Violet Chocolatier

Kudos to Mr Kiler for this stunning parfum composition. I tend to either love or detest violet in a parfum. The same can be said of chocolat/cacao. However, this particular blending is really quite amazing. Like NOTHING I've previously experienced and that's saying A LOT! The addition of apricot, hazelnut, and gardenia are strokes of genius. It's well-evident Mr Kiler is an expert craftsman and consummate artist. One may assume, with the notes chosen to create this masterpiece, that the possibility/probability of the finished product being unbearably sweet is an issue definitely to be considered. Happily for us, that could not be farther from truth. Violet Chocolatier is so beautifully and artfully blended, each note serves to enhance and *converse* with each other. Naturally, the violet and the chocolat are the solo instruments. Like a fine Mozart symphony, there is no competition between the players, if you will. Each note has a specific statement to make. At that time, the remaining players lend support and serve to ground the soloist/s. This perfect teamwork produces a fragrant statement in which every single note is *heard* and every single note serves its purpose. Simply amazing. As time passes, honeyed beauty and warmth surround you in an exquisite cloud of spice, flowers, fruits, woods, and cacao. It just doesn't get better than that! I highly recommend this parfum--for the above-mentioned reasons as well as the excellent sillage and longevity. Violet Chocolatier is a masterful example of a grown-up gourmand done right. However, I use the term *gourmand* cautiously. If you can imagine a small Limoges plate filled with lightly-candied violets, lightly-candied rose petals of white and red, gardenia petals, magnolia petals, and on top, the finest french cacao powder, sliced apricots, crumbled hazelnuts, then finally, a drizzle of amber honey throughout. Perfection!

First sniff: Wow! How to describe this perfume? Theoretically, it is a floral-gourmand, which was born from Paul Kiler’s inspiration by viewing one of the paintings of Daria Jabenko, which is a Canadian artist, whose image portrays a sliced pie, having a cup of coffee alongside and some bonbons in the background. It was launched in 2012. And that's what happens when life imitates art! Violet Chocolatier is exactly that painting, in liquid form, inside a bottle. It contains notes of violets, apricots, cocoa, nutmeg and hazelnut. And there's more! The body of the fragrance was made with notes of Magnolia, jasmine, rose, honey and gardenia, ending with the creaminess of the amber and benzoin. Although much appreciated by women, was designed to be unisex. The feeling, when I spray this perfume on my skin, is like apricots covered by a warm chocolate sauce, along with truffles, bonbons and violets. It begins gourmand and is pretty strong. The floral accord of Magnolia, jasmine and rose didn’t excelled on my skin, but the creaminess of benzoin and the sweet, that only honey offers, were quite remarkable during the evolution. Basically, the fragrance is around apricot, cocoa and violet. There is a mixture of sweet, bitter and flowers, that keeps coming and going all the time. I dare say that is one of the most complex perfumes that I have ever felt, and be with it on the skin makes me imagine sitting on a veranda, surrounded by numerous fresh violets, beside a table full of delicacies made of cocoa. It exhales and lasts absurdly! Violet Chocolatier is like a brunch at sunset that, without doubt, causes distraction of others.

As an unapologetic lover of violet scents, I was instantly attracted to Violet Chocolatier by PK Perfumes. The question remained: what to expect? Certainly violet. It bursts upon the senses in all its olfactory beauty, but with one obvious missing facet : powder. This is a rich, wet violet, full of green and pretty floral with backbone. No other violet could stand up to the cacao storm with which it is paired. This cacao, accompanied by a nutmeg sprinkle, is deep and bittersweet, leaping as it swirls about the violet. It seems to resonate in my head as the violet and chocolate vibrate against each other. While the maelstrom begins to spend down, hazelnut and honey slow the tide. By this time, the violet and chocolate start to blend with a new floral-fruit accord. Fully ripe apricots contribute a shy, plaintive sweetness. Jasmine, rose and gardenia support the perfume as the heavier resins counter the green and anchor the scent. Luscious, but no gourmand, Violet Chocolatier is a satisfying and lovable new age violet for all users. I'm honored to own it.

For me this perfume has two very different phases. On the one hand, the output is totally chocolatey, but showing a dark chocolate above 85%, almost without sugar. It reminds me a bit of sammarco's bon-t chocolate. It is a powerful start with a dirty and animalistic character. Little by little, the strength of that chocolate decreases and violets appear, giving it a beautiful floral character and much more bearable. The base of the perfume is Amber with a woody touch although what stands out the most is as its name indicates the chocolate and violets, giving it a point between bitter, powdery and sweet. The drying is more fruity, being the apricot very noticeable. Worth it. Scent: 8 Longevity: 8 Projection: 6 Value for money: 5 Versatility: 6 Originality: 7 Global: 8

Oh, dear. I can see that this one is well-loved, and it was probably the PK Perfume I was most excited for. (Okay, so it tied with Cafe Diem and Zaffran, CLOSE ENOUGH.) So it pains me a little to write a review that is anything but glowing, especially given my experiences thus far with the rest of the line. Violet Chocolatier opens with a beautiful violet note. This is a fresh, "real" violet, not a powdery one, which is my personal preference. I get the sense that there are some other florals at work (namely magnolia), with hints of fruit and honey. The cacao, however, is not immediately present on my skin. Instead, it takes a good 30 minutes to develop. It's worth it when it comes in, though; it adds the scent of rich, dark chocolate to the composition. By the time I hit the hour mark, Violet Chocolatier smells exactly like a box of dark chocolate truffles next to a bushel of freshly-cut violets. But in my experience, the violet remains dominant, despite the fact that this fragrance is labeled as a gourmand. After that first hour of development, Violet Chocolatier becomes incredibly linear on my skin for another 4-5 hours, eventually fading in to something that's slightly powdery (though not cloying) and very much lacking in gourmand notes. The relative linearity and average longevity of this fragrance already make it an anomaly for Kiler's line. Add to that that Violet Chocolatier projects less than his other works. I'd label the sillage "soft," since people had to get right up against me to smell it on my skin, though you can get more of a moderate sillage if you apply it heavily. I don't think the sillage is particularly a BAD thing for this scent, though, because I think it suits the skin well. It's the kind of smell I can imagine being made in to body creams and soaps. Overall, Violet Chocolatier struck me as one of the most mediocre fragrances in the line. However, my experience with PK Perfumes is that Kiler's "mediocre" work is the equivalent to most house's best pieces. This is in no way a terrible perfume; it just didn't perform on my skin the way it did on these other reviwers', and it didn't wow me like most of the PK line.

Okay, this fragrance seriously blew me out of the water. It is one HEAVENLY, *strong*, potent scent - unlike anything I've ever smelled, and CRAZY longevity & sillage for the price you're paying. Not for the faint of heart! The overall tone of this scent is exotic, eccentric, rich & luxurious - it has a "natural oil" feel to it as well, like you can tell there aren't many synthetic ingredients in the composition. Mildly melancholic as well, there is some damp, otherworldly sadness afoot. The opening is a BLAST of cacao - the richest, deepest, and most edible. I think my eyes bugged out of my head! Paired with a woody, fuzzy hazelnut. Then throughout the heart came the violet; A violet unlike any other in my collection of violets! Minimal powder, no violet LEAF, no parma-violets candies, no dirty/rooty/homegrown garden violet - this one is like a honeyed, candied, crystal violet. Damp, freshly grown, mystical-gardens-greenhouse violet. Otherwordly & royal purple. The drydown is sweet & candy-like, the benzoin comes in, with a dash of amber & nutmeg, creating a cozy, fading-out effect that you just want to snuggle into! Violet Chocolatier is something RIDICULOUSLY good, albeit a novelty, as opposed to something for every day use - but it exceeded my expectations, and the quality, presentation & service of this little individually owned company DEFINITELY impressed me. I'd love to try more! 10/10. Best uses: Alice's tea parties, Halloween, Masquerade balls, Wedding day.

Chocolate apricot with hazelnut touch. Milk chocolate it is with apricots, resinous honey, magnolia, benzoin, & violets. It's not a gourmand blend and it's more sour than sweet. It reminds me of "Kiste" of Slumberhouse but quite lighter, If "Kiste" is night, then "Violet Chocolatier" is afternoon. Beautiful.

I love the story behind this fragrance, and Mr. Kiler's generous, personal involvement in customer orders! I first tried this in the dead of Winter, and just sat and experienced the journey. It was a journey! It felt like an olfactory field trip to a garden gazebo dessert shop! There are tons of fresh violets on all the tables, and on each plate a dark chocolate truffle. Only one truffle per customer though, and it's quickly eaten and gone. It's soo good compared to other chocolates, you want more, but no. Then you are served juicy apricots and hazelnuts drizzled with raw honey. This course lasts a long time and mixed with the violets it reminds me of the smell of Swedish Fish candies! Very concentrated, very sweet. (I would call this a gourmand for sure.) It's getting warm out, so the windows are opened and the scent of the garden flowers carries in and mixes with honey and apricots. The violets are there the whole time and sometimes take on a minty or piney note. They remain after all the tables are cleared and are very real and abundant. The next time I tried this it was warmer out, and it seemed to go straight to the middle Swedish Fish stage and stay that way. I still need to try this in hot weather, but wonder if it would be cloying. I think it's very unique, sweet, and one that could become a cult classic. I don't want to wear it as an everyday scent, but when I want a realistic dessert experience, I'm glad to have it!

I would love to get prototypes of this, especially versions that do NOT have as much peach and honey, because I feel that they kinda ruin the scent. The chocolate is raw and unlactonic, but it pairs well with the violet. They aren't necessarily blended well, and I can detect each component separately, and that in itself it not the problem, it's the sticky moistness that peach brings as well as the sickly moistness from the honey. Both peach and honey need to be used with care, restraint and control (the Japanese have a term for this; enryo), and here, sadly, they are not for my own tastes. In Kiste, the peach is a lot more tolerable when used in moderation, and I'm willing to give Violet Chocolatier more chances as I have been searching for a more rugged violet. I do like the combo here, it's the ratios are a bit off...

Peachy chocolate violet and jasmine. Strong, floral maybe a touch plasticcy at first but the nuttiness comes through later on which is its best phase imho. It’s interesting but not one I would buy a full bottle of, its a bit more novelty than a wearable fragrance for me and I’d only put it on every now and again.