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

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.

The Three Graces: The base meets wood

I have finished the initial base chord, it took me awhile to decide exactly which Patchouli and which Vetiver to integrate with the other members of this temporal ensemble. In the end I choose an Indonesian Patchouli with a lovely floral aspect to it. This floral note will later work nicely with the blossoming heart accord. The Vetiver was tougher, perhaps because I have so many of them to choose from, and love each one. In the end it was one of my Bourbons that won out, a nicely aged, viscous Vetiver. While the base marinates I am moving onto the simple wood accord:

“The bough, where the Goddesses manifest,
is created with wood notes including Cedar and Cabrueva.”

Cabrueva, a hardwood from Paraguay, contains a flowery sweet wood note which will harmonize nicely with both the wood of the Himalayan and Atlas Cedar. Both these essences contain that ubiquitous wood note. The Himalayan, also known as Tibetan, contains a spice note to its warm woody fragrance and is slightly softer with, like the Patchouli and Cabreuva, a subtle floral note.

So you see, I choose my elements so that in the end there will be a harmonizing and relationship from the base, to the middle and extending into the top notes.

Roxana Villa: Perfume Inside the Poem
RoxanaIlluminatedPerfume™
Image of bundled Vetiver courtesy of Christopher McMahon and Manoj Avasthi.

The Three Graces: The base

"I choose notes with a cool quality for the "wet, dark" earth aspect from which the fragrance will be built upon, such as: Mitti Attar, Patchouli, and Vetiver. I see the base as a dark leather chord in juxtaposition to the bright floral heart. I add a touch of Kewda Attar for its cool, watery element and a hint of Black Musk Attar."

This is the base for “The Three Graces” perfume, including three traditional Indian Attars. These precious gems are hydodistilled in India, utilizing a five thousand year old process. The materials; flowers, herbs, woods, seeds or a combination, are hydrodistilled into a base of sandalwood. The process is very labor intensive and thus can be some of the costliness materials for the botanical/natural perfumer.

Mitti Attar: Indian distilled baked earth, after the first Monsoon Rain.
Black Musk Attar: A compound of spices, woods and herbs.
Kewda Attar: The “screw pine” flower, Pandanus odoritissimus.
Vetiver: Roots of a tall growing grass.
Patchouli: Distilled from the dry leaves of the herbaceous herb.

Since this is a base “leather” accord, for a final perfume consisting of twenty ingredients, I will cease to add other elements. This is the first time I have intended an exact number of ingredients for a perfume. At the moment it is feeling rather restrictive, however, I feel compelled to remain true to the poem from which this was birthed. The total number of essences in this perfume matches the twenty words in the Ezra Pound poem.

Roxana Villa: Perfume in a Poem
Roxana Illuminated Perfume™
Images courtesy of Christopher McMahon and Manoj Avasthi. Above left are the Mitti Patties drying in the Indian Sun. Above, on left are Kewda flowers in a basket and just to the left is bundled Vetiver.