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Providence Perfume Co Ivy Tower, Sweet Jasmine Brown & Violet Beauregarde ~ fragrance reviews

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Providence Perfume Co Ivy Tower, Sweet Jasmine Brown & Violet Beauregarde

Last week I reviewed three new natural perfumes from Providence Perfume Co: Rose 802, Orange Blossom Honey and Summer Yuzu. This week I have some brief thoughts on the other three, all of which are similarly light-hearted and wearable. They also have fun sources of inspiration.

Ivy Tower might, I’m guessing, be a play-on-words evoking the academic “ivory towers” of Providence’s own Ivy League institution, Brown University. In any case, it’s billed as “a delicate green floral evocative of a rain soaked path through the ivy,” and that’s a perfect description…

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Providence Perfume Co Rose 802, Orange Blossom Honey & Summer Yuzu ~ fragrance reviews

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Providence Perfume Co Rose 802, Orange Blossom Honey & Summer Yuzu

Providence Perfume Co released a new collection of natural fragrances in October, which was good news for any fan of this “indie” company. The collection includes six perfume oils: Rose 802, Orange Blossom Honey, Summer Yuzu, Ivy Tower, Sweet Jasmine Brown and Violet Beauregarde. I’ve sampled three so far, and I hope to get to the rest this week. Here are my quick thoughts on Rose 802, Orange Blossom Honey and Summer Yuzu, written during a gloomy spell of early-winter weather when I really needed a fragrant pick-me-up.

Rose 802 is a floral with woody and gourmand notes — rose, black currant, cedar wood, fir, vanilla, bergamot and myrtle. (The “802” is a reference to Vermont’s area code, since the scent was inspired by summer travels to that region.) I generally enjoy rose-centered “fleurmands,” and I like this one, although it took me a few tries to figure out…

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Friedemodin Vertine, Jardin Mystique, Rosee de Nuit, Feu Follet ~ short perfume reviews

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Friedemodin brand image

Friedemodin is a relatively new independent perfume brand created by Nina Friede and Elisabeth Modin (get it?), “two friends united in London by [their] fascination and love of perfumery.” The first Friedemodin collection, Jardin Mystique, is designed to evoke the scents of a garden from dawn to dusk. The four fragrances in this collection — Vertine, Jardin Mystique, Rosée de Nuit and Feu Follet — were developed for Friedemodin by perfumer François Robert.

Moving from lightest to deepest: Vertine, a fresh green fragrance, includes notes of peppermint, basil, galbanum, fig leaf, tea rose, cedarwood and musk. For me, at least, it’s hard to see the name “Vertine” and not think of Balmain Vent Vert, the classic green galbanum fragrance…

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Aftelier Organic Honeysuckle Face Elixir ~ scented body product review

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Lonicera caprifolium

Mandy Aftel of Aftelier has been creating fragranced facial oils for the past twenty years or so, rotating various blends in and out of production. I’ve been an admirer of Aftelier’s “elixirs” for the past year, since I first tried them, and I still haven’t decided which blend I prefer, the Organic Ylang or the Organic Rose; both are gorgeous (and effective). Now there’s a third blend, and it’s making my decision even more difficult. It’s the new Organic Honeysuckle Face Elixir, scented with “rare honeysuckle absolute from Italy.”

This facial elixir is richly fragranced: if you apply it to your face at bedtime, not only will you drift off to sleep on a wave of lush floral notes, you might even smell the scent again when you wash your face the next morning…

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Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger Violette Sacree & Rose Irisee ~ fragrance reviews

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Au Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger Collection Les Inédits

The Neroli Blanc Collection from French niche perfumery Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger was one of my happy discoveries of early 2014: it’s a trio of well-made, reasonably priced interpretations of neroli and orange blossom, and my samples brightened a few long winter days for me. This fall, I’ve been exploring the company’s Collection Les Inédits, a range of more complex fragrances. My two favorites are Rose Irisée and Violette Sacrée, both developed by perfumer Jean Claude Gigadot and released in spring 2014.

With Rose Irisée and Violette Sacrée, Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger presents two classical perfumery themes reinterpreted with a modern sensibility — and you know I can never resist that kind of promise…

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