There are many perks to writing for Cafleurebon. My favorite one is when new perfumers send me their work for sniffing and possible review. Natural perfumer Margo Conklin made my week when she sent me samples of two very lovely scents. I was a tad bit leery of trying a perfume made by a bead company, but let me assure you: these are some very interesting juices with equally intriguing inspirations. Ms Conklin uses absolutely NO animal products whatsoever, and many of her essential oils (eo’s) she makes herself, using the time and labor intensive enfleurage method. After sniffing these it is obvious, on looking at her website, that she puts the same care and quality into the making of her perfumes as she does her rosaries and beadworks.

Vintage Bottle of Avon "To a Wild Rose"

This perfumer was born in the Bronx and has scent memories as early as three years old: simmering tangerine peels her mother used to use as room freshener. And can remember Avon perfumes for Christmas gifts and wanting nothing more than a bottle of “To a Wild Rose”. When life dealt her a cruel blow, as an adult, and she was forced to retire early she decided to concentrate on beauty and making beautiful things as opposed to concentrating on the negatives. She began making rosaries (from simple to extravagant), jewelry and finally perfume.

Good Scents by Robin M. Birrell

Margo has many core beliefs about perfume. One being that your fragrance should not enter a room before you. Another one being that synthetic fragrances give a skeleton to a scent, but natural perfume adds the flesh. Both of these ideals shine through in her perfumes. Her lifelong love of fragrance, her studies and her dedication to her art(s) are inspiring. Anyone can combine essences and call it “perfume”; but it takes something special to be able to match and accent notes and tweeze all the nuances from a single note with many others and create something as complex as it is comfortable and beautiful.

I reached for Summer Storm first. Always a lover of a great and awesome storm, I am constantly looking for a perfume that captures that feeling. On corresponding with the perfumer, I learned a 2012 summer storm ripped the limb from a cedar elm tree outside her home. When she went outside to see, the limb was oozing sap that had a wonderful powdery floral quality…so she made a tincture of the wood and the resin to use later as a base.

Summer Storm 1 by Trevor Womack

This perfume opens brightly and rather fresh and citrusy (I was going to guess mandarin but it is actually E. Indian lemongrass that gives it this citric quality) and slightly green. As it begins to develop, a delicate pink lotus helps to pull out and accent those floral woody notes. As I sniff my wrist again and again, I keep getting something deliciously floral but it’s a bit different each time. A mercurial orris adds hints of cool dampness and rich green. The essence of the captured tree sap has been brought to the fore in the finish with elemi resin and frankincense. It green aspects continue as the vetiver and its grassy warmth dominates the dry down in all its woody flowery glory. This botanical perfume does not smell like a savage summer thunderstorm. It smells more akin to the feeling that the thundering dark clouds and danger have passed, the sun has returned, the wet flowers shake off the rain puddles, as grass and trees both sparkle. Sillage: close. Longevity: slightly above average.

I was left with Earthman Natural Cologne. Images of an overdose of muskiness, a possible patchouli bomb and too many dark heavy notes combined raced through my mind. Despite these, I tipped the sample to my wrist and after a moment was greeted with the most amazing scent! Wafting around me was a scent that was exotic and familiar all at once. One that was woody and shadowy, but floral in a darker more masculine way. Heavier oriental notes (amber, sandalwood and vanilla) are all present here; yet they play well together for Margo, and none of them out-do each other. The core of this scent is an amazing synthesis (via enfleurage) of mandarin oranges and jasmine sambac.

Jasmine Sambac

This maintains a moderate sweetness that does not overpower and the jasmine weaves gracefully in and around the other notes creating a sultry dance and very sensual feeling. Where the orris root in the first scent was green and quirky, here it is more root-like and darker. The vetiver makes this root “sprout” and creep throughout its development, like a verdant vine. The addition of bergamot gives this a slightly bitter edge that is brilliant. Peru balsam adds an interesting and resinous depth to this, but it stops short of patchouli’s skank factor, remaining cozy. The perfumer’s blending of these notes results in something that is very floral, yet not bombastic. This has a very down-to-earth feeling and borders on incense; but, is not smoky at all. A really magnificent shadowy oriental floral any man would be proud to wear, including her son Ben, I imagine. (It was his love of jasmine that was the inspiration for this perfume!). Sillage: average. Longevity: very good.

Natural perfumes used to mean a thick, often “muddy” blend of strong and pure essential oils. Many had that “chewy-granola-all natural” feeling. I assure you; these do not. In many natural perfumes you have to wait for the (often very aromatic) carrier fluid/medium to dissipate before you can feel its subtler charms or read the “notes”. Margo Conklin has managed to go “au naturel” with her perfumes and makes them smell balanced, integrated and special. I look forward to sniffing other perfumes she has made, including jasmine and tuberose soliflores and Moonglow (created during a summer full moon).

Art is not the finished product, but the journey there; so they say. I personally happen to think these perfumes are worthy of the term “art”; as they bring out and are inspired by the beauty of nature using an all-natural palette created with an obviously loving and careful hand. What could be more beautiful? Think of the beauty of a stained glass window. Ever see one illuminated with full sunlight? These perfumes are like that. Something aesthetically pleasing and glowing with light yet quiet and unassuming at the same time is in both of these perfumes. They have the ability to make me sigh or smile a little brighter. Color me impressed…

Disclosure: Reviews based on samples sent to me by Miraculous Beads.

Margo Conklin had graciously agreed to offer a 5mL sample of Summer Storm as a giveaway. To be eligible leave a comment on your favorite stormy memory. The draw will end on January 26, 2013.

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

–John Reasinger, Editor