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Post by Dionne

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Hello APJ,

“Why Don’t You Ever Smell Like Strawberries?” My oldest son, Bones, asked me that one day about three years ago when he was 17. I’d fallen down the rabbit hole about six months previously, and was still in the first flush of my new obsession: chatting about perfume incessantly and lifting my wrist as a smell offering to anyone who walked through my front door.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

My husband, The Engineer, and Archimedes (then 15) were interested, and each would eventually discover fragrances for himself that he liked, but Bones just didn’t get it. I have to give him credit that even at the age of 17 he showed enough self-restraint not to tell me how silly he thought the whole thing was, but I’m willing to bet he worked hard not to roll his eyes whenever I proffered a wrist.

When he asked why I wasn’t wafting strawberries, my response at the time was a sarcastic, “Because I’m not a seventeen year-old girl.” To me the question seemed ludicrous; strawberries made me think of Bonne Bell Lip Smackers and Strawberry Shortcake and I, well *I* was a serious perfumista, discovering that iris and incense smelled fantastic on me and getting packages from France and Switzerland and England. Good grief, did he think I shopped at Bath & Body Works?

I cringe a bit now when I type that and face my past snobbery. It’s quite ironic too, when you consider my present love for Pulp, Bombay Bling, Pear + Olive, Philosykos, Bronze Goddess and that apple note in Wazamba. So thankfully I was past my anti-fruit snobbery by 2012 when Monica Miller of Skye Botanicals announced her Strawberry Passion Project.

Strawberry Passion Green by Skye Botanicals

Photo Stolen Perfume Pharmer

PerfumePharmer gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink Pepper/Red Mandarin/Bergamot/Tangerine/ Lemon/ Natural Ivy Accord
Heart : Rose/Tuberose/Boronia/ White Water Lily/ Black Currant/ Natural Peach Accord/ Natural Strawberry Accord
Base: Green Tea/ Amber/ Sandalwood/ Patchouli/ Vanilla/ Vetiver/ Oakmoss/ Beach Found Ambergris

If I understand correctly, the project came about because she’d created some strawberry flower essence at her home in Martha’s Vineyard – flower essences don’t have a smell – and approached Kedra Hart of Opus Oils to create an all-natural strawberry perfume to go with the essence. In the end, two of the mods were so good she offered them to reviewers as semi-finalists with the names Cream and Green, and you could buy samples from her Etsy store.

Cream didn’t get along with my skin chemistry (a pretty common occurrence for me, unfortunately), but oh, that Green! I tend to pull out the sweet notes in a fragrance, so it’s not as green-smelling on me as most of the reviewers reported, but there’s a hint of leaf and stem in there. As I read the list of notes provided, I must admit my nose is not good enough to pick up the disparate threads of pink pepper and mandarin and boronia and tuberose and other ingredients. Basically, I get the most amazing and natural strawberry smell overtop a rich base of vanilla and sandalwood. Holy cow, this is sensual stuff; every time I wear it I get compliments.

 Photo Stolen Tricia Flickr

And I have to give major props to the perfumer Kedra Hart. First off, for the 2013 Fifi nomination in the Indie category. But even more than that, this has truly phenomenal sillage and longevity for a natural perfume. Seriously, how did you pull that off? Ten hours in, I still smell fantastic. In fact, even though it’s EDP, I find it wears more like a parfum and prefer it dabbed to sprayed.

Photo Stolen michellehebert Flickr

Considering the fact that 30ml is $115 at Monica’s Etsy store, that’s a fantastic deal. My bottle is going to last me a looooong time. It’s a good thing I’ll never be too old to wear it.

Dione x

(Ed: Dionne is off camping with her lovely family so she may take a day to respond to your messages, Please do leave a “hello” because sometimes it’s nice to get a line to the real world when you’ve gone bush)