Violet Empire
CB I Hate Perfume (2006)

Violet (floral, not candy)-flavored chewable Vitamin C tablet. No-go for me.

A dusty, tea-like violet with some bitter aspects. The violet is split between the “purple” effect that you might expect from petals and the slightly axrid note that you'd find in the leaves and stem. Brosius is up to something with this though as I'm not sure if he's doing a violet bouquet or a violet bouquet on a hat in a thrift store. It's powdery, yet not in a bad way, but I'm finding it hard to articulate exactly what he's created. If it's photorealism, I don't think he's captured the flower itself, but perhaps an extraction of it. It also smells a little bit like those chalky violet candies.

Overall, a polite, subdued ultra-violet that's shaded a tad grey rendering it more melancholy than vibrant.

I had a problem with longevity and sillage, so this nice non-sweet, earthy, and yes, somewhat elegant violet fragrance wasn't able to do much on my skin. There was a hint of it's possibilities wafting in the air for 15 -20 minutes, at which point it started becoming a skin scent fairly rapidly. Within an hour I had to sniff my wrist deeply to pick up the fragrance, which had turned more into skin than scent. It's a pity - I liked what I smelled the first 15 minutes, but that's not enough reason to buy a fragrance.

To me, Violet Empire starts out as warm straw and hay, with no violet evident. Don't smell dill or mint, either. As the scent evolves, the violet peeps out, powdery, slightly sweet and moody without veering into morbid, coming and going. The straw and hay disappear. At this point, VE is lasting, though subtle (a very good thing, IMO) and equally pretty as but less pat than many other violets.

I feel I don't understand this scent at all. At first sniff I get a strong and a little bit funky dill note. Like dill a little bit past it prime. That notes then fades and the scents starts to feel a bit more integrated with earthy and woody notes. It's not in any way a typical floral, but the floral notes that are in there are heavy and a bit sweet but not recembling any violets I've sniffed in real life. It's a very unique scent and I'm sure it might work fine on other people but on me it's just strange and a bit cloying.

My favorite of all the CB's I've tried so far. A rich, spicy, no-too-sweet violet from it's cool minty top to it's earthy leather base. So beautiful I find it hard to describe. Lovely, deep, and dark, at home on either sex.