(* Mondial Relay: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Germany, and Austria, subject to the destinations covered by our contract.)
(** Europe–Colissimo: European countries served, including Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Colissimo will be offered by default when Mondial Relay is not available, subject to the shipment’s eligibility.)
Violettes du Czar images
A fragrance created for a Tsar. Violets gathered in Nice for the court of Saint Petersburg. The story of a unique bond between France and Imperial Russia, sealed in a flacon whose trail crosses the centuries.
In 1862, the Maison Oriza L. Legrand received a distinction unprecedented in the history of French perfumery: the title of Purveyor to the Russian Imperial Court — an honour no other French perfumer ever obtained. Violettes du Czar was composed for Tsar Alexander II, the one History remembers as “the Liberator” for having abolished serfdom in 1861. The fragrance would later be worn by Nicholas II, last sovereign of the Romanov dynasty.
The composition is a masterwork of contrasts. It opens with the violet in its dual nature: first the leaf — green, fresh, slightly salicylic, almost medicinal — then the flower, the wild violet, rounder, softer, more powdery. It is the celebrated violet of Nice that reigns here — the one that in the 19th century was considered the finest in Europe and made the fortune of Côte d’Azur growers. The heart unveils Florentine iris, which envelops the violet in a silky, aristocratic powder. Then comes the base, surprising and magnificent: a Russian leather — that birch-tar–treated hide that was the olfactory signature of the Russian aristocracy — tinged with amber and guaiac wood, lending the whole an unexpected, almost virile depth.
It is this alliance of the most delicate floral and the noblest leather that makes Violettes du Czar an unforgettable fragrance — an olfactory bridge between Nice and Saint Petersburg, between the sweetness of the Riviera and the power of the Empire.
The Nice harvest Violet leaves, Wild violet
Imperial powder Violet of Nice, Florentine iris
Romanov leather Russian leather, Amber, Guaiac wood
Alcohol denat., Aqua (Water), Parfum (Aroma), Hydroxycitronellal, Amyl cinnamal, Linalool, Alpha-isomethyl ionome, Coumarin, Limonene, Geraniol, Citronellol, Methyl-2-octynoate, Hexyl cinnamal, Amyl cinnamyl alcohol, Benzyl benzoate, Eugenol, Benzyl alcohol.
Wild violet, Florentine iris and Russian leather — floral delicacy meets the depth of the Empire.
The house
Oriza L. Legrand
remains faithful to its original creations thanks to the many archives from which they originate. Drawing on four centuries of rich experience, our Maison proudly offers historical creations of remarkable modernity, crafted from the finest raw materials.
In France, Oriza perfumes are available in our own Parisian boutique, located at 34 bis rue Vignon (Madeleine or Havre-Caumartin metro stations), 75009 Paris.
