I have a rod each of Effetre Lavender (591247 at tuffnells) and New Violet (591273) and can't for the life of me see a difference except on the price tag. Do they react differently to other colours or is the Lavender just special because it's a handmade batch?
Umm can't help you there but I would be interested to see what the others say.
Jo x
make some beads out of them, often they will do something different in the flame.
New Violet is a handmade, it's my personal favourite for its strong reaction to rubino oro, although i have never tried lavender so don't know what the difference between those two specifically are!