgia O’Keefe Orchid” Draw

 

We called Guest Contributor Harper Hilton's review of three of Dr. Ellen Covey's Olympic Orchids  fragrances (Arizona, Gujarat and Golden Cattleya) the thrill of discovery.In addition to being a perfumer, Dr. Ellen is a scientist, a scholar, a photographer and a thespian.

 

 

PROFILE: I was born in Chicago, but have lived in so many different places that I consider myself a true citizen of the world. My family moved to the East Coast when I was a toddler, and one of my first memories is standing in my room, on tiptoe, looking out the window over the turquoise-gray windowsill with tears in my eyes because I knew I was going to miss the way my room smelled. I spent a long time breathing in the familiar, comforting scent of that room, and can still smell it in my imagination.

I came to perfumery relatively late, in parallel with a career as a scientist, but have always been almost pathologically fascinated by scents. As a child, I stuck my nose into everything to experience its odor. My mother loved perfume, so a favorite activity was to sniff her perfume collection from the bottles. I didn’t just sniff perfume or flowers from the garden, I sniffed everything in the kitchen, the trees, the ground, animals, objects, and even people. As soon as I had some spending money of my own, I started buying mini bottles of perfume and essential oils, just so I could sniff them. It’s ironic that I’ve never been big on “wearing” perfume, I just like to smell it for its own sake.

 

 

This photo was taken in the front courtyard at Villa Siam Proun. From left to right, my brother, my mother, and me. My brother’s face looks a little strange because he scribbled out his face in the photo and I tried to partially restore it in Photoshop

 

 

 

My early years were spent moving from one European country to another, including Switzerland, France, Germany, and Italy, living in each for a few years as part of my mother’s vague master plan of eventually ending up in Israel but seeing the rest of the world on the way. My perfume Siam Proun was made for her, as a memento of the Villa Siam Proun where we lived in the South of France. By the time I was an adult, my family moved back to the US, and I went with them, since I was curious to see the “New World” again.

 

 

 

 

 

Random events in my life have ended up taking me to live in India, Spain, and both coasts of the US. I’m now established in the Pacific Northwest, in the Seattle area. I’ve been fortunate to have an amazing variety of scents to smell at every point along the way.

 

Photography: Dr. Ellen Covey 

 

I came into perfumery through an unusual route, having studied the neural basis of chemosensory perception as a graduate student, and then gone on to an academic career. At one point I was given some orchid plants and fell in love with them, eventually establishing my own orchid nursery. The diversity of orchids is mind-boggling, and so is the diversity of their fragrances. I decided to re-create some of the orchid fragrances as perfumes, so embarked on a course of self-study, learning as much as I could about materials and techniques, and engaging in a frenzy of sniffing, learning about perfume composition through analyzing thousands of perfumes and experimenting with every material I could obtain. I started with natural materials, since I already knew those, but have slowly added a large variety of aroma chemicals to my palette. I prefer to work with high quality natural materials as the basis for my perfumes, and am constantly looking for new and unusual ones. However, I find that most natural perfumes can be improved immensely by the judicious addition of man-made materials, so my compositions are typically about 75-90% natural with some man-made embellishments.

 

 

 This is an adaptation of a recent, less than perfect, photo of me taken in La Alberca, Spain. I love to play around with digital artistic effects

ON AMERICAN PERFUMERY: I see myself as a prototypical 21st century indie perfumer who makes perfume as an art, not to please one demographic or another, but simply because it’s one of those creative urges that I feel compelled to express. My perfumes are olfactory manifestations of my life and experiences. Like my life, they don’t follow any standard formula, but rather are an eccentric, serendipitous, and joyful journey. The internet and social networking sites have made it possible not only to obtain all of the materials I need to give form to my visions, but to easily share this art with others. There is nothing more gratifying to me than to be able to bring people pleasure through my perfume creations.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ellen had many artists she admired but I chose to use her own photography and digital art instead. For our draw, we learn  Ellen Covey has a high E.Q. as its a reader's choice  of  a FULL BOTTLE OF ANY ONE OF HER 15 PERFUMES.  To be eligible: Please leave a comment on a quote you particularly like or what you found the most interesting.Creativity and depth count when making your choicewhich YOU MUST SPECIFY . Like Cafleurebon Profiles in American Perfumery which will continue throughout 2012  Draw ends Dec 20, 2011 EST

 

 –Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

We announce draw winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilt perfume

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28 comments

  • I like the concept of place perfumes. It’s moving to read, “I knew I was going to miss the way my room smelled. I spent a long time breathing in the familiar, comforting scent of that room, and can still smell it in my imagination.” Scent memories follow us throughout life. I know the scent of my grandparents’ house, 50 years ago. I can smell the coffee grounds that my grandmother tossed into her flower beds, and the hay bales in the barn where I wasn’t allowed to play. All places have their own scent.

  • I find it interesting that so many of us smelled everything we could, like she did as a child. I still do that – I stop and smell every flower, every smellable thing. I rather like that she prefers to smell perfume to wearing it. Dr. Covey has such an interesting life path!

  • “I see myself as a prototypical 21st century indie perfumer who makes perfume as an art, not to please one demographic or another, but simply because it’s one of those creative urges that I feel compelled to express”
    I am so grateful for perfumers such as Dr. Ellen Covoy because without them, perfume would be a dead art today. Mainstream perfumes are dictated by the bottom line and palette that is limited to the cheapest materials that appeal to masses who find fast food delicious.
    I have read other reviews of Olympic Orchards and Olympic Rainforest is one I plan on buying as a Christmas present for myself. Reviewers have said it is like the northwest rain forest after a good rain and for me, a native Oregonian, that is my ideal scent.

  • I’ve not been on Fragrantica in quite some time, and I miss reading Ellen’s fabulous reviews. She’s a marvelously talented woman in so many respects. Her enjoyment of digital effects in photography was news to me, but not surprising. She’s truly multitalented.

    I didn’t know she was from Chicago, which is my new home!

    I’d love to try Gujarat. It sounds amazing.

  • Very special memorization from the early childhood – standing at the window, etc. It’s rare to remember such things. And a very interesting life path in many countries (also in my country ;-). I would really like to try one of her scents. I would choose Golden Cattleya.

  • It is so good to see Ellen Covey. I am so impressed by her knowledge about Orchids and the way she has used them in her fragrances.

  • Her Golden Cattleya is on my wish list for quite some time. I love the way she connects memories with smells, in her childhood when she was leaving her room to move, later when she created a perfume for her mother to remind of their stay in Villa Siam Proun.
    I find also very interesting the fact that she loves to sniff and of course make perfume but not wear it!!

  • “Little Stars” is the one that sounds more impressive and attractive to me. The image suggested the jungle at night is very exciting.

  • I find her life story very interesting and unusually full of early possibilities- no wonder she became a scientific
    I was impressed by her phrase ” At one point I was given some orchid plants and fell in love with them, eventually establishing my own orchid nursery. The diversity of orchids is mind-boggling, and so is the diversity of their fragrances. “as I remember myself visiting many years ago an orchids exhibition and feeling the same awe at the beauty and diversity
    I would like very much “Golden cattleya”- thanks for the draw

  • How nice to see Dr. Ellen Covey featured in the American perfumery series! It is very special for me. (OK, a major coming out follows). I think that Dr. Ellen was my very very first introduction to the American perfumery in its best incarnation as described as “prototypical 21st century indie perfumer who makes perfume as an art, not to please one demographic or another, but simply because it’s one of those creative urges that I feel compelled to express”. I was following her reviews on Fragrantica before I even knew she was a perfumer, and then I have tried many of her creations through a sample circle on Basenotes. So yes, just as Dr. Covey said, the forum and social networking sites allowed me to learn about her and sample her creations and expanded my world and vision. Now through Cafleurebon I have learned even more. I did not realize what an interesting path has led Dr. Covey to perfumery. To start from the neural perception of smell and to end in creating the 8th Art, how fascinating! and I loved to see her own visual art!

    Thank you for a generous draw, I have too many favorites from the line to be able to choose easily.

    A Midsummer day’s dream, a green-woody fig. A Northwestern scent of place, Olympic Rainforest, is a meditative walk in an enchanted forest. Golden Cattleya is one of my absolute favorites, a glorious honeyed floral. I see it’s getting some love here! I almost chose it along with many of you… but no! Another Scent of Place, ARIZONA gets my love and vote. That’s the one I would love to win. I can close my eyes and smell the ponderosa pines in the Summer forest, and their golden amber sap glowing from within…

  • My favourite quote is not difficult, it has to be “Like my life, they don’t follow any standard formula, but rather are an eccentric, serendipitous, and joyful journey”- exactly as a fragrance should be.
    I love these perfumers profiles, which make you get to know the person behind the “nose”, and thereby understand much better the products of their creativity.
    I have tried and would love the chance to win Dr Ellen’s Arizona. Amazing stuff, thank you for this draw, and indeed this profile.

  • Ok i had the pleasure of being able to sniff all her fragrances about 8 months ago when i purchased the sampler box and was quite impressed with several of her fragrances.I love her statement: There is nothing more gratifying to me than to be able to bring people pleasure through my perfume creations. What a true statement. My 3 favorites are Red Cattleya, Golden Cattleya and the one i would love to win Osafume. The gentleness of the Osafume is what drew me in. (second favorite Red…red hot smoking fragrance, beautiful on the skin)

  • Thank you so much, Michelyn, for featuring my profile! And thanks to all who have tried my perfumes and commented here. It’s always amazing to me to see how my perfumes get passed around.

    Olga, that Basenotes testing circle started a long time ago!

    I look forward to sending one of you the perfume of your choice!

  • My favorite quote is “engaging in a frenzy of sniffing, learning about perfume composition through analyzing thousands of perfumes and experimenting with every material I could obtain.”
    I love science and perfume, so I find Dr. Covery’s approach fascinating.
    I love many of her fragrances, especially Red Cattleya and Carolina. A full bottle of Carolina would be divine!

  • My favorite quote was, “…my mother’s vague master plan of eventually ending up in Israel but seeing the rest of the world on the way.” Any plan that, as a slight detour, results in one seeing the world is something! What a wonderful story of an unusual path to becoming a perfumer. Thank you for sharing! I would be most interested in trying Siam Proun, in honor of her mother.

  • Liked the facebook link
    Am not super familiar with fragrantica, will look back….

    It’s hard to pick just one interesting thing from this article! I think it’s cool that Dr. Covey came to perfumery, which she approaches as an art form expressing the self (rather than skilled-artisan-production to please a demographic), through science, and specifically the science of how we smell (how we smell things, not how we, uh, smell)!

    I also really like what seems to be a theme, namely the association of smells with places–specific places in space and time like her memories of her childhood room and homes, specific experiences of orchids, and also geographic locations.

    I loved this part: “My perfumes are olfactory manifestations of my life and experiences. Like my life, they don’t follow any standard formula, but rather are an eccentric, serendipitous, and joyful journey.” This seems to sum up the journey of how she came to create, and the literal journeys she has undertaken, starting early and “seeing the rest of the world on the way.”
    Being able to adapt, absorb, and take opportunities as they come seem to be valuable traits in general but especially in artists! As is the ability to analyze and experiment. I wish I were a more roll-with-it adventurer type….

    While I adore the description/review of Golden Cattelya and would love to sample pretty much all of the scents, I would choose Gujarat, because I’ve been learning more about India and especially listening to more Indian music (already knew I liked the food!). Fragrance, like books, music, and film, has the power to tranport me out of my own limited existence to far-away places I will probably never see, some of which exist only in my imagination, and others of which are real places, experienced by the artist and made into an idealization or abstraction (kind of like even the most candid photos are not the thing itself but provoke the viewer to form an impression of the subject through the medium of the picture).
    That she has lived in India makes this composition only more appealing!

    Not sure if that made sense outside of my head….

    Thanks Dr. Covey and Michelyn!

  • The quote that had me going ‘right on, sister’ was:

    “I find that most natural perfumes can be improved immensely by the judicious addition of man-made materials, so my compositions are typically about 75-90% natural with some man-made embellishments.”

    Glad to hear Ms. Covey had the wisdom to put artistic vision ahead of purity. Perfection is the enemy of progress.

    Midsummer Day’s Dream sounds like the right place to make my introduction to this lauded perfume line.

  • taffynfontana says:

    I love Dr. Coveys quote of being pathologically fascinated by scent and having to sniff everything as a child. I can totally relate. Please enter me in the draw for A Midsummer’s Day Dream, that green fig is very tantalizing. Thanks

  • My favorite quote:

    “My family moved to the East Coast when I was a toddler, and one of my first memories is standing in my room, on tiptoe, looking out the window over the turquoise-gray windowsill with tears in my eyes because I knew I was going to miss the way my room smelled”.

    I find it fascinating that she has lived in so many different places and countries… It must have been an unforggetable experience.

    All the perfumes in the line sound great and I’m considering order some samples.
    If I won I’d want to try Arizona. Pine, juniper, sagebrush, wildflowers… it must be very relaxing. I live in a city and the countryside near me is basically formed by Mediterranean pinetrees. I like to walk under the tress and most of all, listening to the wind blowing between branches and needles. But I can’t go to the countryside as much as I’d want, so smelling Arizona at home sounds like a wonderful idea.

    Thanks!

  • I love Dr. Ellen Covey’s description of her room: “I spent a long time breathing in the familiar, comforting scent of that room, and can still smell it in my imagination.” And she was only just a toddler! Also, I liked reading about how she loved to sniff her mother’s perfume collection. It makes me wonder what scent triggers my own daughter, who is a toddler, will have. I let her sniff the scent on my wrist, and she always makes a contemplative face, like she is taking it all in. I love sharing that with her. I would love to experience Golden Cattleya, and to share that scent experience with my daughter, as well.

  • I was lucky to try all Ellen’s fragrances and honestly I like all of them. They are so different. Of course I have preferences and Golden Cattleya is one of them. That fragrance just whispers take me, love me. It is like golden silk. Embracing, sensuous.

    After reading this interview it makes sense. Now I understand why her fragrant creations are so different and unique.
    ” My perfumes are olfactory manifestations of my life and experiences.”
    And she does have many experiences to count. Also that makes me think she didn’t show everything and we should expect much more to come.

    And I have a special request: Ellen please launch that leather fragrance sooner. I check your website almost everyday. I can’t wait any longer.

    Thank you.

  • Ellen, yes, it’s been a while since I smelled it, but I Believe it is still circling around. It hasn’t made it to England yet, but it’s been in Oregon, two places in California, two places in Texas, and I am not sure where else. Many other packages are circling still.

  • “There is nothing more gratifying to me than to bring people pleasure through my perfume creations.” Ellen’s fragrances have been a big part of my recent rediscovery of the pleasures of scent and the beauty of life in general. Thanks so much, Ellen.
    Regarding the draw: I have to say that I love almost all the fragrances and already own a few. My choice for the draw is Olympic Amber.

  • Hi, Ellen
    I’m just getting this message today 21Dec11 through the Perfuming yahoo group but still wanted to comment that it’s great to get to read something more about you, Ellen.
    It’s so interesting to me that so many of us, who work with scent, have always smelled everything in our path. My husband is always teasing me about this as, at age 60, I still have to sniff, sniff, and sniff some more.
    I liked the comment you made about how you branched out into Mixed Media and are now adding synthetic to your natural chemicals to create the scent you desire. All good stuff.
    Have a scent-filled day.
    Warmly, Lyn Ayre, NP