Description
A beautiful combination of violet, plum, violet leaf, woods, and musk. This scent evolves quite a bit over time, opening with lush plumy violet notes and softening into violet with a woodsy base. Very soft spices enhance the woods without upstaging them.
Perfumer’s Comments: “I’ve always loved combinations of violet and cedar and wanted to do something along these lines with a more prominent and lasting violet note and with less sweet spice than the woodsy violet scents I’d tried. I used the green violet leaf to help anchor the violet and added plum to complement the violet and cedar”.
Fragrance Notes: violet, plum, cedar, cinnamon. clove, sandalwood, violet leaf, musk.
The nose behind the fragrance is Laurie Erickson. The fragrance was released in May 2008.
denuuas – :
Wood Violet is all about the violet and plum. It’s a rare violet scent that isn’t powdery antique violets, sugared parma sweets, or green and watery, but rather a full, velvet violet. The plum is a lovely pairing. It’s not tart or fresh – nor is it really a dried fruit – it smells somewhat like the smell of ripe plum flesh if it were put through a soft focus filter. Underlying the violet plum pairing is a smooth musk (smells like suede to me) and a creamy, milky sandalwood (the same sandalwood from SSS’s Fig Tree, all cream and no hard woodiness). It’s a very smooth and warm scent. I actually don’t get any woodiness from the scent at all, surprisingly, but I don’t mind the lack of cedar. It allows the normally shy note of violet to shine. The overall scent reminds me of Dita Von Teese descending the stairs in her custom designed Vivienne Westwood wedding dress, made from seventeen meters of Swiss silk faille in shot violet. (seriously, look up that picture!)
Sillage is close but longevity is great. A personal scent. I get wafts of plum and violet all day.
I absolutely love Sonoma Scent Studio – Laurie Erickson has a knack for presenting each note in a naturalistic way, creating a blended harmony without the fuzzy lack of clarity that I find irksome in many natural ingredient scents. Hopefully Laurie takes on a protege in her retirement!
steveger – :
1. Violet 2. Violet Leaf 3. Vetiver 4. Cedar and Sandalwood but actually would SWEAR there is oakmoss in this. It is herbal. I can’t decide if I like or dislike it. I love the violet but dislike the oakmoss bitter quality. But it is very unique. A violet chypre.
krasich – :
I love the opening of this. Its a velvety, lush, violet, that really gets me burying my nose in my arm over and over again. I cant get enough violet these days.
Sadly, after about an hour the violet fades away and what I’m left with is a dry cedar smell that calls to mind wood chips which eventually turns into a dry, woody, musk on my skin that feels more masculine than I prefer.
I was hoping for more violet and a tad more warmth and sweetness. The search for the perfect violet continues…
jakonoplja – :
I’ve liked Serge Lutens Bois de Violette from samples I’ve bought but it had had poor longevity on me so I wouldn’t shell out the $. So I tried this for comparison on the wood-violet theme(and I’m rather surprised that no one has mentioned this similarity). SSS Wood Violet opens up sweet and plummy and fairly intense. Candied violet, a touch of violet leaf, and cinnamon/spice. It’s fairly sweet on me. This actually intensifies as time goes on and then after about an hour softens and some soft woods(sandal and cedar) come through. The sweetness subsides and what’s left is a softly sweet violet wood. It has a depth and an outdoorsy natural feel that makes the Lutens feel quite sterile in comparison. It’s really nicely blended and has fairly good longevity(about 6 hours). It feels more cool than warm and I think I’d wear it in any temperature.
ZinoSonia – :
Exactly as the name describes, Wood and Violet. I realized after trying to wear this a couple of times that if you spray lightly you will get a watered down woodsy smell. Apply with a heavy hand and you get cedar wood covered with glorious violets. After the dry down, plum comes out which enhances the violet making it sweet and delicious. This stays close to the skin and lasts for at least half the day. A really nice, refreshing fragrance for the summer heat. BTW, there are cinnamon and cloves listed in the notes, but I don’t smell either one.
Alexander.Rubanov – :
What a lovely warm violet scent! Fruity and sparkling with plum for spring and summer, woody for fall, a touch of spice for winter. Great for any time of year! Bright scent opens with luscious, juicy plum and sweet candied violet. A bit fresher when the leaves come in but still sweet. Delicious quality to the scent, the violets are strong and not overwhelmed by the rest of the composition. Great for any time, any occasion.
yulya1111 – :
After a while, it becomes possible to notice a number of crossovers in the scents from this line, and this one seems to be a synthesis of a few. It opens with some notes that resemble the floral / leafy components in To Dream and Nostalgie, but it also carries some likeness to the sweet labdanum that pops up quite often in others—only there is no labdanum in this. What this suggests is that the house labdanum deploys an ancillary component that’s also complimentary to other blends.
Anyhow, Wood Violet opens quite plummy with a bit of an effervescent wine effect. It’s rich and heady, and the initial blast might be perceived as a tad too syrupy although it’s not nearly as diabetic as other plummy violets. There’s a dryness to this that seems to come from orris or a rooty, stemmy kind of note. The base is a soft musky wood that’s also similar to others from the brand, but it doesn’t stand out in this particular composition. This is, after all, really all about the violet.
And violet it is—a soft purple, tinted with flecks of maroon and a touch of spices to add interest. The violet itself is quite big, but the scent is fairly restrained to the point where during my first wear I thought it had vanished. It’s quite long lasting, but once the initial jammy notes have vacated, it starts to feel a little less special. I think it’s the cedar (or maybe nutmeg?), but there’s a slight singed note that appears in a number of scent from the line, and I detect it here as well. It’s not prominent enough to be an issue, and I’m sure it grants the scent some grit, but it renders the fragrance a tad dry whereas I’d imagine it being a little more sweet.
It does the powder / lipstick thing at points, but the aforementioned texture keeps it from going too far down this path. It’s definitely not my favorite, but like all the scents from Laurie, it’s impeccably pieced together and should be on the radar for any and all violet fans looking for a new favorite.
lexx14 – :
my mom and grandma gather fig leaves after they fall of the trees in your backyard and boil them in water over the course of the winter in order to make the house smell good. I imagine this would be the equvilant of that but with violet flowers and leaves, and even more concentrated. add in what smells to me like prune juice and a load of sugar, and you get Wood Violet. I’ve really been into violet lately, but this is just way to dark and sweet for me.
nik131291 – :
Violets and I generally don’t get along very well and unfortunately Wood Violet makes no exception. With that said, I still appreciate how it skips the usual thick sweetness associated with this note. The fragrance opts for a tart and plush fruitiness and it’s surrounded by an overall leafy green vibe that makes it more tolerable for me. Problem comes with the unbearable powderyness that kicks in during the middle phase and lasts till the very final stages of the woody-musky drydown.
If you like the genre, you might want to give it a chance but for my personal tastes this is a no-go. Sorry.
Rating: 5/10
dyx352intitytek – :
This is one of the best violet perfumes I’ve come across. The violet is damp, green and in full bloom. There’s none of the candy or powdery qualities that I often get from other violet perfumes. I didn’t get any of the dustiness or sharpness someone mentioned. It was a mellow and calming experience. After a bit of time on the skin, the cedar warms up and just takes the violet to a new level that I have never smelled violet achieve before.
The images of damp woods and serenity that the other reviewers posted are really true to where this scent takes you. I had images of rain pattering against a library window. The library filled with old books and me reclining in a chair reading, a pot of beautiful violets next to me on the desk. Cozy, serene, calm.
dimdark – :
After a promising opening of vibrant violets and fresh violet leaf, the perfume takes a turn that doesn’t work for me. I quickly start to smell something plummy, something clovey…but then something like a synthetic amber or Iso E Super note. It’s the same synthetic note I find in A LOT of amber and resin perfumes that are on the niche market and that I can’t tolerate. I actually don’t smell any cedar at all, but I seem to smell all the other notes. This one’s a pass for me I’m afraid. But I still LOVE most of the other perfumes by this house. You can’t win ’em all.
andreafanasev – :
This beautiful fragrance is difficult to describe. At the first dab it is pure true violet, a real delight, with a smoky woodsey fragrance behind it. That quickly fades into, for me, a clean soapy scent with lingering violet. It is quite lovely and is one of the few violet scents where I can still detect the true violet after the dry down. I haven’t tried it on around my boyfriend yet but I suspect he will notice this one. What struck me the most about this fragrance is the complicated and lovely opening – it was a very interesting, sophisticated and unusual beginning. The dry down is very soft yet lingers. This may become a favorite of mine. Of the two Sonoma Scent Studio violets this one is the clear winner for me. By the way, I cannot in any way see this as a fragrance for a man. I don’t find it the least bit masculine – it is a distinctly female scent. A woman who is more at ease on a sunlit trail in the deep woods than she is under fluorescent blue lights in some cold office somewhere – this is an earthy but not at all hippy fragrance – a wood nymph perhaps and a beautiful one at that.
qxi724InsuffBooni – :
Hmmm… I seem to have started on a journey of trying every scent where violet is the dominant or co-dominant note (violet as dominatrix; hmmm again). I keep coming back to this one alternately annoyed and delighted. I know it’s the plum but the combination of cedar and plum opens this perfume with a prune note that lasts for a few minutes. (Talk about an old lady scent!)As it warms on my skin the sharp violet leaf shows up with a clearer smoky cedar. It ultimately moves to a very close-to-the-skin incense with a sweet note. I suppose it’s a mixture of the wood and spices but to me it’s much closer to either sandalwood or a very fine incense. Crazily, it reminds me for all the world of Rochas Femme, especially the vintage one.
I’d say this is not to be missed for anyone serious about perfume as an art but it won’t be what you’re expecting. Recommended for the expert.
Sillage: personal, 1-2 ft
Duration: 5 hours and counting
Fabulosity: Fu Manchu’s daughter
Value to price ratio: reasonable
Prank value: good
8/10
Cisemimbemaek – :
I’m a beginner at describing scents… but… it smells too medicinal to me. I think the cedar part somehow ends up smelling like a super-concentrated beeswax or wildflower honey. I got samples of this one and their Voile de Violet. I LOVE the Voile de Violet. She says that it was meant to evoke a violet perfume she had in her childhood… which I think is “Devon Violets”. This Voile de Violet is what I was looking for, Devon Violets only better…
I understand (from some reading, long ago) that the true scent of violets seems to fade quickly because our noses adapt to it and the receptors get “fatigued” quickly by the chemistry, so that a person will have to take a break from smelling it in order to detect it again.
kiillerg – :
Sonoma Scent Studio WOOD VIOLET is much more about wood than about violet. The burnt cedar note really dominates the composition, overshadowing whatever floral components might be present. The violet, in particular, is virtually drowned out, aside from the violet leaves which are slightly detectable. WOOD VIOLET is a woody oriental but not a particularly subtle one.
I think that this composition might be too loud for most males, and it smells too much like a wood shop for me. There is also a beefy facet to the burnt cedar note in this composition which reminds me of a lumberjack or a cross-country trucker such as I often saw driving down the main drag, Division Street, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where I had the displeasure to live for about a year. Désolée.
gruk85 – :
I get the picture of Terry(from Candy Candy)lying under a big cedar tree smoking fine tobacco while the wind brings around the beautiful smell of violets.Sadly this picture doesn’t last long,after that is very dominant the violet note,but even that is cool!
Msport – :
“It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely!”
This is the ditty I found myself singing an hour after applying this. Violet leaf is a dry, slightly pungent note that takes getting used to if you’re firmly in the fruity floral fan club (which I’m not).
Here is it paired with various woods and spices, none of which you’ll be able to detect. What you will detect is slightly fragrant, woody dry-down. Think a bouquet of florals inside a sauna.
This said, my favorite woody fragrance from this line is Ambre Noir, which has more of a sweet, chypre edge. But i think this one would wear well on people in a high desert climate or desert, it’s very well done.
alexzavgar – :
The violet is sweet—yet not too sweet—and the clove, which I often find overwhelming in other scents, is just right here. I love the cedar, especially, and all in all this is one of the prettiest florals I’ve tried lately.
My love of violets started with Aimez-Moi—which I still love, partly for the anise—but somehow this seems more grown up to me. Its the perfect floral to get me through winter!
arzamas2000 – :
I love this perfume. When it starts I smell hazlenut and clove over cedar. Everything is warm and toasty. The heart is a perfect blanced of dry green violet leaf and sweet dark purple violet. At the end of the day a soft musky wood is left.