Eiderdown Press
Unique Books and Hand-Decanted Perfumes
Quinacridone Violet
Suzanne’s Perfume Journal

Click on Links to Previous Posts, below

A Conversation on Arabie

A More Affordable Olfactionary

Amouage Dia (pour femme)

Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold

Amouage Jubilation 25

Amouage Lyric Woman

Amouage Tribute

Amouage Ubar

Aroma M Geisha Rouge

Ava Luxe Café Noir

Best of 2009

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

Bond No. 9 New Haarlem

Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris

Caron French Cancan

Caron Parfum Sacre

Caron Tabac Blond

Caron Tubereuse

Caron Yatagan

Chanel 31 Rue Cambon

Chanel Bel Respiro

Chanel Chance

Chanel Coromandel

Chanel Egoiste

Chanel No. 5 (vintage)

Chanel No. 22

Chantilly Dusting Powder

Comme des Garcons LUXE Champaca

Comme des Garcons Series 7 Sweet Nomad Tea

Coty Ambre Antique

Coty Chypre

Creed Acqua Fiorentina

Creed Fleurs de Bulgarie

DSH Perfumes Quinacridone Violet

Deneuve

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Estee Lauder Private Collection

Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss

Favorite Fall Fragrances

Fragrances for Sweden

Frederic Malle Angeliques Sous La Pluie

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese

Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose

Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie

Frederic Malle Une Rose

Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

Gucci L'Arte di Gucci

Guerlain Jicky

Guerlain Parure

Guerlain Vega

Happy Solstice

Hermes 24, Faubourg

Hermes Caleche (vintage)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Hermes Hiris

Histoires de Parfums 1740

Histoires de Parfums 1828

Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette

Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine

How I Store Decants

In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Juliet by Juliet Stewart

Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Orchidee Blanche

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer

L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

La Via del Profumo Balsamo Della Mecca

Le Labo Patchouli 24

Little Lists

Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles

Message In A Bottle 

Miscellany 

Molinard Habanita

Mona Di Orio Nuit Noire

Montale Black Aoud

Montale Boise Vanille

Montale Intense Tiare

Montale Patchouli Leaves

More Roses (rose cookie recipe)

My Heart Has Skipped A Beat (summer smells)

My Perfumes Have Theme Songs

Nasomatto China White

Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline

Ormonde Jayne Frangipani

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery Ormonde Woman

Oscar de la Renta Oscar for Men

Parfum d'Empire 3 Fleurs

Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba

Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu

Parfums DelRae Amoureuse

Parfums Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars

Pascal Morabito Or Black 

Perfume Quotes - The English Patient

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva

Profumum Roma D'Ambrosia

Puredistance I

Recipe for Socca

Robert Piguet Fracas

Robert Piguet Visa

Sarah Horowitz Parfums' Joy Comes From Within & Beauty Comes From Within

Scented Reading

Scentuous Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Serge Lutens Arabie

Serge Lutens Chêne

Serge Lutens Chergui

Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre

Serge Lutens Miel de Bois

Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle

Serge Lutens Un Lys

Snow Days

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio Jour Ensoleille

S-Perfume 100% Love {More}

Sweden Is For Lovers

T is for Taxes

Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin

Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Intimacy of Scent

Thoughts of a Perfume Collector

Tightly

Unlocking an Unknown: Webber Parfum 6T

Vero Profumo Kiki, Onda, and Rubj

Viktor & Rolfe Flowerbomb

What I’m Lovin’ Now

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

The Cosmic LipSmack of Quinacridone Violet

 

Imagine you are Adam at that crucial moment in the Garden of Eden. You’ve been foraging around in your part of the garden all day – nothing new – and then around the corner of a certain tree you see Eve sashaying toward you, and she’s looking a bit wonky. Her eyes are slightly glazed over but there is also a sly gleam to them; her lips are wet and berry stained, as if she’s spent the day partaking of every fruit; and then you see it, the apple in her hand, and you know she's partaken of every fruit. A sense of trepidation mixed with curiosity washes over you as she tempts you with this apple. Though you know well enough not to eat it, surely it wouldn’t hurt to kiss the lips that have tasted it?  She flicks her tongue at you, and you can smell the sweetness of familiar fruits and then something else that you will later identify as “tart,” but which for now is the thing you know is alien and forbidden.

 

This is what the opening stage of Quinacridone Violet, a fragrance from indie perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, smells like to me. Like a first kiss – mouthwatering and, at the same time, approached with a sense of hesitancy; like THE first kiss – on a mouth that has been corrupted by wicked fruits, but only recently corrupted, such that there is still a whiff of something naïve and innocently sweet about them.

 

Violet flower, with its strange combo of candied sweetness and queer aloofness, is the enigmatic star note of this fragrance, which takes its name from an actual paint color: “an intense, man-made, fuchsia–pink–purple artist hue,” as described by the perfumer on her website. And that is actually a perfect description, as this fragrance does trigger a synesthetic response; I believe that most people, upon smelling it, would identify it as having a pinkish-violet “color.”  In fact, as the sweet-and-sour piquancy of the top notes fades – which, alas, it does rather quickly – the fragrance becomes much more abstract in its “feel” and somewhat difficult to describe. I enjoy this stage of the scent as well (though not as keenly as I do its initial vibrant smack), and will try to describe it, but first let’s take a look at the composition for Quinacridone Violet. The scent has:

 

Top notes of Cherry Blossom, Lime Peel, Plum & Quince;

Middle notes of Aglaia Flower, Neroli, Osmanthus, Sweet Pea, Violet & Violet Leaf Extract;

Base notes of Atlas Cedarwood, Cassis Bud, Incense Notes & Musk.

 

I have no idea what cherry blossoms smell like, because the cherry trees that grow in my part of the world are bereft of scent, but when I smell these top notes they resemble a fusion of odd fruits – including cherry – as well as lemon, apple, grape, plum and apricot, with a tinge of almond that seems to thread itself around this assemblage and hold it together. The top and heart notes are experienced simultaneously, such that violet emerges from the get-go, and in this regard, Quinacridone Violet shares a similar vibe with the violet-rose perfume marvel that is Lipstick Rose (by Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums). Both start off as sirens singing the same olfactory tune, something along the lines of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” (“and I liked it/The taste of her cherry chapstick…”). But QV’s pucker is wilder and a bit more shocking – in the beginning anyway.

 

How quickly, though, it begins to fade!  And while it doesn’t lose much in terms of its signature smell – the tart fruits married to candied violets – it does lose impact, dissolving into a quiet wash of its former “color.”  The greenness of violet leaf becomes more evident, expressing itself in a cool and remote way, as if it has a wallflower fear of getting so involved with these passionate fruit notes. And cedar and musk come along to smooth everything out, further contributing to this sense of remove. It’s like a retreat to safety, yet it is not without its charms. No longer pumping out the throbbing notes to a sexy song, QV settles into something resembling the space music of that long-running, pioneer program, Hearts of Space…something that makes you feel blissfully stoned and connected to the Divine, but with no fear that you’ve partaken of wantonness that will get you kicked out of the Garden.

 


Quinacridone Violet is from the Parfums des Beaux Arts line of Colorado-based, independent perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz. It can be purchased from her website in a number of different concentrations, in prices ranging from $13 to $125 (as well as an individual sample for $4). My review was based on the fragrance in the “oil essence” concentration, which comes in a dram-sized roll-on bottle for $42.

Image: "pink-violet eternity fractal" is from 7art-screensaver.com.

Posted by Suzanne Keller, 11/19/2009.