La Violette – fresh and floral and green

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From the first time I smelled a fragrance by Annick Goutal, I knew it was special. As I delved deeper into the catalogue, I discovered just how romantic (Grand Amour for the bouquet of white lilies her husband gave her each week of their married life) and personal (Folivaril for the name of her first store) they are. Her fragrances resonate on a very deep level.

Take La Violette, for example. The inspiration for the fragrance, as stated on her website, comes from Annick Goutal’s memories of spring: “Souvenirs: the little bouquets, now so rare, that they used to sell here and there on the streets…Those that we place on the festive tables, the days where the starched white tablecloths leave the cupboards... As in this family house of Averyon that Annick Goutal loved so much and which was called... "La Violette".

As often happens with fragrance, La Violette stirs up my sweet childhood memories of Easter celebrations, family, food, and housework.

When I was growing up, spring at our house began with spring cleaning in preparation for Easter. Weeks ahead of the big day, my mother would gather us kids around and say, ”Company’s coming for dinner, and we have to get ready!” And so, the wood floors were polished, the windows washed, the linen tablecloths, the ones that were embroidered with pastel-coloured flowers and eggs by my grandmother, were laundered and pressed, food was bought and prepped. Easter Day, the beautifully dressed long Harvest table would be decorated with little pots of violets and dyed eggs and laden with ham, lamb, spring vegetables, hot cross buns, carrot cake and chocolate eggs. I can see, smell, and taste spring every time I wear La Violette.

La Violette is a soliflore, a fragrance that reproduces the scent of a single flower. Often, people overlook soliflores because they think they’re too simple and uninteresting. But there is something to be said for the skill and dexterity required to interpret the scent experience of a single flower in an evocative fragrance like La Violette.

La Violette is no shy violet. It opens boldly with a blast of metallic violet that is soon sweetened by a note of raspberry. It smells like the little purple violet candies my English aunt used to send me when I was a child. That’s what gets you hooked. It’s not long before a tangy green note appears, making the scent of flowers, leaves, and stems more natural - as if it were a little bouquet of violets. Turkish rose is here, too, adding an opulence that rounds out and warms the violet. A touch of iris gives it a powdery, vintage feel. As a soliflore, La Violette is pretty linear, but what you experience is how feminine, beguiling and romantic it is.

Check out La Violette in our Shop.