Perfume Review: Violette Market Smoking Plum

By Unknown

Nothing to Disclose

This is actually a pluot, not a plum, and that's flavored Earl Grey, not Lapsang Souchong.

Smoking Plum is a general catalog scent from Violette Market--in other words, it's part of their permanent line, not limited edition. It is in the Tea House category of perfumes, all of which are inspired by teas or tea cakes.

Price: $15 for 5 mL of perfume oil in an amber glass bottle with polyseal cap.

Samples: Unclear--these used to be available in a pack for all general catalog scents, but I no longer see a link to purchase them on the website. I will update this review with more information once I hear back from Violette Market about the sample situation.
Edit: Violette Market has clarified that they will be relaunching the website soon, and samples will be available at that time, but for now they are not.

Description from website:
"Smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea, sweet Mount Wuyi black plum, raw vanilla pods, and a hint of cedar and redwood, create a dreamy mid-afternoon mist of esoteric mysteries."

Wet on the skin, Smoking Plum has a juicy, intense, almost grapey plum note that quickly spirals away under an increasing aura of incense smoke and black tea leaf. The smokiness is soft and hazy to the point of orris root powderiness--it's never a sharp or acrid bonfire type of smoke. The tea leaf is subtle, but gives the scent a dry complexity underpinning the fruit.

The vanilla isn't a star player, but lends a creamy sweetness to the plum and seems to spread on the skin to a broad velvety base that the other notes rise out of. The cedar and redwood manifest themselves mainly as part of what I perceive as an incense note, giving the smoke an actual fragrance rather than pure burning smokiness.

As it dries down, it's almost equal parts smoke and deep, warm fruit, lolling around on a smooth, slightly powdery vanilla skin scent. Have you ever smoked fruit-flavored shisha from a hookah? This is like grape shisha by way of Chanel Cuir de Russie. Fruity, yes; smoky, yes; but also sophisticated, dark, and sexy. It's fairly long-lasting, with low to moderate sillage. It is not the most complex scent in the world, but it's lovely.

This is my favorite general catalog scent from Violette Market, and if the notes appeal to you, I highly recommend it. I find that sometimes indie perfumes have so many notes listed, it's hard to figure out what a scent is going to smell like, and sometimes they smell nothing like what you'd expect, but this one is fairly straightforward and deeply pleasurable to wear.