Violet is a powdery, sweet floral note based on the sweet violet, a small spring flower of Europe and North Africa. It smells soft, candied and slightly woody, and almost every violet in perfume today is recreated with ionones, the aroma molecules that give the flower its distinctive scent.

What does Violet smell like?

Violet smells tender, powdery and sweet, a little like old-fashioned violet sweets, with a woody, raspberry-like and faintly iris-like undertone. Its scent seems to fade in and out when you sniff a real flower, because ionones briefly tire the sense of smell. Violet is sweeter and softer than iris and less green than violet leaf, and it is very different from the leafy, cucumber-like note of the violet leaf.

Where Violet comes from

The sweet violet is Viola odorata. Violet flower absolute was produced commercially in France in the early 20th century, but it required vast quantities of petals and had almost disappeared by the 1950s and 1960s. Modern violet notes are accords.

• Also known as: Sweet violet, Parma violet, violette
• Fragrance family: Floral (powdery)
• Type: Natural and synthetic (in practice, an accord)
• Main origins: Historically Grasse and Toulouse, France, and Parma, Italy
• How it's obtained: Recreated from ionones and methyl ionones; flower absolute is no longer produced commercially
• Key aroma molecules: Alpha-ionone, beta-ionone, dihydro-beta-ionone, methyl ionone

Violet in perfume history

Violets were loved by the ancient Greeks and became a fashionable scent in 19th-century Europe, especially around Toulouse and Parma, and during the late Victorian period in Britain. The real breakthrough came in the 1890s, when chemist Ferdinand Tiemann and colleagues synthesised ionones. Roger & Gallet's Vera Violetta, from the 1890s, is widely cited as the first violet perfume to use them, and Coty's L'Origan (1905) made early use of ionones.

Violet in modern perfumery

Violet notes are used to add softness, powder and a retro elegance, often in combination with iris or rose. They appear in niche fragrances that play on nostalgia and in modern gourmands where violet meets berries, vanilla and pastry. Ionones are cheap and stable, so violet is accessible across all price points.

How Violet wears and what it pairs with

Violet is a heart note with a soft, diffusive quality and moderate longevity. It pairs with iris, rose, heliotrope, raspberry, blackcurrant, vanilla, musk and cedar.

Fragrances featuring Violet

• Roger & Gallet Vera Violetta
• Guerlain Après l'Ondée (1906)
• Serge Lutens Bois de Violette (1992)