Hello APJ, Welcome to our small scale collaboration project. Old Herbaceous (OH) of Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities and I will be doing a monthly post on different perfume notes. We are not perfumers but aficionados of fragrance. So lots of our information will come with links for further reading or text references. We are learning as you are learning, or refreshing.

Rose: Notes on Notes: Notes on Notes

YAY! I picked Rose for us today. Well, to be 100% honest I gave Old Herbaceous a couple of choices and she was happy with both so then I picked Rose. We are running so late, writing this post Sunday July 2nd! Yeah. So, under the pump.

Roses have been the holy grail of flowers for me since during my childhood Mum had blood red Mr Lincoln and sunny yellow Friesia roses in the front yard. Both fragrant. The amount of time and love lavished on those roses was serious and they repaid her with enormous blooms and heaps of them. Thus a life long love affair began.

In my early adult years we created a garden in the front lawn for roses and that was when Mum discovered the unbelievably fragrant deep pink/mauve Wise Portia from David Austin. HA! Obviously I was chuffed.

For a few years we had rose potpourri, bathroom deodoriser, cleaning products et al and Mum was wearing YSL Paris. It was a cacophony of rose.

What is Rose?  This seems like a dumb question because roses are ubiquitous. Even more than the 1980s. Suddenly over the last 10 years they’ve come out of the darkness and reseen the light.
Wikipedia gives what I think is the simplest and most comprehensive answer: A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Their flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds (to purple). Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and northwestern Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses.

How does Rose smell? Roses all smell different, even two flowers on the same bush can seem to have different personalities.
FlowerPowerDaily sums it up better than I can: Rose scents fall into seven distinct categories. They are: rose (or damask), nasturtium, orris …, violets, apple, clove and lemon (the fruit, not the blossoms). There are also twenty-six other less common aromas that can be discerned.  Among them are: honeysuckle, moss, hyacinth, honey, wine, marigold, peppers, parsley, and even fruity raspberry.

How is Rose used in perfumery? In my reading there is some variance in numbers but rose note is used in 75% of women marketed and 10% of men. I’d be surprised if many of the men’s fragrances didn’t have secret un-noted rose notes included well above the 10% line. 
This also from FlowerPowerDaily
Rose Otto essential oil is derived via hydro-distillation, a process in which the rose petals are soaked in water and then heated, which releases their oils. Volatile materials are then dispersed into the steam, condensed and thickened, and when they are cooled, the oils float on the surface and are ready to be collected and sold.
Rose Absolute is derived via solvent extraction, a method consisting of adding rose petals to a large receptacle containing solvent. The petals’ aromatic elements are extracted by rotating the container, which causes the solvent to evaporate, leaving behind a residue known as “rose concrete.” To this material ethanol alcohol is then added, which serves to filter out non-aromatic components. The resulting liquid is known as rose absolute essential oil.

In which perfumes will you find Rose?

DIOR Oud Ispahan

Yes, I know it doesn’t look like I’ve worn this much but I bought a 20ml decant before getting to purchase my bottle and am still not finished it. There have been times where I’ve grabbed the bottle though. The Rose/Oud/Patchouli/Saffron combo has been such a driving force in French perfume for over a decade. My earliest memory of smelling it is in the attars from the Middle East that you can buy in India. Back in 2000 there was quite a market for them and they were unbelievably affordable. Still kicking myself that I didn’t buy some of that weird, assy stink. I can’t remember if I first recognised it in Montale or Juliette Has A Gun but by that time it had been Frenchified and maybe I was more ready to grapple with the beast. By the time DIOR created their version it had become perfectly wearable and hardly combative at all. Like a watercolour presentation and I fell madly in love. The roses here are dark and jammy and backed by a very Middle Eastern inspired chorus.

Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur

If ever there was a rose that I could call my own then Mohur is it. A perfect middle ground between classic French perfumery and Indian. A spicy, peppered , jammy rose that ends up leathery and sweet vanilla rich amber woods. The star rose never leaves the composition even into deepest dry down. I remember being blow away the very first time I smelt it on my skin and every wear it ignites the same awed, swoony, eye rolling response. A big, luscious, overblown dream of all the roses that ever were and will be. All floating or standing above the smells of an Indian marketplace. I’m wearing Mohur today. Wafting great gouts of the most splendid roses and their extraordinary underpinnings.

Please go check out Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities and see what OH has to add to the Notes on Notes about Rose.

What are your favourite fragrances with Rose listed as a note?
Portia xx