Many modern violet fragrances are content to leave the violet as it is – sweet, delicate, and powdery-fresh, sometimes with the sharp wetness of the violet leaf thrown in for contrast. But by flanking this demure little blossom with a rich variety of bolder, creamier florals, Vjola turns violet into something fiercely sexy and intense. The result is a violet with womanly curves that will make you look at the note with new eyes.
The opening is a densely fruity violet liquor so good you’ll want to tip it down your throat, followed by a hot, rubbered wall of tuberose and jasmine that fills the air pockets of the wispy blossom with sweet cream. Although the flowers are almost syrupy in their regal purple density, this is not a heavy fragrance, thanks to the puff of fluffy almond from the heliotrope that lies just beneath. The drydown is a dessert bowl full of sunburned hay, sugar, cream, and vanilla, mercifully saved from all-out gluttony by the “cut grass” greenness of lily of the valley and a rubbery hint of gasoline. Vjola is unusual in that it coaxes the modest beauty of violet into new shapes over the course of its life: that it’s also stunningly beautiful is a bonus.
Violet, tuberose, marigold, lily-of-the-valley, jasmine, magnolia, rose, iris, vanilla, honeysuckle, heliotrope, immortelle