Solanine, the Flower Girl

[Lycanthrope]

In the distance, you hear the discordant tolling of churchbells, uneven and strangely triumphant. As you turn towards the beckoning clang, you feel something brush across your neck: a gentle caress before a hundred pricking trichomes tear at your skin. There is a sudden whipping sensation and a clench of movement, and your throat is clamped in a rigid green noose.

A raspy voice whispers, “Pardon,” and the grip on you loosens.

A woman stands behind you. She holds a basket overflowing with creeping vines and flowers: razor-thorned roses, vibrant bursts of oleander, drooping cascades of wisteria, sprays of white hemlock and lily of the valley, bruise-blue pillows of aconite, purple-veined henbane, and the snapping jaws of monstrously large flytraps, glistening wet with mucilage. Her clothes smell faintly of manchineel smoke, and her fingertips are stained green. She smiles and shudders as the green tendrils that surround her writhe and contract. She plucks a red-spotted mushroom from her basket and places it gently in your palm before turning away.

I always love a challenge, and I'm generally terrible at picking apart any kind of 'garden,' melange of green, planty things. So here goes.

Solanine as the oil itself is a faint, quiet and unassuming light green.

On the skin and wet, it's immediately a blade of snapped, crushed grass, and I get a tiny bit of wet, crunchy lettuce-like notes. This must be the sappy mucilage. It remains in this very heady grass headspace for a good 3-5 minutes. It's like someone cut the grass, and you laid down upon it and are getting whiffs of the fallen blades. I also do detect a tiny hint of charcoal/woodsmoke, lingering about in the background. It's akin to the Steamworks Smokestack, but only a tiny hint. As the scent starts to calm down, the initial grass and green tropical rubbery leaves recedes. So far nothing with the fungus or mushroom family, as that's usually a dealbreaker for me, although the rubberiness could be built into the smoke. Now there's a veritable cacophany of 'PETAL' but which PETAL? I don't know? Perhaps, Everything Twists and Agony Lies. I am trying to get the wisteria, roses, but the classic florals are not leaping to the forefront for me. I am getting a very 'Funereal' bouquet vibe, although this isn't like funeral parlor lilies and baby's breath. It's a twisted bridal bouquet cinched with drippy poisonous vines from tropical plants. With a bit more time, I'm getting something like Le Fleurs de Mal, a combo rose/wisteria coolness, but still supported by and primarily a sappy green thing. The color I'm getting, for some weird reason, is a faded yellow cream streaked with blops of green.

Low overall lasting power on me, but I'm also in arid Colorado, so your mileage may vary.

This would be great for any Rapaccini's Garden fans. If you're a plant person, do try this.

[zankoku_zen]

Green floral that becomes distinguishable as grass, wisteria, roses and lily of the valley. There is something darkly green that serves as a base and its sort of murky swampy and oh, that's definitely a tendril/vine that is coming your way .... wait, is this the Venomous Tentacula from Harry Potter? Why yes, I believe it is. Here is a green vine come to eat your soul.

 

Very Little Shop of Horrors. Good throw and wear length.

[Dark Alice]

This is what Poison Ivy smells like. A supervillain in her own right, champion of flora and hate of man kind, she smells seductively of green things, lily, roses, carnations and other flowers. At first this scent is wet and heavy. Like walking into a flower shop. Dry: It becomes very light, and inoffensive. This is something I see wearing in the cooler months as well as the spring!

[LizziesLuck]

I don't NEED anymore florals, but I am always drawn to scents that are vague in the listing of notes. Plus - flytraps!

 

Wet: GREEN! And poisonous. I agree with Dark Alice, Poison Ivy would totally smell like this. It's downright sinister. I think I actually smell fungus or mushroom in it. You know when you're tramping through the woods, and it's a green time of year, slightly misty, and you step on a puff-ball? That's what this smells like. Wet grass and plants and earth and puff balls. Interesting!

 

Dry: The throw from this is a lovely green, sweet floral, with hints of sophisticated high-end perfume. Very compelling! Nose to skin though - MUSHROOMS. Weird! not sure how I feel about it, will need a second test, I think.

[Cali]

First thing that comes to mind is The ghastly garden. Looming (in a way), sweet but powdery and super green. And it's as juicy on me as I remember strangler fig to be! But yeah, it's got something that the ghastly garden got, something heady and dark.

[tinyvulture]

A bouquet of fresh, white and blue flowers, dew still on the petals. I like it, though I'm unable to name any particular flowers at first. After it dries down, the rose note becomes noticeable, and also something really lush -- oleander? This is very pretty and work-appropriate, it will go into the rotation.

[VetchVesper]

I'm not usually a fan of floral bouquet type perfumes. Even the ones that don't go soapy tend to remind me of nice room sprays or candles as opposed to something I want on my body. However, I am always curious about weird bpal notes, and Solanine has oodles of them. (Manchineel smoke? Really??) Hence, she has been loitering at the edges of my wishlist for a while. Boy am I glad we finally got acquainted!

 

Solanine is green and succulent at first. I don't smell grass. This green's got more bite to it. I think I smell eucalyptus. There's also something very vegetal that I can't put my finger on. I don't think it's cucumber, but it's wet and juicy without being sweet. It's nose tickling and peppery. Tomato leaf perhaps? This does harken to other poisonous blends in Rappuccini's Garden, but I'm far more intrigued by Solanine. The florals quickly start to emerge, lush and sweet, and mingle with the vegetation. They blend magnificently, and I have difficulty recognizing any one blossom above another. This bouquet is unusual and seductive, innocently fresh yet beguilingly toxic. I found myself surreptitiously huffing the crook of my arm for hours at work.

 

I have definitely been ensnared by this lovely perfume, and it's going at the top of my big bottle list.

[Lucchesa]

I would not have tried Solanine had VetchVesper not A. suggested I might like it and B. frimped it to me. So thanks, VV! It has a lot more flowers than I usually wear, but none of the ones I avoid out of hand -- tuberose, jasmine, etc. Wet, Solanine is a very green floral, and I agree with all and sundry that this is a poisonous green. It made me think of the wicked queen if she had tried to poison Snow White with a basket of flowers instead of an apple, but I think Dark Alice's mention of Poison Ivy is more apt. The green smells like snapping a vine that you're pulling out because it's trying to overgrow your garden. Morning glory comes to mind. I'm not getting identifiable rose or lily, which is fine, just a pretty heady mixed bouquet. This definitely seems like a Rappaccini's Garden kind of scent.

 

I'm really glad I got to try this one, and while it's still too floral for me to chase down a big bottle, I will be keeping my decant for my Poison Ivy or hedge witch days!

[RoseThornAndOak]

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said here, the other reviews are bang on. Fresh from the Lab I get fresh greenery with a slight perfumey floral edge, enough to lift this from a purely atmospheric blend to perfume level while still maintaining a level of uniqueness. I do get a pollinous poison vibe, almost dusty and dry in a way, perhaps the manchineel "smoke". Not a smokey blend in any way, more of a green dust, but it doesn't make me sneeze at all, thankfully. There is something a bit sinister about it. I'll have to see how this ages. I sort of get the shroomies, they lend a sublte, dry earthiness to the blend. Although it is not my favorite green floral I like it quite a bit and very glad to have it! I think it would layer well with dirt notes, too and this is perfect for Spring. 

 

For fans of The Perfumed Garden, Lady of Shallot, Destroying Angel, Gap Grass, Alkemia Blue Ridge Skyline and Summer Dandelions, Sugar and Spite's Meadow, and The Strange South's Antebellum.