Forest Rose

I've been waiting for at least a year for Fragrantica to post this fragrance so I could review it. At last, now I can. Forest Rose is a fabulous fragrance. Deep pine forest and dark incense-y rose in nearly equal measure. I don't know why other perfume houses haven't noticed that pine and rose go well together, and just because Alkemia trades on art and allegedly mystical experiences doesn't mean they don't produce some fabulous scents. Forest Rose here should be a sort of "gateway drug" to introduce people to Alkemia's other fragrances too. Specifically, Alkemia Forest Rose is a strong deep pine forest scent interwoven with a strong rose scent, maybe a wild rose, or an old rose like a damask or centifolia or gallica, the kind that only blooms 3 weeks a year but has a dark intensity like none other. Forest Rose lasts at least 7 hours on my skin. (I don't know what happened to reviewer KM1266's bottle, but the juice in my bottle and the little sample before it projects decently and lasts 7+ hours on my skin.)

I was very hyped for this scent, but in the end i find it a bit underwhelming because of the drydown. The start is great, it's very forest-forward, and all the roses are mostly covered by the pines and junipers, but once it evolves it turns kinda flat, leaving the dry roses and a rather dusty amber, almost musky. From something modern and unisex it turns into a granny scent on me.

I adore rose and pine, so on paper this fragrance is something I should absolutely adore. Within minutes, though, it pulled extremely baby powder on me. I even talked about it with a friend and she agreed that it smelled overwhelmingly of baby powder, with a tiny bit of pine and no rose. If I smell it up close, I can get the pine, but in terms of sillage or even just me smelling it around myself, it's 100% talc. And, fortunately or unfortunately, it has a moderate sillage so my friend could easily smell it sitting near me. I don't know if it's because my sample got man-handled in the mail (it's been settling for about 48 hours, though) or if it's just something about my skin chemistry, but this is not for me. It's a pity because I was really looking forward to smelling like roses in a forest! 2/10.

This one is husband bait. He will follow a pine/cedar/evergreen fragrance right over a cliff. The floral touch to the Yule tree means I adore it. The rose isn't a florists rose. It's a deep dark smack you in the face rose. It's sexy, and yet clean. Perfect for holiday parties.