Sonoma Scent Studio: Wood Violet, Vintage Rose, Sienna Musk, Champagne de Bois

If there's one thing to greatly appreciate about the fragrances from Sonoma Scent Studio, it's that there are no coy titles or misleading descriptors -- you get exactly what the fragrance says it is, with no beating around the bush about it.

I wonder sometimes if this is a uniquely American trait when it comes to perfumers. I've mentioned this in previous reviews for Sonoma Scent Studios, but it bears repeating: perfumer Laurie Erickson works much in the same vein as Neil Morris and Christopher Brosius, exhibiting a fragrance trend in which the perfumer is upfront and bluntly honest about his/her craft while creating scents that cut right through the traditional bull***t of mainstream fashion marketing and hype.

All four fragrances I tested today are solid pieces of craftsmanship, featuring charming intros and lively mid-phases, with three of the four moving into enjoyable drydowns, as well.

My favorite of the four is probably SIENNA MUSK, but only because it does that spicy, woodsy trip across the musk-rope that I seem genetically predisposed to like. A surprisingly inventive balancing act that teeters on the edge of gourmand yet has the good sense to counterbalance its warm, orangey-sweet spices with a well-chosen combo of cypress and cedar woods. The drydown is a pleasantly sweetened amber-musk that refrains from overdoing it . . . in any direction.

VINTAGE ROSE is a casual plum-flavored rose that reminds me somewhat of Le Labo Rose 31, only with the woods turned way down and the rose cranked way up. It goes slightly powdery at the end, but it's still one of the better dark rose fragrances you'll find at this price point. Drydown is a somewhat powdered, earthy rose, though not as sweet as Sienna Musk so it could easily work as a masculine floral.

WOOD VIOLET is lighter in character than the previous two, and the same plum note featured in Vintage Rose is included here, as well. It makes for a nice stepping stone from the green note of violet leaves to the woods, musk and spice mix that follows (the clove and cedar play nicely together). Drydown is soft, dry and almost Houdini quiet.

CHAMPAGNE DU BOIS rounds up the selection with Jasmine adding a velvety floral touch, reaching across the woods and amber to connect with the vetiver root in the base, resulting in a near holographic interpretation of the full flower -- petals, leaves, stem, earth and roots; unfortunately, the drydown had a tendency to move in and out of sour on me, which is too bad, as I really enjoyed the green shimmer of the jasmine flower in contrast to the deeper base elements.

But all in all, these are four good ideas supported by an adept hand in the mixing lab.