Company Overview: Violette Market

By Unknown

Purchased

Violette Market is a small perfume company based in Columbus, Ohio, and run by a woman named Lori Cochran. They've been around since 2006, and have a dreamy, romantic aesthetic centered around fairy tales, mythology, nostalgia, and travels to exotic places--the blurb on the "About Us" page describes her favorite inspirations as "the Medieval Period, the Victorian Era, Cathedrals, Pirates, Old Libraries, Fairy Tales, Traveling, and Ancient Myth and Lore."

Packaging: 
I haven't placed an order with Violette Market for a while, so I don't remember anything in particular about the way packages are wrapped or shipped.

The bottles I have are standard 5 mL amber glass bottles with polyseal caps. The labels are matte brown paper, with either black and white line art or a purple violet motif.

I do also have one Penny Candy bottle from a previous year that is in a yellow glass rollerball bottle with an adorable retro label! I'm not sure if this is standard packaging for the Penny Candies or if they come in normal bottles most of the time.

Standard bottle

Penny Candy rollerball

Selection: 

Violette Market sells mainly perfume oils. There are currently also limited edition candles, under a section called "Luminary," including one candle/solid perfume set, and linen and room sprays. I've bought bar soaps from them in the past, but they don't have any for sale right now.

The permanent catalog of scents currently contains five main categories:

• Lost At Sea, Chapter I--the Lost at Sea scents are "a perfume line and a creative story told through scent written entirely as journal entries." A bit more expensive than the normal scents at $22.50, they're currently on sale for $17.50 per 5 mL bottle.
• Lost At Sea, Chapter II
• Long Ago and Far Away--perfumes inspired by fairy tales. Usually $15 per bottle, these are currently on sale for $13 per bottle. 
• Myths and Legends--perfumes inspired by Greek mythology. These are priced the same as Long Ago and Far Away.
• Tea House--Tea-inspired perfumes. I've reviewed Smoking Plum, from the Tea House collection, here. These are priced the same as Long Ago and Far Away.

I think there used to be more scents available in each of those categories, and there were definitely more categories at some point--I was excited to tell you about their Polynesian-themed Oceania collection, full of delicious coconut and white floral scents, but it's gone. I think this is because they're preparing to relaunch the website soon. The Little Hawaii scents in the State Fair collection might be a good stand-in, though.

There are also limited edition collections released a few times per year. The one that's currently available is State Fair 2014.

Violette Market used to make custom perfumes for limited periods of time, often with the offering themed around the limited edition series at the time--for example, via the "Diablo Canyon General Store" as part of the Halloween Diablo Canyon collection, a series of perfumes themed around a haunted ghost town in the Old West, or offered as scoops of ice cream from the "Cold Confections cart" during the summer State Fair collection.

Samples: 
Violette Market will be relaunching their website soon, and samples will be available at that time, but for now they are not.
 
Quality:
I've had mixed experiences with VM, but quite positive on the whole. Most of them are wonderful, with clear scent stories and good sillage and longevity, while others (like many of the ones I've tried from the Lost at Sea series) have smelled rather faint and indistinct.

Cost:
Violette Market has very reasonable prices. In addition, many of the perfumes are on sale at the moment, bringing the prices down even more.

• The Lost at Sea perfumes are normally $22.50 for 5 mL, but are currently on sale for $17.50.
• The permanent collection of perfumes are normally $15, but are currently on sale for $13.
• Most of the State Fair perfumes are $17.50; the Penny Candy perfumes are cheaper, at $12 a bottle.
• The small candles are $8 for a 4 oz candle, or $30 for a set of 4.  
• The large candles are $22 for a 9 oz candle, or $60 for a set of 3.
• There's also a limited edition Watershed Beach Glass solid perfume and candle set that sells for $35, and contains a 1 oz solid perfume and a 9 oz candle.

Customer Service:
I've always had great experiences with Violette Market's customer service--very responsive, very friendly. However, their "Contact Us" page on the site is looking a little rough at the moment, stating:

Contact Us Sample Text ...

This section of text is from the Define Pages Editor located under Tools in the Admin.

To remove this section of the text, delete it from the Define Pages Editor.

That form might be working fine, but if you don't get a response, you can also email them.

TAT:
I haven't ordered from them in a while, but from looking at past orders, it looks like it was an average of 10 days from order to delivery.

Shipping:
All domestic orders are shipped USPS first class or Priority (automatically chosen based on your order contents), starting from $5.50 for shipping one bottle.

Violette Market does ship internationally, via USPS first class, and will refund overages if the international shipping quote was higher than the actual shipping price.

Shipping is free for orders over $100 domestic, or $200 international.

Personal Thoughts:
I've generally had good luck with Violette Market scents in the past, and I'm fond of them as a company. While their website looks a bit messy and unprofessional at the moment, and the fact that samples aren't available makes it a gamble to try out their perfumes, hopefully they'll be back with a vengeance after their site relaunches.

In the meantime, I'd suggest taking advantage of their sale to pick up anything that sounds interesting from the general catalog, or choosing a perfume or two from the State Fair. I mentioned before that Little Hawaii: Bourbon Vanilla Rope Bridge sounds fantastic ("Vanilla oak, blond woods, vanilla bean, oak moss, vanilla flower, golden patchouli, vanilla pods, Banyan roots, and sandy soil") and from the permanent collection, I'd recommend Smoking Plum and Wood Violet.

If you're browsing the secondhand market, I recommend a couple of the bottles shown above--Tupai (a very lime-heavy coconut scent that smells like summery, tropical tiki deliciousness) and Rusalkas (a very odd green vanilla scent). I've expressed my love for Splendor and Magnificence (creamy vanilla/saffron/rose) on this blog before, and I also remember really liking Taha'a when it was available (vanilla and sweetpea).

Have you tried any of this year's State Fair scents? Do you have any favorites from Violette Market?

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