40 Days and 40 Nights of Fragrance Notes: Carnation

Simply Divine
By Jessica M

Sometimes I feel sorry for the carnation. It’s often considered a commonplace flower, even a cheap one, and it doesn’t get much respect. It was the flower that we never wanted to see in the corsages that boys gave us at school dances, and it’s a flower that we really don’t send to friends or relatives on special occasions.


That’s a shame, because the carnation wasn’t always treated so shabbily. The Greek name for its botanical genus is “dianthus,” often translated as “divine flower.” The species that we usually associate with the carnation is Dianthus caryophyllus, although this genus also includes “pinks” and “Sweet Williams.” Shakespeare wrote in The Winter’s Tale, “Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o' the season are our carnations.” I agree with him, and not just during the winter; I love wearing carnation fragrances all year long.

Carnation is a very identifiable note in fragrance, but it’s also a note with different shades to its personality. Sometimes it’s soft and powdery; sometimes it’s just a bit creamy, with a honeyed edge; and it can also be quite peppery and even spicy, like cloves. (In fact, I’ve heard that perfumers often imitate this flower’s scent with a skillful blend of clove and ylang-ylang or vanilla notes, since carnation absolute is so costly.) Carnation combines beautifully with rose, and it sits nicely on a base of woody notes.

I’m still not sure why this “divine flower” has a reputation for being tawdry; I even love the way it looks, with its fringed petals and its range of reds, pinks, and white. If you’re looking for a floral fragrance note that’s spicy-sweet, not too dainty and not too heady, a carnation perfume might be worth your time.

Here are a few carnation-inspired fragrances to try...

Carnation soliflores:
Lorenzo Villoresi Garofano
Santa Maria Novella Garofano
Comme des Garçons Series 2 Red: Carnation
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Oeillets Rouges
Ava-Luxe Oeillet (new; haven’t tried it yet!)

Carnations with other notes:
Caron Bellodgia
Fragonard Billet Doux
Carthusia Fiori di Capri
Nina Ricci L’Air du Temps
Possets Perfume Silver Carnations

Discontinued, but not forgotten:
Floris Malmaison
L’Artisan Parfumeur Oeillet Sauvage

Disclosure: The perfumes mentioned in this post were purchased (or sampled in stores) by the reviewer.
Reviewer: Jessica M
Photo Credits: Decorative soap label, c. 1900, via Getty Images. Red Carnation Flowers by Takuya Uroki, via Corbis.
Graphic Credit: Melanie Parker

40 Days and 40 Nights of Fragrance Notes: Violet

And the sky was all violet...

by Patti F aka MUA's Cavewoman

As I write these perfume note reviews for Blogdorf's 40 Notes In 40 Days, one of the things I like to do is to choose one of the fragrances I own which contains that particular note. I wear it while I'm writing. So, with today's review about the violet, I went to my perfume tray to see what I would find. After a few minutes, I came to realize that I was having a very hard time choosing! Next to rose perfumes, violet is my second-favorite fragrance note. And my perfume collection definitely proves it. I pulled all of my violet fragrances and set them inside a box. I thought that might make it easier, if I saw them all gathered together. It didn't.

It began to be perfectly clear to me why I was having so much trouble just choosing one to wear as I write. Violet scents are utterly fascinating perfumes, so varied in style that none of the ones I had in the box seemed to be an overall representation of the entire group. So, what I did was to choose my favorite violet fragrance of all of them (that was hard to do!) and spray it on as I gathered my thoughts. I'll tell you in a bit which one it is.

My first real violet fragrance was a bottle of Borsari Violetta Di Parma, which I found in a pretty box on a markdown table at our local TJMaxx. I knew I had found something special, I knew it was legendary. I bought it ($10!) and brought it home, and then did some research. It seems that the most true violet notes come from Italy, and many of them were done by the Borsari house. I did not even know that real violet flowers even had a scent. The little wild violets that grow in my back yard might smell a bit greenish, but there's no floralcy to them at all. I can't say I loved the Violetta Di Parma. It was dry and dusty and thin. It's long gone from my collection, and in the hands of someone who appreciated it much more than I did.

I did not give up on Borsari, though, because what I was learning is that the violets of this particular part of Italy produce the violet scent which is treasured in perfumes. While browsing a European website that specializes in beautiful and rare mini perfume bottles, I spotted a gorgeous Borsari called Bouquet Di Violette. I ordered it, along with a few other pretty minis, and when it arrived, I opened it to try out the scent. Ahh! This was way more appealing to me than the first Borsari. Less green, more floral, a bit powdery, I was enchanted. I'd never smelled anything like this before. Of course now I wanted to explore and find more violet perfumes. I even found another Borsari (this time at Marshalls! Again on a markdown table!) -- Violetta Classica, which turned out to be a very musty earthy fragrance which I find almost too dirty to wear. MAC Asphalt Flower is another one of those dirty violet types, but I love that one, with its juxtaposition of feminine florals and a gritty downtown vibe. I tried a sample of Serge Lutens Bois De Violette, which to me was too much bois and not enough violette.

On a trip to New York City, visiting perfume counters with a group of friends, I discovered my treasure. Barney's has one of the best fragrance departments in the entire city. And off to one side, on a pretty tray, I found some Italian fragrances called I Profumi di Firenze. The representative for the company was there that day, Miryana, and she started to ask me what types of scents I like. She held up an almost-empty bottle of Violetta Di Bosco and told me that the reason it was almost empty was that all of the beauty floor sales associates would stop by and spray themselves with this scent. I held up my wrist so she could spray some on me. It was love at first sniff and it's been that way ever since. Violetta Di Bosco is a candy-sweet violet. It's the one I am wearing as I write. I Profumi di Firenze lists no other notes, but I detect a woodsy base.

In my search for other violet scents, I found many new loves and surprises. Violet scents can be incredibly green, and those I don't care much for at all. They smell like broken stems rather than flowers. In the green violet category, I would list L'Artisan Vert Violette, Fresh Violette, and Fragonard Apres-Tout. I have that last one, but I don't wear it very often. I tried vial samples of the other two and was not wowed. Violets blended with woodsy-incensey notes are ones that I love, and those include Nanette by Nanette Lepore, John Galliano, and the gorgeous but limited edition MAC Hue:Violetrix.

Violet scents that tend to be more powdery are FlowerbyKenzo and the stunning Balenciaga Paris, which has a rich base of patchouli, woods, and oakmoss.
I like floral blends with a dominant violet note, such as the original Caron Violette Precieuse. Perhaps the most rare of my violet scents is Comptoir Sud Pacifique's Eau Des Arts, in its silver metal spray cannister. I found this at a tiny cosmetic boutique in Cleveland, where the owner told me she was able to obtain a few CSP scents that were never intended to be sold in the United States. It is a blend of violets with jasmine, lily of the valley and heliotrope in a soft base of woods and spices.

But I continue to love the candy-type violets the most of all. Next to my beloved Violetta Di Bosco, I am crazy for Frederic Malle's Lipstick Rose. The perfumer, Ralf Schweiger, is given credit on the label of the bottle, as are all of the Malle scents. The initial aldehyde moves quickly into a sweet violet with rose, iris, coriander, and a vetiver and vanilla base. It's so addicting that when I purchased my first bottle of Lipstick Rose, it is all I wore until I finished the bottle.

When my two favorite perfume notes, rose and violet, are combined into one perfume, something magical happens. Paris by Yves Saint Laurent is the best example of this combination. Many of the scents I've listed here have rose notes combined with the violet. Within these scents, one plus one is bigger than two! There is something about the rose-violet blend that becomes its own entity. It's as if they belong together.

Do you love a violet fragrance? Which one is your favorite?

Disclaimer: In the photos, every bottle was purchased by the reviewer, with the exception of one which was a gift.

Reviewer: Patti F aka Cavewoman
Graphic Credit: Melanie Parker
Photo Credit: Patti F aka cavewoman

Title: Hole's Violet

Caron Powder Puff in Peach

I settled on the ultra feminine peach shade after initally coveting the celery green, baby yellow, and bright pink. The puffs come in a variety of sizes including adorable minis. I am kicking myself for not getting a mini for my purse compact. It adds a touch of glam to your beauty routine.

Call Diane Haska at the Caron boutique at 212-308-3017 if you decide to cave on a puff!

Read Koneko's lovely review of the Caron experience at:
http://beautydiary.blogspot.com/2007/10/light-as-feather.html


Credits: Blogdorf Goodman and Ellen Von Unwerth

40 Days and 40 Nights of Beauty Brand Reviews

Day 6, Caron

Cavewoman: It is fitting that my review for my favorite Caron fragrance should follow the Bond review of yesterday. One of the things I love most about New York is the Statue Of Liberty. I think I loved Lady Caron before I ever smelled it. When I saw the bottle, I knew I had to have it, even if the juice inside was not my style. I ordered the fragrance from an internet source and waited for it to arrive. To my complete delight, I fell in love with the scent as much as with the bottle!

The story of Lady Caron begins with Ernest Daltroff, founder of the House Of Caron. He came to America to escape the war in Europe, and upon seeing Lady Liberty in the harbor, he made a vow to create a perfume in her honor. Unfortunately, he never did get to fulfill that vow. In 2000, Patrick Ales took Daltroff's dream and made it a liquid reality.

Lady Caron is an elegant and feminine floral chypre, with notes of magnolia, jasmine, orange blossom, rose, raspberry and peach, and a base of oakmoss and exotic sandalwood. The florals are perfectly balanced, full-bodied, and lush. The fruits add a little sweetness, but they are not juicy or gourmand. And oakmoss! It has to be my favorite perfume note. In harmony with sandalwood, the oakmoss gives the Lady her heart, and captures mine as well.

I've loved chypre fragrances from the beginning of my perfume obsession. My Dad gave me a bottle of the original Cachet by Prince Matchabelli one year for Christmas, and shortly after that, home from a trip to France, my Mom presented me with a coffret of parfums from a factory in Grasse. In that coffret were Miss Dior and Jolie Madame, two very womanly chypres that I used and loved until the last drops were gone, and a Caron parfum called Fleurs De Rocaille. I still have these gold aluminum factory bottles, and I treasure them.


A trip to the Caron Boutique in New York a few years ago was a delight for all the senses. A tiny jewel of a store, I was totally captivated by the sparkling jewelry, the beautiful fragrances, and the alcove of urns filled with the pure parfums. It was a step back in time, a graceful time when choosing a parfum was a womanly art, and not a hurried sniff of a paper card sprayed in a busy, noisy, impersonal deparment store.

Perfume lovers will understand my love of Lady Caron when I say that I am on my third bottle. And that on my last trip to the Caron Boutique, I finally caved on the parfum. I know that when my bottle is empty, it will take an honored place next to my little gold bottles from Grasse.






Annieytown: Caron's Poudre Peau Fine is the best face powder in the industry.
I know this because I have tried most of them.
Caron powders are finely milled.
They are "ground, blended and sifted several times to achieve an outstandingly fine, lightweight texture." (Caron)
No one can match the lighter than air texture including my beloved La Mer.
The powders are scented with the fragrance of Bulgarian Rose.
There is something terribly glamourous about this scented product. It harks back to the days of vanities littered with swan feather powder puffs and parfum bottles.

The powders are available in 10 shades along with shimmering Galaxie, Opalescente and my personal favorite Vénitienne.
Vénitienne is a lovely shade of pink with some subtle gold shimmer. It gives a lovely pink-ish glow to the face. I use it when I feel the need to spoil myself.
It should be no surprise that I am almost out.

Photos: Cavewoman and Blogdorf Goodman
Let us know what your favorite Caron products are in the comments!
Disclosure: This post features products that were purchased by the reviewrs

The smell of violets, hidden in the green,
Pour'd back into my empty soul and frame
The times when I remembered to have been
Joyful and free from blame.
- Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dream of Fair Women

My fragrance of the day is Aimez Moi by Caron. I am starting one of my New Year's resolutions early. I am forcing myself to do a fragrance challenge. It will be similiar to my Rock the Gloss challenge. I will wear a different scent every single day until I go through my entire collection of bottles, decants and samples. This is a huge undertaking.
It might take a year...or two.
This will be a huge challenge for me because I often reach for my favorites in times of crisis. I have scents that are like old friends.
Can I put my trusty Chinatown on the shelf while I explore my sample box?
Is there true love waiting in my decant cupboard?
All I can do is promise that I will try to do this.
If I fall off the wagon...I promise to get back on.


Back to Aimez Moi: The notes are violet, magnolia, roses, jasmine, star anise, bergamot, cardamon, heliotrope(I never detect it), cloves and amber. I get violets, roses and star anise. Anise is a very hard note to wear. I tried this fragrance three times before I decided to take the plunge. I thought the anise note went "wonky" on my skin.
Now it smells amazing and I have no regrets on grabbing this bottle.
What changed?
I have no clue.
I might have changed my lotion or diet...or maybe my nose grew sophisticated.
I have no idea if it had something to do with skin chemistry. Some fragrances just will not work for me. I Profumi di Firenze's Violetta de Bosco smells like heaven on earth on Cavewoman.
On me....it turns into hot grass...with sugar on top.

What is your fragrance of the day?
Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who celebrates it today!

photos: Blogdorf Goodman(some of my decants) and Edward Gorey(online source unknown).

Caron's Nuit de Noel

"Auntie Mame is a froth of whipped cream and champagne and daydreams and Nuit de Noël perfume. She's not mortal at all." Patrick Dennis


This is a masterpiece fragrance. It has all the darkness, gloom and melancholy that I adore in a perfume. The notes are rose absolute, jasmine, ylang ylang, lily of the valley, iris, saxony moss, sandalwood, licorice, leather and iodine.
This is also one of my favorite perfume bottles. I found a vintage empty bottle in Yellow Springs, Ohio. You would have thought by my reaction that I had stumbled across a Hermes Birkin for $100.

Here is one of my favorite reviewers, Manon on makeupalley, take on the fragrance:

"Nuit de Noel, widely regarded as Ernest Daltroff's masterpiece, is rumored to have been suggested by his longtime partner, Félicie Wanpouille, who adored Christmas Eve and the scent of warm furs and incense. Launched in 1922, Nuit de Noel is forever associated with the Roaring Twenties, which is odd, considering that this is, as others have noted, a most quiet and reflective fragrance. Yet the warm, woody tone does easily lend itself to the image of smoky, wood-paneled speakeasies. The famous woody accord is based on "Mousse de Saxe," a blend of geranium, licorice, leather, iodine, and vanillin. Daltroff was not afraid to use strong synthetics. Nor was he afraid to use the Saxe in both the base and heart of Noel, in addition to adding a 25% level of sandalwood, plus dashes of rose absolute, jasmine, ylang ylang lily of the valley and iris. Perfumer Guy Robert admits to using Nuit de Noel's back note in his Madame Rochas and Caleche. It was also used in Chanel N° 19, and influenced Habanita, Bois des Iles and Shocking. What is amazing is that the composition is so balanced and smooth and...quiet. If you tend to like brash or noticeable fragrances, then look elsewhere. On the other hand, if you like subtle, provocative scents, you might want to try this one".-makeupalley manon

Manon started many lemmings for me when I joined Makeupalley.
How can you not want to try this after reading this review?

Question for Makeupalley members: Who are your favorite reviewers?

photos: Fashion Era and Yahoo