Hi Dry Downers! Welcome to a new edition of The Six, in which we each pick three perfumes around a theme. This month, since it’s finally springtime where we live, we’re bringing you everything to do with violets. Violet is a note with old-fashioned, aristocratic origins, first popular as a kind of status symbol for the wealthy upper class in the 19th century. Violet fragrances were originally made exclusively from Parma violets, via a costly extraction process that produced scents both wildly popular and available only to a privileged few (Violet was a favorite fragrance of both Queen Victoria and Napoleon). Near the end of that century, synthetic violet notes were developed, making the fragrance less expensive and more widely accessible. Perhaps because of these elitist origins, violet is a perfume note often thought as powdery or old-fashioned, and frequently associated with elderly ladies. It’s easy to dismiss it as a grandmother scent (although here at the Dry Down we’re on the record as defenders of old-lady perfumes). But violet is actually much more complex than that, powdery and sweet, yes, but earthy and green, too, especially violet leaf, which is equally popular in more contemporary perfumes. The scents we recommend this month showcase the delicacy and earthiness of violet in all kinds of ways, ranging from powdery and old-fashioned to kitchen-spicy and green, offering myriad approaches to this small, purple, sometimes-overlooked flower. - R + H
THE DRY DOWN SIX: VIOLETS
THE DRY DOWN SIX: VIOLETS
THE DRY DOWN SIX: VIOLETS
Hi Dry Downers! Welcome to a new edition of The Six, in which we each pick three perfumes around a theme. This month, since it’s finally springtime where we live, we’re bringing you everything to do with violets. Violet is a note with old-fashioned, aristocratic origins, first popular as a kind of status symbol for the wealthy upper class in the 19th century. Violet fragrances were originally made exclusively from Parma violets, via a costly extraction process that produced scents both wildly popular and available only to a privileged few (Violet was a favorite fragrance of both Queen Victoria and Napoleon). Near the end of that century, synthetic violet notes were developed, making the fragrance less expensive and more widely accessible. Perhaps because of these elitist origins, violet is a perfume note often thought as powdery or old-fashioned, and frequently associated with elderly ladies. It’s easy to dismiss it as a grandmother scent (although here at the Dry Down we’re on the record as defenders of old-lady perfumes). But violet is actually much more complex than that, powdery and sweet, yes, but earthy and green, too, especially violet leaf, which is equally popular in more contemporary perfumes. The scents we recommend this month showcase the delicacy and earthiness of violet in all kinds of ways, ranging from powdery and old-fashioned to kitchen-spicy and green, offering myriad approaches to this small, purple, sometimes-overlooked flower. - R + H