The perfumer’s fascination with roses never ends and these rose tinted latest launches are no exception. Maison Francis Kurkdjian puts men in roses with L’Homme à la Rose, and we like it. Chloe Rose Tangerine is just the seasonal zest we crave and Anine Bing Pure Noir by Rodrigo Flores-Roux evokes the scent of possibility. Yes, we’re going to say it – you’ll come up smelling of roses!
AESOP
RŌZU
You can wait a long time for a new Aesop fragrance – but in the case of Barnabé Filllion’s play on rose, definitely worth it. Designed to ‘articulate the full lifecycle of the rose’, inspired by the outdoorsy life and work of modernist designer Charlotte Perriand, this very shareable green woody-floral creation does indeed take you from a rose’s dew-drenched unfurling through to its almost dusty fading moments, enshrouded in a bonfire smokiness.
£130 for 50ml eau de parfum
libertylondon.com
ANINE BING
PURE NOIR
In a take on rose that feels laced with mystery yet still exudes a lightness, black Baccarat rose is entwined with papyrus atop the deeper mahogany sheen of spicy saffron and guaiac wood in the base. Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux has created a fragrance that’s unapologetically sensual but carries itself with subtlety. Designer Anine Bing was inspired by that moment when you book into a hotel somewhere new and feel the world is ‘…ripe with possibility.’
€169 for 75ml
eu.aninebing.com
CHLOE
ROSE TANGERINE
Close your eyes and imagine bending toward a rose bathed in sunshine, reaching out and bringing the bloom close, taking a deep breath… Ahhh, yes, that’s better – now we sense fruity, freshly unfurled petals (no heavy dustiness, here) and the tangy brightness of blackcurrant. Dry, woody cedar and white amber fluff a featherbed landing for your reverie, and while we snuggle, let’s gaze at the so-pretty blush of tangerine ribbon adorning the bottle.
£65 for 50ml eau de toilette
johnlewis.com
LANCÔME
LA VIE EST BELLE EN ROSE HAPPINESS DROPS
Couldn’t we use some bottled happiness right now? Lancôme are doing their best with a trio of darling, downsized, be-ribboned La Vie Est Belle flacons, filled either with the original fragrance, La Vie Est Belle Intensément or its rosiest variation, with its ramped-up rosepetal power, peony and iris. As they put it: ‘Sometimes a single smile, a single drop of perfume can illuminate your day’. (But we’ve always known that, haven’t we?)
£28 for 15ml eau de toilette
lancome.co.uk
MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN
HOMME À LA ROSE
A rose by any other name, perfumer Francis Kurkdjian has done it again: interpreting a classic note in streamlined, contemporary yet still romantic form. A whoosh of grapefruit accord bursts forth the birth of the Damask rose, like watching a sped-up scientific film of the bloom unfurling. Fuzzy sage and amber woods awaken the Centifolia now, a honeyed sigh of cistus drying to a base that evokes soft leather or the memory of a kiss.
£180 for 70ml eau de parfum
johnlewis.com
