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.

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.

Royal happiness

 

Picture: H.R.H Crownprincess Victoria and H.R.H Prince Daniel

Photo and Copyright: Kungahuset.se  (Royal Court)

 

Today is a day of joy and happiness here in Sweden. Our beloved Crown Princess Couple HRH Crownprincess Victoria and HRH Prince Daniel became parents to a little princess, the futhure heir of the throne. I had already put Burberry Body on when Mr Parfumista called and told me that Prince Daniel *)  hade something to announce at 7.00 am. If I had known I would have applied something more royal to celebrate the little Princess but I think Body is quite ok as it reminds me of pink roses in a smooth and fluffy creaminess. This happening made me recapitulate which fragrances I have worn the other special days of this nice couple:

The  engagement day February 24, 2009: Guerlain L'Heure Bleue, if I had known that morning what happy news that would be delivered I would definitly chosen something else. But on the other hand, that was the first time something really happy occured when wearing L'HB, two times when I have worn it (and I don't wear it often) sad things had happen.

The wedding day June 19, 2010: As the event was well-known (to say at least :-) in advance I could prepare for a royal spritz with Montales Highness Rose.

Now we (the royalists at least) are looking forward to the baptism of the little one later this spring. And of course I'm planning to report about this event from the same olfactory perspective :-)

*) The Prince Daniel story is the Cinderella-story of the 2000s: A young energetic man raised in a middle class family in a small municipality, moves to the capital of Sweden, get educated to be a Personal Trainer, starts an exclusive gym, becomes the PT of the Crownprincess, the business grows to a several gyms, the couple have to hide from the press and in the same time try to convince the King about their love and Daniels suitability as the consort to the future queen. After eight years, 2009, they finally got the permission to marry and where engaged. But at that time Daniel was seriously ill as he from his youth had an nonfunctional kidney and the other one was deteriorated. Luckily Daniels father Olle donated a kidney and everything went well. The wedding 2010 was like a fairytale and Daniel became HRH Prince Daniel. Today he is performing very well in this very special role. Almost all (at least the roylistic) women in Sweden loves Prince D as he seems to be the most perfect, caring, secure in himself, natural, polite, chivalrous guy one can image.  

Den Stora Dagen ....

....är här. Äntligen och så välförtjänt får Kronprinsessan Victoria och herr Daniel varandra! Och Sverige får en ny prins, präktig och rejäl, något att luta sig mot. Kronprinsessan var otroligt vacker i sin svepande aftonklänning igår och så genuint strålande lycklig. Kan bara tänka mig hur vacker hon kommer att vara idag, troligen krönt av kamédiademet som blivit något av en tradition bland kungliga brudar. Det här ska bli så roligt och romatiskt!
Vilken doft kan då passa kronprinsessan denna dag? Ett säkert kort att hålla hela dagen och som passar vitt är Editions Frederic Malles grönt krispiga tuberosedoft Carnal Flower. Den är elegant och passar på sommaren, håller bra en maratondag som denna. Ett lite varmare, mörkare alternativ är Montales Highness Rose som förutom att namnet passar superbt är en ren rosenoljeparfym, det är som om den röda rosens blad destillierats helt utan tillsatser av annat. Den är så ren och elegant, undrar om jag inte själv ska fira i HR idag.