A paragon of freshness: Violet leaves give to fragrances a watery freshness likened to cucumbers or cut grass. Quite dissimilar to the scent of violet flowers, violet leaves possess intensely green nuances with subtler floral notes.
A discriminating plant of discerning taste, violets prefer temperate climates, well-irrigated soil and an abundance of shade. The delicate flowers blossom into—as you might have guessed—violet-colored petals that surround vibrant yellow stigmas. There are two varieties common to perfumery: Parma violets and Victoria violets, both of which are native to Egypt. Nowadays, these delicate blossoms can be found in Italy and France, where, for many years, they characterized the city of Toulouse. Once the flowers are harvested, the fields are mown to gather the leftover stems and leaves—which have a rather intense green scent and color once an absolute is obtained. To amend this, the absolute is purified through distillation to create a colorless product that is more suitable to a perfumer’s palette. Meanwhile, the “violet flower” note used in many fragrances is actually a synthetic reproduction created with molecules such as ionones.
We’ve had a rather lengthy love affair with these dainty purple flowers. Violets are first mentioned in the 4th century BC, where Greek myth recounts a tale of romance between Zeus and Io. Submerged in his infatuation, Zeus ordered the Earth to create the most beautiful of all flowers in her honor: the Ion (violet in Greek). Fast-forward a millennia and a half, and violets gain considerable popularity, being traded and sold in consumer products such as 15th century violet-musk powder marketed for hair care. Napoleon himself was exceedingly fond of the flower—so much so that he earned himself the nickname “Corporal Violet,” and the flower eventually became the emblem of his imperial party. Even so, the humble violet wouldn’t reach its true climax until the Victorian era, when perfumers began dabbling in its sweet fragrance. In 1867, violet fields blossomed in Grasse for the first time. Perfumers used the enfleurage technique to extract the flower’s fresh, powdery scent, which, for many generations, was considered the embodiment of femininity. Once extraction solvents were invented, perfumers were able to also harness the fragrant power of violet leaves. And once the violet flower note was able to be recreated synthetically, its natural production almost ceased entirely due to its particularly high production cost.
Germany, France, Netherlands
The embodiment of delicacy and sensibility, Après l'Ondée paints, like a figurative perfume, the fragrant picture of a rural landscape suddenly bathed in sunshine after rain.
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