Indie botanical line Roxana Illuminated Perfume has launched To Bee, a new natural perfume “devoted to the honey bee”:
Inspired by her adventures as a holisitc [sic] bee keeper Roxana intends to bring more awareness to the plight of this little winged alchemist.
To Bee is emblematic of the warm, musky scent of the hive. Lusty basenotes have been crafted into a series of accords with spice and clover. The result is a delicious inviting aroma at once sweetly impassioned and steadfast.
The notes include honey, beeswax, mimosa, spice and clover.
Roxana Illuminated Perfume To Bee is available in liquid and solid Parfum ($27-175). (via press release)
Update: see a review of To Bee.
17 Comments
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I’m a sucker for a good honey scent. Does she have a sample program? I’d like to try the liquid version of this one!
There are samples, yes…at her Etsy shop.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/illuminatedperfume
As a lifelong beekeeper (family business), I’m both intrigued and amused by this fragrance. The actual hive either has no particular odor at all, or can smell like the foulest rot in the world (depending on what diseases the hive has been infected with) when you crack the top off the hive body. Of course perfume is meant to embody the “idea” of it’s subject, not recreate it. I’d like to check out a sample.
Yeah, the idea is a nice one. The name, not so much.
I would think the hive would smell like the smoke you blast it with to calm the bees down.
LOL! I hadn’t even considered that one
The smokers are pretty foul, especially since we tend to use old burlap because it smolders for ages.
Exactly…the idea is what matters.
(perks up) Clover?? Sounds lovely.
I love a good honey perfume…this does sound nice to me.
This and a couple of her scents are calling to me (Aurora and Green Witch). I spent a lot of time at her website and enjoyed my stay. Now I spent some time viewing her Etsy site as well. I followed a link on Roxana’s website to an interview with her at Sniffapalooza and then ended up reading all their interviews with natural perfumers. I can see my sample wish list growing and growing! I’m still working my way through my many samples from DSH.
Jonette
I ordered a few samples recently, of which Green Witch was one (couldn’t resist…. that was my all-time favorite book series). I don’t generally do well with naturals, nor with solids, but it was really, really well done. The texture of her solids is quite nice, and they had decent sillage too.
Sounds quite charming. Must sample!
As a treatment-free beekeeper and bee rescuer of many years, I can say that there are few fragrances that are more intoxicating than that of an active, healthy feral beehive. it’s warm, earthy, sweet, busy, alive—and absolutely nothing like the “diseased” and “smoky” descriptions listed in commentary above. In fact, those terms seem to refer to the businesses that abuse bees rather than celebrate them. I’m sure that this new scent inhabits the spirit of the beehive itself, free of man’s intervention.
How do you feel that beekeepers (in a business sense) “abuse” bees? I’m very curious about this.
One practice I consider abusive :
Many beekeepers steal all the honey and then feed the bees sugar water over the winter .
The plght of the bees is serious indeed- entire populations of bees have disappeared from a few states !
Without bees , we have no seed pollination , no fruit , no food…
my theory is the splicing of animal DNA onto plant DNA is killing them .
This fragrance sounds beautiful – all of Roxana’s thoughtful scents are very well done !
I just got a sample of ‘to bee’ and it’s warm and melty and yummy and round and sensual. So different from her ‘green witch’ which is a lively foresty mix. From her website, I see she is a beekeeper herself, which I find pretty intriguing. In regard to some of the comments seems like she is honoring the honey bee with the name, which I respect considering how important they are to the authentic scent world and how horrible industrial bee keeping is – check out the film ‘queen of the sun’ – there was lot’s of surprising info it for me.
fernpoppy
Sounds lovely. I want to smell the clover in it.
Bravo, Roxana! I can’t wait to smell your new “To Bee” perfume! As a beekeeper myself, I love the warm, honeyed smell of a hive. I have a cozy little rose covered sanctuary next to my hives and I’m in heaven when the smells waft over on a warm day! I think it’s great that you are spreading the word on the plight of the bees too!
XOXO~Laurie Stern
Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery