Violette in Love Eau de Toilette - French Violets at their Best

Violette in Love ($45 or $120) by Patricia Nicolai is a fruity-floral lovers delight! The delicate fragrance of violets is enhanced by pepper, musk, and just the slightest touch of fruit. It's very feminine, but not cloying or old fashioned. To me, it's soft, sophisticated, and endearing. The bottle design appeals to me too. It combines a modern simplicity - spareness, really - with a vintage logo.

The notes are Italian lemon, blackcurrant bud absolute, raspberry, essence of Turkish rose, a violet-iris accord, coriander essence, pink pepper, black pepper, and musk. The peppers don't add sharpness; they just make Violette in Love more modern than it might be without them.

Patricia Nicolai has fragrance in her blood. The grand-daughter of Pierre Guerlain, she was trained by Jean-Paul Guerlain and worked extensively in the corporate fragrance world before realizing her dream: a small, family-owned company where she could express her artistry in her scents, without having to deal with a committee. Working gals, does that ring a bell? Doesn't consensus building get old at times? Wouldn't you love to be Queen for a Day?

Her line is the equivalent of fashion’s haute couture, where the designer’s vision is allowed to express itself freely, without the restrictions of mass marketing. Her exquisite sense of composition is her hallmark. Her fragrances, made only with the finest materials, are full of subtlety, nuance, and seamless transitions as they develop on the skin. Delicate and complex, they have earned her unanimous respect in the small world of French perfumery. She was the first woman to be awarded the prize of Best International Perfumer from the French Society of Perfumers.

You can see more of her fragrances at LuckyScent, where I found this keeper. I would love to sample Fig Tea, Odalisque, and Le Temps D'Une Fete...maybe more. Thankfully, LuckyScent has a sampling program. For $3 per sample, I can!

Check out all of Patricia Nicolai's unique fragrances at LuckyScent! No matter what your fragrance preferences are, I'll bet she has created one for you.

Photo courtesy of LuckyScent