Sweet Jasmine Brown

All the Providence Perfumes I've tried tell me that she very much loves jasmine and should be tried by jasmine (and gardenia) lovers. If you are also into gourmand, *this* is the perfume for you. My 15-year-old daughter found this utterly intoxicating and it is now her favorite perfume. The ingredients are of such high calibre that I thoroughly enjoyed though I'm not into jasmine very much. My only complaint is that this house could benefit from civet or ambergris in the creations for sillage and lift; I add some of my own to make them, somehow, even better.

this opens with jasmine, ylang ylang, ambrette and a hint of cacao and vanilla. it's mostly floral but the other notes add a hint of realistic sweetness, that isn't _too_ sweet. the jasmine and cacao grow in strength over time and i find them very complimentary. i really like this one a lot. it's nice in warm weather but could see it working in numerous seasons.

This one is weird. A green floral chocolate bar. That is the only way I can describe it.

I bought Sweet Jasmine Brown on a whim, largely because of the name. From the notes (jasmine, vanilla, pink pepper, tonka, cocoa nib, ylang ylang, musk ambrette), I'd expected a lightly spicy, fleshy, and sugary jasmine scent, and while this is what I got for the most part, Sweet Jasmine Brown veers very close to baby oil on me. As with many perfume oils, the total of SJB rushes at you immediately, in stereo. SJB is a smooth scent and the notes move fluidly into a central jasmine/ylang-ylang rubberiness with faint touches of something vanillic whose texture is causing an oiliness that I am likening to the baby oil. Baby oil! This keeps SJB as a guilty pleasure I wear around the house and not out of it. I adore SJB and am simultaneously terrified of it--I wouldn't want to be queried if I'd been bathing an infant. Nevertheless, I would absolutely purchase SJB again; it is something I wear with great frequency after the sun goes down and I don't have to discuss my perfumes with the public. Slight development reveals ambrette and a tiny bit of spice that funks up the oiliness nicely, but not quite enough to remove that infant association. The floral hides behind the vanilla on my skin for most of SJB's wear, although it is still evident as a floral. Florals in SJB are nearly equal parts jasmine and ylang ylang, with the latter ultimately being more prominent. Listed pepper note comes much later into the development and provides a nice little kick that ultimately does move the smooth, flat surface of SJB along, and relieves a bit of the baby oil association. SJB is one quirky little scent. Don't go into it expecting a solid-gold jasmine like A la Nuit. SJB doesn't smell like any other jasmine scent I know, which is a huge plus. I'm quite addicted to it at the moment, and it has made me think twice about all-natural perfumes, a category I had eschewed due to some amateur work I'd tried earlier. SJB smells like heady jasmine and ylang-ylang macerated in vanilla-inflected baby oil. It's fairly thick and low to the skin. That brilliant pink pepper note appears twenty minutes into the development and zaps SJB out of the vanillic oiliness and into another dimension. I hesitate to refer to a pepper note as "spicy," because we often refer to spice as the brown spices, which isn't the case here. Pink pepper smells much like white pepper; that is, a vibrant dry resin-like material that adds a welcome texture, as it does here. I should note that Providence Perfume Co.'s Violet Beauregarde is a smashing violet that has made me revisit and like violet anew. I like Charna's work above all other natural perfumers; she's made me (finally!) believe in naturals and her naturals are big, worldly, and exciting, and they last. SJB is a grand exercise and one that I have enjoyed through my milk-glass bottle. It and Violet Beauregarde have permanent places in my collection. I wouldn't be without either.

Will add a more complete review later, but quick and dirty: If you're looking for a good oil-based jasmine scent, this is a nice one. It's a beautiful, slightly indolic true jasmine scent, with a little bit of spice and kind of a molasses/brown sugar edge. It gets a little greener and less sweet as it dries down. Longevity is great (6+ hours), sillage is decent (a little smaller aura than an alcohol-based perfume).