The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Honeysuckle & Davana was created by perfumer Anne Flipo, a fragrance that captures the intoxicating duality of the honeysuckle flower itself. The honeysuckle carries that duality beautifully, sweet enough to catch attention yet climbing and twisting in the wild way it does when left untended. Davana brings a green, slightly camphorated quality that keeps the composition from leaning fully into floral territory, adding an herbal undertone that grounds the sweetness. The result is, at its heart, a fragrance about the English countryside in summer, evoking the sensory abundance of hedgerows in full bloom. The interplay between these two materials creates something that feels both familiar and surprising, like discovering a particularly fragrant corner of a countryside walk.
What makes this composition unusual is the davana. In Western perfumery it appears rarely, prized for its green, herbal-fruity character that sits somewhere between artemisia and a ripe plum. Here it does something essential: it reins in the honeysuckle's sweetness before it becomes gourmand, adding an aromatic backbone that reads as distinctly green rather than tropical. The moss anchors the base, but this is not a heavy chypre. It is a light, airy structure where three materials do specific, restrained work, each one contributing to a fragrance that breathes easily on the skin.
The evolution
The opening arrives with davana, green, herbal, with a faint camphorated lift that feels like cutting fresh herbs in a garden kitchen rather than walking through a tropical greenhouse. The fruitiness is present but restrained, more green apple than stone fruit. Within the first hour, the honeysuckle takes over the heart, and the character shifts toward sweet, heady floral. The honeyed quality becomes more pronounced. This is where most wearers fall in love, the honeysuckle is generous, even a little intoxicating, but davana keeps it from going fully syrupy. The rose that appears in some formulations is subtle here, not announcing itself but softening the transition. The drydown is where moss does its work, earthy, slightly balsamic, with a green undertone that recalls damp undergrowth rather than forest floor. The sillage moderates noticeably through the heart phase, settling into something close and personal by the final hours. On most skin types, the full arc runs six to eight hours, with the moss lingering quietly after the florals fade.
Cultural impact
Honeysuckle & Davana won Fragrance of the Year at the Fragrance Foundation Awards in 2019. The combination of davana's green herbal quality with honeysuckle's sweet headiness creates something distinctive in the floral landscape. The fragrance captures something of the untamed quality of a garden that has been allowed to grow naturally, where climbing flowers intertwine with aromatic herbs. This award recognition suggests that many wearers were drawn to a floral that offered character and specificity rather than generic sweetness, finding in this composition a scent that felt both grounded in tradition and fresh in its execution.
