Soivohle: Catching up with Liz Zorn

by: Jodi Battershell

Soivohle, the artisan perfume line from artist and prolific perfumer Liz Zorn, has some big changes in store for 2015. 

A thread in the Fragrantica forums last weekend about a great sale on Soivohle perfumes prompted me to take a closer look at this house. I'm a fan of Carpathian Oud (alas, already sold out by the time I heard about the sale), but I took advantage of the great prices and snagged Transcendental Orange, a blind purchase which I'll be sure to review when I receive it.

I also noticed lots of novelties when I visited the site. Liz has been a busy lady!

There were a few scents we didn't have in our database, including Amun Re The Tears of Ra from mid-2014 and new scent Riverwalk, Soivohle's contribution to thePeace-Love-Perfume Project our writer Ida Meister covered a few weeks ago.

A line of Embellishing Oils—natural fragrance components in a base of jojoba, argan and fractionated coconut oil, suitable for personal use, in the bath or even as ambient scents—was launched in early 2015.

Also new and sure to delight perfume collectors and fans of portable scents: two new fragrance sets. The first features a travel-friendly 11 ml atomizer paired with a 15 ml refill; the second is a tin called "A Little Something," containing three 5 ml flacons of demi-absolutes.

With so many changes underway, I got curious and reached out to Liz to find out more. It turns out, the sale is part of a larger plan, for which the ball actually started rolling some time ago, in 2014, with the closing of the Liz's Pendleton Street studio in Cincinnati.

"When I closed my perfume studio last spring I had a lot of things exclusive to the studio/shop. I intend to incorporate some of those into the line, as well as dissolve my Acousticjus line and incorporate some of those back into Soivohle as well," says Liz.

Acousticjus was a line of "mixed media" (meaning, fragrances composed with both natural ingredients and synthetics) alcohol-free perfume oils launched a while ago by Liz, and relaunched in 2012 with two new fragrances along with a host of classics.

"Acousticjus has always been alcohol-free, and I am moving in this direction for Soivohle," notes Liz. Indeed, if you look at the Soivohle sale page, the perfumes included are mostly the mixed media alcohol-based scents, along with some unboxed stock.

However, fans of the mixed media scents can look forward to many of these same scents returning in new formats—oils, solids and/or water-based—at a future date. "I will be adding more oils and introducing a line of solids. The more complex of the current clearance perfumes will likely become solids," explains Liz. "I also intend to have a natural collection of solids. I have also been working on a new water-based carrier for both naturals and mixed media scents, so this is also coming at some point."

Sounds like the closure of the shop has provided some new opportunities for Liz. "I wanted to do this a few years ago but never found the right time, or the energy to put it all into motion. It seems more doable now that I am not maintaining a shop."  This new flexibility also enables Liz to focus on painting three or four days a week and work on Soivohle at night.

In addition to the re-tooling of the Soivohle line, Liz has a new themed-series of fragrances underway for 2015.

"I do have two new naturals to be released at a later date. It is a new series I started working on last year, The Alchemists. Scents inspired by famous alchemists of the past. These first two will be Paracelsus and Valentinus (Basil Valentine)." Liz anticipates launching The Alchemists in late summer or fall, after everything else has been set into place.

Thank you, Liz, for finding time in your busy day to share the latest happenings with Fragrantica readers!

Fragrantica will share the news and new releases of Soivohle as they become available. In the meantime, visit the official Soivohle site to get in on the great sale, buy samples or full size bottles of the current line and keep up with Liz's blog.

All Images: Soivohle