Jennifer Botto of Thorn & Bloom

 Jennifer Botto, the owner and artisan perfumer for Thorn & Bloom, creates extraordinary natural perfumes that transport and entice, and her tribute to North Woods winter named (appropriately enough) Evergreen, is no exception. Writing for ÇaFleurebon, I paid tribute at the start of the year to Citrine, Jennifer’s happier than hell “winter citrus", and am excited to  wind down the year covering another of her marvelous range.

Rafal Olblinksi

Evergreen captures the stillness of a North woods snowbound winter perfectly. If you’ve spent any time in the woods at night after a heavy snowfall, you know how the sound is so muffled and muted that it creates a space that borders on otherwordly and spiritual. All that can be heard is the soft crunching or whooshing of walking through snow, the world around you is completely silent and at that moment is magically transcendent. Evergreen encapsulates that profound feeling perfectly, and adds to it a crackling bonfire in a deserted clearing.

Rafal Olblinksi©

Opening with an arctic-cold rush of pine and fir, Evergreen transports you right into the middle of the deep dark woods, the night as clear and sharp as a crystal goblet, the stars so close and bright you could pick one out of the sky. You walk through the holy and still darkness towards a light that as you approach, becomes a bonfire.

Rafal Olblinksi©

Or perhaps heading home after an early evening winter ramble through the woods, and the smell of the woodsmoke as you approach your warm and cozy home; a scent of wood and fire that can make your heart swell. The green wood is crackling and spitting like a feral cat, the greenish smoke scent fills the air so perfectly. It’s as if one could send prayers and meditations imbued in the smoke. There’s only one other scent that fills me with the sense of peace and quietude that I find in the winter woods, and that’s Chanel’s Sycomore (a top-ten favorite of mine)  and if you replace the Sycomore vetiver with the warm comfort of the real oakmoss in Evergreen, then you’ll understand how divine this creation is composed. Jennifer Botto’s Evergreen could be destined to become a modern masterpiece for years to come.

Notes: Fir cone, Pine Needle, Guiacwood (Palo Santo), Cedarwood, Smoke, Oakmoss, Agarwood (Oudh), Vanilla

Disclosure: Thank you SO much to Jennifer Botto for supplying my sample. The opinions are my own.

 –Robert Herrmann, Senior Editor

Best of Show:Fragrance 2016 Indie Beauty Expo

Editor’s Note: Jennifer is a Certified Natural Perfumer’s Guild perfumer, A CEW Beauty Insider Finalist, the Indie Beauty Expo Best Fragrance 2016 Winner and 2x Finalist in the Art and Olfaction Awards 2017 and 2016 to name just a few, (here are links to her numerous awards and accolades including CaFleureBon Best of Scent 2015 and 2016).

-Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief; I used the surrealist natural paintings of Polish Artist Rafal Oblinski

 Jennifer’s beautiful fragrances are available through her website: www.thorn-and-bloom.com and select stockists.

Thanks to Jennifer Botto and Thorn & Bloom, we have a reader’s choice of one 7.5 ml  travel atomizer ($65) of Evergreen

or

a 9 piece  discovery kit for one registered reader In the USA, so be sure to register if you have not done so.

To be eligible please let us know what appeals to you about Robert’s review of Evergreen and if you would like the travel spray or the sampler. Draw closes on 11/20/2017.

We announce the winners only on our website and on our Facebook page, so like Cafleurebon and use our RSS feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.