The Story behind Pangolin Violette Rose!

Greetings, my dear Purrfumery friends!

I’m celebrating my birthday this month! I gave myself the ultimate gift last year when I decided to embrace the change that my heart and soul had been calling for. Last year, I decided to focus on conservation and helping endangered animals through my art. It’s been an incredible and creative journey that started with Luminous Lemurs and continues with my latest perfume.

Drumroll, please!

I’m delighted to introduce you to Pangolin Violette Rose, my second limited edition perfume dedicated to helping endangered species come back and thrive in the world we all share. Pangolin Violette Rose is absolutely dreamy – it opens with jasmine auriculatum and jasmine sambac and has top notes of candied violet, with a little carnation absolute. The scent blooms into a complex bed of roses, with a jammy Indian Rose Edward and candy-like Persian Rose Otto. As the scent dries down, the roses turn sultry and rich with Bulgarian rose absolute and otto and Turkish rose absolute. Egyptian violet leaf absolute mingles with the roses, bringing them even deeper, and a touch of cocoa absolute adds a little bonbon. The perfume rests on a throne of aged Tamil Nadu and New Caledonia sandalwood. As time passes, the orris absolute and orris concrete linger with a dusting of powdery gorgeousness. I set all these magical, rare natural materials in a base of 20-year aged Tahitian vanilla-infused biodynamic grape alcohol.

Rare and Precious Naturals

I love Pangolin Violette Rose and for me, it's a testament to the magic of naturals. The solid is more violet leaf – more deep and green – and the liquid is more rose-powdery. This is the alchemy of working with oil and alcohol, and that's what the violets, irises and roses decided to do! You may decide you like both for different occasions, and indulge in the solid and the liquid.

Pangolin Violette Rose is a pinnacle of creativity for me – it is a collector’s item, a gift from the inside out, with packaging that includes my letter-pressed artist statement on the French ribbon, and bottles bedecked with vintage flowers. I hand-blended the liquid parfum in a small batch using the most exquisite and rare materials available, and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. The solid is a little more plentiful, but not by much… 

Here are the details! 

30 ml Collector’s Edition Verrieres Brosse flacon in a corsage hatbox: $750 each 

8 ml Collector’s Edition Verrieres Brosse flacon in corsage hatbox: $350 each

10 ml Collector’s Edition solid perfume in Violette sterling silver Jewel Box in a lavender silk and rhinestone pouch: $500 

10 ml Collector’s Edition solid perfume in Violette porcelain box in a lavender silk and rhinestone pouch: $350

5 ml Starlight solid perfume in velvet pouch with vintage flowers: $95

I donate a generous portion of the proceeds from Pangolin Violette Rose to The Pangolin Crisis Fund. This initiative, led by Paul Thomson, a conservation biologist, raises money and pays for projects that are working to stop the poaching of endangered pangolins, reduce demand for their meat and scales, and raise awareness. The fund is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Fund, a group that I’ve supported for years! 

The Pangolin Crisis Fund started with $100,000 in 2019 and has a goal to raise $1.5 million by the end of this year. The kitties and I are on board, and we want to help them make their goal! One thing I like is that they send 100% of all donations directly to the field, without taking any overhead.

I love that the Pangolin Crisis Fund supports The Tikki Hywood Foundation, a Zimbabwe-based conservation group with a wildlife rescue center that runs 24 hours a day! Tikki Hywood’s mission is to rescue pangolins from poachers and from illegal bushmeat markets. Once they’ve rescued the pangolins, they rehabilitate them and bring them back to the wild where they belong. 

I’m thrilled that the Purrfumery supports these conservation projects!

The Story Behind Pangolin Violette Rose

Pangolin Violette Rose bloomed from serendipity. After I created Luminous Lemurs, benefitting Centre ValBio’s work with Madagascar lemurs, I turned my attention to pangolins. Pangolins are native to Asia and Africa, and they are among the most illegally trafficked mammals in the world, poached for their scales and meat. Now, they are in danger of extinction, and they need our help. 

I was daydreaming about rose and violet leaf, mixing a perfume with pangolins in mind. Then I heard from artist, writer, curator, and educator Matt Morris and gallery owner Eric Ruschman about The Red Wedding, an art exhibition that opened at Ruschman Gallery in Chicago in May 2021. Matt designed and curated The Red Wedding as an experiential journey through the essence of femininity and he wanted a perfume to be one of the artworks in the show. He said he had been daydreaming about a scent of roses and violets… My heart jumped. This is the scent I was working on! I completed the scent and Emerald, Velvet & Sweet Pea’s amazing designer, created a fan that gallery guests received, each with a spritz of Pangolin Violette Rose.

Matt told me that many people visited The Red Wedding multiple times. Ruschman Gallery is not a very big space, but Eric noticed some visitors would stay for over an hour, just softly circling around the room, perfumed fans in hand. Visitors described the show as feminine, feminist, utopian, comforting, soft, dreamy, lovely, and lots of people would mention that it was like a satisfying dessert course. 

The show also sparked conversations around diversity. The Red Wedding included artists working across many different media, and from different age groups, races, genders, sexual orientations and nationalities. Yet despite these differences, the artists collaborated to create an exhibition that was cohesive in vision and touched people deeply.  

With this perfume, I am helping animals in need, and I am celebrating the essence of The Red Wedding and the unique expression that each and every one of us make in this world. I invite you to be part of this celebration, my dear Purrfumery friends!

A Gift For You

On this birthday occasion, I want to thank you all for being a part of my life, my dear Purrfumery friends! From today until August 29th I will offer 15% off anything in the Purrfumery. Be sure to type VIOLETTE in the discount box. All orders through the end of August will receive a sample of Pangolin Violette Rose too! Maybe it’s time to try something new?

If you have questions or need gift ideas, let me know! You can call me at 510-334-8824 or laurie@purrfumery.com

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Peace, love, purrfume, social justice and kitty cats,
XOXO

Laurie