Perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova reveals a list of mysterious rose fragrances.
Eau de parfum Harlem Bloom, Vilhelm Parfumerie
In the work, the fragrance was called Leather Rose. And although "The Flower of Harlem" sounds more impressive, the first version was extremely honest: this rose grew in the twilight of a jazz club, making its way through the worn leather upholstery of the sofa. In a word, she is not a timid dozen - while other roses bathed in the night dew and tears of virgins, Harlem was fertilized with ground pepper and tobacco crumbs. The result is strong and cheerful: if you are looking for a rose with leather and saffron, but toothier than Galop d'Hermès, your search is over.
Eau de parfum Sheiduna, Puredistance
Sheiduna is a word-wallet, as Lewis Carroll called such language constructions: "you open, and there are two branches." The name, which combines "sheikh" and "dune", promises the Arabian East, but gives an abstract desert landscape without reference to the region. At first, behind the hot sands and dry wood chips that Sheiduna throws in her face, her spicy, cumin-carnation roses are not visible - you find them later, when the sandstorm calms down and sunset smears of fragrant resins will fall between the dunes. A beautiful and accurate picture of the desert.
Eau de parfum Evening Rose, Aerin
This rose is the most secular in our selection - both dark and transparent, like a black silk stocking. And just as flawlessly "merges" with the skin: when the golden wave of cognac subsides and the burgundy petals fall off, an elegant woody-amber base will remain - not too loud, but dense enough to be remembered.
Eau de parfum Tea Rose, Perfumer's Workshop
The big American hit Tea Rose was released back in 1977, but we got it less than two years ago - one of the best, according to Frederic Mull, perfume roses was brought to Russia by Cosmotheca. This, among other things, is perhaps the most inexpensive fragrance in her portfolio and, moreover, the most popular on a global scale: about 60 million bottles have been sold in forty years. Why is Tea Rose good? The one that ideally matches the collective image of the country rose in our childhood memories - it smells of honey, dew, currants and something green and pungent.
Eau de parfum Roses Musk, Montale
A whole section on the Montale website is called Around the Rose, which is not surprising: the French brand, which has done more to popularize the Arabian style in perfumery than all Arab brands put together, must respect the rose. Unfortunately, the beautiful Taif Roses have already been discontinued, but Roses Musk remains - flowers and musk, freshly watered roses and clean linen hung out to dry in the garden. The fragrance is exceptionally calm by Montale standards, but the persistence is expected to be high.
Eau de parfum Ta'if, Ormonde Jayne
In the last couple of years, the London brand has been carried away by the release of limited or fabulously expensive gizmos that are difficult to access even on payday, and it seems that it has lost its course: the last truly interesting Ormonde Jayne fragrance, Vanille d'Iris, was released in 2016 - in the classic collection. There you should also look for everything else that the brand has fallen in love with, in particular, the shiny Ta'if rose of 2004. Al-Taif is a city in the mountains of Saudi Arabia, around which, as far as he can remember, something is constantly blooming and smelling: there are apiaries, vineyards, date palm plantations and fields of Taif rose. Among such bounties, it is easy to get carried away by the exotic and sweep hot Arabian sands into the composition, but perfumer Geza Shen, as usual, skillfully controls the temperature of his composition - this rose grows at an altitude, in a cool mountain climate, and retains its dewy and slightly prickly peppery freshness to the end. …
Eau de parfum Knowing, Estée Lauder
Knowing turns thirty next year. It is still one of the best representatives of the once glorious but decaying genus - pink chypre, brilliantly described by perfume critic Luca Turin. Roses stuck in mosses he called “rubies on green velvet,” and Knowing makes exactly this impression - of crimson flashes in the depths of the forest, as if a fabulous fern blossomed in the thicket. A lovely rose, dark and bitter.
Eau de parfum Hyde Park, Hugh Parsons
The British brand Hugh Parsons has been doing perfume inventory of urban areas for nearly twenty years - as you know Bond No.9 New York, only here are London areas. Another important difference: "Bond" gladly crawls into the farthest pockets of New York, and hardly any Shoreditch will appear in the Parsons portfolio - all the locations here are, as they say, gorgeous. For example, Hyde Park, a green and bitter rose generously fertilized with soap suds - a beautiful and austere soliflor with neatly shaved temples like London grass.
Eau de toilette Imogen Rose, Lush
A beautiful, slightly old-fashioned rose - these are called "powdery". The effect is intentional: Simon Constantine, the man responsible for all fragrances at Lush, dedicated this fragrance to his little daughter, hoping to convey the sensation of the smallest free-flowing particles of baby talcum powder with toffee and tonka beans. But instead of a changing table, it turned out to be a rather flirty dressing table - with powder compacts, puffs and tubes of lipstick. You can read more about floral fragrances here.
Eau de parfum Cinabre, Maria Candida Gentile
An excellent reading of a complex perfumery theme - amber rose. Under a curled wig powdered with scented powders - hair washed with rose water, under musk, vanilla and lipstick - a subtle smell of soap and clean skin: Marie Antoinette, if you remove all the paint from her, smells of youthful, garden freshness.
Eau de parfum Rosamunda, Laboratorio Olfattivo
The profile is very familiar - an oriental rose with oud and saffron, made for the European market, in other words, moderately and neatly. But instead of the boredom of recognition, you experience delight: how harmoniously and balanced this woody-floral, balsamic scent is. The rose in Rosamund is heated with cumin and hot resins, which gradually disappear into a golden amber trail, bloom for a long time and close to the skin - one might say shyly.
Eau de parfum Rose de Paris, Gustave Eiffel
Recently, a new perfumery boutique Grasse C. L. U. B. opened in the Kievsky shopping center, and Gustave Eiffel fragrances finally received a home port - right opposite the fountain on the ground floor. Why you need Rose de Paris: This is a fresh, rain-washed fruit rose with blackcurrants, made in the fashion of the 1980s - a decade of disheveled garden roses in the style of diptika L'Ombre dans L'Eau. The name promises Paris, but this is how an English garden, laid out in a romantic fashion, should "sound" - as opposed to a French garden, regular, where flowers and trees stretch out in line, like on a parade ground.
