For Love of Ivy: Roxana Villa’s Hedera Helix (And a Prize Draw!)

By Donna My first love in perfumery is “greens’ and especially the green floral style; I once wore Diorissimo almost exclusively and I only stopped when it became impossible to find, and then it was sadly reformulated. I even wore Gucci Envy by the quart (sorry, former colleagues). I went through many of them before I discovered chypres, and then of course my favorites were the greener ones like the original Jean-Louis Scherrer. However, I do like my greens with florals and a touch of sweetness; even the fierce March wind of the great Vent Vert is only a prelude to the impossibly delicate bouquet of spring flowers hiding behind her intimidating visage, and that’s just what makes it so effective. Needless to say, when I heard that natural perfumer Roxana Villa was launching a new fragrance that might be her greenest yet, I was eager to sample it. Hedera Helix is the botanical name for what is commonly called English ivy, a rampantly growing and vigorous vine that is a particularly deep green color, and can look almost black in the shadows of the forest as it slowly but surely takes over the trees. The perfumer first began to compose it several years ago as a tribute to the Celtic sacred Tree Ogham of ivy, which is detailed here. The perfume is a perfect match for the name and the concept, a green floral chypre composed of many different leafy and floral notes and anchored with a base of resins, woods and real oakmoss. Like all of Roxana’s creations, it is 100% natural and made with organic grape and grain alcohols instead of the conventional kind. I was very impressed by the structure of this fragrance because the list of notes is surprisingly long but the overall effect is tightly focused on the green aspect. Everything else seems to be there to create that special mood, with nothing extraneous to distract from it. The base includes sandalwood, labdanum Tonka bean, styrax, Peru balsam, seaweed and oakmoss; the florals in the heart include rose, jasmine, orange blossom and boronia, while the opening has no less than four different kinds of citrus. Yet the dominant feeling is a canopy of fresh green leaves and lively herbal notes all mingling to make the point that this is all about the foliage. What makes it really wonderful is the same thing that made the original Vent Vert so special, an ethereal breath of sweetness behind the veil of green that softens any harshness such fragrances may have. It reminds me of her wonderful sea chypre GreenWitch, but Hedera Helix takes another direction. Instead of being of the sea, it is essentially of the forest, a walk in magical woodland where every step brings up the aroma of the greenery underfoot and the slightest breeze brings the scent of living things in all their mystery. I want to be clear that this perfume is neither chilly nor gloomy, as intensely verdant as it is; the opening is dense and pungent yet as it develops it is shot through with warm grace notes dancing through the air like a shaft of sunlight in a grove of tall trees. It is smooth and calming in the way that a walk in the woods with Nature can be, and I recommend it most highly for those who are looking for a perfume that does double duty as aromatherapy to bring a sense of ease and equilibrium. Like Roxana’s other perfumes, it is available as a liquid or in solid form. I love her solid perfumes, which are made with natural beeswax from her own beehives, and this imparts a special aromatic quality that really suits this fragrance perfectly. Hedera Helix is now available in Roxana’s Etsy shop along with her other scents. Roxana is generously offering a giveaway of a sampler set to one lucky reader, who will receive a sample of both the liquid and solid versions of Hedera Helix. The draw is open to the U.S. and Canada only. Please state in the comments if you would like to be included, and if you like, please tell us what your own favorite green perfumes are! Disclaimer: The perfume sample I reviewed was given to me by Roxana Villa for testing at my request. Image credit: “Magical Forest” computer wallpaper from openwalls.com

Holistic Honey: To Bee Perfume by Roxana Villa – And a Prize Draw

By Donna What I was growing up in New England, we bought our honey in metal buckets from a local beekeeper. It was clover honey but it was nothing like the clear liquid in glass bottles sold at the grocery store. This stuff was raw, thick, grainy and dark and sometimes had bits of the comb still in it. The flavor was earthy and robust, and if you were used to a more refined variety it took some getting used to. Of course I loved it, and I liked honeycomb too; I would chew it until there was nothing left but the wax. Once in a while I run across some honey that is almost as sturdy as that rich elixir, but it’s a rare occurrence. Well, if I can’t taste it at least I can smell it, because now there is a perfume that brings the aroma of that back to the present, To Bee by Roxana Illuminated Perfume. Modern honey perfumes can be problematic for many people, because the honey accord that is commonly used in commercial fragrances includes a material, phenylacetic acid, that smells urinous if too much of it is used and even when it’s not in sensitive individuals, and very strong to many people in any event. The worst offender is the infamous (to many) Miel de Bois by Serge Lutens. It is said that this one smells truly offensive to many people and even though I like it, I can certainly see how it could be too much. Needless to say this can be a deterrent to buying one if you love it but it offends the people around you. Perfumer Roxana Villa has solved this problem with To Bee, because it’s made of all natural materials, so it won’t go wrong on skin. It is composed with resins, woods, spices, mimosa, and absolutes of clover and beeswax. It also contains some special materials of Roxana’s own creation, including tincture of honeycomb (including some from rescued wild beehives) and a marvelous botanical leather accord of which I also have a sample. Essential oils, CO2 extracts and natural absolutes have been used with nary a synthetic in sight. I can detect the integration of the leather note in this fragrance and it really adds a depth and realism to the scent; after all, honey is made by thousands of living creatures and it’s “animalic” in that sense. Roxana’s concept for this fragrance was the atmosphere of the beehive’s interior, literally humming with life, and it’s all there; the wood of the structure, the waxy comb, the sweet floral scent of the honey, the sun-warmed sleepiness of high summer and the leathery, rich essence of concentrated life. Some of the beeswax in the solid perfume comes from Roxana’s own beehives, and it doesn’t get any more realistic than that! My samples of To Bee are of both the liquid and the solid perfume, and the solid is in a base of beeswax and jojoba seed oil, which makes it especially rich and redolent. It is this one that especially made me do a double take when I first smelled it, as I was immediately transported to my childhood kitchen and that big bucket of dense, opaque raw honey. The liquid alcohol-based version is also excellent; for a brief moment in its early development it got a little bit disorganized, but not for long, and by the time they had both been on my skin for half an hour the effect was very similar for each and I can recommend either version of this perfume wholeheartedly. Even on a warm, humid day the perfume was not overpowering; although it is sweet of course, it’s not that syrupy overkill too often found in mainstream fragrances. The lasting power is impressive for a natural too - I put some of the liquid on in the early evening and the next morning it was still there, about 15 hours later, and it had settled down to a gorgeous hay-like sweetness, and the honey aroma was still true. For anyone who has been hesitant to wear a honey fragrance for fear that it would be too strong and “funky,” To Bee is a great way to start. This perfume is available for sale at Roxana’s Etsy shop, and she has generously offered a giveaway of this innovative new release to a lucky PST reader, so please indicate in the comments if you would like to be entered in the draw. **Please note, the draw is open to U.S. mailing addresses only.** The winner will receive the solid To Bee perfume in a beautiful mini compact, as shown here. Photo credit: To Bee Perfume imagery courtesy of Roxana Villa Disclosure: The perfume samples were given to me by Roxana Villa for testing purposes. For more information about the plight of our precious honeybees and what the average person can do to help, please visit this page. For further reading, visit the Web site of The Honeybee Conservancy.

Foodie Sunday- Fathers Day, The Summer Solstice and a fabulous food & fragrance giveaway from yours truly and Roxana Villa!

By Beth My father was the parent who instilled in me my life long passion for plants. Before he suffered his first stroke, dad was a painter who crafted huge canvases splashed with vast rich swaths of color. Deeply in love with the impressionists, his gardens reflected the richness of his favorite Monet's and Van Gogh's and like Monet he set out to create his own Giverny My childhood yard was incredibly beautiful, filled with fragrant Rugosa Roses and Lilies of all types. In the spring there were fragrant clouds of narcissus and daffodil everywhere followed by vast bouquets of peonies and iris. My father could make anything grow. He had a beautiful terrace that was covered with a wisteria vine that although it had not bloomed in 10 years as a gift to me he worked on it all Spring the year that I was to be married. The morning of my wedding I walked out and noticed the blooms and later that day I was married to my beloved husband under that magical bower of sweetly scented blossoms, the best wedding gift ever! I always thought that my father had a fairies touch and perhaps he truly does, but his gardens were crafted through his deep and intimately personal understanding of the natural world. He knew that the very essence of life itself although seemingly effortless was truly fragile and could be destroyed too easily…he warned us endlessly of the folly of depleting natural resources without any understanding of how they were used in the extraordinary dance of connection to the world around us. He hated companies like Monsanto and Dow, companies he believed were capable of unleashing great devastation as a result of their unrelenting pursuit to poison our lovely world for their own profit. Way back then he was worried about his honeybees and taught me early just what it would mean to humanity as a whole if there were ever a dramatic die off in the hive populations, because we desperately need these hardworking little creatures to ensure our food supplies all year round. It’s that simple. No pollinators, no food or for my fellow perfumistas; no Flowers, no perfume! Because my father holds a Masters in Biology as well as Fine Arts his education allowed him blend his artistic visions with a real understanding of what was needed to create a beautiful home for all of his plants. No pesticides ever and his soil was dark and rich, he'd pick up rich handfuls and smell it....he could tell what it needed simply by the feel and scent and blessedly he taught me to do the same. I'll never forget when they first started selling cocoa hulls to use for mulching. My father’s gardens were always a riot of color and fragrance but with the addition of the rich chocolate perfuming the dark moist earth they became a symphony of exquisite scentual dimension. My father weaned us on Thoreau and Rachel Carson and he took a very holistic approach to his gardens, well before it was "chic" to do so. To him, doing things organically was what made sense, he didn't use pesticides and herbicides because every bug was invited and he delighted in the wee flowers that would pop up all over his lawn. His perennial beds were great blowzy things teeming with life....dragonflies and Praying Mantis, ladybugs and butterflies flittered everywhere but his favorites were the bees and judging from the amount of them they seemed to know it. He loved them all from the large soft bodied ones to the little honeybees that danced from flower to flower with their legs and bodies covered with pollen. I spent many years with him while he tended his lovely gardens, quietly working alongside while he pruned, coaxed and cajoled his flowers and fruits into huge and heavily sensual blossom. I am forever left with the memories of how those gardens would smell in the early part of the morning, petals and leaves dripping with dew and laced with “his” honeybees so hard at work. If you’re quiet around them, you can actually get close enough to a honeybee to smell their own perfume. It is sweet and very musky, deeply provocative and strangely sensual. As a child I really wasn’t aware of what I was smelling, I just knew that it was strange yet totally wonderful and somehow very private. I’m fairly sure that those earliest fragrance impressions were completely responsible for my almost obsessive fascination with fragrance and food and sex. “To Bee or not to bee that is the question….” and you all know that I’ll always choose “to bee” no matter the context! My father would have found a kindred spirit in my dear friend and Natural perfumer Roxana Villa, who has learned to tend her honeybees organically with as little interference as possible. Roxana’s “Warrior Girls” as she affectionately calls them live up in her lovely home in the Topanga Canyon area and they are as happy as can be and hard at work producing a bit of honey for her family and beeswax for her sumptuously beautiful solid perfumes. She describes the smell of her hives as feral and sexual with a delightful musk. She has created a wonderful perfume to be released on the Summer Solstice on the 21st of June called “To Bee” which I haven’t had the pleasure of sniffing yet but I know that I will love it. She describes it as being full of musk and leather, yet sweet and warm like the smell of her hives with a lovely base created from her tinctured honeycomb that sounds lovely, all yummy oozy honeyed warmth and dripping with caramel and a accord of sweet clover absolute which she says is filled with the warm sweet hay notes of the hive….and well to me sounds like the recipe for a truly lovely roll in the hay! I’ll have a wonderful sample of Roxana’s “To Bee” to giveaway to one lucky reader along with a wonderful yet to be determined jar of fabulous honey in honor of this years Summer Solstice, my 92 year old father and our wonderful native American honeybees whose populations are slowly healing due to the careful tending of their hives by “Bee Warriors” like Roxana and her friends from The Backwards Beekeepers group. Check out their site if you’d like to learn more about helping our devastated honeybee populations. Until recently we’ve ignored that most simple fact that would help insure our survival …because of the massive overuse of pesticides and other poisons our honeybee populations have dwindled to a dangerous tipping point ; in our lifetimes the plight of our native bees is the proverbial canary in a coal mine; an alarm bell pealing incessantly to try to tell us to stop the insanity before the danger to our beloved Gaia reaches the point of no return. If you want to smell this delightful new perfume just leave me a comment and let me know what you’re going to be doing with the honey I’m sending! I’ll start…ripe peaches soaked in truffled honey and muscat , served with fresh shortbread and whipped cream…In bed. How about you? Roxana Villa’s newest fragrance will be released (after June 21st) at her store. Photograph of To Bee by Roxana Villa Photograph of Bee Balm in my fathers garden by Beth Schreibman Gehring

Roxana Illuminated Perfume: Chaparral; A Real Bodice Ripper

By Beth "Pa said I could have my choice of any man....I’d rather have my choice of any horse" I remember the first time that I ever fell in love with a cowboy. Yep…. It was that head over heels, madly in lust, throw it all away and follow him madly off into the sunset kind of passion. I believe that at the time I was 15. My parents used to take me on wonderful trips, to beautiful places that we enjoyed together , but then they discovered the game of golf which I really hated and to this day have never developed any kind of passion for . So we struck a deal of sorts and they began to find beautiful places to play golf where there were horses for me to ride, a formula which worked out for us very well. They’d tee off early in the morning and I’d go running down to the stables after breakfast to spend the day grooming the horses and playing with the barn cats after my morning ride. I was lucky enough to ride horses all over Hawaii, learn to swim with them through the glacier rivers of the Canadian Rockies and the beautiful streams of West Virginia and the Carolinas. All of these places were beautiful, but none compared to the Arizona Biltmore where we stayed in beautiful Spanish style cottages and as a fairly precocious youngster I fairly well enjoyed the run of the place. There were beautiful stables on the Biltmore grounds and I spent blissful days riding the beautiful trails around the hotel with a guide while my parents enjoyed perfecting their precious game. The lands around the Biltmore Hotel were beautifully manicured and gorgeous but soon I began to long to ride up in the beautiful mountains that surrounded the Phoenix /Scottsdale area. My mother found a stable somewhere around Camelback mountain and dropped me off with a kiss and a packed lunch for the day. I was in heaven….I was going to get to ride my dream horse, a gorgeous paint mare up into those mountains for the day. We saddled up and off we went, me and my mare and the very quiet cowboy who was assigned to keep me out of trouble for the day. I still remember how he looked that day. He wore a stetson that was fairly battered but kept his wavy brown hair out of his green eyes. Nothing fancy dress about him at all , just button front Levi’s and a worn chambray shirt. He was a bit shy and a wee bit dusty but when he swung his leg over his beautiful chestnut gelding I was completely mesmerized. I still remember the smell of that day….my horse, the cactus , desert and mesquite with the ever present creosote lending a bitter sweat tang to the sweetness in the very dry heat . I followed him up the trail and we rode together silently along the ridge. That was when it happened ……suddenly and with the ferocity of a bolt of lightning his horse reared and came crashing down over and over again with his front hooves , striking an unseen target. My horse spun away, but I quieted her easily and only then did I turn to see what had happened. My cowboy smiled softly and pointed to the ground where a desert rattler lay in many pieces, crushed to death with a terrifying accuracy. I still remember his only words….”I promised them that I’d keep you safe” and we rode side by side for the rest of the afternoon. He smelled incredible…of salt sweat, tobacco, horse and sage. I never knew his real name, but it didn’t matter. In that moment he became a huge part of my emotional landscape….. of what I wanted a man to be. He kept me riding close to him for the rest of that afternoon and I’m sure that he’s the reason that I’ve always had such a passionate love affair with my horses. I can promise that you’ve never never lived until you’ve seen the beginnings of an Arizona sunset from the back of a splendid steed in the company of a fine man like that. Thank God he was such a gentleman for I’m pretty sure that I would have thrown myself at him if given the opportunity but sadly he never asked. I know that my mother thought that I’d gone just a wee bit mad, which perhaps I had and the power of that first unsatisfied lust....alternately loving and hating him held me captive for quite a few years. I’ve never completely forgotten about him, but he’s been tucked away safely, locked deep in my heart for many years. That is until the day that I arrived home to find a package from Roxana Villa awaiting me. In it were 2 samples of her Chaparral perfume, one liquid and one of her sumptuous honeyed solids. I opened them both and applied each to my wrists. I wasn’t prepared for the primal response that I had to Chaparral as it melted into my skin. In an instant that day up on the mountain came flooding back to me and I was turned once again into that young girl who couldn’t bear to leave the stables that evening. To me, Chaparral is the smell of unbridled passion , of virgin heat roaring between your thighs and of a desert so fiery and beautiful that it can make you cry with your first breath of it. Like all of Roxana’s perfumes it is completely natural and filled with her magical handcrafted accords which are beautiful and filled with incredible intention and energy. The California Chaparral is a gorgeous landscape filled with beautifully fragrant , draught tolerant plants that is constantly under threat of destruction by wildfire, landslide and urban sprawl. The California Chaparral Institute , an organization that Roxana supports with proceeds from the sales of her wonderful perfumes is devoted to protecting this fragile ecosystem and educating us all so that our grandchildren can know the captivating energy and fragrance of “The Wild West” that’s long gone, but seems to be forever branded in our souls. Roxana’s Chaparral is honey and white sage, herbs , woods and a bit of Frankincense blended to create a ferocious inner fire in the way that only Roxana Villa can. This is the smell of Viggo Mortensen releasing his beloved paint stallion back into the wild in the beautiful film Hidalgo or Anthony Hopkins cast as the romantic Zorro with his hands quietly calming his beautiful black horse…some men can just live that large in your dreams. Chaparral is so incredibly sexy on my husband that I can barely keep my hands off of him when he’s wearing it. Be careful with it because it’s provocative, almost enough so that it should come with a warning! If you try it and I truly think that you ought to, I can’t take any responsibility for the abandonment of your good sense. But by nature I’m definitely a pot stirrer and I do have samples which of course I am willing to share with you….just let me know by stating in your comments below that you’d love to be included in the drawing! The draw is now closed. All of her beautiful Chaparral products can be purchased through Roxana’s Etsy site. The California Chaparral Institute can be found at californiachaparral.com. Quote above: source unknown. Chaparral Photo courtesy of Roxana Villa. Viggo Mortenson Photograph courtesy of: unrealitymag.com

May Flowers, Madam: Vera by Roxana Illuminated Perfumes

By Tom Perfumer Roxana Villa finds new ways to both personalize and make more organic and local her scents; they are distillations of Southern California. She wrote me: "Many of the essences are from plants grown AND distilled in Ojai. The beeswax is from bees that gathered pollen from the farm where the lavender and other essences were grown and distilled. There is also a tiny bit of beeswax from my bees." Vera is about lavender; akin to the bright, sunny lavender found in Tauer's Reverie Au Jardin. While Reverie is cool however, Vera is warm. Fields of lavender in the sun, orange blossom and a slight saltiness like sun-kissed skin. It's as much Ojai as "The Pink Moment. Need I tell you that Vera is part of the California series? I'm going to petition her to do one for my part of LA... Available at her website. If you would like to be entered into a drawing for a sample of Vera solid, please leave a comment. Drawing will close Sunday at 11:59 EDT The draw is closed. Please visit the other participating blogs (note: written in advance so I don't have exact URLs): Scent Hive Windsphere Witch Portland Examiner Indie Perfumes

Wandering Wonderland

Perfumer Roxana Villa has created a trial version of a green fragrance with rose at the heart titled "Smell Me". She will be giving away five samples of the fragrance as part of this blogging collective celebrating Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". GAME: To be entered to win a sample of "Smell Me" please visit each participating blog and determine which character from the story each blogger has assumed. E-mail your guess to Roxana Villa. Five winners will be chosen to receive a sample of the first edition trial of the fragrance. Your clue (you might want to write it down): "quote the raven: 'teatime'" Illuminated Perfume Journal Memory & Desire Indie Perfumes Beth Schreibman Gehring

Sweet/Tart Part Two- Roxana Illuminated Perfume Chocolate Natural Perfumes ..and a draw

By Tom Previously I had covered Blossom, Roxana Villa delightful ode to the Eau de Cologne. This time I'm talking about her new line of solid perfumes based on chocolate, "the food of the gods" My personal journey with perfume with chocolate notes started of course with Angel, which I instantly loathed. Like "get that s&(t away from me" loathed. Then I smelled in on a co-worker on whom it was a total delight. Still is ghastly on me, but a gateway drug is a gateway drug. Then there was Borneo 1834, which was an instant love and my first Bell Jar. There have been others, but I do have to write that Chocolate (or Cacoa more accurately) isn't the first thing I think of when I think of perfumes. When Roxana told me that her new line was all Cocoa, all the time I thought "Hmmm" Then she explained that while they're solid perfumes that stand alone, they're almost to be used as body butters, to be layered with themselves and other Illuminated Perfumes. Figure 1: Noir is pretty Noir: dark woods, dark spices (I smell cinnamon bark and patchouli?) and dark chocolate. The chocolate is the hero ingredient for only about 50% of the time. The other 50% is the woods and musk. I'd love to see a perfume version of this with say 80% woods and 20% Cacao to layer it. Figure 2: Cerise is described as cherry and chocolate. It's not. Which is my opinion is no bad thing: I;m not sure that a literal interpretation is something I'd like. It does suggest cherries, but in a whisper, as is the chocolate. Figure 3: La Forêt is a "dense conifer forest meets and ocean of chocolate". It's definitely dense conifer but the chocolate is more like a pond, and arrives late to the party. It also arrives with a bit of saltiness that's not only fascinating but works extremely well with the piney opening. Figure 4: L'Orangerie is not immediately choco-tastic. It opens bright with citrus peel, sort of like ripping into a fresh mandarin. The Cacao is never intrusive, it seems like a base to the citrus. She writes that "this perfume is VERY fleeting", but I got a decent lasting power out of it and think it would be great with a citrus scent on top. Figure 5: Bois de Chocolat is "smokey woods and chocolate". First, I think that there is nobody who does smoke better than Roxana Villa and this is a wonderful example of it: it has the smokiness of her Chaparral supplanted with the smoky sweetness of the cocao bean. Of any of these this is the one I'd like to own, hands down. Figure 6: Épices is spices, vanilla and chocolate. To me it smells sort of like a chai latte with a hit of Sharffen Berger (the brand she uses to make the line). It's the one that I find the least interesting in the line. But having written that, I have a feeling that a little of this rubbed behind your ears and you'll have boys eating out of your hand. I have a sampler of all six available for one reader, if you wish to be included in the draw please leave a comment. Available at her Etsy shop, in various combinations. She provided me with my small samples and the samples for the draw.

Sweet/Tart Part One: Roxana Illuminated Perfume Blossom

By Tom Roxana Villa has quickly become one of my favorite of the natural perfumers. She has introduced a new series of chocolate solid perfumes that I will be reviewing next week (with a sample give-away) but first I want to touch on one of her scents that she has brought back into production, Blossom. She describes blossom as a "traditional Eau de Cologne" based upon her memories of a scent she remembers from her childhood in Argentina called: Colonia de Bebe", which is somewhat like 4711. I've never smelled Colonia de Bebe, and I have smelled 4711. Well, let me clarify: I've smelled the vintage back in the 70's since my grandfather wore it. The stuff that you get today in the plastic vat at your local Duane Reade has as much to do with vintage 4711 as Diet Pepsi does to Dom Perignon. Blossom does evoke those memories. By using pure botanical ingredients she's created a delicious puzzle-box of a fragrance: it's both light with orange blossom yet heady with jasmine and prickly with rosemary. I don't want to write that it's fresh and clean because that usually evokes dryer sheets and those scents that smell vaguely like aluminium, but this is fresh and clean, as if you'd just plucked the flowers and the peel and rubbed them together in your hands. If you have any memory of "traditional Eau de Cologne" you'll connect with it immediately but even if you don't I defy you not to fall for this. While I can imagine bathing in this in a hot summer (especially in humidity) I can equally see it's brightness as being uplifting on a drab winter day. As I type this I am watching "Psycho" and thinking that John Gavin is the perfect image of the man who would smell like this: handsome, straighforward and very male. Not to say that a woman couldn't totally rock this. Certainly were I partnered I would buy one for my "Trevor" and ruthlessly filch.. $7.50 for a 5 gram spray bottle at her Etsy shop, she's promising larger sizes soon. I hope she adds body products, room spray and perhaps dryer sheets. Image source, Roxana Villa Illuminated

The Visions of Vespertina - lessons in Perfume, Passion and Allegory - Roxana Villa and Gregory Spalenka

By Beth It is rare as a writer, that I’m left speechless. But there are those rare occasions when I come across a story so haunting that I’m left with simply my own tears and almost no way to put them into words. About a month ago, I arrived home from California to find a beautiful package waiting for me from Roxana Villa. I waited for a perfect day to open it and sooner than later I found myself alone, listening to thick warm raindrops splattering against the windows. What I found when I opened the thick envelope was a complete mystery to me. There was a beautiful little pot of solid perfume sealed with Roxana’s trademark bee and enveloped in a beautiful bag of sheer rose colored chiffon tied with a simple green ribbon, but there was also a beautifully illustrated book entitled “The Visions of Vespertina” and a cd that was inserted ever so gracefully into the sleeve inside. It was simple, magical and completely enchanting. I was amazed. I’d never considered it, perfume as music, illustration.....perfume as art, art as perfume. It was an inspiring concept to consider, somewhat surreal as if from another time or place and incredibly bold in its conception. I knew by the way that my hair stood on end that there was something here for me to consider, to be profoundly moved by. So I made myself a pot of yarrow tea , opened up the lovely little pot of perfume and inserted the cd into my computer. All of a sudden the kitchen where I work was transformed into a beautiful cloister with a soft rain outside, fresh flowers and herbs and a walled garden all around. I found myself swept away and captivated by the story of Vespertina , a young mystic who is in essence a time traveler, one who walks between the worlds of this life and the next. She is one born to a very long lineage of those who travel back and forth through the veils and although it is she who is ultimately destined to to bring balance back into both of those worlds, she is emotionally lazy and unwilling to claim that capacity to provoke healing that is her birthright. Vespertina in her journey is opened powerfully to the possibilities of passionate , yet unrequited love with her lover Dante’ and it is she who learns the ultimate lesson in the releasing of that passion. I think that many of us can identify with experiencing a love so powerful and ultimately so earthbound that we are simultaneously destroyed and yet opened up by the very nature of its elusiveness. I have an image of Vespertina standing at her garden wall holding a rose given to her by her lover and yet with her head encircled in a wreath of stars. Her story serves as a reminder to me that there is a fine balance to be walked in this life, that we are all far vaster beings than we know and yet our time here is precious. I know that in my own life, to walk amongst the stars I need to have my feet planted firmly here on Earth and it has been a hard won lesson. Every time that I have tried to do it in reverse I’ve come crashing down with the weight and agony of my ungrounded spirit. Walking between worlds comes very easily to me and so does being carried away by the rapture of those journeys. Many times I have been burdened by a love that seemed so real and yet was made that way only by the power of my own imagination. It took me years to understand that I was that love and it was then and only then that living the powerful life that was to be my birthright was even possible. Vespertina’s story, her perfume and the gorgeous music that is woven along through is an spiritual yet earthly allegory of the rarest and most exquisite sort. Greg Spalenka (along with Michelle Barnes) is the co-author , musician and illustrator of “The Visions of Vespertina”. Greg is Roxana’s adorable husband and together they have created a breathtaking work of conceptual art with a fluid life of its own, an unfinished and still unfolding story that we can all place ourselves into. The music is magnificent with its origins found in many of the old Renaissance masterpieces. The paintings are done in the style of the most glorious illuminations and yet they are more than that, they seem to be portals into another time and place, beckoning you gently to explore those secret places in your soul that only you know exist. Roxana Villas “Vespertina” perfume is grounded in sweet scent of honey and beeswax with flourishes of sandalwood and frankincense, rose and jasmine. There are over 20 different and beautifully handmade botanical essences used in the making of it and when I wear it I feel as if I have become the lady in one of my beloved French Unicorn Tapestries . It is available as a gorgeous liquid perfume as well as a sumptuous solid. As with all perfumes made by the divine Ms. Villa, this making of this fragrance harms none yet has bewitched almost everyone that I’ve let close enough to enjoy it. Vespertina has a quiet energy , created in the monastic image of the heroine who has inspired it, yet is a very seductive fragrance that is completely full of all of the forbidden nuances and subtle inuendos that can’t help but inspire a deep hunger filed with equal parts desire and passion. Wear it at your own risk and enjoy the results. If falling that deeply in love with yourself isn’t worth it, nothing is...........

Hallowe'en Treat: Phoenix Myster by Roxana Illuminated Perfumes

By Tom A few days ago, perfumer Roxana Villa emailed me with news of a new product- inspired by yours truly. My first reaction was of course, pride since the only thing I had previously inspired would have been mild distaste. Then I felt some fear; what if I hate it? Well, I pretty much knew that wouldn't happen because of the notes (from her site) - Vanilla: warm and inviting - Benzoin: purifying, when combined with spice acts an an attractor - Myrrh: (for the nest) enhances contemplation - Dragons Blood Resin from a small indigenous village in the Amazon. - Spices: invigorating, energizing, spell enhancing and uplifting - Orange: uplifting I do admit googling "Dragon's Blood Resin" to see if it was for real and lo and behold it is. It's a resin with some medicinal purposes. Vanilla, myrrh, spices and orange are of course right up my alley. Pheonix Myster is written of in her blog as a celebration of my favorite time of year, Fall. For me it's a time of renewal and contemplation, planning for the upcoming winter and the promise of spring. Growing up in New England fall was a time for putting up preserves, making leaf piles, that nip in the air requiring cashmere sweaters and lit fireplaces. I used to drive on the cold days to school in my little red FIAT Spyder with the top down wearing a scarf, marveling at the beauty of the leaves turning, an experience I was able to recreate with my BFF Bitsy last year in a borrowed Honda S2000. It was just as sublime an experience years later and better shared (and it was nice to not have to crank the car..). While Roxana writes about Samhain and the celebration when time of year when the "veil between worlds are at their thinnest" the balance of notes neatly straddle the world of my memories and the world of the Druids. Maybe that's the point. Citrus dominates the opening, and never leaves the composition completely. The vanilla and the spices keep it somewhat foody, but not sweet; sort of like walking into a house where someone had been making really good marmalade. Benzoin and myrrh add shadows: those worlds of memory and mysticism merging. Phoenix Myster is at once as warm and inviting as a rambling country house, but with a touch of October Country darkness making it perfect for this season. Phoenix Myster is available at her e-shop $25.00 for 1 OZ spray Image source, Roxana Illuminated Perfume.

Peace Pipe: Roxana Illuminated Perfume (peace symbol)

By Tom From Roxana Villa's email to me: On September 21st, the United Nations International Day of Peace, I will be launching a new perfume I have been working on for some time. It is inspired by Project Peace on Earth. This Peace inspired fragrance will give a portion of the proceeds from each of the 1/4 oz liquid perfume flacons and solid compacts to the POE (Project Peace on Earth) organization to facilitate their vision of a global prayer concert for Peace. She sent me a sample of the scent and it's luscious: the opening is sparkly citrus (I think orange and lemon, but Roxana has not listed notes as of today the 18th, so I may fall flat on my face on this one..) cut with vanilla, and the drydown features some of the smoky woods she does so well. Is it shallow of me to love the fact that I can both do good and smell great at the same time? In the interest of taking the high road, here are the links she sent me: Project Peace on Earth Roxana's Blog International Day of Peace Other blogs participating in the project: Bitter Grace Notes; Examiner, Cleveland; Examiner, Portland; Illuminated Perfume; Indie Perfume; Memory and Desire; Perfume Shrine; Scent Hive; The Non-Blonde. Image source, journal.illuminatedperfume.com.

Roxana Illuminated Perfume -"Q"

By Beth Once upon a time there was a young girl who dreamed of living in a beautiful castle, in the middle of a beautiful forest. In her daydreams she was always the Princess, never the Queen, because the Princess always seemed to have more fun in the stories! In her fantasies she rode beautiful horses with blankets of velvet and all of the creature of the wood were her friends. She rode through her kingdom with a beautiful goshawk named Gabriel who sat on her shoulder and a trusted wolfhound named Margaret. She spent most of her days with the wise woman from the Glen of Oaks and Violets who taught her to brew healing spells and tinctures out of the abundance of herbs , roots and trees found all throughout her lands. Her visits with the wise woman were always her own secret, her way of being a little rebellious in the face of her otherwise neat and orderly world. When she was there she could be herself, letting her imagination free and her natural gifts for magic flow. It was a beautiful cottage that the wise woman lived in, made of stones from the field and always with a fire crackling in the corner. It was filled with sweet cats that lay about in the sun simply enjoying themselves. The smells in this home were amazing, of raw earth and mineral, herbs, blossoms and mysterious spices that came from places that the young princess had only dreamed of but never seen. There were always magical teas that made her see her life with joy and clarity or disrupted her thoughts with images that shook her to her very roots, but even when this was the case the wise woman was always there to help her understand what she had just seen. But best of all were the Oak trees..such wise ones were they. They seemed to speak to her of history and place, grounding and transcendence and always whistling songs in the wind....if she listened closely they would tell her funny stories and sometimes they played with her, knocking her on the head with their acorns when she least expected it! The wise woman taught her to write in calligraphy and to draw all that she learned. She taught the young Princess to keep all of her stories and formulas in a simple book that she made herself out of handmade paper and hemp. So used to the pious monks of her fathers kingdom was she that at first she didn’t want to do that . It reminded her too much of the manuscripts that they wrote with their scary pictures and stories. But the very wise woman convinced her that claiming her true voice in this way would give her the strength and security that she craved and the wisdom to understand and lead those who looked to her for guidance. I could go on and on about my dream, of the fantasies that I played with all of the time as a young girl which eventually led me to my chosen paths of shamanism and magic. But what I really want to talk about is Roxana Villa and how in a split second she brought that dream back to me. You will all remember that several months ago our darling Tom wrote a wonderful article about Roxana and several of her beautifully handcrafted botanical perfumes. I went to her blog and was so entranced at that moment that I ordered several samples. About 4 days later an envelope arrived and I opened it eagerly. Inside was a beautiful little packet, with lovely writing on it and sealed with a wax seal of a honeybee. Inside were three perfect little vials of the scents that I had ordered, Lyra, Aurora and Vespertina and a lovely note from Roxana herself. I was enchanted. Roxana Villa is one of the the wonderful botanical perfumers in our midst, creating complex and extraordinarily lovely perfumes with tinctures, resins and essential oils, yet ascribing to the creed of harming none. A botanical perfumer isn’t to be confused with a natural perfumer. A natural perfumer can use an entire range of compounds to create their fragrances including a whole host of animal products as long as they are natural. A botanical perfumer will mostly only use the products of plants, roots and minerals and where Roxana does use beeswax, honey absolute or distilled sea shells in her products she is completely completely transparent in her labeling, making her products suitable for vegans who don’t want to find out unexpectedly that they’ve purchased a product made with a fixative of civet or musk or ambergris. Most recently I returned to Roxana’s blog to find a beautifully written post about the arrival of Spring and her perfume “Q” which is an ode to the California Coastal Oak. I was instantly reminded of the memories of the wise old Oaks which still stand in the yard where I played as a girl. When my sample of “Q” arrived , I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. “Q” is a magnificent perfume, made from the hand tinctured live leaves of the Coastal Oak, wood, resin and citrus accords. Roxana tinctures the oak leaves herself on Beltane eve. Beltane is also known as May Eve or May Day and is the time for celebrating the return of the suns warmth and the promise of fertility. Beltane was the time that the ancients chose to celebrate the sacred union between a man and woman and lore does tell that all around the lands Beltane fires were lit and couples would steal away into the night to consummate their passions in the shadows of the flames. I find all of Roxana’s perfumes to be incredibly deep , rich and moving but it is “Q” that is a shamanic template for my soul. Her gift is the same as that wise woman of my dreams, all knowing and all seeing, primal and real. In one split second and one deep breath of gorgeous green scent all of my pasts, presents and future collided happily, leaving me orgasmically relaxed and totally satiated. My husband fell instantly under the love spell that is “Q”, saying that it was one of the most sensual of the fragrances that he’d ever enjoyed, that it felt honestly and completely real. I’m not sure how she coaxes the beautiful essences from all of her beloved plants but I do know that she is the weaver of a very old magic and that she truly understands the true nature of the craft that she practices. To wear a perfume that Roxana Villa has created is to be plunged happily into another time and place yet be recreated powerfully and alive in your present. She weaves a spell of scent that transcends the very nature of history. Quite fabulously, a portion of the proceeds from each 7 gram flacon of “Q” goes towards creating profits and awareness for the California Oak Foundation, a cause very dear to Roxana’s heart! You can find “Q” as well as all of Roxana’s gorgeous perfumes at Etsy. Enjoy her gorgeous Illuminated Perfume Journal. Photograph of “Q” courtesy of Roxana Illuminated Perfumes.

Kindness of Strangers, and a giveaway

By Tom Roxana Villa was kind enough to send three samples of her new solid perfumes, which are made from essences blended in a base of natural beeswax and jojoba oil. I've already written about Sierra, which I adored. The solid brings the citrus that I didn't smell so much of in the oil to the fore, it lasts longer in that state before going to the glorious coniferous base. Cimbalom is one that I hadn't tried before and would be interested to try the oil of; the solid is peppery ginger and bright orange, which cedes to a lovely patch married with labdanum and jasmine. By far my favorite however is Chaparral; the solid perfume form really shows off the incense portion of the scent. The wildness of the oil is somewhat disciplined by the solid perfume. I notice this with Sierra also; the solid form slows the development of the scent, in the reverse of the sort of time lapse photography showing the speeded up blooming of a rose. The slowed-down minuet Chaparral does in solid form lets one linger over each stage from church-of-nature incense through tarry wildfires through to its base, where the delightfully peppery greenness brings the whole scent into something that embodies California. California, Not Los Angeles. Le Labo did LA proud, but this is the real California; the distillation of the Golden State. It's standing in the Malibu hills on a summer day; the Pacific's in sight, ten thousand feet below and the air is clear and momentarily still. But you can still smell the wildfires of previous seasons and the vegetation pregnant with creosote and if you're a smoker, you're extra careful to make sure that you've put your cigarette out completely. You even park carefully, making sure hot engine parts aren't near vegetation. A break-down on the 101 all the way in the Valley can spark a fire that with the "Sundowner" winds would incinerate everything from the Freeway to the sea, including you. This is that smell: heartbreaking beauty and palpable danger. I'd love to see how it layers with the oils, but I gave my samples away. In the spirit of giving (and even though I want to keep it..), I will give these three away to one commenter. Fulsome praise of my writing skills and general brilliance will not affect the outcome of the draw. But hey, it couldn't hurt... Image source, usbr.gov.