Rose basically doesn’t suit me. It goes sour. And yet I have been wearing nothing but rose perfumes for the last two months. How can this be?
Blame the Mustafa Center. Situated in Singapore near Little India, this bargain shopping Mecca features an entire megafloor of perfumes and toiletries that make me homesick for the place already. Because how can I live without the $2 roll on Yardley Rose deodorants I should have filled my entire suitcase with? Yes, the lavender ones we got were great too: very suave (especially ensembled with the talc and the hair pomade), but it was the roses that have fuelled my recent roseathon: roll ons that smell so nice under a sweater or shirt with just a spray or two of another rose scent on top for gentle complementation. English Rose is more classic Elizabethan red; London slightly sweeter with a touch of the original Bulgari Pour Femme; both at work and on weekends I have been pairing them with Dusita’s La Douceur De Siam, a perfume that has become a staple for me now ; while billed as a ‘tropical floral’ with frangipani, ylang and champaca layered over a little sandal, vanilla and a base of ‘Thai woods’, by far the main player here in the composition is a beautiful rose de mai that settles down to an accord that, on me, is at times reminiscent of vintage Magie Noire.
Other rose patchouli dry modern chypres pale in comparison. Wanting to re-acquaint myself with what is currently on offer rose-wise, yesterday I resampled Rose Of No Man’s Land, with its sheer rose raspberry ambroxan patchouli and found it acceptable, but wanting – a bit thin and miserly; I would probably choose Rose Noir over this or else just source out a vintage bottle of the gnarlier L’Artisan Parfumeur Voleur De Roses, which I used to wear with wild and dark abandon (happy Halloween by the way).
The new Diptyque- Rose Roche – well new to me anyway, was equally clear and minimalist – a rose patchouli that smelled like disinfectant – it must have been the lemon and ambroxan which came across like hinoki and cost a staggering ¥47,500 before tax – a fifth of many J-employees’ monthly take home pay. Granted, it had a certain ‘high quality’ superciliousness I can imagine coming across as a bit koolkat-sinister fashionista, but I have to say that I personally hated it.
Roses don’t, of course, have to necessarily smell naturalistic. I have been wearing a lot of current formulation Calandre recently (thanks Emma), which no one in their right mind would describe as a ‘rose’ (in fact it is a powdery, metallic mossed chypre very similar to Rive Gauche – very early seventies – they were both created by the same perfumer, Michael Hy – just less busy: warmer and more serene.) Yet the undeniable essence at the centre of Calandre is a lovely green, aldehydic, silvery rose that lays the enigmatic foundation for the other ingredients : a rose wrapped in grey velvet. Though the opening salvo of this modern edition is a bit ammonia nose twitchy compared to the sublime vintage, within a short while it softens nicely to recognizable Calandre – which feels completely like me. I love to just spray this one on a hoodie or track suit trousers on a cosy autumnal morning – and let the day roll.
Some roses can be too rosy and mouldering pot pourri, a bit too death in an English cottage. I couldn’t resist buying a bottle of Aoyama Flower Market’s Rose from the namesake florist in Yokohama the other day, for example, because I rather like the packaging, it’s cheap, and the top note is a very appealing rich Bulgarian essence that works as a lite spritz in the middle of the day. After that, though, it unfortunately sours up, as roses tend to – the Serge Lutens’ – Rose De Nuit, Fille De Berlin, Sa Majeste La Rose (which for some reason I have recently been yearning for again) didn’t in all honesty ever work on me for the very same reason. A bit soiled undies. Synthetic Prissy Missy Roses are also anathema on my skin and on the women who wear them; I do like a richer rose, however – like Perris Rose De Mai by Jean Claude Ellena – a gorgeous damascena and rose geranium elixir with a touch of immortelle and musk I would consider getting if they totally repackaged it (I just don’t like the bottle design at all, being an inveterate beige-phobe); but scent-wise, it has all the drama and depth, the plushness of a Guerlain vintage extrait of the glorious Nahema. Ultimately I like the deep romanticism of rose – which, miraculously, the cheap Yardleys do capture perfectly, especially with a little upper tier embellishment. Fashion critic Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times sometimes talks in her regular column of mixing up the economical – head to toe Uniqlo, say – but with one lavish and more curated item to elevate and intrigue proceedings. These last two months i have also realized you can do the same with scent – extend the use of an expensive rose – with a layered, considered mutual reinforcement of perfume.
I have never been a fan of rose fragrances; I’ve never been drawn to them and I feel most don’t suit me. The only exception was the beautiful, dark and thrilling Or et Noir by Caron, the Mata Hari of rose perfumes, sadly discontinued. I used up the last of my one remaining flacon about 4 or 5 years ago. I miss it very much.
I LOVE (d!) the original Caron roses so much. Rich and Bulgarian : poignant and oleaginous
What a generous write-up on rose fragrances. Your posts are always fascinating.
I love real roses’ fragrance– and don’t like to wear 90% of rose fragrances. Finally, I found Guerlain’s Rose Barbare. It’s so smooth. I recommend a sample. I bought a full bottle at the Paris store. I think it one of the classiest rose fragrances ever and have been complemented on it and begged for the name. People have mentioned LUSH’s Rose Jam soap and so I finally bought some. It’s also a crave worthy scent.
I love the beginning of Barbare but can’t stomach the dry down.
I have the Rose Jam perfume. D absolutely HAAAATES it and so do I, kind of – so sweet and sickly !- while simultaneously finding it peculiarly addictive. Lush do some seriously original and weird perfumes
Vintage Voleur de Roses. I have it tucked away in one of my drawers in the unheated, North facing room. Today I shall search it out & spray with abandon
It was so rich and patchouli and genuinely bewitching. I detest the overclarified less sensual reformulations – which I would never consider with a bargepole.
Vive the original inspirations !
Goutal Rose Absolue, although I don’t know if its current formula is as lush a rose as the older version I have. Not sour on me, it is warm and dark in the drydown. I also smell an echo honey. Neela Vermeire Mohur is a beautiful rose oud, and the extract is rose heaven. But not a Mustafa Center price…
Mohur I quite like but the murky wood base is not my cuppa.
I would LOVE an endless supply of fresh vintage Rose Absolue – truly the closest thing to dewy roses at dawn. I can’t carry it off, but just a spritz here and there ..
I have a nice collection of rose fragrances, even though I rarely wear rose. Lately I have been wearing Tocade and Rajasthan which have rose in them, but are not soliflores. My all time favorite rose perfumes are Rose de Nuit, L’Arte de Gucci, and Halston Couture. I have the Elsa Peretti silver egg as well as her bottle trimmed in silver. I sometimes like Rose de Mai and Le Fille de Berlin, but I put them more in the bath than on my skin. Parfum Sacre and I have a love hate, and it is alway the rose that save the day. Too much pepper and clove sometimes. Rive Gauche is so amazing, but it wears me. Calandre is difficult for me. I love the art of it, but it is just so mean. Sonoma Scent Studio’s Laurie Ericson made a gorgeous Velvet Rose, Rose Volupte and Rose musk that are wonderful and rosy rosy rosy.
Yes the Sonomas were really good : what happened to them ?
Laurie sold her company to a woman who I think is named Paula. The company is still called Sonoma Scent Studio and most of the perfumes are still available, supposedly using Laurie’s formulas. I only know that Champagne de Bois and Jour Ensoleille are still very much like the opriginals from Laurie, as I wear those frequently. Velvet Rose and Rose Volupte are still available, but I have not tried them since the change in ownership.
Glad to know they are essentially in good hands. I remember the two you mention as being excellent
I went through a big rose phase, then went off it for ages, now turning back, but I still have the ones I gathered and do love, for different purposes — Penhaligon’s Elizabethan Rose, a true rosewater tone that lasts, Paestum Rose by Eau d’ Italie, full blown rose mixed mixed with hot tears (I find there’s an edge of something like hot tears in the full blown strong rose fragrances, both from real roses themselves and in their perfume versions). My favorite Rosine of the three I have is Rose d’Ete, a full yellow tea rose. There’s a very natural connection to a sense memory for me there. Mohur and Mohur Extrait, by Neela Vermeire, a serious Perfume-perfume, opulent, magnificent. My second bottle of Voleur des Roses, still of the vintage type. I am not above Tea Rose by Perfumer’s Workshop, a rose bomb that’s nostalgic as my first rose perfume from way back, or Paris YSL for a brisk one, or Mon Evidence by Yves Rocher, a wholesome fresh one. Still love my Serge Lutens Sa Majeste and La Fille de Berlin Roses. I recall being happily surprised by strong rose emanating from an older Middle Eastern man dressed all in white, while sitting behind him on a bus in Brooklyn. I am so sad and appalled when I read younger people say rose in perfume is unbearable/old/impossible, online, these days.
They do ? I had no idea.
I love Tea Rose too – the opening is magnificent, the ending, on me, total disaster.
I have a bottle of Elizabethan Rose but there is that creamy nutty aspect I am not so keen on.
Rose Ete – so many of the Rosines – is gorgeous in summer
the rose is my flower. I love Rose Perfumes if they are heady and bewitching. Creeds Fleur de Bulgarie, Guerlains Nahéma, vanCleef’s GEM form a Trias in my experience. Rose Opulente (Maitre), Mizensir’s Rose Exaltante, the By Terry Rose-Ouds Terryfic Oud & Terryfic Oud Extrème, Chanel No5 and Coco. Giorgio Beverly Hills Red. Eau du Soir. Portrait of a Lady & Rose Tonnere which I bought as Une Rose.