SOIVOHLE' is inspired

SOIVOHLE' is the perfume line created by Liz Zorn. Soivohle' is an acronym standing for: Sending Out Inspired Vibrations Of Healthy Loving, pronounced “see-vo.”

Liz Zorn is an indie perfumer who is making waves in my perfume wardrobe. I often read other perfumistas lamenting that “such and such new perfume is just ‘meh’ it isn’t different or edgy enough.” Here’s my suggestion: if you want to smell some unusual and difference fragrances, that are obviously made with the highest quality ingredients, get yourself some Soivohle’.

Zorn makes two different perfume lines; a natural line (100% natural without synethics) and a moderne collection (mix of both naturals and some synthetics). Personally, I’ve found treasures from both lines, and I’ve also found the longevity of her fragrances to be very good, especially for the naturals.

Zorn seems fearless. She creates some funky, edgy, artistic perfumes. Soivohle’ scents are breathtakingly realistic and abstract at the same time. I know that might not make sense, but I’m confident it will, once you her smell her work.

GREEN OAKMOSS – from the moderne collection
Green Oakmoss is the fragrance I was most excited to try. Initially, I was concerned it would be bland and flat, because oakmoss is generally used as a basenote, not meant to be the whole ensemble. But this is, indeed, a whole perfume, based upon the idea of the scent of green and oakmoss. It doesn’t just smell like the essential oil of oakmoss but instead contains it’s own top, middle and basenotes.

This stuff is genius. It starts off with an earthy green, almost black tea/bergamot vibe atop a mound of moss. Green Oakmoss isn’t particularly dirty or skanky, it’s a clean rendition of oakmoss, much like dirt doesn’t actually smell “dirty” when you’re gardening and scoop up a handful of soil.

I love Green Oakmoss, I think it’s brilliant. I enjoy wearing it solo, but it also occurs to me that you could layer it with other fragrances that you think need an injection of green earthiness. Sillage and longevity are very good.

ACOUSTIC FLOWER – from the moderne collection
Acoustic Flower is a fragrance originally created by Zorn a few years ago as a bridal scent, then reworked a bit and introduced as it is now. She describes it as a gardenia soliflore but I smell much more going on here. In fact, call me crazy, but for a millisecond, it bears similarity to Amarige by Givenchy, which is a floriental, created by Dominique Ropion. Now, many people hate Amarige, but I happen to love it, so any similarity with Amarige is an enormous compliment coming from me.

Acoustic Flower is potent, sweet and sassy. I think it smells like gardenia, jasmine and tuberose, although I know from reading Zorn’s notes that tuberose is not in the mix. As much as I love Amarige, these days it seems I adore the memory of it, because it’s a bit cloying and synthetic smelling. Acoustic Flower strikes me as a stripped down natural version of Amarige, one I can wear. Sillage and longevity are very good.

HONEYSUCKLE BIRD – from the moderne collection
Honeysuckle Bird is a sweet, floral, uplifting and joyful fragrance. The notes are listed as honeysuckle and white lily but once this fragrance dries down I smell the most delicious golden honey elixir. I mean thick golden amber colored honey in one of those ball mason jars sitting on the window sill with sunshine gleaming through it. Honeysuckle Bird is luscious.

GENUS ORCHIDACEAE – from the moderne collection
Ok, this is one of the strangest perfumes I’ve ever smelled. I really like it, and yet it sickens me a little bit. It causes me to keep smelling it over and over again, because I’ve never smelled anything like it before.

I hardly have the words to describe it, but here goes. Vanilla comes from an orchid plant. It is an orchid which produces the vanilla pods and long threadlike “beans” that are used in cooking and perfumery. Therefore it’s natural to combine vanilla and orchid together in a fragrance. Genus Orchidaceae seems organic and alive and causes me to visualize a gigantic vanilla orchid plant, much like the monstrous plant from the play Little Shop of Horrors.

Genus Orchidaceae smells sweet, vanillic, and green; but this is a textural green, one I can physically touch, the meaty soft petals and thick pale green shoots jutting out of the moss and bark. This green is very far from your usual perfumery green, it’s more like the feeling of bamboo shoots or hearts of palm in your mouth.

Surely this seems odd. An explanation might be that I grow orchids, I have about 26 plants, so I’m well acquainted with them. Zorn has captured an orchid plant in an almost supernatural way. I’m a bit haunted by Genus Orchidaceae. It is very sweet – about the same level of sweetness as Serge Lutens Chergui – and perhaps there is a similarity between these two scents – because while I also like Chergui, I find it a bit sickening, too. Maybe sickening isn’t the right word – perhaps a better word is haunting.

Another Soivohle' fragrance that I'm working on finding the words for is Purple Love Smoke. This stuff is very interesting. I need more time with it before I can write anything though. I'm also trying Tobacco & Tulle as well as Violets & Rainwater and her newest Mexicali Rose. Zorn has created an amazing palette of fragrances that just seem to keep getting better and better.

PHOTO CREDIT: above photo by Nathan Branch of www.nathanbranch.com

TWRT 12.5.08

I’m just not a white floral type. I wore Parfums de Nicolaï Number One today. It’s an award winning and beautiful perfume but it just doesn’t compel me to wear it again. I like it, but it’s not me.

Jo Malone’s Pomegranate Noir seems perfect for the holidays. The scent actually reminds me of Christmas.

Andy Tauer. OMG. I’m now a big fan. Vetiver Dance (gorgeous) and L’Air du desert Marocain (sublime). Vetiver Dance morphs quite a bit – it actually became stronger the longer I wore it and turned into such a different fragrance once dried down.

Liz Zorn’s (SOIVOHLE’) newest fragrance called Tobacco & Tullel is on my must try list. Notes are: Ambrette Seed, tonka Bean, cumin, cassis, valerian, jasmine absolute, sweet almond, rose, guiac, cedar, orris butter, cruelty free beach harvested ambergris, natural green oakmoss.
I’m wondering about the cruelty free beach harvested ambergris though ;-)

I’m annoyed about paying $10 for the newest installment of The Guide. I know it’s only $10. But still.

After I wrote the review of the three mimosa scents yesterday I had to talk myself down from purchasing 3 bottles of the Harvest Amarige. I worry, you know? There are only so many bottles of a limited edition.

Dexter is in the trunk. Seriously, did you ever think that would happen? I’m so excited for Sunday night.

I saw Zack & Miri make a porno – not so funny. In fact, I tend to over think movies and became disturbed afterwards. Why is Seth Rogan such a hot commodity right now? He doesn’t do anything for me.

I went to a diner last night (random fact: New Jersey has more diners than any other state in the U.S.) and even though Thanksgiving has just passed and I should be so tired of turkey I ordered an open face turkey sandwich. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered anything different from a diner.

Like sunflower seeds? You’ve got to try these amazing chocolate covered sunflower seeds called Sunny Seed Drops. I bought some from Whole Foods Market then found them online from Nuts Online for much cheaper. A great holiday gift.

I love Beauty Habit. Their 25% off sales have been wonderful (and painful).

Soivohle' Underworld by Liz Zorn: A Review

Liz Zorn has very quickly become one of my top five favorite perfumers. I just discovered her this year, during the first few months of 2008. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with several of Ms. Zorn’s fragrances, in this order: Domino Voile’ then Blood Orange & Vetiver then Misetu and now Underworld. Underworld is my absolute favorite Soivohle’ fragrance. Underworld rocks the free world. Underworld is so amazingly good I’ve gone gaga and I’m at a loss for words. I will do my best to describe this fragrance, but I’ve got to tell you, it’s like the day I tried to review Serge Lutens Chergui; it’s so beautiful I get tongue-tied and feel that I’m not competent enough, not worthy enough, to review Underworld.

According to Ms. Zorn, the notes in Underworld are as follows:

A dark earthy pairing of vetiver and balsams, with a touch of Jasmine and Rose in the heart, set against a smoky leathery base.
PROFILE: Green/Balsamic/Earthy/Leather
INSPIRATION: Vetiver, Liz's favorite natural material.

Vetiver, as an ingredient in perfumery, has become my “note of 2008.” I’ve always liked the smell of vetiver and usually like most perfume that focuses on this note. This year, however, I’ve really taken a dive right into a big pool of vetiver. I’ve been reading up on it and find it interesting that (taken from Wikipedia) approximately 90% of all western perfumes contain vetiver. This is due to it being an excellent natural fixative. Straight vetiver oil is amber brown and rather thick. The odor of vetiver oil is described as deep, sweet, woody, smoky, earthy, amber, balsam. The best quality oil is obtained from roots that are 18 to 24 months old. The roots are dug up and cleaned then dried. Similar to patchouli and sandalwood essential oils, the odor of vetiver develops and improves with aging. The characteristics of the oil can vary significantly depending on where the grass is grown and the climate and soil conditions.

The vetiver in Underworld is combined with balsams which creates a truly primordial aroma. To me, it smells of the imaginary middle earth, or perhaps the world described in J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Underworld actually smells quite familiar, like a smell I have always known, all my life, even though I don’t know what exactly it is… There are earthy seasonal smells that I enjoy when I’m out for a hike with the dogs. I love filling my lungs with that autumnal aroma in October/November of slowly decomposing leaves and cool crisp air mingled with chimney smoke. Or, in March/April I enjoy the aroma of the damp muddy earth, just beginning to bud and grow, the smell of early spring. Underworld seems like this sort of aroma to me, something that I’m familiar with but can’t quite place. The affect of Underworld is peaceful, calming and soothing. Underworld is such a natural smell, there is nothing artificial, harsh or obtrusive about it. All day long I keep smelling my wrists over and over because I just can’t get enough of this scent.

Along with the vetiver and balsamic notes, there’s a nice spicy component, sort of a cinnamon, nutmeg and amber smell. Even though it’s dark, earthy and primordial, I’d describe Underworld as a clean scent, because there isn’t a dirty or skanky quality to it. I just can’t get enough of this stuff. I’m positive that if more people were to experience Underworld, it would quickly gain a cult-like following. Underworld is that good.

Lasting power: excellent, at least 5-6 hours
Sillage: small, stays close to your skin.

The indies saved violet for me: three reviews

In one of my first blog entries, I made a list of the notes that I like and dislike. Among my dislikes was violet. My co-writer, Brian, happens to be a lover of anything violet, and mostly due to his enthusiasm for the note, I’ve tested several violet perfumes over the past few months.

For me, the indie perfumers make the most beautiful violet fragrances. I completely understand Brian's adoration of violet when I smell Ava Luxe Midnight Violet, Neil Morris’ Spectral Violet and Liz Zorn’s Domino Viole’. To a lesser extent, Serge Lutens has created a more-interesting-than-mainstream violet, Bois de Violette, but Lutens’ violet doesn’t thrill me, it’s all cedar with one tiny violet plopped in.

I’ll describe these gorgeous indie violets in alphabetical order – no favorite amongst them – they’re all beautiful and different:

Ava Luxe Midnight Violet – Midnight Violet was my first violet love. Serena Franco has created an amazing juxtaposition of light and dark, yin and yang, masculine and feminine in this fragrance. Ms. Franco takes violet, which is normally an uber feminine, sweet and powdery note and envelopes it in a forest of deep intense green with hemlocks, cedar, sandalwood and moonlight dancing upon mossy knolls. Midnight Violet is not cold, dirty or heavy on the skin; it’s just deep with emotion and imagination.

Spectral Violet by Neil Morris – Spectral Violet is, to my nose, the closest to a traditional violet fragrance. Mr. Morris, however, has removed everything I previously disliked about violet fragrances, and added a lovely complexity and dryness to the violet note. What I didn’t like about violet perfumes in the past, is that they were usually too sweet & cloying to the point of syrupy and always very powdery. Spectral violet is a sweet little candied violet that is balanced by being rested upon a bed of sandalwood, musk and vetiver. I love being able to enjoy an obviously violet perfume without all the powder puff sweetness. Spectral Violet has nice lasting power and just enough sillage for those close to you to smell it. Spectral Violet is just beautiful.

Soivohle’ Domino Viole’ – Domino Viole’, like Midnight Violet, is another deep and mysterious violet. Liz Zorn is the perfumer behind Soivohle’ and she has encased violet inside a gauzy cloud of incensey balsamic notes. Domino Viole’ is, if possible, both sharp and smooth as butter. The balsamic note is stunning and works magic when combined with the violet and green notes. Domino Viole’ is the least “violet-y” to my nose, but it’s still there, and it’s most likely what gives the balsamic, incense and green notes a lovely sweet pillow to perch upon.

Very soon I’ll be sampling two violet fragrances from Sonoma Scent Studio....can't wait.