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}
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.....
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Comments
Not sure what you mean by "rose amateurs." Can you elaborate?
Posted by: Anonymous | January 31, 2008
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."
Posted by: Marie-Helene | January 31, 2008