Monday, January 9, 2012

Diptyque Eau Rose & Rosa Mundi: new fragrance & new candle

Ushering spring-time with rose scents...Diptyque, purveyor of fine fragrances and great quality candles, is voting for roses this spring with two releases centered on the queen of flowers.With St.Valentine's Day around the corner, they're romantic gifts to be given.

Eau Rose eau de toilette de Diptyque
"Eau Rose, a totally new fragrance that pays tribute to the queen of flowers, the rose. Forever immortalized by Ronsard’s famous poem “Mignonne, allons voir si la rose...”, it was only a matter of time before diptyque decided to showcase the rose. To get off the beaten track and create something different, the Eau Rose has been conceived to stand out as a genuine infusion of roses. [...] a rose that changes as the hours go by and melts into the scent of the person wearing it." (official press)


Since the times of the legendary Semiramis, who cultivated roses in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, roses have fascinated perfumers. Tea rose with spicy notes, luscious carnal roses, milky roses, satin rose or rose pompoms.....just roses!!
Imagined like a rose infusion, Eau Rose celebrates the multiple olfactory facets of the rose, in its natural state; from morning dew (with tart  notes of bergamot and blackcurrant) to daybreak (thanks to fruity lychee) to the sensual woody nuance of musks and cedar of nighttime.
Coveted in Grasse and the Isparta region in Turkey, Rosa Centifolia and Rosa Damascena infusions sign an essentially natural fragrance, soft and powdery woody, and not aging at all, thanks to the tartness of the fruit notes which refresh it.

Top notes: bergamot, black currant and litchi
middle notes: jasmine, geranium and rose
base notes: Virginia cedar, musk and white honey.

 Eau de Toilette spray 100ml retails for 72 euros/98$US. The fragrance is also available in a roll-on (20ml for 35euros). Already available at Diptyque boutiques, on SpaceNK (in the UK) and on the Aedes website.


Rosa Mundi candle by Diptyque
A limited edition candle focused on rose, Rosa Mundi comes in 190gr glass jar for 45 euros.
A surprising scent... soothing, romantic and sparkling. And a name that sounds like an ancient rose, a descendant of the famous Damask rose...and the love story that has become legendary through the centuries.

Rosa Mundi, a variety of rose, was named after Rosa­mund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II (England’s monarch from 1154 to 1189). Rosamund Clifford (1150-1176), also known as the "The Fair Rosamund" or "Rose of the World", was his ill-fated long-time mistress; Princess Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry's subsequent wife, jealous of her husband's relationship with Rosamund, is said to have had her murdered by poison (the legend says she offered her the choice of dagger or poison and Rosamund chose poison). Her family paid for a tomb at Godstow Nunnery near Oxford, instructing the nuns to place Rosa Mundi roses upon it on the anniversary of her death. This became a popular local shrine until 1191ntil St. Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln,  visited the place and saw Rosumund's tomb right in front of the high altar. Calling Rosamund a harlot, he ordered her remains to be removed from the church. Thus her tomb was taken to the cemetery at the nuns' chapter house close by, in the end destroyed during the 'Dissolution of the Monasteries' (1536 -1540).The rose variety remains to remind us of the fair Rosamund...

The new graphic design of the packaging and the label of the candle makes it a special presentation amidst the Diptyque range.

4 comments:

  1. Cheryl13:59

    Lovely...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you like the packaging? Some guys at BN forum were complaining it's a bit granny.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Definitely old fashioned packaging, but I sort of like it actually. Funny thing to me is that the actual rose Rosa Mundi, which I grow, is known to have little to no scent at all! I guess unless you are a gardener, you wouldn't know this, but I had a chuckle anyway!

    ReplyDelete
  4. SD,

    I have been reading up on roses lately, and was surprised to find out that some of the most impressive-looking variants do not possess a potent scent! Indeed the trailing fragrant varieties are not that many.

    I believe Diptyque are going for an effect and the romance of the name (rosa mundi = rose of the world >Rosamund), rather than the actual garden variety; though they're not 100% clear on that bit!

    ReplyDelete

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