Autumn Has Arrived!

Can I say just how happy I am that summer is done, well at least it is on the calendar. I have been excitedly looking at my collection and considering the perfumes I can't wait to wear in the cooler weather. I'll be the first to admit this collection is leaning on the sweet side but I have to say when I have to spend 80% of the year in citruses, florals, and other variations on clean it may mean I go crazy on the olfactory overload of rich Autumn scents.

1. Santal Majuscule by Serge Lutens
I have become firmly enthralled by this rosy sandalwood syrup. Sweet and musky with a delicious dollop of sandalwood this scent will be scenting many of my days, I find it melds beautifully, and I love getting wafts of from my clothes. Obvious scarf scent.

2. Wood Violet by Sonoma Scent Studio
This lovely plummy rich violet scent has been calling me recently. I love the combination of roasted plums with violet.

3. Vanille Botanique by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
Oh the moment I get to wear this sumptuous vanilla outside on a cool day with brisk Autumn wind it is going to be the best.

4. Lolita Lempicka by Lolita Lempicka
Yes, I still have the original bottle from when I was 15 and it still smells amazing. It continues to be the perfect mix of vanilla and anise of me with violets and touches of delicious toasty nutty tonka bean. I especially adore wearing this in October around Halloween.

5. Ambre Nue by Atelier Cologne
I really like this juicy chewy amber. The opening of tart delicious mandarins always catches me followed earthier peppier middle with marigold and orchid. I consider this the grown-up version of BBW's Sensual Amber. It is of that school of fruity smooth ambers that are so popular but thankfully it uses more interesting notes and pepper keeps it from being saccharine.

6. Tudor Rose and Amber by Jo Malone
I love this wine-y rose and amber combo. The opening of spices and rose evokes mulled wine the edition of amber and patchouli make it a bit thorn edged.

7. Elie Saab Le Parfum Eau de Parfum Intense by Elie Saab
The original Elie Saab is a favorite spring scent for me with its bright almost neon orange blossom notes. The Intense version is deliciously honeyed and with hints of dried apricots and a base of amber.

8. Nirvana Black by Elizabeth and James
A simple and easy mix of violet, sandalwood, and vanilla a perfect work day scent for me. Its soothing and makes me feel warm without being stiffled.

9. Narciso Rodriguez For Her L'Absolu by Narcisco Rodriguez
I don't usually care for the variations on the original Narciso Rodriguez scent and stick to the original edt. The scents that came after have never really worked on me, but L'Absolu is a different story. It is a powdered richer scent, the woods have been amped up creating incense-like quality in the scent. An ample plum has been added and the osmanthus and orange blossom have been replaced with a rich tuberose, this is without a doubt for me the Autumn/Winter variation on NR edt. At times I am a little bit reminded of Nicolai Parfumeur Createur's Sacrebleu, another Autumn fruit tuberose scent on a bed of woods which has at times reminded others of the ultimate name in intense fruity tuberoses, Poison by Dior. Yet, L'Absolu is not baroque like the previous mentioned scents, it is clearly modern but does have familial to those scents. On the other hand most definitely do not wear this in hot weather.

10. Fifi Chachnil edt and edp by Fifi Chachnil
I am lucky to have in my hands two decently large decants of this perfect femme tobacco scent. This for me is one of the great losses of the perfume world in its discontinuation. From the awesome use of coriander in the opening to the entwining of pink rose, tonka, and delicious tobacco it was a pretty genius blend that got the tobacco note trend before anyone else did.

"Amelia" by Erica Rose Levine

Plum Quest 2014: Wood Violet by Sonoma Scent Studio

We grow a lot of plums in California. Now that I think of it we are probably the state that grows the most plums. The Santa Rosa plum was created in California. We are a plummy state. Going to the farmer's market here at the right time of year is like being in plum land, the sheer variety is amazing. So getting to the point: I know plums. In fact I like plums enough that I want a well done plum scent, something that bursts with plumminess, which if you are a perfume lover know is bizarrely rare to find. So I have started my plum quest, a search to find the plummiest fragrance I can get (reasonably). For an idea of what I am going to try or what I have deemed not plummerific enough check this post.

So the beginning of this quest has started with the wonderfully local Sonoma Scent Studio's Wood Violet. I would like to add how proud I am to know that this amazing perfumer is from California and creating some of the best niche fragrances out there. The quality is amazing and what I love about her perfumes is that they always feel finished, there is never a point where I think well this note feels off or the depth isn't right, they feel so wonderfully classically finished.

Wood Violet opens with one of the plum rich beginnings I have ever smelled in a perfume. This is a rich plum note, at full ripeness, the point where the honeyed flavor of a plums is the most intense. This opening is hyper realistic, I have frankly never smelled a plum opening quite so realistic. This opening stays around for quite awhile and yet what will catch you off guard is that violet comes in so smoothly, perfectly melding with plum that you are rather shocked when you realize it has fully taken over. What I find so interesting is that Laurie Erickson makes this transition so utterly seamless and they way she does it is by emphasizing the banana leather note you smell in violets and plums. The scent begins its middle stage where the violet is reigning queen, the plum is still there giving the scent a rather velvet depth, but now the scent is about violet. The scent finally ends on a warm cedar-y musky dry down at this point it is very akin to Serge Luten's Feminite du Bois but Erickson makes it even smoother there are hints of violet leaf  and a very tiny hint of spices that keep the scent very rounded.

Wood Violet is most definitely inspired by Feminite du Bois but where as FdB becomes a cedar spice musk story, Laurie Erickson decides to run with the violet, and let it be the major player in the story. Along the way she also decided to emphasize the role of the plum in doing so she created a riper lush scent that emphasizes the magic of a well done violet scent.

Try if you like Feminite du Bois by Serge Lutens, Jolie Madame by Balmain, or Lolita Lempicka by Lolita Lempicka.  

image from Sarahmet