The days of rain, pink petals clogging the gutters and the sour-sweet smell of poplar buds. Spring in Kyiv.
Photography by Bois de Jasmin
Welcome to Bois de Jasmin! I'm a writer, journalist and professionally trained perfumer. On these pages I explore the world of senses through art, literature, and history. - Victoria
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NEW Perfume Classes
Luca and Victoria Perfume Seminar
Recording of a seminar.
Luca and Victoria speak for 1.5h on topics included, but not limited to: vintage perfumes, our favorite fragrances, trends we hate, industry gossip. No one will be spared. All will be entertained. Funds will be used to support charity projects in Ukraine.
Dark Woods
Location: Online, Zoom
Date: January 25th, Saturday, 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET
Price: €60 (recording included)
Fragrance Families: Cologne
Location: Online, Zoom
Date: February 5th, Wednesday, 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET
Price: €60 (recording included)
Fragrance Families: Florals
Location: Online, Zoom
Date: February 8th, Saturday, 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET
Price: €60 (recording included)
Studio Class: Vintage Perfumes and Stories
Class location: Brussels
Date: January 26th, Sunday, 11-13:30 CET
Date: February 9th, Sunday, 11-13:30 CET
Class duration: 2.5 hours
200€/per person (50€ to be paid as a reservation deposit, the rest is payable in person on the day of the class)
Please contact me for other available dates
About these Lectures
Students of all levels of interest in perfumery will find much to learn in this series of lectures. The lecture is designed to sharpen your sense smell and improve your enjoyment and appreciation of scents. You will learn professional smelling techniques and receive personalized tips. You will learn how to smell complex aromas and about the main criteria of a well-made fragrance–and how to look for them.
Online and in-person classes are available.
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Highlights
Featured Posts
- How I Learn Languages
- Become my Italki language friend
- 7 Discoveries from 12 Years of Bois de Jasmin
- ELLE Portraits: Victoria
- Guilt Free Pleasure
- Recommend Me a Perfume
- 5 Star Perfumes
Books & Arts
Beauty
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Around The World
My Articles in Other Publications
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Latest Comments
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Hello Victoria, as always I’ve loved reading this posting as always. Each review sparkles with the depth, trustworthiness, of your knowledge and love of perfume’s art and place in social… January 24, 2025 at 5:17pm
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I also liked it very much. I admit that I’m not a fan of the gold-and-more-gold aesthetic. Plus, the prices are very high. January 24, 2025 at 2:40pm
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Glad to share! January 24, 2025 at 2:37pm
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Thank you very much for your review, Victoria. Aphorisms offerings obviously didn’t win you over completely. A relatively recent Dominique Ropion creation I enjoyed very much was Vanagloria, enough to… January 24, 2025 at 2:21pm
65 Comments
sandra: A postcard from NYC-
Its spring and tulips are up, the streets smell like roasted nuts and garbage (on some streets) Lots of energy with people walking and lots of cologne & perfume in the wind from passerby’s.. April 20, 2016 at 8:22am
Victoria: I’ll take the roasted nut smell and will make do without garbage. 🙂 April 20, 2016 at 10:26am
zephyr: Beautiful! Hope you are well, Victoria! April 20, 2016 at 9:12am
Victoria: Thank you! April 20, 2016 at 10:26am
Celeste Church: Beautiful! It’s spring in L.A., too, but you’d never know it. It’s hot. End of story. April 20, 2016 at 9:14am
Victoria: The CA spring is fleeting, as I recall, but you probably have lots of blooms right now. April 20, 2016 at 10:27am
Annie: Here on Cape Cod, we have endless springs! They are cool, but that keeps the bugs somewhat at bay, as well as letting blooms hold longer. With the ocean all around us it is heaven on earth.
Hope everyone has a lovely
olfactory awakening! April 20, 2016 at 11:59am
Victoria: What’s in bloom around you now? April 20, 2016 at 1:14pm
Annie: Daffodils on both sides of the house- the frilly, doubles that smell uncommonly sweet. Azaleas are just opening, though I have yet to milk any sort of smell from them. In May we will have the humble and ubiquitous locusts that are everywhere along the roads. What a sweet, honeyed world when they bloom- my next favorite spring smell. And then of course, your sweet Lindon trees come after.
Cape Cod has a smell when the sun is strong- a combination of sand, Sweet Fern, Bay and pine needles. If the next world has these scents, I would be well contented. April 20, 2016 at 2:39pm
Victoria: Sounds so beautiful! April 21, 2016 at 12:37pm
Tijana: Beautiful, thank you, enjoy! April 20, 2016 at 9:19am
Victoria: Thank you! April 20, 2016 at 10:27am
Phyllis Iervello: What a lovely spring photo! Enjoy the season. April 20, 2016 at 9:29am
Victoria: It’s my favorite time around here. April 20, 2016 at 10:27am
Michaela: Beautiful! Thank you! April 20, 2016 at 10:14am
Victoria: Thank you, Michaela. April 20, 2016 at 10:28am
maja: Now that’s a haiku! 🙂 Enjoy your time and your family, Victoria. *heart* April 20, 2016 at 11:13am
Victoria: I’m sure your garden is heavenly right now. April 20, 2016 at 1:12pm
maja: The winter was very mild so now we have orange blossom, apricot blossom, slowly ripening figs and late mimosas at the same time. It’s quite strange actually. “Olfactively” speaking it’s lovely though. April 20, 2016 at 3:00pm
Victoria: Here too, we have apricot blossoms, cherry blossom and now apple blossoms at the same time! April 21, 2016 at 12:38pm
Nelly Zhaleyko: Enjoy Kiev! It’s loely city.
Do you want a couple of addresses of bakeries to try? ))) You know me. April 20, 2016 at 11:18am
Nelly Zhaleyko: I meant “lovely”. April 20, 2016 at 11:19am
Victoria: Oh yes, Nelly! I’d love them. Thank you very much. April 20, 2016 at 1:13pm
Nelly Zhaleyko: Vika, hope it’s not too late. I have audit at work and life is crazy ;:)) Кондитерские Honey and Caramel.
https://www.facebook.com/honey0671271921/
http://artmisto.net/2014/05/08/vkusnyiy-slovar-ot-kafe-konditerskoy-honey/
http://caramel-butik.com.ua/ April 26, 2016 at 2:42pm
Victoria: Oh, thank you, dorogaia! A good pastry is never too late. 🙂
I will report back. April 29, 2016 at 6:36am
behemot: Enjoy the spring Victoria:) April 20, 2016 at 11:54am
Victoria: You too! April 20, 2016 at 1:13pm
Karen 5.0: Kyiv looks lovely – I hope you are enjoying your time there!
Postcard from Chicago: on my daily bike rides/walks this past week, I’ve noticed the return of towhees, goldfinches, and indigo buntings to our area. The ubiquitous robins are building their nests and of course, chickadees are cardinals are marking their territories with birdsong.
Blossoming trees, bushes and flowers – some stinky (Callery Pears!) and others not (Crabapples, lilacs, forsythia, viburnum, daffodils, azaleas, and tulips).
What would we do without spring? I miss it the most when I live in climates without four distinct seasons. April 20, 2016 at 12:13pm
Victoria: Chicago is another city I count as mine, and your description makes me miss it very much. April 20, 2016 at 1:15pm
Karen 5.0: That’s wonderful to hear! We welcome your visit anytime~ April 20, 2016 at 1:23pm
Victoria: I need to plan it soon. April 21, 2016 at 12:35pm
Tati: Beautiful picture. The California desert mornings are mineral clear and cool before the heat of the day. Jasmine and orange wafts everywhere. April 20, 2016 at 12:24pm
Victoria: Sounds wonderful! April 20, 2016 at 1:15pm
Aurora: I love that golden dome, and the pink buds, it must be a beautiful city, thank you Victoria for sharing this Ukrainian spring with us. I hope your grandmother is well, I think of her every time I make the roasted peppers salad, in fact I call it the Valentina salad. Spring is lovely too in London at Bunhill Row Park it’s full of (already fading) daffodils primrose in a tender yellow and bluebells. April 20, 2016 at 1:17pm
Victoria: I just told her this, and she’s very pleased and wishes you good health. 🙂
Kyiv is beautiful, and I’m struck by this every time I return. It’s so easy to take a place one knows well for granted. April 20, 2016 at 1:19pm
Amalia: I hope you are enjoying your time there and your loved ones! Beautiful spring also in Athens and the sorely tried Greece, along with insense from the churches. Happy Easter! (hoping my trusty Google translator do not betrayed me!) СЧАСТЛИВОЙ ПАСХИ ОТ ДУШИ ЖЕЛАЮ! April 20, 2016 at 1:24pm
Victoria: Thank you very much, Amalia! Kalo Pashcha! Or more timely, “Kali Sarakosti”. 🙂 April 21, 2016 at 12:36pm
spe: Postcard from Seattle: unseasonably hot the past two days but we’ll soon return to our usual 60’s and overcast! Blooms everywhere – flowering fruit trees, gardenias, rhododendrons, dogwood (!!! My favorite), magnolias, etc. The lily of the valley will also be in bloom in the next week or so! Flowers, lakes, sea, and some of the most beautiful mountains. I love Spring! The birds are singing in the morning and evening. Beautiful. April 20, 2016 at 1:25pm
Theresa: Postcard from Portland – like Seattle, we have been having record-breaking heat for the past few days – almost 90 degrees! Our spring season was at least 3 weeks early, and now it feels like summer, although late spring will be returning this weekend with the rain. Dogwoods and rhododendrons in bloom everywhere. Only very late daffodils and tulips are left. I notice a row of flowering trees that I walk past – I think they are pink hawthorne? – because they stink, stink, stink. They have very pretty small blooms, but a wretched smell. They only last a week. Oh, spring is also the season for our briefly blooming Tree Peony. It usually blooms right before a rain storm so its delicate (but huge) blossoms are shattered immediately. Best case scenario is that it will last one week. But, it gives us something to look forward to every year! Since it is so evanescent, we make a conscious effort to enjoy it. April 20, 2016 at 4:56pm
Victoria: Yes, such an evanescent season.
But hawthorns and certain pear trees smell like smoky fish. 🙂 April 21, 2016 at 12:40pm
Victoria: What a treat to receive all of these beautiful postcards! April 21, 2016 at 12:36pm
Alison: Postcard from DC – Last weekend I saw bluebells blanket a stretch along the Potomac river and thought of your post from weeks back! We are having a strange spring with some warm weather encouraging blooms and then a harsh frost. My Hydrangea are scorched 🙁 But alas, my tulips are here and my street is lined with Viburnum bushes – oh the smell!! Oh how I love that and fresh cut grass! I can’t wait to say hello to my Sweet Bay Magnolia flowers soon too. I snuck a sniff by trimming a little branch and smothered my nose all over;) Oh the peppery loveliness! My favorite place to be in spring is DC! April 20, 2016 at 2:18pm
Victoria: Bluebells are the best sight! We have a forest nearby full of them, and it’s a fairy tale like place. April 21, 2016 at 12:37pm
Cornelia Blimber: Beautiful picture. thank you!
Amsterdam: tulips smelling sweet and tulips smelling fresh like apples. And bitter smelling daffodils.
All in Artis. our Zoo. April 20, 2016 at 3:36pm
Victoria: Tulips have such a wonderful smell. Ours also smell like apples and also potatoes. April 21, 2016 at 12:38pm
Nick: On the road again! I look forward to the tree-lined streets and endless horizon of the bucolic post cards of your sojourn! April 20, 2016 at 3:52pm
Victoria: I will be sure to share more. April 21, 2016 at 12:39pm
Alicia: Beautiful Kiev! Enjoy every second there!
Spring has arrived to these northern latitudes: the magnolia stellata is in flower, and the early daffodils have joined the pusckinias. I am wearing eau de Magnolia to celebrate. April 20, 2016 at 3:54pm
Ariadne: I LUUUUV the photo! Just gorgeous.We discovered we have a red fox den in our back yard and have spent this Spring watching 5 kits grow up. I have caught them on video just outside my patio door scratching around the mulch amid the ground cover blossoms and savoring bugs! April 20, 2016 at 7:18pm
Victoria: Wow! That’s so precious. April 21, 2016 at 12:41pm
Adrienne: Grand Rapids MI. calling in. Sitting on my back step this morning, cup of Earl Grey in hand, enjoying heavy perfume of deep blue, purple, pink and white hyacinths which I planted last year. Daffodils under all our trees from the hundreds I planted last October, Japanese weeping white cherry tree buzzing loudly with happy bees. Cardinals calling out their territorial sounds, and a couple of thrushes singing their hearts out. Bluebirds busily making a nest in the box we put out two weeks ago. A robin firing water all over the place in the birdbath. Glorious season. Makes the dark, long cold months of winter all worth it. April 21, 2016 at 12:07am
Maya: Sounds heavenly! Can I move in? April 21, 2016 at 6:56am
Adrienne: Maya, what a lovely thing to say. We do feel as though we have a little bit of heaven where we are. I count myself lucky everyday. April 21, 2016 at 8:30pm
Victoria: Another beautiful vignette, Adrienne. April 21, 2016 at 12:42pm
Therése: Beautiful! I hope I get to go to Kiev someday.
Postcard from the south of Sweden: still chilly, but the sun is out. Salty winds from the Öresund strait. Daffodils and wood anemones everywhere. And the japanese cherry trees in the park across my office are in bloom! April 21, 2016 at 3:20am
Victoria: And I want to visit Sweden! 🙂 April 21, 2016 at 12:42pm
Notturno7: Lovely! Have a nice time with your family. Hope they are all doing well. Greetings from hot San Francisco area. It’s been close to 30C few days ago. I love it hot😊, love the summer weather. April 21, 2016 at 4:01am
Victoria: Thank you! Enjoy your warm days. April 21, 2016 at 12:44pm
Austenfan: The trees in bloom look just like the ones in Gdansk a couple of weeks ago. This is such a wonderful time of year. An odd spring though, after an odd winter.
Have a wonderful time in Ukraine! April 22, 2016 at 9:06am
Victoria: The best time to travel around Europe! April 22, 2016 at 2:09pm
Luca Turin: Rastrelli? April 22, 2016 at 1:50pm
Victoria: Close! Johann Gottfried Schadel, who worked with Rastrelli for a number of years before he designed the Great Lavra Bell Tower. April 22, 2016 at 2:08pm
MaureenC: We are lucky to have a long slow really beautiful Spring here in the south west of England. The bluebells are out in force at the moment and ransoms (wild garlic) which has a very distinct smell!! The waves of blossom start in March with the early prunus, then magnolia and laurel and continue through to May with apple and pear. My current favourite is the clematis armandii in my garden which of course has a beautiful almond scent. Then again we can have really crap summers! April 23, 2016 at 3:16am
Tiamaria: Postcard from the west of Ireland. The predominant smell at the moment is cut grass as I’ve just given the lawn it’s first cut. The daffodils are still blooming and one corner of our garden has the most delightful carpet of pale yellow primroses. Tulips and hyacinths are starting to open and the pear trees are showing the first buds. Our swallows have arrived ( there are two nests outside our front door) and I heard the cuckoo this week so summer is nearly here! The countryside is lit up with gorse which has the most fabulous bright yellow colour and coconutty smell though the farmers hate it as it’s so invasive.
Enjoy your time in Kiev Victoria, thank you for the lovely picture. April 24, 2016 at 3:44pm
Victoria: These postcards around the world are so delightful! Thank you. April 25, 2016 at 9:30am