Roxana Illuminated Perfume Impromptu

By Tom Roxana Villa is one of my favorite perfumers. I don't think there's a single perfumer out there who creates scents that so perfectly capture the natural essences that to me read California. Beth and Donna are fans as well as readers of this blog well know. In fact, Donna reviewed this very scent a couple of weeks ago. I could just sort of say "what she said", but that wouldn't be fair. Impromptu was the result of a happy accident. While tidying part of her studio, Roxana came across some early drafts of her gorgeous scent Chaparall as well as some of her "experiments".  She asked herself the question "is it possible to make an interesting, complex perfume without using costly ingredients?" Short answer: you betcha. Without being consciously retro, it makes me think of a scent from the 40's. Mainly because it's such a rich scent, taking the smoky-sweet aspects of Chaparall with additions of of butter-soft carnation and her botanical version of leather. For me the opening is all about the carnation, which is almost soapy but then quickly warms with the spices. As it progresses you get into the parts of Chaparall that I love- which I wrote of as the "distillation of California with it's herbal woodiness and hint of wildfires."  While the scent itself is delightfully smoky, as Donna noted the leather shows none of the birch-tar aspects of other scents. Nor is it of a new car; it's more Hermes than Honda. The lasting power of this is incredible for a botanical: I got 12 hours on my skin. While it's being sold as a feminine scent, I'd wear it in a heartbeat. Available on her Etsy site, my sample was sent by the perfumer. Image, her website