The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Annie Buzantian created So In Love in 2005 for Victoria's Secret. The name says everything, it's named for that state of being so swept up in feeling that restraint goes out the window. Buzantian built it around a specific rose interpretation: Moroccan rose, which carries a fresh, green quality with a soapy undertone that reads as vintage without being antique. The composition balances tartness with warmth, creating something that feels both modern and nostalgic. This wasn't a safe floral. It was a statement.
The tea rose genre has a devoted following. What makes So In Love stand apart is the green tartness amplified by violet leaf and the unexpected warmth of cognac in the heart. The cognac keeps the rose honest rather than letting it soften into something predictable. The ylang-ylang adds a creamy white-floral depth that prevents it from reading as all stem and no flower. It's a composition that earns its florals instead of drowning in them.
The evolution
The opening arrives bright and tart, the violet leaf doing the work of making the Moroccan rose smell like a living thing, not a pressed petal. At first it carries an almost astringent quality. Then the cognac kicks in, softening the edges without losing the green. The honey appears as something warm rather than sweet, like afternoon light through a window. The drydown is where it gets interesting: the jasmine and ylang-ylang linger together, creamy and intimate, lasting into the evening on skin that holds fragrance well. On fabric, it stays close to the body, a whisper rather than a shout.
Cultural impact
So In Love won the FiFi Award for Fragrance of the Year in the Women's Private Label/Direct Sell category in 2006, cementing its place as a standout in the VS lineup. It's been a favorite among rose enthusiasts ever since, finding its people in a world of safer florals. The 2005 launch brought something distinctive to the market, a rose fragrance that refused to play it safe.
The House
Victoria's SecretVictoria's Secret began as a San Francisco lingerie company founded in 1977 by Stanford graduate student Roy Raymond and his wife Gaye. The brand entered fragrance in 1989, launching its first perfume Victoria as part of a national magazine campaign. By the early 1990s, the company had grown to 350 stores nationwide with estimated sales of $1 billion. The beauty division grew substantially enough to generate nearly $1 billion in sales by 2006. Victoria's Secret fragrances are developed through Givaudan's Paris laboratory, the same fragrance house behind perfumes for Tom Ford, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. The brand works with a rotating roster of over 30 perfumers rather than a single in-house nose, creating scents for its Dream Angels, Very Sexy, Body, and Pink collections. Popular fragrances include Bombshell, Love Spell, Tease, and Heavenly, which ranked as the top-selling fragrance in the United States by both revenue and volume from 2005 to 2010. Victoria's Secret has won 20 Fragrance Foundation awards since 2001. The company offers fragrances alongside perfumed body care products including body mists, body lotions, and eau de parfum in various formats.
The Creator
Annie BuzantianAnnie favors a structural approach, building around a strong heart that anchors the perfume. She often chooses violet, heliotrope, and lilac to add a soft floral edge, then balances them with musk and warm woods for longevity.
