New Natural Perfume Review: Solstice Scents After The Rain (Angela St. John) 2017 + The Color Purple Draw

Angela St John of Soltice Scents

What I know to be true is this: when Angela St. John of Solstice Scents announces the release of a new group of perfumed offerings her scented items often sell out in no time at all. So it should come as no surprise that her new Eau De Parfum  After The Rain, is destined to be no exception. 

Family Circus (W Magazine), December 2010. Paolo Roversi©

When "The Email" arrives from Solstice Scents announcing on what day and time Angela's new creations will be available, her multitude of fans (myself included) will be waiting with baited breath over our computers, laptops, tablets, and phones. With our typing fingers at the ready, we count down the seconds until the metaphorical "opening bell" rings. Then like a Black Friday sale we rush to fill our online shopping baskets and press the "buy now" button. Often, lingering too long over a decision might just lead to disappointment. But fear not, of course there will be more product available eventually, but Angela's perfumes and lotions are so wonderful that desire always drives a classic fragrance "lemming-like" rush to be one of the very first to try them. Yes, her perfumes really are that good and After the Rain is another example of her Olfactive Wizardry.

Digital art by Robert

The story of After The Rain is of a small cottage sitting in a floral-strewn glen in the deep green woods of spring. After raining all night, the storm has abated and the sun is coming up over the trees with it's crystal sharp light against a vivid cerulean sky, and the warming rays are touching the foliage and blooms in the glen, burning off the mist of the night. Everything sparkles in the sun: a handful of precious gems strewn through and over the buds and fronds.

2016 Alexia Sinclair Rococo Field of Dreams ©

You lay in your warm bed with the rain’s fresh scent and coolness surrounding you, and you are drawn to the open window by the intoxicating scent of wet velvet happiness. Taking a deep and easy breath, the purpled flowers perfume of nature surround you. Lilac, violets, blue lotus, and the pale wisteria that covers the trellis next to the dutch-door below.  The flowers and plants that have seemingly sprung up overnight are almost TOO beautiful and would be overwhelming but for the faint integrated, smooth and comfortable earthbound notes, not of the petrichor-perfumed newly wet ground but what comes AFTER that smell, the wood-splintered and slightly feral aroma of loamy soil allowed to drink its fill at last. 

 'The Secret Garden' by Daniela Majic©

After The Rain is exactly this; a haunting, unadulterated, and pure breeze-caressed romance. A Memento-mori to the sweet ache and transient nature of love lost and then found again. New beginnings. Like burying your nose in a flowering shrub still covered in drops of water that wet your cheek and eyelashes, lightly scented with that feeling of all-encompassing freshness. An olfactive sigh of happiness, contentedness, and possibly a touch of nostalgia and regret. Notes: Lilac, purple wisteria, blue lotus absolute, rain, new green leaves, wild violets, soil, clary sage and more.

Disclosure: The perfume and opinions are my own.

Robert Herrmann, Sr. Contributor

-Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Solstics Scents After the Rain photo from Angela St. John

Thanks to Solstice Scents and Angela St. John, we have one 5 ml Eau de Parfum rollerball of After The Rain for one registered reader Worldwide. Please be sure to register if you have not done so. To be eligible please let us know what appeals to you about Robert’s review of After The Rain, your favorite Solstice Scent Perfume or your favorite purple flower and where you live. Draw closes June 3, 2017.

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebon @fragrantwanderer and  @solsticecents

 We announce the winners only on our site and on our Facebook page, so like  Cafleurebon and use our RSS feedor your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

 

 

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23 comments

  • I have always wanted to own something from Solstice Scents and this one caught my eye – a beautiful review with enticing photographs. Nostalgia and regrets i have many, but i would be quite content to win this gorgeous scent. 🙂 Loving the notes but unsure of having ever smelled wisteria.
    I have never tried any Solstice Scents before; my favourite purple flower would be a violet or perhaps a foxglove. I’m in the UK (where it’s always ‘after the rain’) and keeping my fingers crossed.
    Thanks for the draw!

  • Robert always makes the perfume he reviews seem larger than life…I like that! I also like how he first paraphrased the house description the described it in his own words showing what you read is what you get! I also love how he described the anticipation of Angela’s new releases for Solstice Scents. They are a company I have heard of but (sadly) have never tried.

    These all sound fantastic: Wolf Spirit, Thornwood Thicket, Runestone, Nightwatcher, Monarch, Manor Fire, Library, Inquisitor, Conjure Dark, Blueberry Violet Truffle, Astral Temple and OF COURSE…After the Rain!

    My most loved purple flower is LILAC and I reside in the US.

    Thanks for the draw and great review. HOW did a pagan like me never discover this line??! Brightest blessings to Angela and all at Cafleurebon!

  • I am interested to experience if and how the wet earth note described that I also sense in Mountain Vanilla, if it is the same here, plays with the purple florals of this new scent. My favorite Solstice Scent is Snowmint Mallow, followed by Butter Rum Mallow. My favorite purple flower is lilac–they are blooming across my yard right now, I planted them as a perimeter hedge surrounding two acres. I have 9 varieties at last count, ranging from deep purple to lavender to blue to white. Nightly after work I bury my face in them before going inside my house, it is heaven! Thank you for this opportunity. I live in the US.

  • NiceVULady says:

    I like the idea of expressing in perfume that wonderfully fragrant moment after a spring shower. I love lilac, but unfortunately, it is too hot to grow them where I live. Astral Temple and Winslow are my favorite Soltice Scents. Thanks for the draw. I live in the USA

  • BethMongold says:

    Such a gorgeous review…I love the vivid story told through the senses. I have just recently become interested in blue lotus, so curious about perfumes that have that note–there aren’t many. I have never tried any Solstice Scents before, although very much want to. Thank you–I live in Colorado USA.

  • ntabassum92 says:

    The imagery in this – makes me want to live that life, not just smell that perfume. I’m drawn in by lilac, I love the smell of fresh lilac, and all flowers smell better after a rain. More pure and intense somehow. My favorite purple flower probably is lilac! I’m in the US.

  • I live in the pacific northwest and I want to smell “After the Rain” in a bottle. It is one of the most delightful moments when we are finally given some blue sky after often days of rain and gloom. Things come alive here after the rain and I am curious to know what this smells like to an olfactive ‘wizard’ who people rush to like a Black Friday event. Wow. Thanks for the draw. I live in the US and am crossing my fingers!

  • I loved that a big part of this review was actually a description of anticipation before the new releases at Solstice Scents! My current favorite perfume from Solstice is Violet Mallow … or maybe it’s Smoky Mountain Mallow. It actually could be Library. There are many great options!

  • Hikmat Sher Afridi says:

    I always wonder how the writer review a perfume in such a perfect, amazing and spotless way. Such reviews are like bible’s wordings.
    So “After The Rain” is a perfume like a hot cake. Never tried any of the Solstice Scents but there are many Solstice Scent on my want list like; Conjure, Conjure Dark, Covered Bridge, Gibbon’s Boarding School, Maplewood Inn, Master Bedroom, Minister, Library, Manor, Rose Leather, Shadows in the Night, Heat of the Night and Fires in the Night. IRIS is my favorite purple flower.
    Thanks to Solstice Scents & Angela St. John for the generosity and Cafleurebon for the opportunity.
    Pakistan

  • beautiful review!!! Espacialy about love, momento- mori after rain)))
    I do not try any Solistice Scent(( So I am interested in all collection.
    From Armenia

  • okaysellers says:

    just registered <3 love the review. lilac is one of my favorite flowers; my great grandmother was a wonderful gardener, but everything in her 1940s house was falling apart. even ten, twenty years after her death, the lilacs in the garden still bloomed every year.

  • Skye Moore says:

    The smell of rain soaked earth is my favorite smell so I would love to try this

  • Kim Morgan says:

    You’re a poet, Robert — you make me want to get up, drive to the closest garden center, and buy every dewy, rich, purple flowers I can find. My own front yard is swathed in purple — lavender, agapanthus, lantana, purple sweet alyssum, and more. It’s a color of dreams, I think, and you captured this in your review. I do not have this fragrance, nor have I tried it, but I would love the chance to do so.

    US resident… thank you so very much for the draw and the evocative review.

  • You have made this sound very appealing, Robert! I am always interested in the different ways perfumer chose to interpret rain. Thanks for the draw and review.USA

  • Your review was captivating, Robert. It’s hard to imagine dewy, rich flowers while I sit in the sticky heat of north Texas, but you managed to transport me there with your imaginative description of this fragrance. Solstice Scents has been on my “To Try” list for some time – I’d love to experience this perfume in person. I’m constantly on the hunt for something fresh in the summer months to provide a reprieve from the heat and this seems to be just that.

    I’m in the US. Thanks for your marvelous review and the generous giveaway.

  • MichelleU says:

    My Favorite part of the review “You lay in your warm bed with the rain’s fresh scent and coolness surrounding you, and you are drawn to the open window by the intoxicating scent of wet velvet happiness.”

    Robert has a special way with his reviews, they are so enjoyable and relaxing.

    I love purple flowers and a perfume inspired by purple flowers is great!

    Favorite purple flower is Wisteria.

    I am a reader from the EU. Wish you all the best!

  • RoseMacaroon says:

    This sounds beautiful in a really moving and poetic way, no joke. I love the images chosen. The combination of purple flowers and rainy greenery/damp soIl is beyond enticing (I’m a violet freak, and love lilacs too).
    Thank you so much for the chance to smell this.
    I’m in the US.

  • doveskylark says:

    I loved reading about the cottage in the glen, the warm bed, the loamy earth.
    I am intrigued by the Solstice Scents line. I want to try Library.
    I live in the USA.

  • What appeals to me the most is how Robert describes the scent in a blissful setting. Smelling the flowers growing on the trellis is my favorite part. My favorite purple flower is definitely Iris. I live in the US. Thank you so much.

  • My fav purple flower would definitely be violets! Loved the review as it really gave me a feeling of how the fragrance would smell. I’m in Canada and thanks for the draw!

  • Chrissy Sweetcheeses McGee says:

    I love the descriptive language Robert used and his knowlege of Momento Moris. That description of lost love in that dark light appealed to my inner goth. I could also very much relate to recieving that email and making my list…and worrying about my typing speed and whether I will get that truly coveted item. After this review I have yet another Solstice Scents perfume to covet.

  • Chrissy Sweetcheeses McGee says:

    Oh and my Current Favorite Solstice Scent is Lavender Vanilla.

  • Apres l’ondee after the rain. Robert’s review and the art was so breathtaking
    A sigh of happiness and love lost
    I live in USA I bought estate carnation and INCENSUM. I love pansy they have no smell but the petals are like velvet