Vanilla Summer: Providence Perfume Co.'s Provanilla and Tauerville Vanilla Flash

by: Jodi Battershell

This is a tale of two vanillas, from two very talented perfumers, offering two different takes on this classic ingredient.

I'm generally fond of vanilla scents, as are most people. I tend to reserve the gourmand "cake frosting" vanilla scents for wintertime and holiday parties. Earthy/spicy vanillas are in heavy rotation for me during autumn. In spring and summer, vanilla is usually a complementary note in a lighter floral, fruity or musk-based fragrance—bring on the beachy combos like suntan lotion-y coconut and vanilla or piña colada-esque fragrant cocktails!

Two new vanilla fragrances reached me in the space of a week and they're challenging me to re-think my vanilla fragrance strategy for the upcoming warm weather.

Providence Perfume Co.'s new Provanilla (say "Prov [as in Providence] Vanilla") is composed entirely of natural perfume ingredients. It's the first vanilla-focused fragrance from perfumer Charna Ethier, whose perfumes are always winners in my book. PPC perfumes have proven time and time again that "natural" does not equate to "simple," "short-lived," "uninteresting" or "ugly." (Yes, there are some people who still believe this.) Providence Perfume Co. has something for nearly every taste: classic Floral (Orange Blossom Honey or Hindu Honeysuckle), heavy-hitting Oriental (Cocoa Tuberose or Osmanthus Oolong), traditional cologne (Bay Rum or Branch & Vine), classic oakmoss-laden chypre (Moss Gown) and even fruity floral, which can be a challenge when using only natural ingredients (Mousseline Peche or Summer Yuzu). A true vanilla scent nicely rounds out the Providence Perfume Co. offering.

I have observed that perfumerCharna Ethier (left) is a master at perfume sleight-of-hand. Hindu Honeysuckle, for example, beautifully captures the sweet aroma of the delicate orange flower with not a drop of honeysuckle in the formula. As it happens, honeysuckle does not give up its aroma for essential oil production, so Ms. Ethier worked her magic to replicate the gorgeous scent using sweet Indian Jasmine Sambac, vetiver, rose absolute, botanical musk seed, bergamot and Indian coriander. She worked magic again in Violet Beauregarde, capturing the delectable sweetness of blooming violets by using ylang-ylang, jasmine, mimosa and violet leaf. (Violet Beauregarde also pulls off a "bubble gum" effect, which is no less magical.)

Provanilla includes five varieties of vanilla, coconut pulp, rose, balsams and myrrh, for what the house suggested would give a clean aquatic effect and a unique new twist on vanilla. (Another of Charna's gifts: trend-spotting. Or perhaps I should call her a tastemaker? Provanilla was in the works for almost a year before launch and she somehow anticipated the aquatic fragrance revival we're experiencing this spring with the likes of new releases from Loewe, Armani, PG Collection Croisiere, numerous aquatics encountered at Esxence, etc.)

Aquatic indeed. Upon first whiff, my husband asked, "Melon?" If I didn't know of Charna's dedication to using only natural ingredients, I would have guessed Provanilla contained Calone, that popular melony-aquatic note of many a 1990s fragrance. The fragrance indeed opens with a melony blast. A little bit sweet, a little bit ozone-y. Vanilla is definitely here, but Provanilla is more about the ocean than about the suntan lotion I wore while laying on the beach. I don't detect rose as an individual note, but there's an earthy touch of the balsams and myrrh throughout the scent. It reminded me a bit of New West, sans the chypre dry-down. The scent is fully unisex and both my husband and I have enjoyed its sunny summer vibe.

Provanilla is an eau de parfum but it wears more like a parfum in terms of sillage and longevity. On bare skin, the pure vanillas emerge about six hours in. Sprayed under clothes, the scent remains rather linear and still has the prominent melon/aquatic note, 12 hours later. It has amazing longevity, considering many synthetic scents don't even last 12 hours. Two little spritzes was more than enough sillage for the workday, too.

And now for something completely different. (But still vanilla!)

Andy Tauer's new venture, Tauerville, offers a new creative outlet for the perfumer, and for more than just perfume. The Tauerville offering includes scarves based on original paintings made by Andy. We can add "visual artist" to the list of his many skills and talents. Watch Andy at work in the video below.

The first Tauerville fragrance, Rose Flash, was launched in limited release in 2014. Rose Flash is back this year, along with the next fragrance in the Tauerville series,Vanilla Flash, which was just launched in April.

Andy explains the concept behind the new series: "Tauerville is a playground for innovative ideas presented in a down to earth approach. Therefore, you can expect some of the best creations using the best raw materials a perfumer can get, at a great price, offered in a 100% Swarovski-free zone." From Tauerville we can expect fragrances that don't quite fit the traditional Tauer Perfumes model, in terms of distribution, scarcity of ingredients for larger-scale production and/or in terms of mood. "Tauerville is also funville. Enjoy!" says Andy.

Image: Tauerville

Vanilla Flash, like Rose Flash, is available as a 10 ml roll-on or a 30 ml spray atomizer. Rose Flash was a parfum, but Vanilla Flash is an eau de parfum. If you're familiar with any of Andy's previous works, you know already that Andy's creations have incredible sillage and longevity at any concentration. I can hardly imagine a parfum of Vanilla Flash and I think the roll-on and eau de parfum concentration are actually well-suited for the ingredients in this fragrance.

Vanilla Flash features spicy notes, bourbon vanilla, rose, patchouli and tobacco. Any of these components alone could have produced an overpowering sillage bomb, but in the hands of a skilled perfumer like Andy Tauer, the result is quite different. Vanilla Flash is— dare I say it?—a rather soft and cozy fragrance.

Rose and patchouli are carefully dosed to temper the sweetness and strength of vanilla and tobacco. Vanilla and tobacco and the spices together could have equaled "Santa's pipe" [or "Christmas candle"] but instead, the overall effect is a pleasant, comforting vanilla and tobacco aroma with earthy nuances and moderate sillage. I rolled on the perfume over my favorite not-quite-pulse points (back of each wrist, décolletage, back of neck) and enjoyed my own personal vanilla-tobacco cloud throughout a workday, with just a touch-up on the back of my wrists again for my evening out. The fragrance never overpowered and it took on a salty sun-baked skin quality, which mingled nicely with the dominant tobacco note as the fragrance dried down. 

I have known other Tauer fragrances (for example, Sotto La Luna Gardenia andIncense Rose) to survive on sweaters sent through the washer AND dryer, and Vanilla Flash isn't that tenacious, but that's not a bad thing. It's 100% recognizable as a Tauer fragrance, but the scent's softer aura means I won't have to wait until snow and the winter holidays to enjoy it.

Thank you to Providence Perfume Co. and Tauerville/Hypoluxe for the opportunity to try the new scents!