We’ll do a draw at the end of the day Thursday for 3 winners of one sample each of our two new scents: Wood Violet and Vintage Rose. Just post here on the blog that you’d like to be entered or send an email to info@sonomascentstudio.com and you’ll be entered in the draw.
Tell me your favorite rose and/or violet perfume while you are at it! I’ll start by saying I have a huge list of favorite rose scents, but some of my favorites are Guerlain Nahema, L’Artisan Drole de Rose, Rosine Poussiere de Rose, Creed Fleur de The Rose Bulgare, and my new Vintage Rose. For violet, I love Serge Lutens Bois de Violette, Drole de Rose (which counts as both rose and violet to me), L’Artisan Vert Violette, and my new Wood Violet.
The photo above is a Ballerina rose in my garden. It’s a single rose rather than a rose with many petals, so people often don’t recognize it as a rose when they first see it. This shrub rose blooms many times over the summer season, covering itself in pink blossoms with a white eye and yellow stamens. Marjorie Fair is a similar shrub with red blooms instead of pink. They have no scent, but are still wonderful in the garden and form a large crop of hips in the fall if you don’t deadhead after the last fall bloom.
So, let me know if you’d like to enter the draw! It’ll be open for a couple days, until Thursday evening.
Perfume in Progress 
Hello, Laurie, I’m happy to see that your Vintage Rose is ready. I wonder if it’s the fragrance I tried when it was still a work in progress. It was very promising. My favorite rose perfume is your Cameo! I love its richness. Another favorite is on the other end of the richness scale, Parfums de Rosine Ecume de Rose. I love rugosa roses and this is a beautiful, light-filled tribute to them. I also enjoy Serge Lutens Rose de Nuit, a dark chypre. Rich, light, dark–I love roses.
I like single roses too (speaking of blossoms now). Your hybrid musks look beautiful. I haven’t yet planted any, but they’re on my list.
Please put me in your sample drawing. Thank you! And congratulations on your new scents.
Hello!
I’d love to sample your new scents! Please enter me into your sample drawing.
Many blessings~
Lisa
love to see you again! and your scents sound—fabu!
Hi Maria, Lisa, and Deb! Will put you all in the draw.
Maria, I’ve added the amber element to Vintage Rose and changed the woods since you got an early tester sample; you tried the plum rose accord I’ve been working on but it needed something different in the base for depth and life. I’m happy with the final result; it turned out very rich and complements that plumy rose accord I liked. You sound like me in your love of roses! I liked that SL too when I sampled it, very dark and earthy to me.
Lisa and Deb, good to see you too. I’ll post here Friday morning to announce the draw winners.
Hello!
I would love to enter your sample drawing. My favorite rose scent right now is Un Zeste de Rose by Parfume de Rosine – perfect for summertime!
I don’t think I’ve ever tried a wood violet scent – it sounds like a very exciting scent!
Thank you,
Lisa W.
Actually, Maria, let me just send you a sample of Vintage Rose outside of the draw since you tried an earlier tester; I like testers to be able to sniff the final version of things. 🙂 Please send me your address again. Thanks!
Hi Lisa W! Sure, I’ll put you in the draw!
Un Zeste de Rose is wonderful! It’s a great summer rose. Another summery one you might enjoy sampling is Hermes Rose Ikebana (it has grapefruit, which often doesn’t work for me but does in this one).
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi again Maria! Just found your addy in my records so no need to send it. I’ll get yours out with the draw winners. There are two Wood Violet testers I still owe final samples to as well and I’ve not forgotten; I’ll get them out by the end of the weekend.
wood violet sounds like heaven, i look forward to trying it! please enter me in the drawing. if i don’t win, i’m definitely buying some!
Hi Stella, I’ve got you down now too. Glad it sounds interesting! Always good to sample first. Thanks!
Please enter me in the drawing! Both scents sound great!
Hello, this is my first time here, and I’d love to be entered. Favorites of mine are Fresh Violette as well as L’artisan Drole de Rose.
Hi, first time here, so here’s my throw into the hat for the samples…
my favorite rose scent isn’t a specific one, but I love the smell of tea roses. so almost any perfume that captures that rocks.
Hi Lora, Stacey and Patricia! I’ll put your names in the flower pot for the draw too. Thanks for stopping by!
Good to see another Drole fan, Stacey. 🙂 I’ll have to try the Fresh Violet sometime. Patricia, this is more of a deep, dusky rose than tea rose. For a lighter, fresher, more tea rose type of scent it’s hard to beat Creed’s Fleur de The Rose Bulgare, for me anyway. Creed has two scents with almost the same name, which is confusing, so you need to be sure to get the right one to sample; Fleur de The Rose Bulgare is fresh and the other scent is not (I think the other one is called Fleurs de Bulgarie).
I’d love to be entered into the drawing! I love Bois de Violette. My skin tends to heighten cedar notes, so I’d be interested in the stronger violet note in your new creation. The rose sounds lovely as well. Thank you!
Hi Noyna, will do! I love Bois de Violette too! Mine is not meant to be very similar, though it does have some notes in common. Wood Violet has a more prominent violet note but also a more prominent green violet leaf note, as well as less sweet cinnamon and a different woods accord. They’re different, but I like them both. Thanks for stopping by, I have you in the drawing too.
I just read about your scents on Now Smell This: they sound beautiful, and I’d love to try them, so please enter me in the drawing.
My favourite rose is, and I apologize for the obviousness of it, Joy by Patou. My favourite rose scent that I actually wear is Dior’s Midnight Poison. (It’s the most masculine rose scent I’ve yet smelled, after years of looking for the perfect men’s rose: L’Artisan’s Voleur de Roses won’t do it.) As for a violet scent, I guess Guerlain’s Apres L’Ondee; my favourite violet that I wear is Geoffrey Beene’s Grey Flannel.
Hi Pyramus! You’ve mentioned some wonderful fragrances! I love Joy not just for the rose but for the jasmine too. And Apres L’Ondee is indeed beautiful. I’ve not tried Midnight Poison or Grey Flannel yet.
Le Labo’s Rose 31 is a popular unisex rose you might try if you haven’t already, or maybe Paestum Rose. I love VdR, but even with all the earthiness the sweet plum makes it feel a bit more feminine to me, though I realize many guys wear it too. Some of the Montale roses sound woodsy and unisex.
For unisex scents on my list, I’d think first of Ambre Noir, Encens Tranquille, Fireside Intense, and maybe Champagne de Bois. I’ll have Ambre and Champagne back on the list shortly.
Will enter you in the drawing too. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, please could you enter me in the draw (if I’m not too late!).
I love Bois de Violette and am intrigued to find out how Wood Violet would smell on me.
Hi!
First post here via NST, and really excited about it:) Please, enter me in the drawing!
Am not much into roses, but adore violets! I am with pyramus on Grey Flannel, but that’s more of an everyday scent, whereas Apres L’Ondee is more of a luxurious thing for me, but that’s IMHO, of course.
Hi Nicki and Tatyana, I have entered you in the drawing. Well, now I must go sniff Grey Flannel, lol! Thanks. 🙂
Hi Laurie,
I just read about you on NST – I didn’t know you had a blog! You’re in my favorites now.
I like violet, and I like cedar, but I have to admit that Bois de Violettes is not one of my favorites, so perhaps your new violet will be more to my taste.
A couple of my favorite roses are Ormonde Jayne’s Ta’if and L’Arte di Gucci (sadly discontinued).
I would be happy to be entered in your drawing.
Hi AnneE! Ta’if is lovely. I’ve not heard of L’Arte di Gucci — that’s always sad when a favorite is discontinued. I have entered you in the drawing. Glad you stopped by!
Hi Laurie,
I too, adore violets, and certainly some of my favorites are the ones that you mentioned. I also adore Lipstick Rose, to combine roses and violets a la Drole de Rose. Please enter me into your drawing!
CIndy
Wood Violet sounds just great to me. Wood scents are generally among my favorites. I actually don’t have a favorite violet scent at the moment, but as for rose, I’ll go with Montale Aoud Lime. The rose amps up on me in that one, but in a pleasant way.
And I’d love to be added to the drawing!
Hi CindyN and Kelly! I’ve entered you too.
Lipstick Rose and Drole do have a lot in common. I get a little raspberry in Lipstick and a little honey in Drole, but the powdery rose/violet is prominent in both of course. Both fun! Haven’t worn Lipstick in a long time and should refresh my memory on it.
Montale Aoud Lime is on my to try list. I like a couple of the Montale rose aoud combos but should try more from that line. Wood Violet may start off too floral for you Kelly; it takes a little time for the woods to fully emerge, but I thought it was fun to start more with the violet and gradually shift (and violet ionones soften a lot with time anyway so that was the natural progression, though I tried to extend the violet note as long as I could).
Hello!
I’d love to sample your new scents! Please enter me into your sample drawing.
So far my favorite rose scents are Annick Goutal’s Ce Soir ou Jamais and Diabolo Rose by Les parfums de Rosine.
Regards,
Maria.
Laurie,
I’m so sorry for falling off the face of the earth after you sent me the testers for Wood Violet!!! School got really crazy and I started taking an on-line natural perfumery class with Anya McCoy of Anya’s Garden. I am happy to see it ready and can’t wait to order my own bottle =)
Are your perfumes all natural as well?
I’d still like to be entered in the draw for the samples.. especially for the vintage rose =)
-Monica
Hey Laurie..they sound beautiful-please enter me in the draw:) I’m loving rose esp. right now…
Hi Maria S! Just added you to the drawing. Ce Soir is lovely, and I like her Rose Absolue too. Diablo is one of the Rosine’s I’ve not tried yet; I have a few to catch up on!
Hi Monica! You got the very first violet experiments and the final scent was totally different. I’ll put samples in the mail to you, but I need your address. I had shipped your order to the US person who was going to visit you soon, so I don’t have your addy. I shouldn’t have tossed in those early experiments, but I did as long as we were getting the package to you overseas. I sent you an email so I can get your address.
My fragrances are not 100% natural, but they do contain a high percentage of naturals. It varies from scent to scent. Ambre Noir, Encens Tranquille, and Fireside Intense have a very high content of naturals (well over half, probably over 80%, I’ll have to compute it sometime). I enjoy working with combinations of naturals and synthetics, but I certainly understand those who prefer natural-only. Hope you enjoy your classes, both perfumery and other!
Hi Candice! Good to see you! I think you might like the rose (it has a nice amber accord you might enjoy)! Will do! 🙂
Hi Laurie. I’d appreciate being entered in the drawing.
I’m not a big floral fan, but have long wanted to buy a nice rose fragrance. I’ve often wanted the Creed scent, but with its cost, it’s something I have to be 100% sure I love first.
I love amber, so your new scent sounds wonderful.
Mary
Hi Mary! Yes, the Creed rose bottles are so big that a decant makes sense for most people, when you can find one. It’s a rose soliflore for those who really want the pure flower smell rather than a blend of notes. I’ll enter you into the drawing, thanks for stopping by!
Hi Laurie, your new scents sound great, please enter me in the drawing! One of my favorite roses (can’t have just one) is Paestum Rose. And I haven’t found a violet that really moves me yet, still searching for that one.
Please enter me in the draw…if I win, I may have an answer to your first question! (What is my favorite rose scent?) Right now, I am searching…I have a lot of fun with SIP’s rose scent, but that is an occasional fave. I have been searching for a rose + sandalwood for a while now…still looking…
Hi Amy H and Shelley! Paestum Rose is a wonderful, dry rose scent! I’ve not tried an SIP rose, though I tried an orange blossom SIP that was very pretty (would have to track down the name). I’ve had more success blending rose with cedar so far rather than sandal, but I agree a rose/sandal combination should be nice. I’m trying to think of one I like and drawing a blank at th moment.
Put you both in the drawing!