The Secret Sorrows of The Rose

Rose has made a comeback in perfumery in the last decade, there's no doubt about it. Had it ever left? Well...I have composed a top youthful rose fragrances for Fragrance.About.com which you can check out here. In it I revert to this age-old (no pun intended) question: do you feel too young for roses? Many do, alas, myself included. Apparently there are solutions.

I began my perfumephile path as a rose-challenged person (at least in what concerns actual perfume, as I dearly love anything rose-shaded in makeup and use rose-containing skincare with pleasure, like the gorgeous products from Annick Goutal or food-grade rosewater as a toner on my face). You can read my woes on this article: My Troubles with Rose and Overcoming Them one by One.

And overcome I did! I even compiled a top rose fragrances and beauty/food products list, which you can access on this link.

Of course it helps that there are many nuances to a rose. It's not always tea rose, you see, and thank heavens for that!
From the deliciously sophisticated old-school Une Rose Chypree by Tauer, to the orientalized Rose Nacre du Desert by Guerlain and Patricia de Nicolai's Rose Oud, the frivolous cosmetics-reminiscent Drole de Rose by L'Artisan and the thornier Voleur de Roses again by L'Artisan, the personal favorite Mohur by Neela Vermeire, the reckless and spicy Majalis by Parfums de Rosine, the crystalline cool Acqua Nobile Rosa by Acqua di Parma, all the way to Rose Oud By Kilian, there's a rose fragrance for everyone. It just takes a bit of searching. Luckily I try things so you don't have to.

Enjoy the rose articles!

Annick Goutal Duel: fragrance review

Like erotic opponents distancing themselves from each other only to better aim at the heart with a fatal gunshot, the materials in Annick Goutal's fragrance Duel are juxtaposed, yet strangely sharing common ground. One can't shake the impression they'll both live to tell the tale, till a certain point at the very least.

Paraguayan petit grain, a distillate from the leaves and twigs of the citrus aurantia v.amara aka the bitter orange tree [learn about its many raw materials for perfumery here], gives the citrusy top note, Maté absolute provides a leathery undertone; this South American herb has an aroma between black tea and cut hay. The cunning thing is the two notes complement each other rather than oppose one another; the tang of the former provides a welcome suaveness to the pungency of the latter. Maybe they ought to reconcile and with Gallic charm and a gentle shrug of the shoulders decide to share the damsel after all, if she agrees.

The green aura of the combination of the two raw materials, petit grain and maté absolute  (a common facet of both, their "touching back to back" so to speak) provides a summery diversion.
The house's art director, Camille Goutal, daughter of Annick, and perfumer Isabelle Doyen wanted to exploit the green character of mate absolute as well as its leather-scented backdrop into a modern, avant-garde composition that would appeal to those searching for something gentle yet substantial.
Its many facets (hay billowy softness, refreshing hesperidic tanginess, dry austere tobacco-leather) make it graceful and interesting.

Hints of tobacco and iris ground the airier, more fleeting notes in Duel without weighting them down. A prolonged fuzzy softness due to white musk is what makes the fragrance, although featured as a masculine in the Goutal canon, totally wearable by women as well. Like other masculine scents by Goutal, like the little known Eau du Fier, or the helichrysum roasted feel of Sables, Duel can be shared.

Personally I love using this cologne when wearing khakis and white T-shirts, with only sunscreen and mascara on my face, it seems to complement this kind of 'woman on a journalistic mission' rather well ; sort of gives me the energy I need in the heat to feel collected enough to pursue my line of research.

Bottom line: Duel is quite fresh yet oddly sexy; it smells the way Gabriel Garcia Bernal looks.

Available as eau de toilette 100ml at Goutal counters in select boutiques.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: 
Annick Goutal perfume reviews and news
The Leather Fragrance Series
Top 10 Masculine Fragrances
Gender Bender: Masculine Colognes Shared by Women, Feminine Fragrances Worn by Men

Oriental Arabesque for Oud Palao by Diptyque

The newest fragrance by French niche brand Diptyque is called Oud Palao and is -you guessed it- inspired by the mega-trend that is oud. It also incorporates perfume notes of Bulgarian rose, camphor, labdanum,  rum, tobacco, patchouli, Madagascar vanilla, and sandalwood.

But what is most memorable is the gorgeous, eye-catching illustration motif. After all Diptyque started as a quirky design brand of textiles and scents...

The Case for a Good Drag of Smoke: Korres Premium II L'Eau de Parfum

Poor Jon Hamm had to smoke 74 herbal cigarettes in the pilot of Mad Men alone, such is our modern shunning of smoking, even more so on screen, where it's strictly seen as "period work." And yet ... You can do lots of things with a cigarette on hand: gain time, use that sharp intake of smoke as a decisive battle cry, fill that hanging silence of exhaling with something to look into, occupy your hands, offer to light a damsel-in-distress's own cigarette ... smoking has its own language and codes.

Which nicely brings me to our matter at hand. A gorgeous tobacco fragrance for men. Those old-cut ones, like Richard Widmark. Widmark looked quite a bit like my own grandfather, who wore Tabac Original by Mauer & Wirtz; there's poetic justice in the lives of perfumephiles, you see.

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Thus goes my review of the Premium II L'Eau de Parfum by Greek brand Korres. Issued in late 2014 and among the very good surprises of the beginning of this year, I realize that it's not exactly summer material (though you could wear it, why not), more of a flannel suit and fedora hat affair, yet it beckoned last week when the heatwave made everything smell so very intensely that I was sure I was either smelling fragrances from three blocks away or experiencing a case of phantosmia (sensing phantom smells). Please find my full review of this beautiful tobacco and woods cologne on this link. As always you're welcome to comment either here or there or both.

New Images of the Great Cate for Armani Si Eau de Toilette New Campaign

That's Cate Blanchett, for the upcoming new publicity for Armani Si, a nouveau chypre fragrance built around a blackcurrant note, that has already taken a significant share in the market. The Italian maestro's white shirts from the previous ads give way to something a bit more casual, it seems; a silvery grey cashmere jumper with short sleeves or a dress, from the looks of it?And a killer raincoat for when in the car.

Anyway, sartorial matters aside, the new commercial will air in September 13th, filmed by Irano-American flim maker Massy Tadjedin. Darius Khondji is the director of photography and the clip has been filmed in Australia. Tim Munro is behind the print campaign. Photos by Josh Prendeville, from Cate Blanchett's fan site.