Indie natural line Providence Perfume Co has launched Hindu Honeysuckle…

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Undergreen is a new niche brand established by Patrice Cardenoso and Jérôme Bonnet. They debut with two unisex natural fragrances, Black and White, developed by perfumer Fabrice Olivieri…

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I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight…

— A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Eva Luna was released in late June of this year, which was perfect timing since this fragrance was inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Indie brand Providence Perfume Co describes Eva Luna as “a spring green floral…a walk in a moonlit garden”; its composition includes top notes of Russian carrot, fresh mint leaf, French mimosa, and bois de rose; heart notes of tuberose, plumeria, rose de Mai, jasmine, and violet leaf; and base notes of Oman frankincense, ambrette, and orris.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies, a fantastic roundabout of characters falling in and out of love over the course of one moonlit night, in a plot driven by magic potions, mistaken identities, and plays-within-plays. The comedy’s setting, an enchanted forest inhabited by an assortment of fairies, is the perfect analogy for an all-natural perfume. As Angela recently wrote, natural fragrances do have an allure and romance all their own, and it’s always a pleasure to encounter a natural perfume that delivers on its promise…

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Something about natural perfumes is so appealing. I envision a greenhouse with a long table heaped with blossoms. On another table, glass panes crush grease-laden tuberose flowers. A perfumer — always a woman with flowing hair and the witch-like quality of knowing the perfect herb for every ailment — dispenses jewel-toned liquids drop by drop into lead glass bottles. If love potions exist, surely they are made by natural perfumers.

Of course, that’s just my overly active imagination. I know little about natural fragrances, and I haven’t developed much of a nose for them. My brief experience has shown natural perfumes to feel more “telescoped” and dense. I haven’t encountered one that’s a sillage monster — I doubt you’d get kicked off an elevator if you wore most natural fragrances — and they don’t tend to last as long as a department store fragrance.

So I was curious to take Aftelier Secret Garden, an all-natural fragrance, and Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Pandora, a 97.5% natural fragrance, for a test drive. Would they smell too, well, wimpy? Short answer: no…

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Tauer Perfumes will launch Cologne du Maghreb, a new all natural fragrance, at the end of this month. Cologne du Maghreb was featured in Tauer’s 2010 advent calendar give-away, and will be exclusive to Indiescents…

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Indie natural line Aftelier has launched two new fragrances, Secret Garden and Oud Luban…

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Malie Organics has launched a new line of organic roll-on perfume oils, in six fragrances that “reveal the natural bounty of Hawaii”…

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For me, it’s about wanting to honor the original art of perfumery that placed such an emphasis on botanical essences. I would never say people who use synthetics should pack it up and go home. There’s room for both.

— Perfumer Alexandra Balahoutis of Strange Invisible Perfumes, quoted in Eau Naturel at the LA Times. (found via Natural Perfumers Guild at Twitter)

Indie botanical line Roxana Illuminated Perfume has launched Hedera helix, a new natural green chypre perfume…

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