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War of the Malle Roses

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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.
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  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

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