New Fragrance Review: Sarah Horowitz Parfums (Le Banque de Parfums) Bee Stings + Scent and Book Draw

sarah horowitz thran sarah horowitz perfumes

Sarah Horowitz Thran of Sarah Horowitz Parfums

Sarah Horowitz Parfums is one of the most beloved artisan perfume lines, with cult favorite Perfect Veil garnering endless mentions in magazines as the ultimate skin scent. Sarah Horowitz-Thran got her start creating custom perfumes, first for Essence Boutique in Boston and later for her own clients, and an exclusive limited edition offering on her website called Le Banque de Parfums approximates this service affordably. Banque des Parfums fragrances are created monthly in finite quantities and are only available directly from the perfume house, not from retailers. Inspired by a specific moment in time and place, they beautifully communicate the perfumer’s range, from joyful (Happy Hour and Endless Summer) to the mysterious (Coeur de Sang). One of the most unique, a spicy gourmand called Bee Stings, was my favorite.

the-sweetest-thing bees vogue-australia-april-2013 honeycomb bees

The Sweetest Thing shot by Will Davidson -Vogue Australia 2013

Inspired by the novel Bee Stings by RosaLinda Diaz, which examines how a flirtation with a married man causes an elementary school teacher to reexamine her life and find herself.  Bee Stings perfume  is a sultry honey-based fragrance on a base of spice. Imagine a field of flowers in high summer, with everything in slow motion due to extreme heat. You’re lounging in the sun and being fed a golden honeycomb by your lover that’s dripping goodness.

Alexander McQueen bees honeycomb dress,

Elza Luijendijk Alexander McQueen Honeycomb Dress Spring 2013 Couture

Bee Stings beautifully presents a natural smelling honey without any unpleasant uric undertones, but just like an illicit affair, it’s not as simple as it first appears. The “sting” part comes from clove, which cuts the melting richness of the honey with a tingle. I’ve never experienced these two notes together before and the results are delightful.

 

BeeStings RosaLinda Diaz novel

Bee Stings by RosaLinda Diaz 

Intertwining with them in a beautiful dance like bees circling their hive are osthmanthus and orange blossom, highest quality petals which flavor the honey. To me the combination provides a hint of the scent of linden, which is appropriate given that the latter is said to have healing properties. The floral notes in Bee Stings remind me of the inner strength one finds when tested, as Diaz’s heroine is through the course of the novel.

bees fashionmcqueen

Sweetest Thing: Cassi van den Dungen by Will Davidson for Vogue Australia April 2013

The base notes of Bee Stings have a distinctly Oriental flavor, with tonka bean, spicy vanilla, Tunisian amber, red amber and oud. They signify adventure, and the oud in particular stands out against the sweetness of the other ingredients, with a peppery woodiness that gives the composition depth. Far more than a simple sweet fragrance, with Bee Stings Horowitz-Thran has performed alchemy out of its ingredients like bees make honey out of pollen– elegantly.

Disclosure: Sample provided by Sara Horowitz Thran, opinions my own

Nancy Lichtenstein, Contributor

Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

sarah horowitz parfums banque de parfum

Thanks to Sarah we have a very special draw perfect for summer weekends for a US registered reader.  1 ounce EDP Bee Stings.  AND – An autographed paperback copy of Bee Stings by RosaLinda Diaz (if you prefer the kindle version please leave that in your comment). Please leave a comment with what you enjoyed about Nancy’s review, and what is on your reading list this summer. Draw closes 6/29/2015.

We announce the winner’s only onsite and on our Facebook page, so Like CaFleureBon and use our RSS option…..or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

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33 comments

  • fazalcheema says:

    Bee Sting has honey and clove notes which means the fragrance will be the right mix between sweet and spice..adding floral elements like orange blossom may evoke memories of being in a garden. this fragrance has quite unusual combination of notes. thanks so much for the draw. I am in the US. My reading list this summer will not be books but short readings on a variety of subject matters.

  • madeleine gallay says:

    Sultry summer, lounging. It’s so evocative that there’s almost a fragrance with the simple words, a full picture certainly. The warmth of the honey, cloves with a peppery woodiness and I’m in love.

    In the USA near a beach.

  • Amy Leonhardt says:

    My favorite part of the review was about the connotations of the notes and the way the clove stings and cuts through the honey. On my reading list this summer is California and Infinite Home.

  • Ellen says:

    What’s on my list for the summer has been many books as I am recuperating from a difficult illness. I love honey and I love clove, so I’m so excited to hear about this fragrance. It sounds absolutely divine. Nancy’s review drew me into the fragrance so that I could almost smell it. Please please please include me. Thank you for the draw.

  • Patty P. says:

    Since I really have nice results wearing clove scents, that’s the part of the review that caught my attention. 🙂 I’m not going to read a book this summer (unless I win this draw). I’ll just find things on the internet. US

  • sunmisun says:

    This sounds really interesting. Right now I think honey might not be a note that I like, but I love the idea of the clove cutting through the honey and adding some depth. I also really enjoyed the imagery of the bees dancing around the hive! Thanks for the draw, I’m in the US.

  • julesinrose says:

    I love honey scents. This one sounds amazing! Lovely review – I adore the graphics!!! In the US, and, um, my summer reading is a stack of books about art therapy. Not very light, lol!

  • ringthing says:

    Nancy writes beautifully and does a good job intertwining the scent description with the storyline of the book. I love the smell of honey but it’s tricky in perfume, and the combination of honey and spice, especially the clove, seems like a good balance. My current summer reading bounces between Elmore Leonard Pronto (Raylen Givens book 1) and The Fug Girls The Royal We. I’m in the US and would prefer to read the book on my Kindle. Thanks for the opportunity!

  • silvrolive says:

    I love cloves and spices and the honey sounds wonderfully sweet! I also loved the connections to the book. My summer reading includes a book on coding, Gone Girl (took me a while to get to it), and anything else that looks interesting. I am in the US. Thanks for the draw!

  • taffyj says:

    This sentence made me sit up: ” Intertwining with them in a beautiful dance like bees circling their hive are osthmanthus and orange blossom, highest quality petals which flavor the honey.” I definitely want to smell that!

    Currently reading “Coming to my Senses” by Alyssa Harad. 🙂

  • RenChick says:

    You had me at “sultry honey”! I love anything to do with honey, and a spicy, oriental take on it sounds incredible! The book sounds great too, even if it is a departure from my usual mix of mindfulness reading and sci fi. On my summer reading shelf – Garrett P.I. fantasy series by Glen Cook and Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End. I’m in the U.S. Thanks for the draw!

  • Cynthia says:

    I love bee-centric scents and it’s a plus if it avoids the uric undertones, as mentioned in this article. Clove is a great addition to carnation,and i can imagine it in a honey scent. I think it would make an interesting counterpart to the sweetness. i would love to try it! i’m currently reading the Bridget Jones one, All About the Boy, that came out a couple of years ago. Very funny! And BrainMaker is next.

  • opal says:

    Bee Stings perfume is a sultry honey-based fragrance on a base of spice. Imagine a field of flowers in high summer, with everything in slow motion due to extreme heat. You’re lounging in the sun and being fed a golden honeycomb by your lover that’s dripping goodness.

  • Nemo says:

    The honey and clove plus osmanthus combination sounds heavenly, and the book sounds like a wonderful read! I would prefer the kindle version, and I am currently reading Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Thank you!

  • Harper says:

    this reminds me of my childhood summers — lazing in the sunny meadow with a book, bees and other insects buzzing in the air, a slight breeze in the birch trees, cradled within weeks and weeks of free time. (also, for some reason i like the word “pollen” a LOT. ha!) — how perfect that this perfume comes with a book, even! — and i am on a murakami tear right now: finished 1Q84, in the middle of “kafka on the shore” (strangely similar to the former but no less compelling for all that), might read the whalen translation of lady murasaki’s “tale of the genji” next, but then back to murakami with “norwegian wood.” still int he u.s..

  • Amber says:

    Honey and clove, how interesting. I’ve been reading mostly non-fiction lately, learning techniques of digital collage. I’m in the US.

  • Kim M. says:

    I love the scent of clove – I think it must be a beautiful fragrance! I’m also a complete bibliophile, so this is a wonderful draw for me!

  • Joyce says:

    What fascinated me about the review was putting the Perfume together with the book. I was imagining the story of the teacher as I read the description and it made me feel their relationship. I love the sound of the sweetness with the spice. I read every day and currently have my nose in the most famous novel, The Poisonwood Bible. It is a re- read for me. I am looking at the revelance of it in today’s world. It’s a masterpiece as far as I am concerned. Thank you for the draw and review, I am a U.S. Registered reader.

  • Hemla says:

    I grow bees. So I was immediately entrigued by the name of the perfume. Sounds excellent.
    My reading list: just started ‘the Life of the Bee’ -a clasic. and next plan on reading ‘Small is Beautiful’
    I don’t live in the US, but my sister does and she would recieve any perfume I may be so lucky to win in my name, and pass it on to me.
    Thank you

  • SandiL says:

    Nancy, I certainly want to try this sweet treat after reading this post… This sounds like a piece of honey heaven… I’m currently reading Better than Before and “A Hot Glue Gun Mess…” but bee stings sounds wonderful….. Enjoying my summer and hope the rest of you are as well.. I am in the US

  • Lisa B says:

    My favorite part of the review was actually the photo of the Alexander McQueen Honeycomb Dress 😉 Bee Stings sounds intriguing. I’m in North Carolina USA, and my summer reading list includes a massive time on nutrition and weight called “Good Calorie, Bad Calorie.”

  • Valentine Girl says:

    Several days ago I was clearing out the herb bed in my garden, when my trowel hit an underground bumble bee nest hidden amongst the vegetation. Well the inhabitants were none too pleased to have their home disturbed. Although I ran as fast as I could, when I stopped and turned around to see if I was far enough away, one angry member made a “bee-line” for my forehead and stung me just above the left eyebrow (apparently not far enough)! Although I have been wearing bee sting recently (LoL), I think I would prefer to be wearing Sarah’s Bee Stings with it’s clove, orange blossom, and honey notes.

    I really enjoy reading & my non-fiction choices lean towards culinary, horticultural, & socio-anthropological subject matters. However, my fiction genre choices are usually historical murder mysteries & historical fiction. I am currently reading the last installment of Laura Joh Rowland’s Sano Ichiro series, “The Iris Fan”, which is set in 17th century feudal Japan. USA resident. Thank you for the draw!

  • JazzBelle says:

    A honey note without uric undertones? Yes please! Like an illicit affair, this honey goodness sounds like temptation to me! Gooey decadent honey with a bit of a sting in clove. Genius!!

    The book also sounds like a great read! My summer reading is any book by Ruth Rendell, the queen of British mystery and psychological thrillers who sadly passed away earlier this year. The Bridesmaid is my favorite!

    I’m in the USA and would love to win this draw. Thank you!

  • Jodi says:

    What I liked most about this perfume review was both the very evocative and poetic language used by the reviewer as well as the photographic images that she so strategically placed next to the most compelling sections of her written text. For example, the Vogue photo shot by Will Davidson entitled “The Sweetest Thing” with its palette of pale yellow and amber golden tones and its collage-like composition of dried flowers laid over wooden beekeeper boxes, a suited up beekeeper and a dark haired maiden in a diaphanous summer dress and straw hat perfectly communicated the languorous quality of Horowitz’s composition described here as a “sultry honey-based fragrance on a base of spice,” a scent reminiscent of a “field of flowers in high summer with everything in slow motion due to extreme heat.” Honestly? I can literally feel such an experience as I read this review. This quality of written text enhanced by visual imagery, along with the writer’s metaphorical comparison of Horowitz’s perfume itself to the literary heroine’s journey of self-discovery in RosaLinda Diaz’z novel, Bee Stings, reminded me of another literary icon steeped in bee lore as a journey of self discovery – the poet Sylvia Plath who wrote her Bee Sequence poems the winter before she died of suicide. Although it may seem as though Plath did not find the inner strength of Diaz’s heroine that this reviewer so astutely compares to the floral notes in Horowitz’s Bee Stings, a “hint of linden” suggested here as a result of the alchemical combination of osthmanthus and orange blossom and a scent which reportedly has healing properties, Plath’s poems do indeed reveal a movement from reliance on the external world for self-worth to an inner journey of listening to the rhythms of one’s own desires and needs as the source of self-knowledge. When Plath declares in “Stings,” …but I/ have a self to recover, a queen,” I cannot help but see the image of the Alexander McQueen bee woman in this review, glowing and radiant like the sun. And in that literary vein, here are just a couple of the books from my summer reading list: Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford, The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, and The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi.

  • Elizabeth T says:

    Osmanthus, orange blossom and honey?? Osmanthus is one of my favorite floral scents, and I’d love to see it paired with honey. Thank you for the lovely draw! I’m in the USA.

    I just finished reading All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, an excellent read and highly recommended!

  • HeatherP says:

    The callout of the spices and oriental base with the strong honey up top would appeal to me anyway, but this review really made it sing. I definitely need to try this one. I’ve got a ton on the summer reading list, either Aftel’s Fragrant or Adler’s An Everlasting Meal will probably be next. I’m a US reader; thanks for the draw!

  • hofken says:

    I enjoyed Nancy’s review of this spicy gourmand fragrance that sounds perfect for summer. This summer I’m getting caught up on some audiobooks I downloaded months ago. I would prefer the Kindle version.

  • rodelinda says:

    I love the idea of honey with a “sting” of clove, and that beehive dress is fabulous. I’m in the US, and The Girl with All the Gifts is next on my reading list. Thanks!

  • Mim says:

    Bee Stings sounds lovely–honey with spices, especially clove, and languid beautiful florals too. The hint of linden appeals also– I love linden trees but have few fragrances that include even an allusion. My favorite part of the review was not the notes but the feeling of the scent: ” Imagine a field of flowers in high summer, with everything in slow motion due to extreme heat. You’re lounging in the sun and being fed a golden honeycomb by your lover that’s dripping goodness.”

    Summer reading…Terry Pratchett, historical fiction, mostly lighter stuff.
    USA
    Thank you for the review and draw

  • Poonam says:

    A spicy honey perfume sounds wonderful and the fact that is based. On the Book Bee Stings makes it very interesting to me. I love Perfect Coconut And Perfect Veil. My reading list is quite long but a must will be Harper Lee Go Set a Watchman.The

  • Ginny M says:

    You had me at “spicy gourmand”! Yummmm! I love that it was inspired by a novel–and that the honey is accompanied by orange blossom and osmanthus! At the top of my reading list right now is All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, and I’m a registered reader in the U.S.

  • Samantha says:

    Fragrance-wise, I’m thrilled by the lack of uric notes, which tend to be the bane of my perfumed existence (with ouds in particular).

    In terms of the poetry of the review: I’m seduced by the languid, lush imagery of being fed honeycomb in a slowly buzzing, golden field, surrounded by warmth, then surprised by the frisson of clove and spice. A lovely, understated expression of all of the best things about summer and love.

    My reading list this summer includes Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore, David Mitchell’s the Bone Clocks, and a to-be-released Pride and Prejudice-inspired novel whose name I can’t find right now. If chosen, I’d like the physical copy of Bee Stings. Thank you for the opportunity!