A Tea Project

Jean Claude Ellena did me a favor back in the late 1980’s when he created a scent that smelled of tea. Tea cannot be extracted into a fragrance like other notes, so Ellena had an idea that he could create a scent that smells like tea; the leaves, the water and a little bit of earthy smoke, and so he made it.

Ellena took his scent to Dior, who focus-grouped the smell to death and eventually turned it down. Then Ellena took his tea scent to Yves Saint Laurent, who also turned him down. Ellena ended up at Bvlgari, who thankfully had the good sense to understand this was groundbreaking. Bvlgari took Ellena’s tea scent, made it into a limited edition which sold only in their boutiques. Jean Claude Ellena’s first tea scent, Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Vert was a huge success and now just about every perfume house has a scent which centers on tea.

I tire of most light summery citrusy-green scents but the one note I can never have enough of is Tea. Maybe that’s because the tea note is extremely fleeting and I am forced to run after it like a stealthy butterfly never getting caught in my net. I mentioned this to Laurie Erickson, perfumer at Sonoma Scent Studio, and she confirmed for me that the tea note is an extremely fleeting one, an aroma that is just not going to linger for a long time. Nevertheless, unlike other fleeting notes, the tea note remains worth chasing for me.

I’ve been on a tea quest for quite some time so I thought I’d gather my findings together to assist others who might also be on the same journey. While I really love a good number of these fragrances, I’m still searching for the Perfect Tea Scent. This is part of the reason why I mentioned my quest to Erickson at SSS, I thought maybe someday she could create it. Sonoma Scent Studio fragrances all have excellent longevity on me, so if anyone can do it, I figure Erickson can. What I’m looking for is a strong black tea scent, with hints of fruits and florals. Imagine opening a fresh tin of passion fruit jasmine tea, or something along those lines. I love the smell of earthy black tea leaves, but I also love the mixture of fruits and florals with a touch of smoke.

..In the meantime, here are the tea scents I have:

L’Artisan Tea for Two: gourmand tea scent. Tea for Two is a fragrant cup of tea with milk and honey. It is to be worn by the fireplace in the winter months. For some reason, Tea for Two makes me a little nauseous; I think it’s the combination of lemon in this cup of milky sweet chai tea.

L’Artisan The Pour Un Ete: chilled jasmine tea with a wedge of lemon and sprig of mint. The Pour un Ete is among the few fragrances I genuinely love from L’Artisan. L'Artisan, for me, is a house which makes far too many fleeting fragrances, but I forgive them with The Pour Un Ete because we know the aroma of tea just doesn’t stick around no matter who creates it. I previously reviewed The Pour un Ete last year, and it remains a beautiful summertime tea staple for me. The tea note fades but what is left is an exquisite airy jasmine.

Dior Escale a Pondichery: black tea with cardamom and jasmine was a great idea but somehow this doesn’t live up to its description at all. I love Escale a Portofino and don’t even get annoyed with its fleeting nature because, well, it’s supposed to be light and short lived. I very much looked forward to Pondichery’s release last year but I find this one falls flat. It does smell of black tea with Indian spices and jasmine at the start but it quickly morphs into a vaguely citrus aroma with very little charm. If I wanted citrus I’d just wear its sister Escale a Portofino. If I want tea I’ll just wear something else.

Bvlgari tea trio: this consists of 3 fragrances, a green tea (au The Vert), a white tea (au The Blanc) and a red/roobios tea (au The Rouge). I prefer the red tea scent because I find it unique as far as tea scents go. Au The Rouge is a little fruitier and nuttier than the other two teas from Bvlgari. I do think it smells of roobios/red tea, which is a unique scent. I previously reviewed Bvlgari Au The Rouge because it’s my favorite of the tea trio.

Elizabeth W Sweet Tea: This is almost the scent I’ve been looking for except it doesn’t have enough fruits and florals. Elizabeth W Sweet Tea is a tall glass of summertime iced tea with a big spoonful of liquid sugar. You know you can’t mix granulated sugar into a glass of iced tea, right? Granulated sugar doesn’t mix and falls to the bottom of the glass. Mix in some (preferably flavored) liquid sugar and you have a delicious glass of summertime sweet tea. Elizabeth W brings sweet iced tea to us in a wearable fragrance.

Parfumerie Generale L’eau Rare Matale: “mate” is a type of tea common in South America which has a distinctly toasted quality. PG’s Rare Matale reminds me the most of CdG’s Sweet Nomad Tea (coming along shortly) but it’s more wearable for me. PG Rare Matale is a mildly sweet citrusy tea scent that is extremely natural and realistic and smells of this mate type of tea. This one works best for me layered on top of other scents which aren’t strong enough on the tea note. This is a tea jumper cable of sorts.

Aroma M Geisha O-Cha: this is a zesty powdered tea scent. I don’t mean powder as in baby powder, I'm referring to instant powdered tea in a packet as opposed to loose leaf tea. This smells like a packet of Lipton iced tea with a lemon. It’s still zesty and nice and if you spray it on your clothes it will stick around for the afternoon. Instant-tea-packet might not sound appealing but I actually find O-Cha quite nice.

Creative Universe Te: greenish oolang tea with hints of osmanthus and faint florals. CU Te is a relaxing tea scent, with a fresh citrusy quality that fades into a pleasant subdued floral. The tea note and celery note are interesting in the way the PG and CdG tea scents are but it’s immensely more wearable and typical instead of just plain weird.

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz The Vert: brisk, realistic green tea. Longevity is decent if you spray liberally. DSH The Vert is closest to CU Te but it’s much more focused on green tea with less florals and citrus. If you are looking for a straight green tea scent this is the most exact I have ever smelled. It’s earthy green tea with an overall herbal quality and a touch of smoke.

Comme des Garcons Sweet Nomad Tea: another “mate” type tea scent but this one is truly weird. It’s more about sweet mint sprigs and very tannic tea. Sweet Nomad Tea is appealing if you like strongly herbal scents but it does also have a brisk tea note, as promised by the name. This won’t make much sense but Sweet Nomad Tea is sweet in the most unsweetened way. It’s actually quite interesting and unique but not something I normally wear. CdG Sweet Nomad Tea is perfect about 1 time per year when I get in the mood for something herbal and non-perfumey. Actually Sweet Nomad Tea smells a lot like fresh pot (aka marijuana, hemp, weed, whatever you call it) once it dries down.

CB I Hate Perfume Russian Caravan Tea: This, like a lot of the CB scents (and prior to CB, Demeter scents) is almost an exact replica of a cup of tea. It is a strong black cup of tea, with a dash of bergamot and a hint of smoke. It is really nice and lingers longer than most, I just need to layer it with something else in order to make it read as a perfume on me. Layering this (and I hardly ever layer) with Nez a Nez Vanithe after Vanithe loses its tea quality is quite nice.

Nez a Nez Vanithe: Vanilla Tea. This reminds me of Loulou with an herbal tea note at the start. Overall it’s very sweet and the opposite of most of these other brisk, refreshing tea scents. Vanithe was introduced to me by a kind POLer otherwise I would probably never have tried it. This is the most perfumey, sweet and synthetic smelling of all my tea scents in this list but it is actually one of my top favorites. The initial verbena, rosemary and Earl Grey tea notes are wonderfully balanced with the sweet vanillic base notes. The top notes vanish after awhile and even though I’m left with only the memory of them I do enjoy the sweet slightly woody-honey-vanilla base.

Annick Goutal Le Chevrefeuille: someone, somewhere, called this an iced tea fragrance which suddenly struck me as the reason I love it so much. Le Chevrefeuille is honeysuckle iced tea and absolutely gorgeous. Honeysuckle, as an exact note, might otherwise be awfully sweet and cloying but this sparse, fresh, hesperidic and slightly brisk tea/honeysuckle scent is genius. Please pray with me that this hasn’t been or isn’t about to be reformulated.

Annick Goutal Duel: a beautiful yet thoroughly too fleeting tea/citrus/smoke scent. Duel is almost perfect if only it lasted longer than 20 minutes. It’s not just that the tea note vanishes; the problem is that the whole scent vanishes for me. But it is an awesome 20 minutes.

Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate: grassy meadow of mild mate (tea). LV Yerbamate is less about tea and more about the softest green meadow and newly mown hay. It’s a bucolic country scene. I really should wear this more.

Do you know of some good tea scents that I don’t have listed? Please tell me! I’m always hunting for tea...

Annick Goutal La Violette: Violet Perrier

Day 5 of Annick Goutal Week
La Violette is a beautiful green violet fragrance. It is not an overly candy-sweet powdery plastic thing which I find with many other violet soliflores.

Awhile back I wrote a piece called The Indies Saved Violet for me because at the time I couldn’t stomach violet fragrances and especially not most typical violet soliflores. After some coaching from Brian, I began trying violet fragrances and found I loved La Violette. While Annick Goutal’s La Violette isn’t nearly as edgy as the indie violets I described in my earlier piece, it still remains one of the best of the old school violets. The only other violet soliflore I like as much as the Goutal is Penahligon’s Violette.

Annick Goutal created a series of soliflores in the early 2000’s to include Neroli, Le Chevrefeuille, Le Jasmin, Le Muguet and La Violette. I’m a little confused because I thought Tubereuse and Rose Absolue were part of the Soliflore Collection but they aren't listed as such. I have already written glowing reviews for Neroli and Le Chevrefeille both of which I believe to be the very best in their categories. Le Chevrefeuille is the best honeysuckle fragrance in the world. It smells like honeysuckle iced tea. And it’s heavenly in the summer. Le Chevrefeuille seems simple but I imagine it's not simple at all to make such a beautiful honeysuckle fragrance that doesn’t smell like air freshener. Honeysuckle isn’t a note that translates well in perfumery but it’s sheer perfection when created by Annick Goutal.

La Violette starts off with a blast of violet and violet leaves. It’s green and purple at once. There’s a hint of fruity raspberry and a dash of violet flavored candies. Once dried down La Violette becomes a tad powdery and also a tad more candied – I happen to love this smidgen of powdery candy-ness – it’s just enough to make La Violette charming without being trite or the likes of something a 9 year old flower-girl at a wedding would wear. There’s a dab of clove in the base, if you’re looking for it. Overall I’d describe it as Violet Perrier – it’s fresh, clean, effervescent, green and delightful.

What am I comparing it with? Well, these are the violet soliflores that I’ve also tried: Borsari Violetta di Parma (too plastic-y), Serge Lutens Bois de Violette (go ahead, call the perfume police, I must be crazy but I dislike this combination of cedar and violets), Norma Kamali Violette, L’Artisan Verte Violette (lasts for 11 minutes), i Profumi di Firenze Violetta di Bosco (too cologne-y and masculine), Keiko Mecheri Genie de Bois (ditto what I wrote about the Lutens), Guerlain Meteorites (too powdery), Calypso Violette (too sweet), Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette (too fleeting and somewhat drab) and so on. The Goutal Violette reaches the perfect pitch of crushed parma violet flowers and leaves rolled in Italian violet candies called Violetta Pastiglie Leone

I find the longevity of La Violette to be shorter than the other Goutals I’ve reviewed this week. If you apply lavishly it’s reasonable – probably lasting about 2.5-3 hours on me after 6-8 sprays.

There is something delightful, charming and cheery about violet fragrances, and Annick Goutal La Violette hits every note effortlessly.


Above photo taken by Susan/The Well-Seasoned Cook on Flikr

Always remember to wear black velvet

I had a really bad week. Everything imaginable went wrong. People say bad luck happens in threes, well, it was more like 30 things that went wrong this week. So many times I held back tears during the past few days, to the point that my throat felt like there was a permanent lump, a constricted sensation like I swallowed a kiwi whole. On the drive home from work this evening I finally let those tears roll down my cheeks. As I was driving along, completely immersed in my own self pity, I looked around at the pretty scenery and noticed for the first time today that it was simply gorgeous outside. The sky was blue with just a few wispy clouds, it was hot but not humid; just the perfect day that I always wish for when it’s either sweltering hot or too cold. The aroma of my fragrance caught my attention; I wore Annick Goutal Le Chevrefeuille. Le Chevrefeuille is a soliflore honeysuckle fragrance. It’s beautiful and just about the only honeysuckle I’ve ever smelt that’s absolutely perfect. Honeysuckle reminds me of my Grandmother. I got to thinking about my Grandmother. She would have loved a perfect summer day like today. I remember her standing in the back yard at the house where I grew up. She would look out at the meadows behind the house, at the horses and cows and the fields and lake beyond, she’d get a peaceful look on her face and she’d always say “this is God’s country.” My Grandmother wore two different perfumes, surely both were drugstore cheapies, but she always smelled so nice, of either honeysuckle or lily of the valley. My Grandmother’s last moments came to me, as I was driving along, tears running down my cheeks, but slowly beginning to stop crying as I thought about my Grandmother. She was only 61 years old when she died. She died of cancer. She was initially diagnosed with cancer at a mere 54. She went through chemotherapy and then lived until the cancer emerged again. I remember exactly what she told me on her death bed, she said “Ahhh-bi (she thought it was amusing to pronounce my name with an affected British accent) if I had my life to live over again, I’d wear more black velvet. I’d wear black velvet and red lipstick and have perfectly manicured red nails and beautiful perfume.” I was 13 years old when she said this to me and she died that very night. I’m certain you can track the beginning of my perfume addiction to a few days after my Grandmother died. I understand she was telling me to take life less seriously, to have fun, to be happy and enjoy the beautiful and oftentimes frivolous things in life. Maybe she could have said this to me more eloquently but I completely understood what she meant. Whenever I’m feeling down my mind usually wanders back to what my Grandmother said, about black velvet and perfume. Man, she would have loved Le Chevrefeuille.