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Post by SarahK

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Hello AJP family.

Sonoma Scent Studio is a line created by indie perfumer Laurie Erickson. They aren’t that easy to get hold of if you’re outside the United States as the company won’t ship internationally but if you can find them, it is a line well worth exploring.
(Ed: IndieScents has a great SSS range and send to the world)
Some really don’t suit me, but others are just glorious. It’s not a natural perfume line (though some of the scents are made with all-natural ingredients) but, of the six scents I’ve tried to date, even the ones that use synthetics have a ‘natural’ feel to them. That doesn’t mean they aren’t long-lasting though – as a whole, this line has some of the best longevity that I’ve come across, and a little goes a long way.

Nostalgie by Laurie Erickson for Sonoma Scent Studio

Photo Stolen IndieScents

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Aldehydes, Indian jasmine sambac absolute, Bulgarian rose absolute, mimosa absolute, peach, violet flower, violet leaf absolute, tonka, French beeswax absolute, natural oakmoss absolute, aged Indian patchouli, East Indian Mysore sandalwood, leather, vanilla, orris, myrrh, vetiver, and musk

Today I’m going to talk about one of SSS’s rose-violet scents. Nostalgie opens on the skin as a gentle, woody-floral, aldehydic scent – something traditionally ‘perfumey’, but softly so. Half an hour into its development it is a powdery rose, with a hint of violet, a beautiful cosmetics smell, but less sweet, more natural, and altogether less in-your-face than, say, Frederic Malle’s Lipstick Rose. While the violet-rose combination in Lipstick Rose is backed by a sweet, slightly plasticky almond, in Nostalgie, it’s backed by a mossy beeswax spiked with a little vetiver.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Nostalgie is a very appropriate name for this romantic fragrance, which conjures soft-focus images of an Edwardian beauty. She’s dressed in white and sitting in a sunny garden amid blooming flowers, bees and butterflies. This, to me, is the scent of Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View. Someone on Fragrantica likened it to Chanel’s No. 22, and I can see why – they share a sweet, floral, beeswaxy feel. But, while Nostalgie has aldehydes, they are little fluffy kitten aldehydes. Nostalgie has none of No. 22’s fizzy champagne rush attacking the nose. It’s all soft, powdery florals. As the scent wears on, the sweet violet shows more of its face. Sweet, but not at all cloyingly so, it is a bit like Palma Violet candy, though the fragrance is as much about rose as violet. The base is gentle sandalwood, with a touch of moss, patchouli and vetiver, which combine with the beeswax to give the scent a gentle old-school furniture polish vibe. I love it.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Very much a classic floral, and traditionally feminine, but (to my mind, at least) there is no reason that a man who likes powdery, floral fragrances couldn’t wear Nostalgie. It doesn’t have huge projection, but is still detectable on my skin an impressive 14-16 hours after application.

SSS has another couple of rose-violet-aldehyde scents that I have tried. To Dream has more of the woody and incense notes that the house is famous for, while Lieu de Reves has notes up front (perhaps the combination of cedar and vetiver) that remind me of cola – in a good way. They both strike me as less rosy, and less floral altogether, though Lieu de Reves still has plenty of powdery violet in its heart.

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels, Now Smell This and Muse In Wooden Shoes
IndieScents has $105/34ml Extrait de Parfum
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml

See you soon,
SarahK x