War of the Malle Roses

By -


In my never-ending search for the perfect Rose fragrance I have tried quite a number of them. I recently sampled these two from the Frederic Malle collection finding the following:

Une Rose by Edouard Fléchier.


As one who loves rose scents in all of their various forms, the opening of Une Rose reminds me substantially of my favorite 'Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose'. Having said that, it's an infinitely more complex creation than the aforementioned, and I also noted with surprise that it contains Iso E Super, which the rose here seems to be enhanced rather than overwhelmed by. There's a gorgeous 'earthiness' going on ... as the promotional material states, it's as if the roots were pulled up with the bush :). It's faintly 'mushroomy'! The patchouli here brings faint herbal memories of Aramis 900 in combination with the rose, and rather dominates the dry down.
In all honesty, as much as I like it I don't find this one to be terribly original. I'm not sure I can justify it's price. The quality of ingredients, however, is indisputable. 



Lipstick Rose by Ralf Schwieger.




In a side by side test (on three members of my staff and my mother, all women teehee) Lipstick Rose beat Une Rose 4 to 0 :o). If I had to choose between them, Lipstick Rose would be the unfortunate loser.

'Violet pastilles', said one of my willing guinea pigs immediately. I concur ... the opening here smells strongly of violet with the vanilla adding a hefty punch of sweetness straight behind. Rather a culinary affair :o) ... i find it too sweet on my skin. The rose here is voluptuous and highly glamorous! Now, I like a jammy rose along with the best of them, but unfortunately Lipstick Rose feels like it was dumped in a vat of saccharine ... the sweet little pastry made a touch nauseating by the hefty snowfall of powdered sugar on top!
I can't say that I don't like it ... because I do! I would love to smell this on the women in my life (apparently so would they) ... but I do find myself leaning toward deeper and darker roses personally ... something a little less 'marshmallow-y'. 

This one is undoubtedly a strong feminine, whereas I find Une Rose to be wonderfully unisex.

Comments

  1. UndinaNovember 9, 2012 at 6:57 PM

    Love the title! :)

    I'm not in love with either of these two perfumes. They both are nice but not "my" roses.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Legacy 1912 Titanic Eau de Parfum for Women

By -
Image
Lemon, Orange Blossom, Hyacinth, Rose, Violet. As far as I've read, this fragrance was inspired by a Titanic survivor who was hoping to sell his fragrances in the Big Apple. I happened to run across a nearly full 75ml. bottle last month and purchased it untested. Released as an EDP, what I noticed after multiple wearings was the politeness inherent in the entire composition. The volume seems to be governed regardless of sprays, but perhaps that's a misconception on my part. At any rate, the dispersion is well behaved and mannerly, while smelling feminine and surprisingly good. Legacy is a citric floral that I can see succeeding in warm temperatures. Legacy opens with a sheer accord of citrus and leafy green aspects. The blossom is tuned a bit more assertively than the lemon, but their balances are executed very pleasantly. The combination of Hyacinth and Violet is just as good. The leaf and stem qualities compliment the violet rendition and is soon accented by a demur
Read more

Unpublished Reviews

By -
 I have been meaning to post more here but just have not been able to. I think it is the fear of not coming close to what Dave did here. I will have to cross that bridge soon. In the meantime, please enjoy these last few reviews that Dave was working on. They were written in 2021. Some were posted and then taken off the blog. These are the reviews of the Yellowstone Parfums line. I heard about this line in 2021. The smell description and artwork reminded me of Dave. I thought he was the person behind it and so I got a sample set.  It turned out that, while he was not the nose behind it, he was involved. Helping his friend with this venture. Unfortunately, I don't think the Yellowstone Parfums are in business anymore. 
Read more

Voile Blanc by Traveller Limited

By -
Image
Cedarwood, Frankincense, Leather, Musk, Thyme, Voile Blanc is yet another Arabian style sample sent to me, courtesy of CoutureGuru. As his review attests, it is distributed in a different fashion than your conventional "houses". Just the fact that a merchant can have a quality, duty-free scent created and marketed to a target audience is impressive. Too bad it isn't readily available through the normal means of purchase as Voile Blanc is well done and "adjusted" to suit palettes other than local. I say that because the west, as a whole, seems to favor "subtle yet substantial" over ostentatious. The opening of Voile Blanc is a leathery presentation accented with Incense and Woods. It's vibrant without being startling and you can tell in the first few minutes that this will come in with a smooth landing. There's nothing complicated here as the intro continues on its way until volume and presence dissipate enough to signal heart, then base
Read more