Chaparral - walking through the fields and woods of California

Recently I compared Roxana’s perfumes with gifts. And they are. Roxana pays a lot of attention and love to packing and uses cute little pots and bags as well as wax sealed envelopes and letters. Do you remember the feeling of expectancy while untying, unwrapping and opening a gift when you was a child? It’s pretty the same here except that breaking wax seal ritual makes it look a little bit magic.

And than there is another joy coming – the fragrances themselves. Chaparral was the most intriguing one from the sample pack I’ve got. This is the fragrance from Californica series celebrating and exploring the beauty of plants growing in this area. I’ve got it in two versions – liquid and solid perfume.

Solid Chaparral overwhelms with its power of warm, almost chocolate sweetness of woods and a touch of cool herbs. But on the skin the situation is reversed. Roxana says that Chaparral is a dance of Air and Fire in the breeze. It’s true, because the play between the hot and cool notes goes through the fragrance. On my skin Chaparral opens with warm herbs. It’s like a sunny day when you stand on a green field and breath the aromatic bitterness coming from the herbs warmed by the Sun. You feel the space and breath the air freely. And than you go to the woods you’ve noticed somewhere at the foot of the mountains. You feel the air getting cooler under the shadow of the trees and what you smell is a play between cool balsamic notes and warm woody accords. At the end a note of smoke joins the woods. It’s like the fire you make to cook the diner and to celebrate this inspiring sunny day.

The image of liquid Chaparral is more clear and sharper. As if you see each blade of grass. There aromatic bitterness is sharper too and it plays with a contrasting sweet citrusy note. The note of smoke comes much earlier and accompanies the woods right from the moment you came to the forest. The rhythm of this dance is faster and the steps are more dramatic. But it’s still the same theme…

Chaparral stays close to the skin and gives it very natural smell as if you were crafting the whole day with herbs and woods. Although remaining pretty subtle the fragrance is tenacious and gives you hours of pleasure of walking among the woods and fields of California.

Credits: image from Roxana's website - http://www.illuminatedperfume.com