Davana

Davana is an odd scent. Kind of fruity, and to me, kind of boozy. It reminds me a bit of cough syrup sometimes. It is also a bit of a chameleon, and can smell differently on different people. Of course that's true of all (or at least many) fragrances, but when creating this scent, I couldn't stand it in the bottle, but liked it on my skin.

I wanted to emphasize the fruitiness of davana, so I added Roman chamomile. Frankincense and Peru balsam at the base added additional sweetness and some citrus. At this point, it seemed like it could be a sugarbomb of a fragrance, and while there is a market for that, I don't want that to be the end result.

Back to the middle notes, I added rose geranium and ylang ylang. This probably didn't help with the sweetness, but adds a small touch of floral. For the top notes I went with spice (black pepper and juniper berry) and some floral woods- petitgrain and rosewood. The scent definitely isn't a fruity floral- the floral aspect is pretty quiet.

Lab #4 Davana is available from Etsy and Ivre de Fleurs for $10.

Also new on Etsy are blended floral balms. There are currently three different blends- Trio Blend, which leans towards jasmine but with hints of rose and tuberose; White Flowers, a blend with jasmine, neroli, and tuberose; and Mimosa Neroli, a honeyed scent with an orange flower twist. These are $10 for each .15 ounce jar.