Scent on Canvas Rose Opera: fragrance review

It was the explosion of beauty in a field of saffron that captured the senses of perfumer Jórdi Fernandez. The romance of rose and saffron stamens recall the passions of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, who infamously perfumed themselves with saffron before their romantic encounters. It was this reference which Beatrice Aguilar brought to the table to discuss further with Fernandez for the creation of this woody floral fantasy, Rose Opéra.

The scent oscillates between floral and woody-herbal with exotic woody notes (vetiver and patchouli) in the base, allied to a mossy feeling of walking through a forest with autumnal mulch on the floor. This gives a tilt into rosy chypre fragrances, but it is the cool-spicy and smoothly suede feel of the saffron essence which keeps Rose Opéra from being a full-blown retro rose and feels at home in the contemporary category of sophisticated, complex floral scents.

Cleopatra's Banquet as per Pliny's tale (wiki)

The first impression is at once fresh and floral, due to the Calabrian bergamot and the fruity notes of wild strawberries. Pepper rose, cardamom and macis (also known as the nutmeg flower) round off the mid notes of the perfume. Other ingredients are jasmine, artemisia, tagete and rose of Turkey, which unveils a mix of cedar wood, roots of vetiver with touches of patchouli and oak moss. The fragrance remains elegant, with a mysterious touch of twilight.

The new niche collection "Scent on Canvas" so far includes five perfumes created by an eclectic mix of perfumers: Jórdi Fernandez (for Rose Opéra and Noir de Mars), Shyamala Maisondieu (Ocre Doré) , Alexandra Kosinski (Brun Sicilien) and the founder, Beatrice Aguilar herself (Blanc de Paris). The collection spans five fragrance genres with nuanced olfactory work within them: the starchy, woody musk, a predetermined crowd-pleaser (Blanc de Paris); the dark musty-mossy with guts (Noir de Mars); the mysterious, coppery woody (Ocre Doré); the rosy floral with mysterious, spicy-suede tonalities (Rose Opéra) and the complex hesperidic-leathery (Brun Sicilien). Each fragrance is accompanied by a painting by a well-known painter who is inspired by the aromatics in the composition, then the painting is turned into an engraving which is used for the packaging of the fragrance: the inside of the box holds the engraving ready to be framed and hung on your walls.

Notes for Rose Opéra by Scent on Canvas:
Top: Calabrian bergamot, wild berries, jasmine, armoise, Turkish rose, tagete
Heart: Spanish saffron, cardamom, pink pepper, nutmeg flower,
Base: cyperus scariosus, Virginian cedar, Javanese vetiver, Peruvian lentisque, patchouli, oakmoss, incense.

The perfumes are priced at 130 Euros for 100 ml of perfume/eau de parfum (only Blanc de Paris is an Eau de Parfum by design, the rest are extrait de parfum). A great value sample pack of all 5 scents is offered for only 10 euros online at the official e-shop. More information: scentoncanvas.com

Scent on Canvas Noir de Mars: fragrance review

Noir de Mars, named after the iron oxide (PBk11) used in painting, is aptly referenced given the collection of new niche brand Scent on Canvas, hailing from Barcelona, Spain, is inspired by the chromatic nuances of pigments. Much like the pigment, which is a neutral, refined and dense black, blacker than carbon black, the fragrance of Noir de Mars is a thick and complex composition conceived by perfumer Jordi Fernadez, who utilizes note de jour i.e. oud/aoudh in a context that can please lovers of more traditional approaches: namely, it fuses the bitterish and musty nuance of the oud note into the ruggedly handsome bookends of oakmoss and leather. The result? A wonderfully nuanced, deep, individual fragrance that thankfully doesn't recall that cardinal sin of oud scents, "the Band-Aid note".

Pierre Soulages 1963 Huile sur toile, centre Pompidou via

The scent of Noir de Mars leans more masculine than the rest of the Scent on Canvas collection as its name, mythologically laced, would suggest (and is indeed pegged as that by the company), yet offering a transitory unisex for women who do not like traditionally feminine compositions but like to challenge perceived perceptions. Needless to add Noir de Mars is something that most men would feel manly to wear. Its Laotian oud exotic impressions, leather notes and oakmoss bitterness reads as somber, quiet, a person of few words but plenty of charisma. The spicy woody halo speaks on its own. Noir de Mars is modern in the sense that oud scents are very “now”, but at the same time it avoids some of the pitfalls of following a trend too closely, thanks to a cluster of oriental references (cypriol, myrrh, Haitian amyris etc). This one needs more time to open up so the experience of the parfum should be given a leisurely amount of time to unfold its magic.

Notes for Noir de Mars by Scent on Canvas:
Top: Laotian oud, gaiacwood, sandalwood, cyperus sclariosus
Heart: gurjum balsam (dipterocarpus), leather, myrrh
Base: Haitian amyris, amber


Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Scent on Canvas Brun Sicilien