There are few creative directors with the intimate knowledge of flowers that Saskia Havekes of Grandiflora has. Ms. Havekes is one of the premier florists in the world; her creative designs have been seen internationally from her base in Sydney, Australia. Four years ago, she branched out into fragrance with a pair of interpretations of magnolia by perfumers Michel Roudnitska and the late Sandrine Videault. Over the next two releases jasmine and the queen of the night would provide the floral keynotes. Through these first four the brand lived up to its name grand floral perfumes. For the fifth release Grandiflora Boronia instead of blooms to display we go into the greenhouse where they are growing.
Saskia Havekes
Ms. Havekes re-teams with perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour, with whom she created Queen of the Night, for Boronia. Boronia is a floral native to Australia. M. Duchaufour had experienced it on a previous trip to the country and had wanted the opportunity to explore it in a perfume. Ms. Havekes had grown up surrounded by the flower and to her it was just part of the surroundings. As a florist she understood the tiny flowers with the vivid scent were perfect as the keynote for a fragrance.
Bertrand Duchaufour
Together they take us inside a greenhouse humid with green and growing things over which the scent of the newly opened boronia flowers drift on top of. M. Duchaufour has been producing simpler constructs over the last year or so. Boronia is a break from that with return to his style of over-stuffed architecture which carries nuance instead of noise.
In the beginning of Boronia, you close the greenhouse door behind you and you smell the soil and the green stalks with only a bit of floral scent making its presence known through the artificial humidity. Before you get to work you brew a pot of black tea which provides a break from the smells of nature. As you pull on some leather gardening gloves you touch the delicate blooms of Boronia and they emit a faceted floral accord which carries rose, magnolia, geranium, and osmanthus. These all surround and support the Boronia keynote. The leather and tea blend in as a cozy mise-en-scene as you tend to the flowers. Over time it turns predominantly woody and balsamic with vanilla and caramel providing a diffuse gourmand base accord.
Boronia has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.
Boronia is a lovely departure from the style of the previous Grandiflora releases while still retaining a grandiosity coalesced around flowers. It couldn’t be any other way with something overseen by Ms. Havekes and M. Duchaufour. The difference is this is the florist’s workshop wherein she spends time getting to know her flowers. As a perfume lover you will want to enter the greenhouse and get to know Boronia.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Grandiflora.
–Mark Behnke
