Fleurs de Rocaille

As a naive 15 year old, I was initiated into the appreciation of perfume by the mother of my best friend, a sophisticated and urbane woman. In a remarkable perfume shop in Bermuda, she explained perfume ingredients, top notes, heart and base notes. She taught both my friend and I how to apply, wait and sniff. After several hours, we were served tea (British high tea at that), re-sniffed, and were asked to make our final selection. Any bottle we wanted. I knew immediately, had known from the moment I first smelled that aldehydic floral blast, that Fleurs de Rocaille was the one for me. My friend's mother was equal parts surprised and delighted by my choice, which she pronounced perfect, perhaps a little mature, but a wonderful choice. And so it became my signature scent, with a new bottle arriving each Christmas from my friend. We lost touch over time, but my devotion to FdR remained. Over the years I have had the parfum, the extrait, the bath oil, the cologne, the EDT in purple and white label bottles, and the old EDT (my favorite version of the EDTs), a rectangular bottle with a silver label). They are all different to one degree or another, but all are essentially lightyears ahead of most florals, especially at this price. The parfum has the most mesmerizing rose, the old EDT has the best jasmine ever, and the carnation is beautiful in all, but esp. in the bath oil and extrait. The aldehydes pack a punch, so stand back after spraying, and wait. Soon a narcotic blend of violets, jasmine and rose begins to emerge in subtle waves, with a green sparkle and shine. Now, remember this floral accord, because it will be back. I know these are listed as top notes, but Caron fragrances seem to have this strange time release capsule effect, with persistent notes reemerging long after it seems possible. The carnation and ylang ylang burst upon stage with a sweet green LOTV that brings a clean soapy effect. With the persistent rose, jasmine and violet, this becomes a gorgeous, rounded, creamy floral accord, big, sexy, and spicy with clove. Just at the moment when you think it can't get any better, it does. What a dry down, the sandalwood, musk and oakmoss joining to create a warm, woody earthy tone in perfect balance with the florals. Scintillatingly vibrant on opening, this progresses over time to become warm, simmering, and deep. The name is perfectly chosen: from high on a rocky bluff, windy, under a bright blue sky, the burst of fresh air, and then the distinct notes of each flower, slowly building to a floral crescendo. Not for everyone, perhaps, but definitely for me.

My introduction to this wonderful scent was modern EDT reformulation. The reformulations are often disappointing to me but this one... I instantly fell in love with it. Later on I tracked down the vintage pure parfum, which is slightly different but also incredibly beautiful. What can I say? This perfume is an epitome of floral elegance. The floral bouquet is not shy here but it is utterly beautiful, evocative and expressive. The stunning and slightly dark combination of ylang-ylang, carnation, rose and jasmine is sensual and silky smooth, seductive and romantic at the same time. It feels like a gentle floral silk wrap. I could not believe how smooth and sophisticated this floral is. It manages to interact with a skin in such a natural and organic way that it seems to radiate from the skin and become part of me. FLEURS DE ROCAILLE composition is complex and exciting with long development arc. In the opening, the pure parfum is stronger and heavier than the modern EDT. The carnations are heavenly beautiful here, and in pure parfum the floral notes are layered on lovely, almost buttery wood notes. There is richness of ylang-ylang and carnation that I find that modern EDT does not have. However, the modern EDT in the opening has this lovely lighter feel, which I love, while still maintaining similar composition as pure parfum. As the scent develops, something magical happens. The scent becomes one of the most gorgeous, gentle floral scents I have ever tried. It is like a light floral mist radiating from the skin. It does not feel like a perfume but like a glowing warm floral skin scent with very gentle violets, rose, iris and white musk. The lasting power is better in pure parfum but I equally love both versions. I wore FLEURS DE ROCAILLE first time on a nice, slightly cool, calm and clear night in early May and the scent perfectly fit the surroundings. It was utterly romantic and very feminine. This scent is definitely worth trying. It is one of my favorite classic scents. Overall score is 9/10.

I never would have ever had the chance to try out a vintage of this. Thank you ClairaNoir! This is pretty special to me. You've chosen a person that can truly appreciate this and lives in a dream world whilst wearing it. This has just a itty bitty bit of Windsong in it...don't ya think? It's a grand perfume for any weather. I can't imagine a bad time of year for it. It takes me back to something. I don't know if it's a time, a person, or memory of the scent itself. It's a familiar scent. I snook a tiny spray of this for bedtime, but I will really "wear" it when I am all gussied up! We have many elderly and retired age people in our church. I think this will be a welcomed scent to these mature noses. But I suspect I will smell just as pleasing to many ages. I'd be happy near someone wearing this in the movie theater also. It isn't suffocating. It's gentle and very pleasing. Perfumes like this are made for scarves and sweaters. I very much would fake a bit of a chill to wear a sweater that has this scent on it. It would make me feel calm, safe, and as cheerful as momma tucking me in bed. It IS a good momma scent also. If you have a bottle at the back of your stash, give it to a loving home. This perfumes needs to be loved...it has a fragile heart. She's such a pretty girl. I'll probably need more of this! Sweet dreams to me!

Wow, talking about letting an aldehydic genie out of her bottle! The top notes are impressive; they stop me in my tracks and make me grin at their beauty. I love the first blast of Fleurs de Rocaille, it's intense, bubbly, and I experience it as having a light yellow color with a slightly greenish tint, like a nice Savignon Blanc would and an airy quality to its texture. I love all individual notes listed for the top notes -- and I'm not sure I see a connection, except for the aldehydes of course which are quite unmistakeably there. This first blast makes me think about champagne and lemonade at the same time. I am a warm blooded animal and the initial coolness and crispness gets much warmer on my skin. I know it's a cliche, but it does make me feel as if I fell asleep in the warm sunny spot on a bed of garden flower petals (rose, yes; thorns, no). Francoise Sagan once wrote that a woman discovers how her own skin smells with her first lover, becoming first surprised then grateful. This perfume reminds me of how warm my skin is (everyone want to hold my hand coming back from a cold windy beach!). I am surprised and grateful. What a journey from cool and crisp to warm and sensual!

I'm in love! And I finally know what Al Pacino was talking about in SCENT OF A WOMAN! For years, I ignorantly believed that my bottle of FLEUR DE ROCAILLE was the perfume alluded to in the film. (A case, yes, where knowing French actually hurt rather than helped since the two are pronounced identically!) I only recently learned the truth, that Caron put out the singular, highly floral FLEUR DE ROCAILLE after the film. Was it some sort of bizarre marketing scheme? I don't know. All I know is that FLEURS DE ROCAILLE is a beautiful floral aldehyde, and maybe the names of the two quite different formulas should be switched, so that the floral is plural, and the floral aldehyde is singular. (Just an idea...) FLEURS DE ROCAILLE opens with much more of a floral burst than CALECHE, while being less dark and mysterious than ARPEGE. At the same time, FLEURS DE ROCAILLE is less floral than JOY, and the aldehydes shine through later on, becoming the centerpiece, and making this a complex, wonderful perfume that I'll wear again and again.