Perfume Feature & Giveaway

Katie over at The Green Product Junkie has a little feature and giveaway happening on her new site. Please head on over if you'd like a chance to win one of my trio sampler sets. If you choose to accept this mission be sure to list three of your all time favorite plant scents.

Here is a link to a review Katie did last year when she first came across my work.

The Three Violets

My studio right now is wafting with the violet, fern and leathery notes from the filtering the latest edition of Gracing the Dawn. It's one of my favorite fragrances of the line, I love how the notes meld together so seamlessly.

After filtering I thought I better take a few photos of the little 1 gram vial so I wondered outside and found three little violet flowers peeking out from under the leaves of one of my plants. I thought this a particularly auspicious event since the fragrance was first titled The Three Graces and there were three violets.

The formula is basically exactly the same, although I am always looking for ways to extend the base without impacting the beautiful floral heart. Gracing the Dawn contains five chords/accords with twenty five other individual essences. With so many individual chords and the amount of essences makes this perfume insanely complex. Seriously, what was I thinking! Oh, right, I was chasing the muse again, in this case three of them, filled with grace.

The Return of Grace

The word grace as a noun means elegance and refinement, the perfume Gracing the Dawn was named after the The Three Graces also known as Charites, known in Greek mythology. The fragrance began as a concept for the Perfume in a Poem project back in 2008.

The perfume has been out of stock while I sourced some of the precious essences contained in her formula as well re-constructing some of her chord. In both the liquid and the solid formats the fragrance contains five chords, one of which is a chord within a chord and twenty other individual essences. The complex fragrance has been referred to as a "sensual symphony of violets, mimosa, the irrepressible Night Queen and a cool hint of bergamot." by Beth Schreibman Gehring. The challenge with the perfume is that it is ephemeral and subtle to those who are accustomed to stronger aromas. Thus, her devotees tend to be those who have the ability to perceive the whisperings of nature.

First up and ready for olfactory adventures in violet is the solid facet of Gracing the Dawn. I made a few subtle adjustments to one of her chords to enhance the floral heart and the base, but besides that her harmonic composition remains the same.

Almost daily I am asked for fragrances that resemble other main stream perfumes. If Gracing the Dawn or any other Illuminated Perfume reminds you of a synthetic on the market please let me know. Beth, mentioned above, considers Gracing the Dawn to be similar to the original Magie Noire by Lancome. Donna Hathaway, in her review at Perfume Smellin' Things refers to Gracing the Dawn as resembling Jolie Madame by Balmain.

The liquid is just about ready to accompany the solid, she just needs a few more days of final marinating and then a filtering session.

Image: Sculpture The Three Graces. Museum of Art in Stuttgart, photo by Robert V. Moody

Hedera helix and Gracing the Dawn

I've been spending my evenings making large amounts of the synergies for all the perfumes, in both solid and liquid form. Page 47 liquid and Eau de Parfum will be arriving shortly as well as Vespertina and Chiaroscuro liquid.

As I was meticulously making my way through the fragrances I noticed that the solid synergies for Hedera helix and Gracing the Dawn were running low. Thus I got out the formulas for both the liquid and solid varieties of each one with the intention to start building them. To my dismay, there are a few ingredients that have become challenging to obtain. What is left in both those perfumes is located at the website. Find them by putting Hedera helix and or Gracing the Dawn into the search bar at the top right.

Figure 5: Bois and Figure 8: Coeur de Jasmin will debut shortly. I am awaiting wax for Bois, in the meantime I am happy to make round tins, mini compact tins and compacts for those who make the request via e-mail or through the website.

I have also been slowly adding Valentine related items to the shops, more on that soon.

Gracing

Gracing the Dawn as a solid is back in stock in the round compact. The new wax for the seal of the samples, honey pot and silver rounds is being made, thus those are not currently available.

To find out more in depth information about the solid manifestation of this fragrance check out this post here at the journal Odorata and the LookBook below.

If you've read through the ingredients list in the Odorata post you will see a bounty of precious essences including the warm, green, woody, fruity Boronia absolute. Boronia megastigma is a native, wild shrub of Australia related to the citrus tree. It is utilized as a flavoring ingredient and quite extensively in high class perfumes to impart a floral, fruity note. Recently this precious aromatic has become more difficult to obtain due to larger companies buying entire harvests for use in fragrance and flavor. At the moment I have no new source and thus future editions of Gracing the Dawn will either have a shift in her fragrance notes or be discontinued.

Read about the origins of this perfume here.

Gracing the Dawn illumination ©Greg Spalenka, find the art cards and prints here.
Solid Perfume photograph by Roxana Villa
Boronia flowers via Wikipedia from Flickr.

Gracing the Dawn LookBook

I've been all consumed with creating a LookBook for Gracing the Dawn to go along with the release of the solid natural perfume. It's finally done, enjoy!

Open publication

The Herbarium

I've been getting all the pieces in order that go into sharing a new product, the photos, the words for the press release, the list of people to send the two latter to, etc. As I was going through the steps I was also working quite a bit in the garden. While looking at the flowers and herbs I decided to shot a few more photos of the natural solid perfume that evoked all the different plants that went into its construction.

I took about thirty photos of the round case, still lifes of just the plants and a smattering with the mini compact. These two showcased here are just the beginning of what I'm planning imagery wise for Gracing the Dawn solid. Today I am going to focus on the words.

Images ©RoxanaVilla

Odorata

Gracing the Dawn in her solid manifestation is here! I know fans of this fragrance have been waiting quite a long time for this interpretation, thanks so much for your patience. The structure of this perfume follows what is considered a classic Chypre, a french word meaning Cyprus. Perfumes of this family traditionally are defined by notes of oakmoss and animal musk in the base, rose and jasmine at the heart and bergamot or fresh citrus within the top. Since I refrain from using the historical animal ingredients found in traditional natural Chypre perfumes, I created some faux natural accords to mimic civet, castoreum, ambergris and deer musk. There is also a very minuscule amount of Africa stone, the fossilized distilled droppings of a small animal known as a hyrax.

I use the term botanical perfumer to define what I do in the fragrance realm because I have chosen not to use the historical animal ingredients for ethical reasons. All artists find their path in different ways, mine was via the magical duirway of nature and the oak.

I refer to Gracing the Dawn as a violet perfume, although the violet note in the solid version of the fragrance is subtle, it is a more fictional representation. The main scent component of violet flowers comes from the naturally occurring chemical constituent ionones. The natural perfumer has no violet essential oil, C02 extract or absolute. There is a violet leaf absolute but the aroma is not one of the delicate little flowers we all adore. Opting for maximum nature in my fragrances I utilized Orris and a variety of other whole essences to convey the impression of violets. In the liquid version of this fragrance the violet note was further enhanced with a tincture of violet flowers.

It was my intention to release the solid version with an enfleurage of violets, but alas it is not ready yet. Thus, the addition of the precious infusion will come in future editions of the fragrance. The synergy of the solid is almost exact to that of her fragrance liquid counterpart. There are five accords, one of which is contained within another accord. The most complex of these accords is one I call Fern which is so pretty on her own I may release it as a perfume.

Here's a list of the included essences, which illustrates in the first six ingredients why this perfume is costly:

FLOWERS
Rose
Jasmine
Boronia
Night Queen
Tuberose
Orange Blossom
Osmanthus
Black Current
Narcissus
Ylang Ylang
Mimosa

RESINS
Oakmoss
Peru Balsam
Labdanum
Galbanum

WOOD
Agarwood
Sandalwood
Cedarwood
Guaicwood
Pine

HERBS
Chamomile
Parsley
Ginger
Patchouli
Celery
Clary
Sage
Cumin
Tumeric
Lavender
Rosemary
Juniper
Geranium
Basil
Caraway

OTHER
Violet Leaf
Ambrette
Cognac
Orris
Vetiver
SeaWeed
Choya Nakh
Spikenard
Beeswax
Neem

Solid Mini Sample 
5 gram Honey pot
Round Compact

More about Gracing the Dawn can be found at these links here at the journal: Perspective, October 2010 Gracing the Dawn, July 2010 The Dawn, July 2010

Opening photo by Roxana Villa, illuminated ©GregSpalenka. Find the Gracing the Dawn Flower of Fortune Cards and the print on etsy.

The Violet Haze

At least once a week, sometimes twice, I remove the saturated violet flowers from their soak in organic grape alcohol and replace them with fresh flowers. The spent violets are a pale lavender tone when I remove them and drain them. However, once dry the rich violet hue returns, although somewhat dimmed.

This week there has been an over abundance of violet flowers, probably due to it being their correct bloom time. Thus, I started a second tincture, which I will add to the first as the alcohol slowly evaporates.


These violets come to me via my mother who has a plethora of them in her garden. I've tried growing them here but our clay soil is not right for them. Thus I have a few in a pot, but they are still not nearly as happy as the ones that come from my mothers rich soil.

The traditional violet used in perfumery is the heavily fragranced, double petaled Parma violet with origins the warm climate of the Mediterranean region. According to the American Violet Society they came to Italy by way of Portugal via the Bourbon royal family. The infamous Parma violet is a hybrid from the Viola alba, V. odorata, or V. suavis. Experts lean toward the ancestry being the Viola alba. If you are searching for the old varieties look for Duchess de Parme, D’Udine, and Lady Elsington. The Marie Louise is another variety of the Parmas that is very fragrant.


I do not know the Latin name of the wild volunteers in my mothers garden, I would take a guess that they are a very, fragrant variety of the Viola odorata. The fragrance is quite beautiful with strong hay notes.


The tincture I have going is finally starting to take on some of the aroma after many months of "working" it. By working I am referring to straining the tincture, removing the spent flowers and adding new ones. This tincture is featured in my violet chypre natural perfume called Gracing the Dawn, one of the sheerest of all my fragrances.


Images: Most of them ©RoxanaVilla, Gracing the Dawn by Greg Spalenka

Luminessence

Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven, and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,--
And ever-changing, like a joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?

"To The Moon" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Full with the expectation of the Spring the Moon shines her light brightly upon the new edition of Gracing the Dawn. Long before our calendar was invented humans paid close attention to the cycles of the season and thus gave each full moon a name specific to what was transpiring at the time. The current lunar lantern was referred to as the Snow Moon by the native people and the Worm Moon according to the Farmers Almanac.


In reading about the February Moon I've discovered that Violets are one of the symbols for this month. Out from drifts of snow these little purple blossoms poke their heads out to remind us all of the shift that soon will take place.


Although not technically a violet perfume by note, Gracing the Dawn does contain violet leaf, orris root and a tincture of violets. Her fragrance is very much in tune with the color purple. Read about her construction and impressions at this link here at the journal.

Finally ready, after recreating all her chords and patiently waiting for the alchemy to take place Gracing the Dawn is ready. Like her sister, GreenWitch, she shares the same chords and is very complex to construct. The new edition has shifted slightly as I felt she needed a bit more grounding and permanence without suffocating the rich floral heart.

Here in the wooded hills of the Santa Monica Mountains we don't get a profound seasonal shift or snow. However, the trees are now all blooming including the native oaks and the fruit trees. Soon the honey bees will be feasting as the pollen levels rise after this new rainfall.

Thus under the luminessence of this lunar spectacle the apparition of the three winged graces has returned for a limited time.


Images:
1. Heart of Snow by Edward Robert Hughes
2. Queen of the Night by Henri Fantin-Latour
3. Violets by Henry Meynell Rheam
4. Gracing the Dawn Natural Perfume

Perspective

One of the primary exercises in art school is doing a drawing using perspective. Generally we learn one point perspective usually based on the geometrical horizon. The exercise is then followed with creating an image with two, three or more points.


Today I offer you an intersection of five point perspective on the natural perfume Gracing the Dawn. Instead of my single perspective on the notes, sillage and evolution of the perfume, here are three other points of view for you to savor:

Beth at The Cleveland Examiner
Donna at Perfume Smelling Things
Trish at Scent Hive
Lucy at Indie Perfumes
and
Elena at Perfume Shrine


Gracing the Dawn, more so than any of my other creations, has a very tangled and twisted her story. Originally she was a draft of notes called The Three Graces created for Heather Ettlingers Perfume in a Poem Project. Over time, with the birth of many other accords and perfumes, the formula morphed and shifted. The original illumination for the fragrance by my husband Greg Spalenka changed as well, becoming his iconic image at the 2010 San Diego Comic Convention where the perfume was debuted.


GreenWitch and Gracing the Dawn, as representatives of the two classical chypre perfumes in my collection, share similar notes and accords from the Animalia kingdom. GreenWitch leaning more into the realm of the Protoctista family and Gracing the Dawn in the Plantae arena. I call both of these "natural" perfumes because they contain ingredients from the animal kingdom.

While visiting Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel and Barneys in NYC last week I was very distraught to hear the sales people refer to many non natural perfumes as natural. When I politely told them that so and so brand was not a natural they argued with me and explained that the creator(s) of the fragrances told them they were natural. I decided to drop it, even though I know for a fact that the fragrances are not natural. Even worse is the fact that the term organic is applied to synthetic perfume. I must be living in an alternate universe where linguistic terminology and integrity exist on the same plane. Thankfully most of the perfume bloggers are well educated.

Beth, who was sampling perfumes with me at the Henri Bendel department store, commented that the word has obviously become "fashionable". The L'Artisan rep shared a scent strip of a fragrance with us featuring apple mentioning all their perfumes were natural. Hello? Not only is it plain as day that the perfume had synthetic aroma molecules but also there is NO apple essential oil. Only apple blossom concrete which is difficult to obtain.


The orchestration of ingredients in Gracing the Dawn shares a few similar essences and four accords which are also in GreenWitch. The four accords have all been crafted by my own hands using essentials oils, absolutes and C02 extracts. In total there are twenty other pure, plant essences including a plethora of flower: rose, jasmine, tuberose, ylang ylang, boronia and nightqueen. I choose to use whole essences in my perfumes, primarily from the botanical world, no isolates what-so-ever.

The base alcohol is organic grape and grain from Oregon with a tincture if infused violet flowers from my mothers garden. There is only a limited amount of the tincture, however, I will be making more in the early Spring as the little violets once more grace us with their delicious aroma.



Samples of the first edition including the violet tincture are available by weight in .25 and 1 gram, the full flacon size features the light purple crochet pouch. I choose purple as the Gracing the Dawns color harmony because when my daughter and husband first experienced the perfume they both murmured "purple".



Images:
1. Perspective engraving from the 17th century mathematics work by Marolois
2. Detail of The School of Athens (full image) by Raffaello Santi, 1509, showing Euclid
3. Gracing the Dawn ©Greg Spalenka. Postcards and posters of the illumination are available at Gregs E-shop, if you ask nicely he might be willing to print up a big banner for you like the one at Comic Con, which sold. I was rather looking forward to displaying it in my studio.
4. Roxana Illuminated Perfume display from Comic Con 2010 ©Evangeline Neuhart.
5. Detail of Gracing the Dawn Gracing the Dawn ©Greg Spalenka
6. 1 gram bottle of Gracing the Dawn Natural Perfume.
7. Violet photo ©Roxana Villa.

Scent of the Day: Grace

In the midst of pouring a 1 gram vial of Gracing the Dawn for a customer I decided to put some on since I hadn't worn this one in over a week. Today I am experiencing some spice black pepper notes in the opening which I hadn't picked up on before.

As I walked from my studio into my husband's he remarked, "Wow, something smells REALLY good!" I thought, hmmm, could it be? So I put my wrist out for him to smell, his second remark, "That's a beautiful one." Conclusion: Gracing the Dawn has some nice silage girlfriends.

Apologies to all the members of the Faery Ring, your samples are going out in the next few days. I got hung up on making your packages really pretty visually.

Image: Violet tincture on antique postcard ©RoxanaVilla

Gracing the Dawn

Gracing the Dawn has finally arrived after being sniffed and sampled by hundreds at the San Diego Comic Con. Exclusively at the E-shop for the moment, you will find the .25 gram and 1 gram glass vials. The flacon size with signature pouch will be added shortly.


This fragrance begs to be sampled on the skin. The aromatic experience via a scent strip or from the glass bottle stopper is very different than when inhaled on human epidermis, especially if you are keen on the subtle violet notes.

Gracing the Dawn is a floral chypre natural botanical perfume featuring a bouquet of some of the most expensive aromatics found on planet Earth.


The fragrance and inspired image is called Gracing the Dawn, a reference to the Three Graces from Greek mythology. Fantastical butterflies sit on the bough of a tree with freshly opened blossoms just as the first light of dawn illuminates the sky.

The perfume is velvety and sultry evoking a vintage from days long gone or perhaps an alternate dimension where we glimpse luminous winged sprites on a wet, black bough.

A myriad of exotic essences are artfully woven in this composition including Cestrum nocturnum, Night Queen, from South India. The main notes in this botanical medley include violet, mimosa, wood, and Italian bergamot. Read more about the composition of the fragrance at this link here at the journal.


The beautiful crochet pouch has been skillfully handmade by my very talented mother Martha. When I am finally ready to debut a perfume we collaborate on the color and style of the pouch.
I feel very fortunate to have these beauties that compliment the intricate, handmade aesthetic that I bring to you. For Gracing the Dawn Martha created two small violet flowers. Like nature, each pouch is unique and features the violets in different shades of purple.


The perfume is part of a series titled Flowers of Fortune associated with artwork by my award winning husband Greg Spalenka. Artwork and image debuted at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con.
The postcards and posters will be available at Greg's E-shop and a dedicated website shortly.

Images: Photos of perfume and pouch by me, Roxana Villa. Butterfly images ©Greg Spalenka.