First, my apologies for what I feel was a rather lame post on Bond No. 9 West Side. I find it bottle-worthy, but for some reason, I could not get the "perfume language" to flow. Really, it's not a very complicated fragrance, but so many beautiful things are simple in form. It is the first on my "to buy" list for 2007 (and we're only three weeks in, so who wants to bet it will change?), as long as I don't consider my second dilemma, which is:I have yet to try one single Frederic Malle perfume that I wouldn't buy if I had the budget to do so! Une Rose is not an exception here. This perfume, created by Edouard Flechier, the man who created Dior's Poison, is a beautifully abundant rose. With notes of Turkish rose absolute, geranium, and "wine dregs," (seriously, that's what the site says) Une Rose makes me feel as though I'm standing in the middle of a rose garden in full bloom. Usually I don't mention the perfumer (I leave that to the expert bloggers), but here I feel it's necessary because I think Une Rose is very much in the same spirit as another of his creations, Poison, a grand, full-bodied fragrance, not for the timid, and incredibly hypnotic.
Une Rose really does not do much in the way of development: this lush rose cleaves to the skin and stays, growing warmer--yet without really changing--as the day goes on. The geranium heightens the fresh floral perfume aspect of rose, so it's less clean than say, Sa Majesté La Rose, but much more natural--rose in its element--than Lipstick Rose or Drôle de Rose. And these "wine dregs," if you ever have a red wine that is heavy and a bit sweet, enough to leave a little sediment in the glass, take a whiff. Une Rose has this same feel, as if a rose could produce tannins, and they have a smell...it's intoxicating, as it should be.
So, when I make lists of things to buy in 2007, I'm not even going to mention Frederic Malle. Or maybe I'll just make this number one: "Frederic Malle--All of them!"
*photo from editionsdeparfums
