‘Sa Majesté, La Rose’: My Current Favourite Rose Fragrances
I first have to declare that of all the notes in the vast and complex world of fragrance, the rose is, and probably always will be my singular favourite. Serge Luten’s ode to this icon was in the form of a fragrance he called ‘Sa Majeste, La Rose’ - Her Majesty, the Rose. And truly, everytime I talk about rose scents, I feel a sense of reverence, like I am entering the majestic world of something that has existed long before me and will continue long after I’m gone, and that I should feel ever so honored to be allowed in its presence. If you think about it, the rose, and the scent of rose, has been mythologized, symbolized in paintings and books, eternalized in films and television, written about in books - and all of that has accorded it an aura of power and timelessness. However, part of that timelessness comes from the fact that most of us recognize the scent of a rose, whether its from our garden, or playing in the park, or weddings, or as gifts that someone gave our parents or they gave each other, or in some other fashion - we know this scent. I find that this familiarity, this almost a priori knowledge of it, actually becomes the rose’s strength when it goes through the hands of a skilled parfumeur - that through all its iterations through ancient and modern times, and there are many, through all the twists and turns the parfumeur fuses into it, the rose comes through. Maybe differently dressed, maybe dark and dangerous, maybe pink and sweet, maybe classic, maybe modern, maybe even a little shocking, but the rose comes through.
Before I talk about these rose scents, I first have to declare that this small collection is very much my current go-to rose fragrances. The list of rose fragrances I have tried and loved (and some of which I own) is long and I will gradually also get to them in this blog. For example, in this post, I don’t cover any of the iconic Frederic Malle roses - Une Rose, Portrait of a Lady, Rose and Cuir, Lipstick Rose, Promise, and The Night. These deserve a post all to themselves and I will soon be putting one up. Byredo’s Rose of No Man’s Land is another favourite that is not included in this post simply because I didn’t have it on hand to photograph it. The rose scents I cover today are ones that I am currently rotating through and wanted to share with you in time for the holiday season in case you were looking to get one as a gift! They are all wonderful. So here we go - a longer discussion of this first perfume - Metal flower by the Harmonist since it’s a realtively new find- and shorter comments for the rest.
About two years ago, I was contemplating buying a larger size of Frederic Malle’s Portrait of a Lady, a decided favourite among rose scent lovers and a fragrance I love wearing. During this time, while rummaging through my fragrance sample collection, I chanced upon a 2ml sample of the Harmonist’s Metal Flower. I had never heard of this brand, didn’t know who the founder was, didn’t know how much it cost and didn’t know it was a rose scent. But let me tell you - one spritz, and I literally sat down. I was bowled over, blown away, bamboozled, all the words you can think of - magnified, because it happened so unexpectedly. I was suddenely smelling an absolutely gorgeous rose scent, a powerful, strong rose and yet somehow green, and cool, and metallic, and sharp. To me, it felt like a deeper, more complex, and dare I say better and bolder sibling to Portrait of a Lady. I never thought I’d say that. But there I was, clutching my 2 ml sample, and scrambling to enter the name into Google to find out what the hell had just happened to me and what in god’s name was this holy entity and what, WHAT was it that I had just smelled?! Well, Google did two things - confirmed to me what I knew in an instant when I smelled that first spritz - this brand is a serious player in the world of fragrance, these perfumes have been gloriously reviewed on social media, and for some reason, I had missed finding out about their amazingness until the; and two, that it came with a pretty hefty price tag (which I guess I sort of expected once I had smelled the perfume).
You know what they say about there being a before and an after for certain moments in life - well, I didn’t think my budget could take purchasing it just then, but this is a perfume I thought about for days and kept putting into and out of my cart every day for months. I would smell another rose perfume in a store (back when we could go to stores) and think longingly about Metal Flower instead. I would spray on a rose perfume I owned, and crave Metal Flower. I went through the 2 ml vial like it was gold (its incredible sillage/longevity on my skin helped) but when it finally finished, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I caved and bought a full size version. And when Barney’s filed for bankruptcy,and threw a close-out sale online, I pounced on this perfume and finally, finally, made it mine.
For me, this is a unique rose scent and that is truly saying something given the number of rose fragrances I own and love. I sometimes find that perfume descriptions are not really accurate or at least don’t seem to necessarily express what I feel or smell in the perfume. However, the Harmonist’s own description of Metal Flower is actually surprisngly perfect: “Metal Flower is a modern fragrance that captivates the wearer like a glint of light bouncing off a burnished surface. Graceful Bulgarian rose combines with Rose of May and patchouli and sharp metallic notes to create a floral trio with an unexpectedly honed edge.” I don’t know if the Patchouli comes through for me but the rose and the metal and the burnished surface and the honed edge? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Metal Flower is a bold, big, audacious scent when you think of those notes, and yet, and yet… there is a green coolness and elegance to it that is almost quiet and comes through only if you get closer to it. I love this fragrance, and if you decide to splurge on someone or yourself this holiday season, I hope you love it as much as I do. I would love to talk to you for hours about it!
A well loved and well-used rose fragrance as you can probably tell from the half-empty bottle ( and I have a backup!) - this is one of the incredible Serge Luten’s rose fragrances - La Fille de Berlin (the girl from Berlin). First of, the color of this perfume is a delicious Beaujolais-inspired pinky red and I am a sucker for visual appeal. Secondly, this is my “safe” rose scent. By ‘safe’, I don’t mean boring. This is a rose scent that is nice and “rose”-like for a large chunk of its life on my skin, but the rose itself is a medium-weight, girl-next-door rose - none of the depth and darkness of Metal Flower here or even of some of Serge Luten’s other scents. It does have a slightly earthy undertone to it, like the smell of wet earth after a hot burst of rain - and that juxtaposition is interesting, but ‘safely’ so - no sharp edges here. On me this perfume lasts a good 5-6 hours. In my fragrance wardrobe, this is my everyday, business casual rose scent with just the hint of an earthy twist. And don’t we all need one of those? (For a wonderful and more detailed review of this perfume (for fragrance nerds like me) check out this post!)
There are a lot of Tom Ford perfumes I LOVE (such as Neroli Portfino, Violet Blonde, Tuscan Leather, Noir Extreme) and then others that I’m kind of myeh about. Noir de Noir lies firmly in the love camp. This is a warm, heady, rich rose perfume that is intensely impactful from the get-go. While the notes include black rose, black truffle, patchouli, vanilla, and oudwood according to Tom Ford, for me this post describes it best - in addition to a sweet, dark, rich, melifluous, and intense rose, I also get the same sweetness from this perfume as I would smelling and eating a piece of turkish delight (as is described in the linked blog post by Kafkaesque). There is a sweet, dessert-like quality to part of this perfume, a hint of cardamom in the passing. I say part, because the other part is the darkness of the rose and maybe a woody touch of oud, though to me there is less wood and more oud. On me, this perfume lasts forever and generally speaking, my skin eats up perfume but this I can smell in my hair even the morning after. So if you’re in the market for a dark, sweet, rich rose with cardamom and oud-y undertones, you would love this.
I think this fragrance has no rival to date. If you want a scent that is actually the scent of red roses with nothing added or tweaked, look no further. Of course, you would have to love the smell of red roses as much as I do to love this perfume -because that’s just what this perfume is, and that’s all this perfume is - pure, fresh, unfiltered, red rose. Now this is not to say that Jo Malone doesn’t record it as having more notes than rose - in fact, the Jo Malone website notes three additional notes to be precise which is already narrowing it down quite a bit. These additional notes are lemon, honeycomb and violet leaves. Now I am sure they are very much part of what makes this fragrance so perfect but to me, this smells only like a fresh, red rose that has just been sprinkled with dew. It lasts for a few hours on me without fading but then I usually need a touch up. For those of us who truly love red roses and their scent and want to smell like them in all their unadulterated glory - this is your guy.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s A la Rose (Scented Body Oil)
This is one of the newest rose scents in my collection so I’m still getting acquainted with it and this is my scented body oil version. This is the easiest rose fragrance to wear in this lineup of rose scents and is great if you are just starting to dabble in roses and may not want to completely smell like one ( which, by the way, is only true for the oil version not the actual fragrance where each bottle is stated to have 250 fresh bloomed roses from Grasse!). Damascena and Centifolia roses are intertwined with a host of other notes in this oil version - bergamot, violet, magnolia blossoms, orange, cedar wood, and musk ( according to the brand’s website). I spritz on a little amount of this either directly on my collar bones or on my hands and then dab it behind my ears, on my wrists, inside my elbows, and just a touch on my chest. It is subtle, bright, and fresh as a spring morning.
So this is it - my current rose favourites. Like I said, I think the rose is simply magnificent and these fragrances give you just a sliver of taste of what some incredibly masterful parfumeurs have been able to achieve with it. If you are looking to try one of these or want to discuss rose scents in general, please comment and tell me! I would love to chat for hours with you on the subject - it is truly one of my passions.
