The name for my blog, Scent Hive, is clearly inspired by bees. I’m no expert on these insects, but am fascinated by their amazing ability to communicate with each other and of course their attraction to (and need of) scent and flowers. Communicating about natural scents and beauty products, and a maybe a little sharing of information, is why I started Scent Hive, hence the tagline, “Collect your pollen. Fly away inspired.” I’ve collected a little pollen from the New York Times on colony collapse disorder, or in other words, the disappearance of honeybees. Most of the nitty-gritty behind the vanishing of bee colonies is way over my head, so I appreciate the common sense advice given by Marla Spivak, a professor of entomology at the University of Minnesota:
What can we do to help bees? Plant lots of flowers that provide nectar and pollen for bees, and reduce pesticide use. These two tangible and relatively easy actions, when implemented by many people, can save our bees and restore health and diversity to our agricultural and urban landscapes.
So let’s heed Dr. Spivak’s call to plant more flowers and support perfumers who use real flower essences in their perfumes to get more bees buzzing shall we?
Ayala Moriel Parfums’ The Purple Dress
For this bee focused post, I’ll be reviewing perfumes that have honey notes in them, and Ayala Sender, the creator of Ayala Moriel Parfums will release honey tinged, The Purple Dress, in December 2009. For those of you who love champaca, oud, anise and honey, you might want to go ahead and purchase a sample as they are available now.
The Purple Dress is an elegant tannic brew steeped in anise that is unique in its own right, but is of the same ilk as Aftelier’s Tango, another honeyed perfume. Both are dark and smoky, moody and sexy, and have gorgeous powdery woodsy drydowns. But Tango’s opening exploits champaca’s headiness to its fullest whereas The Purple Dress is probably more versatile in its smoothness. Its champaca is tempered by the lightheartedness of magnolia and an easy touch of honey but also grounded by black tea’s continual presence. According to Ayala’s website, this fragrance is a salute to Alexander Argov, who composed the famous Israeli song, The Purple Dress. You can hear an excerpt of it here and enjoy its evocative melancholic beauty, similar to its namesake perfume.
Artemisia Natural Perfume’s Yuzu Citrus
Yuzu Citrus is the creation of Lisa Fong, founder of Artemisia Natural Perfume. With a description like “honey, lemon verbena, in a subtle grassy base,” you’d think Yuzu Citrus would be all citrusy and green, which it no doubt is. It’s sparkling and uplifting. I feel like a young girl with flaxen hair (I’m a brunette by the way), running amuck in a late summer’s wildflower meadow with grass so dry you can smell the need of rain in the air. But it’s more complex than that thanks to galbanum and frankincense. In the opening and in the heart, there’s an expansion of the grassy/honey pairing that’s warm and haylike and reminiscent of beeswax. Ahhh beeswax! Such a sweet resinous scent that embodies heat and depth. After several hours of skintime, Yuzu Citrus morphs into a delectable liquid honey skinscent. I love it, and it’s most definitely full-bottle-worthy.
I’ll declare Artemisia’s Yuzu Citrus seasonless. A perfect warm weather citrus perfume that’s not too sweet and most certainly not ordinary. And beautifully comforting for those colder days to remind you of the sun’s toasty glow, but grounded enough to not be a tease.
Velvet & Sweet Pea’sHoney
How could I write about bees and honey and not include Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Honey perfume? Honey is a rich, glistening, golden honey perfume. Laurie Stern, the creator of V&SP, uses the word opulent to describe Honey on her website, and I am in full agreement. It strikes me as a wearable vintage perfume. It speaks with a regal tone, but it’s not going to put anyone off. Quite the contrary.Honey will entice with its luxurious notes of French orange blossom, Moroccan and Bulgarian rose, vetiver, and Madagascar vanilla. Bees are offered the chance to use their charms in three different ways in this fragrance, via honey, beeswax and Laurie’s “bee guru’s” propolis. Not one note in particular stands out on its own in Honey, but rather all are joined together harmoniously and expertly in a floral gourmand with a vintage edge.
And the best bit? Laurie is a bee keeper, enabling her to use the honey and beeswax from her hive for use in her Honey perfume and other products. Additionally, as with all of the aforementioned perfumers (Ayala Moriel Parfums, Aftelier and Artemisia Natural Perfumes) V&SP perfumes are 100% all natural. That means nothing synthetic, no petroleum products and no phthalates. So enjoy your honey!
Many thanks to Roxana of Roxana Illuminated Perfume for organizing this Bee Celebration. I am honored to be included in such illustrious company. Please check out the following list of bloggers for their posts inspired by bees and their honey:
Posted by ~Trish
Bee Illustration ©Roxana Villa
thefloraesthetic.com 
Trish
I love your title for your blog, very meaningful! I am so glad you did a review on perfumes with honey notes. Honey, along with beeswax are notes i search for when i am sampling. V&SP honey looks like something i might fancy.
A,
I have recently become a lover of honey notes….tastes do change! Thanks so much fro supporting Scent Hive, I really appreciate it.
Best,
T
I learn new natural products when perusing your blog but most of all I like your care about the lessening of pestcides as suggested by the university prof too: it needs to be done for so many reasons, one of them being those small buzzing criters.
And your title is great!
E,
I was pleased to read the professor’s simple and reasonable advise. 🙂
It’s been a busy day, but I look forward to this evening, reading all of your posts…..
~T
The Purple Dress sounds so intriguing and how appropriate for this little blog-a-rama! I’m off to find Laurie’e Honey, the perfect perfume for Bee-ing Here Now.
Laurie’s Honey is dee-lish and indulgent. I love it. And please let me know what you think of The Purple Dress when you get the chance to smell it. It’s very interesting and lovely.
Thanks for getting us all together. 🙂
Off to read everyone’s posts!!
Hugs,
T
Wow, so many honey scents that I did not know about, I must explore them! The Purple Dress sounds perfectly delicious.
Flora,
I think The Purple Dress would be something you’d very much appreciate. Maybe a meet-up is due at the PH??
~T
Trish, thank you so much for your sweet as honey words.
It is so fabulous that you are celebrating bees!!! Bees are so cool. I could sit and watch them for hours and I really feel a wonderful lift when I have the time to. They’re so revitalizing to hang out with, and they’re the ultimate perfumers and alchemists, distilling the nectar of flowers into glistening golden honey! Not to mention that without them we wouldn’t be enjoying the delicious fruits and vegetables they pollinate! They’re pretty wondrous and it’s important to honor them!
~Laurie, Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery
Laurie,
Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting 🙂
What a fantastic image, bee as alchemist. I love it. And your Honey perfume. Keep doing what you do…you are an alchemist too my dear! 🙂
Hugs,
T
I loved your thoughts and the images that your words created!
Thank you and it was wonderful to be a part of this project with you!
Beth,
Just read your part deux, and loved those images 😉
What a wonderful writer you are! Definitely a pleasure to be a part of this with you and all of the other bloggers.
~T
Thanks for your review! I’m so excited to try the Velvet & Sweet Pea line and I love that she offers a sample set of all 8 fragrances for $25! It’s taken me a long time but now I only use natural perfumes. It was gradual & not easy since I’ve always been a huge perfume addict. I notice the difference on many different levels though, especially hormonally. I just plain feel better wearing naturals.
joy,
I hear you. Synthetics just don’t sit well with me anymore either for a variety of reasons.
If you get the sampler, let us know what your favorites are!
Best,
~T
Hi Trish,
I received my samples from V&SP. Gorgeous, whimsical pkg. & extra goodies including a sample pkg. of Snow Forest bath salts (they smell so good). Terrain is great & there’s not a bad one in the bunch (the only fragrance of hers that was not included was the new Fir-ever Young). My favs are Jasmine Dawn & Dusk and Songbird. I love both, esp. JDD & I’m not even a big fan of Jasmine usually. Love the flowers but I guess I’ve never liked the type used in perfumes, natural or not. Laurie uses 3 different types in JDD and it’s gorgeous. A must try imho if you enjoy jasmine. I’m seriously thinking of splurging on a bottle but do you think I could wear that type of scent in Fall/Winter? Coming from CA it was never a question but now I’m in Portland, OR & we have seasons here! 🙂 I know Liz Zorns Solstice, which I really like, would be more appropriate but…
Those honey scents that you speak of must smell amazing! I love honey — I use it as a sugar alternative, but I also eat it straight out of the jar sometimes!
I’ve never worn scents with honey notes (not to my knowledge, at least), but I wonder if it would just increase my cravings for honey!
The Yuzu Citrus sounds delicious, judging by your detailed analysis. But the link you’ve used has gone dead; unfortunately I’ve stumbled across this blog post a little late…