Creating fragrance feels as intuitive for perfumer Valerie Lee Vitale as breathing, writing, dancing. A vibrant multi-sensorialist, Valerie juggles her many loves with legerdemain: working, raising her young family, sharing insights and experiences on her blog Soliflore Notes.(Valerie is also a former Editor for CaFleureBon) composing perfume and delving into the culinary arts with gusto. She has studied perfumery at F.I.T.  in order to help acquire an aromatic springboard of sorts, a technical foundation upon which to hone her artistic skills. Valerie’s perpetual curiosity is key; that insatiable characteristic fuels her passions and keeps her nose to the ground, as all we feral types are wont to do.

Leon Bakst, costume design for Nijinsky in Le spectre de la rose, 1911©

 

I received samples of her fragrances months ago and explored them with delight. They each possess their own persona; choosing one was not a simple task. Of her five perfumes, the one which sang most lovingly on my skin happened to be Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose [yes, the selfsame name of her blog]: rose illuminated. Luminous jammy roses are always welcome aromatic adjuvants to ma vie quotidiènne, and this one smells particularly luxurious and natural. Do we need yet one more rose saffron-based perfume? Indeed we do.

 Vladmir Kush©

Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose opens with a lush ruby red grapefruit note – one of the more tenacious citrus notes, as those low-molecular weight beguilers are fleeting. Its tangy sweet/tartness fairly drips juice in its wake, and paired with elegant bergamot it’s irresistible [this from one who doesn’t usually seek out grapefruit in fragrance]. Buxom Bulgarian rose nestles into a beeswax absolute effortlessly; the latter imparts a honeyed animalic undertone, fleshing out the magnificent rose as she unfurls with grandeur.

Lips As Red Like A Rose  Alayah Gadah©

Valerie’s choices are sage: one might push the gourmand aspect further via a surfeit of vanilla, where she merely adds it as a dash of seasoning, no more. Inclusion of iris notes here doesn’t create a cosmetic effect [lovely though that can be] – it counters sweetness with silver, harmonizing the mixed metal quality of warm/cool radiant ardor. Just as saffron gilds her rose with an amber halo, iris provides the opposite: Valerie’s finesse prevents them from overwhelming the composition with metallic excess. Benzoin is a welcome guest with its ethereal round resinous balsamic tones; it helps prolong our pleasure. Saffron Rose is expansive and generous, a full-blown beauty in her prime. As such, she surely would round out anyone’s collection. Notes: ruby red grapefruit, bergamot, beeswax absolute, Bulgarian rose, saffron, iris notes, vanilla, benzoin

Sample kindly provided by the perfumer! My nose is my own…

~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor

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

Flower of Immortality by Leon Bakst

Thanks to the generosity of Valerie Lee Vitale and Soliflore Notes, we have a bottle of Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose or a sample set of all five fragrance for one registered reader (register here if you have not already done so) in the USA or her sampler set if you reside in Canada. Please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about based on Ida’s review of Soliflore Notes Rose Saffron, and which you would like win. Draw closes 5/14/2018

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like ÇaFleureBon and use our Blog feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.