As the horror unfurls, I tend to my imaginary rose garden.
The Shiseido shop near our house closed down for good in August; no longer is there choice trash for the taking. I was getting so used to being able to just pick up glassware, odd trinkets, old Shiseido perfumes and cosmetics on the way home that I now feel slightly bereft each time I look at the shuttered metal on the shop front.
Still feeling rose-centric, I remembered yesterday that I hadn’t properly looked through the purple velvet sample box the lady at the shop gave me in the summer. I noticed that there were in fact four three quarters full roses in the vial bottles ready for my delectation. Though a little faded, but just a little, White Rose, Blue Rose, Rose Papameian and Rose Garden Yoshizumi are all rather precious.
White Rose is the most old fashioned (being from 1954). Apparently made of natural white Bulgarian roses, it has an aldehydic archaic musk drydown in the ilk of all the My Sins and Interdits of the past, but done more subtly – a hint of animal, but very ladylike. Papameian is rich cabbage rose with a sandalwood base; Blue Rose a more nineties, Turkish and ‘blue rose’ aquatic, slightly salty affair in a strength exclusive to Shiseido known as a nuance de parfum. I like it, but it can wait for summer. The best, in my book, is the Rose Garden Yoshizumi, which I can find no information about (it is different to the Rosarium range that comes up when you search for it online). This, hauntingly, reminds me of the rose gardens of my childhood and gives me heart pangs. I wish there were more of it; but what I do have will be used sparingly.
