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måndag 6 maj 2013

Rosenotes in a haste

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)
Recently I have been hit by a sort of roseobsession and when reviewing Grossmith Saffron Rose I felt the urge to sniff some fragrances in the same category ie orientel styled or inspired roses and also clean rosesoliflores. Here are the impressions from what I smelled from the teststripes:

Rose Absolue (Annick Goutal): The truest and cleanest rose, mixed of rose absolues from six different rosetypes. This is like diving in an ocean of rosepetals, experience all the different facets of the scent of roses:  Fresh, green and steamy,dewy, smooth, spicy and velvety. Natural, elegant and relaxing. The reference rosesoliflore.

Taif Roses (Montale):The house of oriental styled roses is of course Montale.There are countless variations where the rose are more or less prominent compared to the other notes, usually oud. Taif Roses is a rosesoliflore, where the rose is supported with some of the leaves and steams which creates a slight rubbery note and a very light lemony note in the top.

Highness Rose (Montale): Dark, velvety, intense, lush and fresh red roses. This is THE rosesoliflore, grand in its "simple" apperance. A regal perfume.

Roses Musk (Montale): A crispy and peppery red rose blended with musk. Radiant and with a great sillage. This one has to be sparely applied.

Aoud Rose Petals (Montale): Saffron and a bright medium pink rose mixed in a delicious creamy combination refreshed by green cool geranium and anchored in a proper dose of oud and other precious woody notes.

Aoud Queen Roses (Montale): The most "perfumery" like rose fragrance in the group. Here there is a red rose which is darker, smoother and the oud  is more pronounced than in Aoud Rose Petals. A slight leathery note is also appearing, almost integrated with the dark rose.

When sniffing side by side on scentstripes there is very evident  how different the scents really are despite the common denominator the rose, and some cases also the oud. And this seems to be a general observation: Fragrances from the same family that seems to be similar when first smelled, mostly appears to be quite different when investigated more in detail.

torsdag 18 april 2013

Grossmith - Saffron Rose

Picture: Roses in a vase,
 painting by Auguste Renoir
I knew instantly when I splashed on Saffron Rose from the small vial that I would just love this stunning oriental styled rosecomposition. And Saffron Rose are just not about flattering topnotes, it is quality all the way out. Saffron Rose, created by Trevor Nicholl is a part of  the Grossmith Black Label Collection.

Saffron Roses starts with a beautiful, very clean, natural smelling pink, a bit oldfashioned, tearose. It is accuented with smooth, spicy notes of saffron and cinnamon, handled in a manner that creates a smooth, slight creamy impression of soft leather. The creamyness is in the same time dry in its texture and this accord creates a sort of chalky impression. As Saffron Rose progress in its dry down the scent is deepen in a melange of very well balanced darker resin and woody notes such as oud and myrrh. The notes are accompanying and the oud doesn't take over the composition as in most oud-rose fragrances. When Saffron Rose reaches the basenotes an almost animalc quality appears but in a subtle way. During the rest of the dry down Saffron Rose highlights the classical rose which interacting perfectly with the darker, soft spicy and woody-resin notes.

Saffron Rose wears close to the skin, the longevity is about 24h. It's a creation of understaded elegance, not as dominating and rough as many Montale rose-oud creations, Saffron Rose is more finetuned and it is a real pleasure to wear, as also the Montales depending on the mood.

Those who (like me) likes Montale Taif Rose, Highness Rose, Aoud Queen Roses, Aoud Roses Petals, Histoires de Parfum Rosam and Annick Goutal Rose Absolue I suspect also will like Saffron Rose.

Rating: 5

Notes: Rose, saffron, cinnamon, myrrh, oud, tobacco, wood, labdanum, castoreum, sandalwood, amber, guaiac wood

Thanks to Fragrances & Art for the sample to test.

måndag 2 juli 2012

Tour de Montale

I'm so tired of all the complaints of the multiple offerings from the house of Montale that has been common the latest years in the perfumebloggosphere. Going from beeing praised when Montale started the oud-trend in the beginning/middle of the 00-decade, suddenly (when other houses followed and started to realease easier, light oud interpretations) the common thoughts went quite the opposite. Montale is for instance accused to have to 1) many, too similar smelling offerings, 2) using a sharp, syntetichal oud and 3) to release too many fragrances per year. My reaction to 1) and 3) is that it is up to the customer to try and decide and as long it's opportunities for sale on the worldmarket it's also reasonable to continue. Regarding 2) my opinion is that most perfumelines uses syntetical oud at most so Montale isn't differently then the others and I also think that they are using real oud to some extent in some of their offerings.As to the sharp oudnote there is used more or less in the Montales I have to confess I really like it. It's a distinct antipode to the other ingredients and lends character an longevity beyond 24h for the blends. I experience this oudnote as somehow cool-earthy-refreshing and I prefer the oud-line in summer even if the ouds also fits well in the colder seasons.

The last week I devoted myself to test some Montales from the oudline foremost to try out if they are so similar as claimed to. My answer is no, the typical Montale base is present in various proportions but as a whole I can smell apparent differences between the four that was tested and I was not bored at all, on the contrary. And when it comes to typical bases, most houses has their own characteristic base and I can't see why it shouldn't Montale do the same. My impression from the tested fragrances is as follows:

Aoud Queen Roses: This one is more about medium red, fresh roses then about oud. The oud is relatively unobtrusive in the background.

Black Oud: The most famous Montale and probably, all ifs and buts weighted, also the best. Dark roses, that together with the patchouli and oud creates an almost creamy leathery effect. This one almost always attracts compliments.

Aoud Leather: Not so heavy on the dark oudnote, here the oud ist the peppery interpretation. Together with a note that reminds me of lime and a light and bright leathernote this of is refreshing a warm summerday.

Aoud Amber: Aoud Amber is perhaps the most "cold season" of the four. To me the oud note is muted in AA, there is more of a sort of skanky, oriental-chypre charachter with resiny notes combined with notes which are mossy in charachter. This is a strange but enjoyable blend.

To summon up: I percived enough variation in the oud-theme to enjoy may four days of tour de Montale.