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Monthly Archives from March 2006

The Buzz

The Buzz

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The Scented Salamander Blog

A Culture & Beauty Blog: from Olfaction to Imagination in Perfumes, Movies, Beauty Products, Food, Literature, & Fashion, Mostly.

"Perfumes' & movies' common point: you smell and watch them better in the dark"

Latest Fragrance Reviews

Dior Escale à Parati

 

Prada Infusion d'Iris EDP Absolue

Ferragamo Signorina

Thierry Mugler Miroir des Majestés

Jo Malone Plum Blossom

Madonna Truth or Dare

Roberto Cavalli Eau de Parfum

Carolina Herrera 212 Sexy

8 Best Perfumes to Herald Spring

Stella McCartney L.I.L.Y.

Guerlain Parfum Initial L'Eau: Going Back to the Purer Language of Perfumery

Guerlain Parfum Initial L'Eau: Un Langage Plus Pur pour la Parfumerie

Fragrance Essays

Perfumes & Candies are Kissing Cousins: Anis de Flavigny & Guerlain Anisia Bella

Jicky, The Ultimate Aphrodisiac for Both Sexes?

Jicky, L'aphrodisiaque ultime pour les deux sexes?

Best Rose Fragrances for Valentine's Day: The 2012 Edition

How I Think about Perfume when I Review Them: a Practical-Theoretical Outlook on the Perfume Shopping Culture

Bint el Sudan, The Other, African Chanel No.5 - Interview with Nick Evans of IFF

Smelling Tommy Girl Now: When the 1990s Smell Like The 1940s

White Accords in Perfumery: So Long The 70s

Liberace Wore Perfume, So What? Homosexuality as Given Away by an Indiscreet Fragrance Trail in the 50s

Reviews of New Perfumes

Diptyque Eau Rose

Isabel Derroisné Eclat Eternel

Sisley Eau d'Ikar

Mary Greenwell Plum

Parfum d'Empire Azemour Les Orangers

L'Artisan Parfumeur Batucada

Les Parfums de Rosine Glam Rose

Clinique Aromatics Elixir Perfumer's Reserve

Prada No.11 Cuir Styrax

6 New Celebrity Fragrances to Try Out this Fall

The Body Shop White Musk Libertine

Cartier L'Heure Convoitée (English Version)

Cartier L'Heure Convoitée (French Version)

Karl Lagerfeld Karleidoscope

Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Cuir Fétiche

Estée Lauder Wood Mystique

Thierry Mugler Angel with Bitter Cocoa Powder

Diane Von Furstenberg Diane

Bottega Veneta EDP

From the Archives

Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar: An Euro-American Curio

Reviews of Past Fragrance Launches

First Impressions on the Thierry Mugler Coffret Based on the Novel by Süskind.



Serge Lutens Sa Majesté La Rose (2000): If Ivan The Terrible Were A Rose {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 11}

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Sa Majesté La Rose (Her Majesty The Rose) by Serge Lutens is a soliflore composition centering on Moroccan rose absolute. The perfume showcases to a certain extent the brutality and rawness of rose absolute, making it only relatively tamer and more civilized, but without attempting to hide or tone down its rough-diamond aspect. It is an ode to the triumphant nature of the raw material and to an all-engulfing central presence.

Apart from rose amateurs, people who like metallic perfumes and a certain measure of natural aggressiveness in their scents may turn their attention to this prima donna of a rose perfume. Once she enters the room, it is as if she expected all glances to converge towards her....

The opening is magnificent, very fresh and liquorish-y at the same time, like a shower of well-formed rose petals fresh out of the florist's fridge falling from the sky and injected for the purpose of a movie shoot with a triple dose of rose absolute by a Hollywood make-up artist concerned that this rose might look a little too pale on the silver screen. A fruity touch contributes to fleshing out the rose, making it feel more real. One can distinctly smell the form of the rose aroma as it is concentrated within the small cups formed by the curved-in petals oozing with sap.

Next the perfume becomes less three-dimensional and more like a series of perfume accords first, with metallic, marine, and powdery nuances before becoming woodier. The intertwining of metallic accents and powdery ones creates the effect of a silvery cloud of rose-scented powder.  Some aldehydes and a lemon note bring an understated lift to the scent, which is otherwise on the surface of it powdery, suggesting soft white chalk. There is a soft raw flour undertone and a tad of beeswax polish making their subtle presences felt.

The rose, which is hardly toned down, is sharp and even a bit hard. It is not so much a subtle rose scent as a powerful one. As it mellows down, the rose reveals a rounder, more narcotic side of hers thanks to the Guaic wood note.

Her Majesty The Rose has some weaknesses and tender spots which make her more accessible, expressed by a discreet gourmand citron meringue note hidden behind the satiny folds of the rose, which contributes to making her appear a little less like the terrible potentate of the rose perfumes. The longer dry-down further reveals her tender sides; it is soft, creamy, floral, musky, and honeyed, offering also the perception of a more variegated bouquet of charming and gentle spring flowers holding her train and closing the march of the rose.

Notes: Moroccan rose absolute, gaiac wood, clove, white honey, musk

You can find it online at La Mûre Favorite (image credit), Aedes, Lusckyscent.....

Comments

Not sure what you mean by "rose amateurs." Can you elaborate?

In the sense of being a "rose lover" or "rose admirer".

Here is a good quote that explains this usage, from The American Heritage Dictionary,

"When Mrs. T.W. Atkinson remarked in her 1863 Recollections of the Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, “I am no amateur of these melons,” she used amateur in a sense unfamiliar to us. That sense, “a lover, an admirer,” is, however, clearly descended from the senses of the word's ultimate Latin source, amtor, “lover, devoted friend, devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of an objective,” and from its Latin-derived French source, amateur, with a similar range of meanings. First recorded in English in 1784 with the sense in which Mrs. Atkinson used it, amateur is found in 1786 with a meaning more familiar to us, “a person who engages in an art, for example, as a pastime rather than as a profession,” a sense that had already developed in French. Given the limitations of doing something as an amateur, it is not surprising that the word is soon after recorded in the disparaging sense we still use to refer to someone who lacks professional skill or ease in performance."

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