Sweet Petula brings luscious aromas to Madison Valley

If Seattle smells sweeter these days, we have Burien to thank. That South End city is no longer home to bath and body boutique Sweet Petula, which moved to Madison Valley last month, but it is where owner Cory Smith still makes the store's aromatic candles, soaps, lotions and sea salts.

Sweet Petula is both the name of Smith's store and of her handmade line of luxurious bath and body products. For seven years, her feminine shop brightened a strip of 152nd Street in Burien, but when she lost her lease, Smith pulled up stakes and relocated to Madison Valley, just a few doors east of Harvest Vine and Henrietta's Hats.

On a recent visit, the downbeat track playing over the shop's sound system seemed misplaced among the fragrant potions, sheer lingerie and luxe bedding. One would instead expect to hear Edith Piaf warbling poignantly about lost love. But the urban music tempers the store's sweetness, as do a polished, olive-colored concrete floor and flat periwinkle walls.

Sweet Petula's signature products, on the other hand, are wonderfully undiluted. Creamy soaps are loaded with olive oil; lotions are packed with shea butter and infused with revitalizing sugar cane; and aromatherapy sea salts are boldly scented but not overwhelming. Prices range from $4.50 for an envelope of mint-scented sea salts to $24 for an effervescent bath soak fragrant with lavender.

The store also offers a selection of fragile underthings and patterned pajamas from Petit Pois and P.J. Salvage, as well as plush robes and linens from Bella Notte. The bedding, which surprisingly is machine-washable and -dryable, can be custom ordered in a variety of richly colored silks and velvets.

Sweet Petula is at 2717 E. Madison St.; 206-431-9311. Visit the store online at www.sweetpetula.com.