Dark Rose Cologne

There exists (in India and Pakistan) a heavenly attar called "Majmua", from the Urdu word for "a collection". It is comprised of a floral (honeyed hyacinths, etc...) attar, a baked mud *from the River Ganges* attar, vetiver attar and another "umbrella tree" flower-based one. THAT is my favorite scent, perfume, fragrance (what have you) in the whole entire world!! THIS is the closest ANY perfume (mass market, vintage or niche) has ever come to that heavenly scent...hands down. This opens with a fierce woodiness and wonderful "incense" accord. Truly dark, almost black, roses combined with the scent of spicy warm saffron, all golden and pollen-rich, exuding a dark floral accord that makes me just sigh with pleasure at the very first whiff! One of my dearest fragrance friends (who I speak to just about every single day) said once that the "rose, saffron and oudh accord" had been "done to death"! That being said (and also quite true), Czech & Speake breathed new life into that composition and gave it just the right amount of smoky resinous "oomph" to really stand out as something not only dark, oriental and intensely exotic; but something amazingly woody and floral at the same time! As it continues, the thick rich and utterly unique scent of agarwood (oud, jinko, kyara, etc...) is braided not only with a thick heavy "oily" patchouli, but also a very dry sweet sandalwood resulting in something not unlike an olfactive orgasm for me! As it dries completely, a sweet dry golden amber and a rather animalic musk dominate, but the heavenly aromas of the other notes remain, blended in something very close to (dare I say it?) the "perfect perfume" for me. Majmua attar is darker, MUCH heavier and extremely "earthy" and slightly more musky with obvious thick and natural components. Dark Rose is like majmua (in its basic composition), but here it has been made not quite so dank, and instead of a fruity hyacinth and a thick waxy honey note; rose steals the show. This is more woody, where majmua is more grassy; otherwise though they are kindred soul-scents. This is NOT your typical "rose scent" (not by a longshot!). I expected something "dirty" (like GV's Rose Noire) after seeing the name and reading the PR on the sample card, and this was NOTHING like that. This is a dark scent that shows you beautiful things are not only sweet and bright and sunny; they can be shadowy, somber and mysterious creatures of the Night, that are nonetheless beautiful! Smoky and incense rich, exotic and heavily woody; all the while remaining darkly floral; Dark Rose checks all (and I mean ALL) the boxes on my checklist of what makes a TRULY great and awesome perfume. It makes me feel I am in a crowded bazaar in Karachi or Calcutta, where incense powders, spices, dried flowers, expensive woods and fancy bottles of magical perfumes and annointing oils are sold. My heart is racing, my face is flushed and something somewhere deep in my heart, on a SOUL level, this is whispering: "You remember!". What it is I remember...I do not know; but I am more than happy to continue sniffing and hopefully (one day) actually consciously recollect. Sillage: great Longevity: very good Overall: 5/5 One of my favorite movies of all time is "Nightbreed" by Clive Barker. It is about "monsters" and how they were persecuted through history, for being different or having "special" (often scary) magical abilities. Rachel, one of the main characters, who could turn herself into smoke and pass through any door or obstacle would, no doubt, smell like this. She could KILL with a kiss, and was strong enough to rip a man's heart out of his chest (though she did not look it), and she was soft-spoken AND extremely beautiful. If she wore perfume: this would be it; and even if she didn't-THIS is how I os-magine she would smell naturally! Dark, smoky, sexy and arcane...full of magic and having centuries of knowledge within her memories.

Czech & Speake specialises in luxury fragrances and luxury bathroom fittings. Their fragrances aren't easily available in India though. Luckily I got some samples, and Dark Rose was the first one I tried. This is a perfect evening, party wear scent that opens with a voluptuous Taif as well as Damask rose accentuated by high quality saffron and a bit of musk and citrus. The Cambodian oud provides a thin, perfect woodsy base that binds everything together. C&S's obsession with quality ingredients can be seen in Dark Rose. This is a jammy, spicy Rose. This fragrance has many interesting phases. Rose the main star of the show shines brightly with saffron for the first two hours and recedes a bit (but still remains noticeable) to let saffron, oud, musk form nice, beautiful bakhoor like wafts that one encounters in Arabian souks. It remains noticeable for about 6 or 7 hours after which it slowly turns into musky, citrus skin scent. This definitely is a luxurious evening scent and people accustomed to good things in life will nod their heads with appreciation when they meet someone wearing this scent. This is unisex and turns heads. Try it. .

So this opens as expected a deep rose smell which runs the full spectrum of plummy jammy, then slightly darker and floral to musky then powdered in the matter of a few minutes as it settles down. That opening is not the most pleasant and does seem a little off to me. The rose is spiced pretty heavily too with saffron and resin but really starts to come into it's own as the drydown progresses with the patchouli coming into play. I have to say the progression of this fragrance is excellent, like many Montale's I simply don't like the rosy synthetic first hour or two then some sublime woody notes of oud/sandalwood and in this case patchouli come out to play and make this fragrance appeal to me. I loved the drydown of this and liked the progressive differences I got from it and the longevity was superb. Rose lovers, check it out you might just fall for it.

Dark rose isn't as dark as you would think. It opens with pink roses, lots of them and lily. The roses become slightly jammy but tart jam. This fragrance to me smells like roses damask roses from my grandma rose bush and lilies. The sandalwood, oud, patchouli and saffron are done to perfection here. They enhance the bouquet of roses and lilies instead of dominate them. I find this leans feminine as there is a sweetness that comes through. Dark rose is sultry and languid. It is the scent of living roses and lily carried through the humid night air. Deep, hypnotic, complex and completely bewitching. This is one of the best rose perfumes I have smelled in a very long while. I would wear this one a lot. Going on my want shelf. Stunning a rich beauty that cannot be denied.

Gorgeous, spicy oriental rose and aoud based. If I were given this as in a blind test I would say this is a Montale! The aoud is prominent in this frag, it is important and so it is definitely NOT a fresh, powdery, delicate rose. This Dark Rose screams for attention, it is sultry, sensual, deep and sexy and evoking burgundy drapes and velvet... definitely a fall-winter frag...the drydown is the best part of the frag (amber sandalwood ad patch), where also the rose reveals itself (not so much in the opening, where you have the aoud with its almost medicinal trail that I like so much!) Excellent sillage and staying power. Not something you'd want to wear in an office, but will smell gorgeous in the evening. A must try for any oriental frag lover!

This is an Arabian, indian, middle eastern knockout. It feels like my skin sets on fire even when i just lightly dab it on my arms pulsepoints. This is one of the only perfumes I've tested where I can easily point out each & every note. The fragrance feels "natural & powerfull", nothing feels artificial about it. AND as a huge lover of SAFFRON - this is the *only* fragrance I've felt a distinct true saffron note. But not like an "ordinary" saffron, but something really extra-expensive, & tremendously luxurious, made for a sultan ages ago. The best description of this perfume is like REALLY stepping into the saga of Thousand and one nights. It transfers you to an arabic desert, an hot fever-crazed dream, taking place thousands of years ago.

Czech and Speake’s Dark Rose is really good and the name is perfect for it, this evokes a dark, deep, crimson rose. It’s reminiscent of DSquared Potion Royal Black but with amped up rose and musks & less smoky incense leaning but they are completely in the same ballpark. Really satisfying to wear, not quite as powerful or evolving as the D2’d but this perfume still delivers a big impactful opening giving its share of ‘darkness’ then a hard to dislike rose accord and a comforting musky skin scent of a drydown. Despite all the comparisons here this is worthy of owning in its own right.

DARK ROSE is a beauty: cold, restrained, fresh and sweet roses with a very wearable oud note and a touch of saffron. There's not so much saffron if you compare it to Midnight Oud, for example, and the overall impression isn't spicy to my nose. I don't detect much patchouli either. It's a simple, but exquisite composition. I have the cologne concentration, it isn't dense, but still, there's no "diluted" feel to it. Very well done, I think it makes a great spring and summer fragrance. Longevity medium to strong.

One of the most beautiful rose "perfumes" that I own, and there are A LOT OF THEM:) And hey: Has nobody mentioned it here :THIS is a COLOGNE!! It has GREAT staying power for such a concentration, and the others here have described it so well, there s nothing to add.. Spicy grown up gorgeous Indian DArk Rose but by no means a heavyweight...

Intense saffron? Oh yes. It's so rich and obvious, really intoxicating! On my skin the rose basically hides behind the saffron which amazed me. I often find saffron "foody" in a way, makes me think of heavvy pots of thick, pasty.. well.. food. This doesn't, it's golden! Luxuous and beautiful, deep and very easy to love!

This is an excellent everyday rose. It's elegant without overwhelming or being g a solely evening scent. The rose attar is very clearly rose de taif, the quality shines through. The only downside of the perfume is it doesn't last the whole day so you need to refresh by evening.

That sounds so good on me, and I think it similar to Midinight Oud Juliette, but I think it darker notes of saffron with rose and oud very dark, it fascinates me. So I would rate it: Smell: 9/10 Projection: 8/10 Longevity: 9/10

This smells absolutely fantastic, I have not sampled many feminine frags but this one is gorgeous. I’d definitely buy it for a significant other. Sold as an EdP now, Incorrect top note listed. Should be: May Chang flower

Another masterpiece from this house. An exceptionally well crafted homage to Rose, revealing all the most alluring and mysterious facets of this majestic flower.

The perfect dark and feminime rose, so wearable!

These guys below compared it to Montales, which got my curiosity up. Having applied it for the first time it did actually reminded me of Montales. Now I was thinking - i liked so far Black Oud from the Montale oud roses versions (although i did not test all of them). I even had a little sample of Black Oud. Now I was thinking - never a better chance to find out which oud rose i wanted to add to my collection. Dark Rose or Black Aoud? so now i have both Montale's Black Oud and Dark Rose on my skin - I can do my little backstage comparison study. By description we are talking about two very similar fragrances - as well as going by the intensity of the notes. Main players for both will be aoud, roses, patchouli and musk. So Dark Rose - all true the previous reviewers - this a powdery/saffrony/aoudy take on rose. To me it is almost transparent, not heavyweight. It is a nice fragrance and yes there is going to be a but. Most probably i would be a big fan had I not smelled Black Oud before. I mean Dark Rose is quite rich and dark but next to Black Oud it would compare as David Copperfield to Gandalf. All in all is a nice fragrance - but to me price value ratio is also important. So I shall go with the Black Aoud. More pleasure for less money :) If you do not like the tarry smokeyness of Black Aoud - Dark Rose could be a good point to start. P.S: the drydown is surprising - it smells like HONEY :)

I am seriously impressed. In 2003, nearly ten years ago, Czech & Speake put out apparently the first rose, oud, and saffron perfume, and it was a good one--I'm assuming that this 2009 reissue is essentially the same composition. I am also beginning to realize that rose, oud, and saffron perfumes have a lot in common with one another, and I would be hard pressed to identify the house from which they came. DARK ROSE is especially nice because the oud is actually detectable. I've been noticing of late that many so-called oud perfumes contain imperceptibly small amounts of oud. It's possible, of course, that I am hyposmic to oud, but since lots of other people have made the same complaint, I think that it's safe to say that perfumers should probably up the ante on this precious note or else just get out of the oud game, because we've really had enough oudless "oud" launches by now. Have we not? This is a gorgeous presentation of saffron as well. I am baffled as to how this can be a cologne, when so many niche edps have much worse longevity than this. Hats off to Czech & Speake for creating a beautiful perfume and humbly characterizing it as a mere cologne! (Not to name any names, but often in niche perfumery what happens is exactly the reverse...) This creation is completely and utterly full-bottle worthy and is going straight onto my wish list. Bravo!

I've tried many fragrance with the Rose & Oud or Rose & Patchouli combinations before. The former tends to turn sweet on me while the latter seems to generate this strange saffron-like scent on my skin (I like saffron, but I prefer it as food). This one, however, definitely exceeded my expectation. At first spray I got a rich rose, there's a tinge of sweetness that goes away pretty quickly after the first five minutes, and after that the oud comes through and seems to complement the rose quite well. My body chemistry is a bit unusual in that most fragrance never smell the way they're intended to on me, but in this particular case, the scent works in my favor and comes through as a true, deep rose with a light leather scent. It's rich without being heavy, refreshing without being light. With that being said, the scent does stay close to the skin so for those who are looking for sillage (like yours truly), this may not be the most ideal. Nonetheless, I'm keeping this in view as its performance and scent are definitely good enough for me to break the no-cologne (due to poor longevity) rule.

I have very little to add to all those fitting descriptions... This scent is warm, smoky, oriental and somehow Middle Eastern. The rose is dark indeed, mature and "sad" somehow at the beginning (perhaps as if already wilted a bit) and a bit overshadowed by the Agarwood, which - despite being a bit medicinal, of course - is actually quite tame and pleasant and doesn't seem to linger for too long on my skin. For me the start somehow personifies an old fashioned rose scent, something I used to despise before getting more interested in fragrances... Very soon the rose becomes more prominent and as if it lifted it's tired head (maybe after a dose of fresh water), it is also more optimistic and jovial. :-) I've put it on in the morning and thought that it's really quite generic rose, slightly gloomy even. And then I went out and the surprisingly strong, warm morning sun combined with the very cool breeze somehow carried around me those beautiful, light, but luxurious puffs of this dark, but now cheerful oriental rose. I am enjoying this one, although it is in my opinion a bit overpriced.

Before Montale, before all the aouds came out, I remember smelling Dark Rose in a niche shop and felt absolutely charmed in spite of its weirdness. WoW! this was really shocking back then and in a positive way! It was a deep, bright red rose soaked in aoud which I identified as "dentist smell" back then and I hate the dentist cabinet! Very long lasting, too. I'm talking about the first release. With more awareness the strong medicinal smell of Aoud became more of a woody note to my nose. I much prefer the Montale now, but Dark Rose was my first experience with aoud-rose combo and a glorious one!