Vera Roxana Illuminated Perfumes 2007 Extrait

"Vera". The True.
And furthermore, the biologically Latin second name of true lavender.
Is it found here again?

**Background**
Roxana Illuminated as a brand is really not to my liking. On one hand, it caused us nothing but trouble with our natural fragrance project due to delayed responses and even complete ignorance. And the website is terribly cluttered. Links lead to nowhere, I have to flip through five pages just to encounter Vera, and when I use the search instead, I find two handfuls of products, more than half of which are sold out. Since Roxana studied Communication Arts, I take all this a bit personally. It doesn’t help that her grandfather made Neroli Cologne and she has been gathering experience in the perfume business for almost twenty years. On the other hand, I think it’s great that she has beehives in her garden in California to at least cover part of the base (beeswax + jojoba oil) of her solids locally.

**Scent*
Vera makes my grumpy test spitefully dissipate. A lovely opening, then fresh green and orange-citrusy, both softened yet cheerful in warm-scented beeswax. Lavender in the sunshine. Petitgrain?
It’s really nice.
From memory, a loose scent twin to Lush's "What Would Love Do". A retest will be conducted.
After two or three hours, a slightly woody-earthy undertone mixes in and the scent darkens. Smoky, while maintaining its friendliness. Vera is more Annika than Pippi - well-behaved instead of wild. But on some days, that’s just right.

The sillage is weak. On the first attempt, I attribute this to the meager bit I scooped out of the wax-sealed jar. The more generous retest gives the perfume about 7-8 hours more longevity (= the whole workday, that’s okay), but changes little about the low radiance. Well, even a sillage-poor perfume can lift me from a boring conference call into olfactory clouds on my wrist. I would have wished for the scent to be a bit more intense, though.

Ultimately, Vera reminds me of two other brands:
- For Strange Women, who sell similarly chic jewelry boxes for their solid perfumes. Their solid perfumes are much harder, which makes them feel less intense in scent but significantly more economical.
- Aftelier, whose solids have a similar soft consistency, smell fantastic, and also hesitate with sillage & longevity.
Despite my initial aversion, I find that Roxana is fantastically positioned with these brand references.
Even though the three other scents I tested from her fall far behind this summer scent, I gladly award Vera a wish list star. And that is nothing but the truth.

\ Edit
In the retest, it felt a bit too bright for me. I have downgraded it because of that.