• About
  • Login to comment
    • Bluesky
    • RSS
    • Twitter

Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Menu ▼
  • Perfume Reviews
  • New Perfumes
  • Archives
Browsing by tag: violet

Diptyque + Olympia Le-Tan Rosaviola ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 21 January 2016 18 Comments

Diptyque + Olympia Le-Tan Rosaviola solid perfume with box

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Diptyque has introduced a limited edition capsule collection: Rosaviola, a scent packaged in collaboration with designer Olympia Le-Tan. I’m not specially a fan of Le-Tan, whom The New York Times has praised for her “glamorous geek aesthetic” and her clutch purses that reinterpret classic book covers in fabric and embroidery — a “nod to a bygone era when people carried actual books,” the Times tells us.1 I still carry real books, rather than a $2000 clutch, but I’m not one of the well-connected Le-Tan’s celebrity clients and never will be. What I am, however, is someone who can not resist a violet-rose perfume, so here we are.

Rosaviola is composed of notes of violet, violet leaf, raspberry, iris and leather; it’s meant to evoke the scent of a woman’s handbag and the cosmetics tucked inside…

Read the rest of this article »

Lush Don’t Rain on My Parade Shower Gel ~ scented body product review

Posted by Jessica on 15 October 2015 14 Comments

Lush Don't Rain on My Parade Shower Gel

If you sing in the shower, and you like violet scents, you’re the perfect customer for Lush’s new Don’t Rain on My Parade Shower Gel. Its name is the title of a song from the classic musical Funny Girl, written by Bob Merrill (lyrics) and Jule Styne (music). Barbra Streisand sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in the original Broadway production and movie version of Funny Girl, and numerous other artists have covered this song over the past half-century. It’s a defiant hymn to self-confidence:

Don’t tell me not to live, just sit and putter / Life’s candy and the sun’s a ball of butter / Don’t bring around a cloud to rain on my parade / Don’t tell me not to fly, I’ve simply got to / If someone takes a spill, it’s me and not you / Who told you you’re allowed to rain on my parade?

I do have a shower-humming habit and a love for the Great American Songbook, not to mention an especial fondness for violets, so I couldn’t wait to sniff and try Don’t Rain on My Parade…

Read the rest of this article »

Maria Candida Gentile Sideris & Exultat ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Robin on 17 July 2015 22 Comments

Maria Candida Gentile Sideris & Exultat

Today, quick reviews of two fragrances from Italian niche house Maria Candida Gentile: Sideris and Exultat. Both are in the brand’s Classic Line.

Sideris

Sideris was born during a walk along a Mediterranean beach in Liguria (Italy) at night. The moment was so beautiful that one could feel like floating in the air, between the sea and the stars in the sky. It is purely poetic fragrance.

With incense, cistus, myrrh, white pepper, saffron, rose, sandalwood, benzoin and waxed woods.

I first tried Sideris last summer, around the same time that I reviewed the brand’s Hanbury, and I liked it right away…

Read the rest of this article »

Atkinsons 1799 Love in Idleness ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 23 April 2015 20 Comments

Atkinsons 1799 Love in Idleness, bottle detail

The British perfume house Atkinsons 1799 recently launched Love in Idleness, one of three new fragrances recreated from the company’s archives for its Legendary Collection. Love in Idleness is “a neo-Victorian love philter for those who believe in the magic of fragrance,” developed by perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin. Its composition includes notes of raspberry and violet leaves; violet, orris and heliotrope; and tree moss and patchouli.

This fragrance’s name was one of the factors that lured me into trying it. So poetic, right? It’s another name for the wildflower viola tricolor. And it turns out to be a literary reference, too — in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love-in-idleness serves as a love potion. As Oberon, king of the fairies, says in Act II, “The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid/Will make or man or woman madly dote/Upon the next live creature that it sees.” Love at first sight…

Read the rest of this article »

Two times two plus one ~ quick perfume reviews

Posted by Robin on 31 March 2015 32 Comments

Quick reviews of two fragrances from Lush (Kerbside Violet and All Good Things), two from Imaginary Authors (The Soft Lawn and Yesterday Haze), and one from Memo (Inlé).

Lush Kerbside Violet

Lush Kerbside Violet solid perfume

A lovely gentle violet with jasmine and ylang. It’s sweetish but not too sweet, and nothing like so strong and sugared as the brand’s Tuca Tuca…

Read the rest of this article »

« Newer articles
Older articles »

Advertisement

Search

Recent reviews

Atelier Cologne Love Osmanthus
Moschino Toy Boy
Arquiste Misfit
Diptyque Eau Capitale
Zoologist Bee
Parfum d’Empire Immortelle Corse
Comme des Garcons Series 10 Clash
Frédéric Malle Rose & Cuir
L’Artisan Parfumeur Le Chant de Camargue
Yves Saint Laurent Grain de Poudre
Régime des Fleurs Chloë Sevigny Little Flower
Chanel 1957
Gallivant Los Angeles
Amouage Portrayal Woman

Blogroll

Bois de Jasmin
Grain de Musc
Perfume Posse
The Non-Blonde
More blogs...

Perfumista lists

100 fragrances every perfumista should try
And 25 more fragrances every perfumista should smell
50 masculine fragrances every perfumista should try
26 vintage fragrances every perfumista should try
25 rose fragrances every perfumista should try
11 Cheap Perfumes Beauty Outsiders Love

Favorite posts

The Great Perfume Reduction Plan
Why I Love Old School Chypres
New to perfume and want to learn more?
How to make fragrance last through the day
Fragrance concentrations: sorting it all out
On reformulations, or why your favorite perfume doesn’t smell like it used to
How to get fragrance samples
Perfume for Life: How Long Will Your Fragrance Collection Last?

Upcoming

List of upcoming Friday projects

6 January ~ damage poll

31 January ~ winter reading poll

Back to Top

Home
Archives
About Now Smell This :: Privacy Policy
Perfume Reviews
New Perfumes
General Perfume Articles
The Monday Mail

Glossary of Perfume Terms
Perfume FAQ
Perfume Books

Noses ~ Perfumers A-E :: F-K :: L-S :: T-Z

Perfume Houses A-B :: C :: D-E :: F-G
H-J :: K-L :: M :: N-O :: P :: Q-R :: S
T :: U-Z

Copyright © 2005-2026 Now Smell This. All rights reserved.