The English house of Penhaligon’s offers several floral fragrances for women, yet I’ve never really fallen for any of them. Bluebell is too astringent for my taste, Elisabethan Rose is pretty but fleeting, Violetta is weirdly herbaceous, and I’m just not a Lily of the Valley person. However, the press release for Peoneve caught my eye. This new launch is described as “an exquisite portrayal of an English garden in summer, bursting with lush green foliage and heady with the scent of blossoming flowers,” and was developed by perfumer Olivier Cresp, with notes of violet leaf, peony, Bulgarian rose, hedione, vetiver, musk and cashmere wood.

Although peony isn’t my absolute favorite floral note, I do like it, and I’ll usually give it a try when it appears in something like L’Occitane Paeonia (which is a bit dull) or Parfums de Nicolaï’s Rose Pivoine — or Estée Lauder’s new-classic Pleasures, of course. The main problem with interpretations of peony, for me, is that they tend to err on the side of watery-lemony freshness, when I’d prefer a little more pollen and petal in the mix. Peoneve seems to take the latter course…

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