Demeter has launched the Demeter Vintage Naturals Collection, a new series of fragrances highlighting particular harvests of natural materials and featuring all-natural ingredients. For this first set, the fragrances include Geranium, Rosebush, Mimosa, Patchouli and Lavender. Future sets will depend on the availability of suitable materials:
The production run was limited to 25,000 of each of the scents, for a total of 125,000 bottles, but Mark D. Crames, chief executive officer of Demeter, asserted the Vintage Naturals brand is not a limited edition concept. But — in the event there may not be particularly suitable crops next year — certain scents will not be recreated.
Geranium ~ “A floral masterpiece opening with Lavender, settling into Geranium and finishing with Patchouli and Cedar.”
Rosebush ~ “A luscious blend of Chamomile Rose Absolute and Rose petals wrapped soft woods.”
Mimosa ~ “An exciting and exclusive olfactory trip that surrounds Mimosa Absolute with notes of Basil, Ylang Ylang, Jasmine, Vanilla and Tonka Bean.”
Patchouli ~ “An intoxicating fragrance that begins with Orange, Cardomon and Nutmeg, ending with Cedar, Vetivert and, of course Natural Patchouli.”
Lavender ~ “Calming, soothing, soft and simply beautiful, this Natural Lavender is perfectly balanced with aspects of Orange, Lemon, Galbanum and expensive rare woods.”
The Demeter Vintage Naturals fragrances are available in 15 ml splash ($20) or 50 ml spray ($68) Eau de Parfum. (first quote via wwd, subsequent quotes via demeterfragrance)
Update from Demeter: “Like all Demeter fragrances, these have no artificial color and the alcohol is naturally fermented from corn. In this case, however, the fragrance oil itself is 100% natural. The only thing that is not natural is 0.2% Bittex, a bitter taste agent used to denature the alcohol.” The Vintage Naturals will be available at Sephora and on the Demeter website.
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Ugh. The irony of this trend as IFRA and the EU plunge ahead.
Yep.
The geranium, patchouli and lavender all sound good to me. It seems these are more finished and complete than the PMUs. It would be great if they have better lasting power, too. Twenty bucks is a not-so-bad price point.
The $20 is very reasonable…having trouble understanding if these are really “all natural” or not though — perhaps just some components are natural. Companies never seem to use crystal clear language on this issue.
I’ve just sent them an email to clarify. Also curious if they use any petrochemicals. I’ll let you know.
~Trish
Trish, I’m sure you’ve already found out, but I did just post an update above from Demeter.
Thanks Robin, they have not replied yet. Glad they clarified the all natural thing. I’ll hand it to them, it’s pretty close! If you’d like to know their answer regarding the use of petrochemicals just let me know.
~T
“Expensive rare woods” in a $20 bottle? Must be in awfully minute quantities…
Presumably.
Hands up for Patchouli, Rosebush, and Lavender here. They sound really soothing.
I’m not usually a huge patch fan, but the patchouli one does sound particularly nice!
These sound much more appealing than the packaged-candy based scents that Demeter released recently. Demeter fragrances are so very short-lived, though. The ones that I have seem to fade as soon as they dry.
Naturals don’t tend to last either, no matter how expensive they are.
Demeter’s disappear on me almost as soon as I am done applying. Would be nice if these lasted a little bit!
Many of them are ephemeral experiences, but given the price, I don’t much mind. A spritz of Gingerale is an immediate mood-booster for me, not sure I’d want it around all day though.
I’m all for reasonably-priced perfumes. I just hope these have at least a bit of staying power.
We’ll see. Not many naturals make it through the day…but my requirements on that score are probably not the same as most people’s….a perfume that lasts a few hours is ok with me.
The geranium sounds lovely to me, I love geranium… but I agree that it is very difficult to find a “natural” scent with staying power, see all Aveda’s purefumes, which I adore. Still, these are very inexpensive so I will give them a try.
It is true, naturals don’t tend to last…makes you realize how important synthetics are to longevity. Still, for many people that’s an acceptable trade-off.
It’s acceptable for me obviously, a couple hours is OK by me in many instances. I have been very surprised though by the longevity of some naturals. It can really vary drastically, even within the same line. For example Ajne’s Fleur Blanche lasts all day long on me, it’s amazing. As does their De Lavande. But other Ajne’s last but 45 minutes tops. Many SIPs will last 4-6 hours on me as well, like Epic Gardenia. (Love that one BTW).
~T
The lists of notes make these seem like they might not be straight-up focusing on single accords, despite the names?
The “limited number of bottles” but “not limited edition concept” is a bit weird: so they’ll do a Mimosa every year, but each will be labeled with a vintage. At least the “vintage” concept will let you know exactly how old the bottle is when 2025 rolls around…
Joe, they still sound like “soliflores” to me…few soliflores are true single-note scents.
Agree…it does end up being sort of a limited edition…maybe they mean that if they re-do a scent for the 2nd year, they won’t reformulate it? As in, they’re not doing what L’Artisan does, make X number of bottles and then you can never buy it again?