Rose Rebelle

Here's the scene. You walk into a city upscale chocolatier and buy one of their best dark chocolate truffles; the kind covered in dark cocoa. You then walk into a rose garden to sit down, enjoy your truffle. You're surrounded by roses of every kind, but you're nearest to the David Austin's and the heirloom section, the most fragrant of all. You take the truffle out of that precious little bag, get ready to take a bite. As that truffle is right outside your mouth you slowly inhale the delicious scent of the powerful chocolate with a hint of the roses around you. The chocolate prevails deliciously while the roses provide an enticing background. You savor the moment. Throughout the day you take a whiff, close your eyes; you're transported back to that magical moment. On me this is more of a gourmand than floral. It's not a shout, but a strong whisper. It's deliciously different.

Strange but I'm getting more than just chocolate and rose from this. There's a dark bittersweet chocolate for sure, nothing like CSP or Montale's sugar coated chocolate offerings. I get a tinge of vanilla and spices as well. This is the first scent that I would honestly say smells different on my skin and on my clothes. Accordng to the IFF website perfume is meant to be applied to the skin and not on clothes. I've always scoffed at the notion that different fibres bring out the perfume in different ways but I would have to agree that in this case, RR smells much better on skin than on clothes. On clothes, well cotton at least, the rose comes across as way too synthetic, like the Cadbury Turkish delight filling. On my skin, the synthetic-ness isn't apparent at all and I just smell sweet rosewater and cacao with the sprinkling of vanilla and spices. It's a "different" perfume to say the least. I like it but I don't love it. However I am relieved that it's not boring and I'm quite happy that I got a full bottle of this. I would definitely wear it again and again but not on days that I don't want a complicated scent. Sillage is at least a foot away from me with a couple of sprays and longevity is decent, half a day so far and just as potent as when first applied. Looking forward to seeing how Respawn shapes up.

I would classify this more so as a gourmand floral. It starts of with quite a boozy dark chocolate note followed by a lovely pink sweet Rose, the notes are very natural and real! it reminded me a lot of chocolate coated raspberry confection we have here in Oz, or like those chocolate coated turkish delight bars! Sweet but not cloying, i think its a lovely fun fragrance, would suit those who prefer unusual gourmand & chocolate notes, its certainly not for everyone. It stays pretty much linear throughout without much change, there is really only 2 notes in this after all!

I got this in a blind swap and I have to say it doesn't work for me. It is a little more rebelled than I can take it, just a crazy crazy mix of chocolate liqueur and somewhat candied roses. My first try with this house, wondering if everything else from them is as avant garde as this one... In any case a very unusual scent for a non conformist person, and I am not that one. The bottle does have a cap, equally crazy looking like a rubber finger, btw. Up for swap.

For some reason not known to me, this is the exact same fragrance as S-Perfume's 100% Love. Weird. Anyhoo. This is really filthy on me, like chocolatey sweaty leather. And, I say this is the most decadently delicious way. It's very overtly sexual, to me personally. It's like I painted myself with dark boozy chocolate in anticipation of something dangerously sexy to happen. In any case, Serge Lutens' newest darling, Fille de Berlin is similar, but, as is the case with SL frags, it's more refined and patrician than the dirty, sexy wench of Rose Rebelle. And that's how it's meant to be.