Perfumer & Brand
I have always wanted to find a secret door in the ordinary world. Eventually, I began making perfumes that felt like one.
I’m Iolanta, the perfumer, fragrance alchemist, and curious nose behind VIOLA. An adventurous spirit with a rather serious collection of botanical essences, I’m drawn to things with stories: ancient rituals, forgotten gardens, old manuscripts, and the extraordinary scents hidden in roots, petals, woods, and resins.
Since childhood, I have longed for a world where imagination feels at home. My formal journey into perfumery began in 2019, giving that longing a craft to grow into. Here was a way to make something invisible feel deeply personal and symbolic—to capture an atmosphere, stir a memory, or perhaps reveal something deeper.
Today, I create in small batches, working with rare botanical materials, my own tinctures, and accords composed in my studio. There is a great deal of patience involved, a little obsession, and always another jar quietly macerating into something wonderful. Each perfume is tuned with a 432 Hz tuning fork as part of my personal creative ritual—a moment to pause and set an intention before it leaves my hands for yours.
I call them living perfumes. They unfold on the skin in their own time, revealing different facets as you wear them. Ancient traditions, plant lore, and the symbolism of alchemy inform the stories I tell through scent, while the materials themselves often have the final say.
VIOLA takes its name from the violet, a flower connected to my own name, Iolanta. It feels fitting that this little world should begin with something so small, yet so full of character.
My hope is that you find something of yourself here. A little mystery, a sense of belonging, or simply a perfume that makes an ordinary Tuesday feel enchanted.
Philosophy
Smell is the most ancient language of the human soul.
The resinous hush of an old church. A garden after rain. Someone you loved, suddenly near again. This is what draws me to scent: its ability to make a memory feel present and an imagined world almost tangible.
At VIOLA, I choose botanicals for their aroma, their history, and the symbolism they bring to a composition. A rose carries centuries of devotion; a resin recalls the smoke of ancient temple rituals. These associations become part of the story, alongside the very practical work of weighing, blending, aging, and returning to smell again.
I want to keep an intimate, artisanal approach to perfumery alive: knowing my materials, making things by hand, and leaving space for the unusual and the beautiful.
The collections are arranged by intention rather than by scent alone, inviting you to explore how you want to feel. Oil-based and alcohol-based perfumes offer different ways to experience this world and your feelings, alongside limited editions shaped by botanicals I may only be able to source once in a while.
For a more personal exploration, I offer bespoke perfumery, beginning with your preferences, memories, and the atmosphere you wish to capture. You can also explore an astrology-inspired perfume, created in collaboration with a professional astrologer, with your natal chart as a symbolic starting point.
Discover more in Bespoke & Astrology.
Infused with Intention:
Every bottle of VIOLA begins with the materials—and my fascination with what they can become.
I select fine essential oils, seeking single-origin materials where possible, and make many of my tinctures, pomades, and enfleurages by hand. For absolutes, resins, and CO₂ extracts, I turn to trusted suppliers, researching their origins and production methods with care. How a botanical is grown, gathered, and extracted matters to me as much as its scent.
Some ingredients spend months quietly steeping in my studio. Others arrive carrying years of work before I ever open the bottle. Each asks for something different: patience, restraint, or the courage to let an unexpected note take the lead.
VIOLA is my living apotheca—a place where old-world craft, botanical curiosity, and imagination meet. Everything I make begins here, but its story continues with you.
As Jean-Paul Guerlain once said,
“Perfume is the most intense form of memory.”
I would add: it is also a way to shape the present — and design the future.
Warmly, Iolanta.
