Rich Hippie is a line of natural fragrances about which I know little or nothing. Wild Thing is one of the 15 fragrances they currently produce (other names include Bohemian Wedding, Purple Haze and Nirvana), and it is the only one I have tried from Rich Hippie so far. The notes are Indian jasmine, Albanian orris root, and Egyptian rose.
I'm sure Wild Thing has notes other than those listed (doesn't everything?) but it isn't an overly complicated fragrance. It starts with a very bright jasmine with mild citrus, and calms to a warmer floral blend highlighting jasmine and rose. The jasmine is mildly indolic; the base is very soft, with a touch of powdery iris over what I'm guessing is sandalwood. It is a lovely fragrance, full-bodied but not at all cloying or heady, and perhaps more ladylike than you might imagine from the name.
A 15 ml bottle is $255. A 60 ml bottle is $625. Various sample sets are available; a set with Wild Thing, The Kiss, Psychedelic & Marrakech is $85.
Ouch.
It is pretty much a given that natural perfumes are going to cost more. All other things being equal, natural components cost more than synthetics, and natural perfumes are not usually mass produced. If such things are important to you, perhaps you will not find the cost unreasonable. Since such things are not at all important to me, I balked.
Granted, the line is cheaper than some (see Strange Invisible Perfumes), and perhaps some of their other fragrances are very unusual, but Wild Thing, beautiful though it is, is a very conventional kind of beautiful. If I am going to pay top dollar, I want something more than beautiful, I want something startlingly unique, maybe even a little outrageous. A JAR Bolt of Lightning kind of thing, although I'm not about to pay for that either.
Rich Hippie fragrances can be ordered directly from their website, which also provides a list of retailers.
Note: if you are adamantly opposed to synthetics, you might want to check with Rich Hippie to make sure that they don't use any synthetic components whatsoever in their products. Their website certainly implies that they don't, but I cannot find any statement that actually says outright that the fragrances are 100% natural. They do say state that their...
..."spirits of wine" or wine alcohol is all natural and better yet, it is made from organically grown grapes harvested from the great wine regions of California. All of the plant and flower extracts we use are organic or wildcrafted and carefully selected with the utmost attention to quality.
I haven't tried Wild Thing. The only one I have tried was Rich Hippie. I was quite impressed. It also was, as you say, “a lovely fragrance, full-bodied but not at all cloying or heady”. I would have loved to sample more of this line but there is no way I am paying this much for the samples. I am stalking ebay. 🙂
I won't pay that for samples either. Pity, because we are the very ones to appreciate it best.
M, wishing you luck — at what comes out to over $20 a sample, an ebay bargain would be an incredible thing.
Personally, at this point I'm not really dying to try the rest of the line. As I said, the Strange Invisible Perfumes are more expensive, but they have the advantage (to my twisted mind, anyway) of at least being so odd that they don't smell like anything else.
V, I wish I could remember who sent me the sample of Wild Thing. Now that I've seen the price, I owe them an extra thank you!
Holy cow! I mean, 15 ml practically IS a sample size.
I am rolling your statement around in my mind, and I agree completely. There is theoretically some perfume I would pay that kind of money for, a bolt of lightning thing. I am, in a perverse way, looking forward to meeting a bolt of lightning… is there a scent you've smelled that you've said, without knowing the cost, I HAVE to have it?
I guess there's a limit to the amount I'll spend on perfume. Even for something that's the “bolt of lightning”, I'd have a hard time shelling out $255 (let's not even get into the $625. size), especially for 15ml. It would have to be utterly and completely amazing AND last a LONG time. I'd want to smell it the morning after, the bottle would have to be stunning, and it would of course have to be more than 15ml. And even then, I have so many others that I adore that last and didn't cost more than $100 with a pretty bottle to boot.
Of course, I haven't tried JAR or Strange Invisible Perfumes…I could be knocked over and fumbling for the credit card for one of those. There are those times when I should definitely NOT bring the credit card (hormonal times), because perfume/smelling good makes me feel so beautiful, and that's priceless.
Yes! I agree with Gina, feeling beautiful is certainly priceless. But not $255 is over the limit, sorry. First of all, the bottle is the ugliest thing ever, for that kind of money, at least give us a bottle we can FIND.
I'd lose this, I know I would.
Is there something in this fragrance that really warrants that kind of pricetag? Somebody enlighten me…
MarkDavid, I agree with you about that bottle. It's just not a 255. (or 625.) perfume bottle. It looks like something I'd get as a cheapie in Venice Beach, full of China Rain…not knocking that, but that would only set me back about 5-10 bucks.
I figure the price has more to do with the natural perfume appeal. But that never really mattered that much to me, I guess.
Wow, what a price! At least now we know how to become a “Rich Hippie”…..
Oh my gosh! I'm afraid only French perfumes could tempt me to spend $$$, not these odd (Strange Invisible Perfumes) and/or mutton-dressed-as lamb ones like the Hippie one. There, I've said it. And, of course, I've never smelled the Hippie thing(with its 1950s medicinal bottle), so I have no idea whereof I speak on that front. Though that fact has never stopped me before, now has it :D.
As for those prices, well, the line is called RICH Hippie, isn't it?
But yeah, if I were going to spend that kind of money, I'd want a truly spectacular, one-of-a-kind, can't-live-without-it scent in an equally spectacular bottle. The whole line seems geared towards, as my grandmother would have said sniffily, “people with more money than brains”. Rich ninnies.
M, more often what happens is that I already know the cost, so I have trouble trying the scents with an open mind. I did not like the first 2 JARs I tried, later, a few of them were the right combination of beautiful & weird so that I was able to let go of the grudge against the brand enough to appreciate them. But I like to think that even if I was loaded, I'd never buy Bolt of Lightning just because the price is ludicrous.
I have a real addiction to the Ormonde Jaynes. If they raised the price, I'd probably pay it. But if they started pricing themselves artificially high just to attract the luxury market, like Clive Christian & Amouage (brands that actually use their high cost as an advertising point), I hope I'd stop buying them.
G, natural perfumes almost never last until the next day, and Wild Thing certainly doesn't. If you are ever in NY and can get to Bergdorf Goodman, the JARs are certainly worth smelling. Bolt of Lightning is a very interesting scent. I forget the price, but it is silly.
One of the reasons for the high cost of the Strange Invisible Perfumes line is that they are actually distilling their own floral essences. Obviously that can't be cost effective on such a small scale. I do not know if that is what Rich Hippie does as well, but if it is, perhaps that is why they are so expensive.
LOL — it does give extra resonance to the name!
L, Wild Thing is much more approachable than the SIPs, which I know you didn't care for.
Well, of course, there are also people who will pay considerably more just for the natural aspect, so I can't knock that. But agree, I want something one of a kind, and in a much nicer bottle.
Well, you're right — mostly I already know the price, so I end up thinking, you want HOW MUCH for this?!?! I do sort of live in fear that if I ever get back to Paris, I will smell something in the Guerlain flagship store I feel I cannot live another day without. I am, as we speak, stalking something on you-know-where and am prepared to pay a per-ml price that is absurd to me, but I NEED it. ;-P
The Rich Hippie line did not catch my attention. These fragrances do not justify the price which they are sold at. In genernal I am kinder in judgement when it comes to perfumes that only/mostly use natural ingredients, but not this one. sorry.
Which are your favorite natural perfume lines?
They must cater to a rock star crowd. At those prices, I am not even interested, nor do I find the fragrances interesting….Ho, hum! (or should I say humbug??).
Hugs!
LOL — yes. Maybe I'll start a line called Groupie 😉
I love Wild Thing. Love it, love it, love it … in all its linear one-or-two-note, mutton-as-lamb splendor! Can't help it. There's something tooth-grittingly beautiful about it. And no, I haven't purchased a bottle, are you kidding? But I do love the scent enough to, when I a) am a powerball winning meatpacker, b) sell my novel or c) find the long lost uncle who owes me an inheritance. ♥ xoxo
M, Perhaps if I was a powerball winning meatpacker, I'd be in love with it too. It really is lovely. I think I kind of hold a grudge in advance against anything this expensive.
In this case, I think duping well is the best revenge. Since they have no delicacy about wildly overcharging, I have no delicacy about taking it to a nose who knows and saying, “this is pretty, isn't it. Can you make that?” xo
Clearing!!! She could do it, right?