Charna Ethier of Providence Perfume Co.

It is our pleasure to help celebrate artisanal natural perfumer Charna Ethier’s 15th anniversary. How can it be that her Providence Perfume Co. is already fifteen years old??? It seems like yesterday: sitting in her then-little kitchen in Providence, Rhode Island with a very young Poppy and Graham, reading stories; a relatively small spare room (to the side) pressed into service as a perfume organ. A great deal has transpired since then, and Charna has evolved from a budding perfumer of promise to a seasoned, skilled educator and artist with a showcase brick-and-mortar studio. If memory serves correctly, she has created 38 perfumes to date – with two new vanilla fragrances just released.

Ida  with Charna’s family celebrating a birthday 2012  

Have I smelt each and every one? I have. Do I love them? Well, I keep purchasing and repurchasing them, and I’ve lost track of how many I have given to friends over the years – so that should answer any questions. Be they perfumes, oils, botanical essences, candles, skin, hair and body products – Providence Perfume Co. creations never fail to delight. Their pleasure is only augmented by the realization that you can help support an individual artisan – which is gratifying.

 

Naturally, I was hard-pressed to choose only three scents. Some of the early ones which I adored were discontinued long ago; a few others appear to have been tweaked slightly since their original release (but not all). I eventually decided upon a trio of very different perfumes in the interest of variety – and true to my word, I’ve purchased them each more than once. Those amongst you who are familiar with her work very likely have your own favorites. Let’s begin chronologically.

Felice Casorati Dreaming of Pomegranates, 1913 via wiki, Love-in-a-Mist via website

Providence Perfume Co. Love-in-a-Mist (2016). Love-in-a-Mist was inspired by the flower Nigella damascena – a plant which is native to the south of France and western Asia. This remarkable material is rare and expensive: a mere milliliter costs 33 Euro. Often likened to manuka and acacia honey, its ambery animalic facets illuminate everything with which it commingles – and it possesses a charming wild strawberry-grape facet as well. Love-in-a-Mist is all about endless summer détente: mimosa and sweet clover serenade lazy days, sun-warmed meadows, daisy chains, and the accompaniment of buzzing fat bumblebees, crickets, and cicadas. You can feel the earth’s pulse. Go barefoot; climb a tree. The grounding sandalwood is a joy; jasmine is a seamless companion here, part of this fragrance’s intrinsic warmth and lyricism.

Providence Perfume Co. Love-in-a-Mist Notes: love-in-a-mist flower, mimosa, pink peppercorn, sandalwood, sweet clover, wildflowers, honey, jasmine

detail from 1914 Edvard Munch The Bite  via wiki Drunk on the Moon via website

Providence Perfume Co. Drunk on the Moon (2019): Boozy, blowsy, inebriating: Drunk on the Moon is a louche, pulsating perfume in which decadence is the order of the day. I once described it as “a more youthful Tom Waits’ smooth, buttery-jazz delivery of the street scene he encounters peppered with the plaintive wail of a sax.” I stand by that. For all its elegance and addictive spicy gourmandise, Drunk on the Moon is a bluesy fragrance all about the sex lives of plants that underscore its diabolical allure: the forbidden tuberose, hallucinatory nutmeg, prurient plump juiciness of peach. Creamy sandalwood and sweet myrrh (opoponax) are smooth as charmeuse. Perhaps it would be prudent to check the ID of those who would buy Drunk on the Moon, just so we’re certain that they are legally responsible…

Providence Perfume Co. Drunk on the Moon Notes: tuberose, rose, nutmeg, opoponax, peach, sandalwood, velvet cream sherry accord

 Lapsang Lover via website, black tea via Getty

Providence Perfume Co. Lapsang Lover (2022)

Then lay your rose on the fire
The fire give up to the sun
The sun give over to splendour
In the arms of the high holy one
For the holy one dreams of a letter
Dreams of a letter’s death
Oh bless thee continuous stutter
Of the word being made into flesh. ~ excerpt from The Window by Leonard Cohen

Charna Ethier’s Lapsang Lover is a rose on its ladder of thorns – the incalculable loveliness of shrouded desire wed to sanctity and myth. Underneath its leathery, singed sweetness lurks the intoning of a primordial canticle. Charna has seen fit to hover above the precarious balance between the bitter and the honeyed with enviable aplomb. As a result, Lapsang Lover feels perfectly contemporary while maintaining a beautiful classical bone structure in the manner of European haute parfumerie. Its tenacity is remarkable; a mere drop will linger for many consecutive hours, complete with a stunning sillage. Darkly luminous, this perfume possesses a haunting, melodic melancholy.

Providence Perfume Co. Lapsang Lover Notes: lapsang tea tincture, black tea, labdanum, fossilized amber, myrrh, rose, resins, cardamom, honey

Perfumes were all purchased by me. My nose is my own…

~ Ida Meister, Deputy and Natural Perfumery Editor

 

travel size bottles via website

Thanks to the generosity of Charna Ethier we have a travel size bottle of Providence Perfume Co. Love-in-a-Mist or Drunk on the Moon, or Lapsang Lover for one registered reader in the U.S., reader’s choice. To be eligible please leave a comment about what appeals to you in Ida’s article AND WHICH YOU WOULD LIKE TO WIN. Do you have a favorite Providence Perfume Co fragrance? Draw closes 11/18/2024

Charna Ethier was a 2010 and 2012 Best of Scent Award recipient for best natural perfumer by Michelyn and former Managing Editor Mark Behnke.  Charna was Ida’s rising star 2010! She also received Michelyn’s Best of Scent award “For the hardest working Perfumer of 2014”.

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