Violets are for Grannies - right? Not So.

The Shy Revival

There’s a popular prejudice that violets are worn by old ladies and they’re totally out of date.

Well, I’m wearing a violet, and what’s the granny scent I’m rocking?

Violets do have an old fashioned image, but that’s because they were among the first genres to make it big.

It’s true that, in the past, violets were a feminine scent.

For example, between 1920 and 24, thirteen violets were released, all of them feminine.

But in 2020—24, 36 violets were released and only 16 were feminine. 19 were shared and one was masculine.*

The balance has clearly shifted since the day that Oriza L. Legrand sold the first violet scent in 1862 - Aux violettes du Czar.

And even though The Tsar’s Violets sounds kind of masculine, the idea of this -

- would have boggled his mind.

Zara’s move is surprising, enterprising, and quite daring, but it probably wasn’t too much of a gamble, it has no doubt -by now- disappeared from the shelves.

Since Vibrant Leather & Violet, Le Labo have done a shared violet, and in 2024 Issey Miyake and Shay & Blue did ones too. Hermès did one, and Jérôme Epinette did one for Boy Smells in 2021 — He does a lot for Zara, so he may have been behind Vibrant Leather & Violet as well.

Finally, there’s Sarah McCartney, who—back in 2020—did a wacky violet called Over the Chocolate Shop - Violet.

The point is, something may be going on with these rad violets, a resurgence that hasn’t yet, and may never break the surface.

Which means that, until there was a big success that started a bandwagon rolling, perfumers will probably keep flirting with violets but in a halfhearted way.

Then again, maybe a violet craze will unfurl, and if it does, history suggests it will lean to the feminine side, but this time it will probably stay close to neutral territory.

So, if other daring souls do follow Zara (not holding my breath here) there’s an outside chance a masculine violet will make it big and granny’s favorite flower to a new audience — one that’s never enjoyed the charm of this shyest of scents.

But, even if it violets do go big-time, don’t expect them to start a smellmaxxing craze.

The smell of violets is mainly due to ionones which—once they’ve pinged the receptors in the nose—bind to them and cause temporary anosmia.

So, imagine all those poor youths, maxxing out on violets and not smelling a thing…

29 sprays, I don’t know if that’s enough…

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* The database I used is not 100% reliable. Some violet scents are not given a gender, and others have no date. As well as that, searching by perfume notes isn’t possible, so this survey doesn’t include violet perfumes that don’t contain violet in the name. Someone with access to the Fragrances of the World database could do a more accurate job, but they might well come up with similar stats.