Juan Manuel

After trying several of Fueguia 1833’s offerings at Bergdorf Goodman in NYC, this one really stuck with me. I first read “rose” in some reviews here and then noticed the fragrantica limited notes offering, and now that I know rose is a major component, I guess I can “see” it, but it didn’t come to mind prior to this. Whatever the case, this rose is definitely a jammy one. But my mental image of this for a couple of years of living with it before reading any reviews was of dark, spiced stewed cranberry with other rich, spiced stewed berries/fruits; herbal, deep, earthy immortelle; and a hint of an amber accord. I still think the rose is thickly cloaked in these other elements, whatever they might be in reality. It’s a very special, compelling fragrance with depth. It feels to me like it would reside under the same umbrella as Mendittorosa Le Mat.

It was a sunny, late spring afternoon when I walked into this little niche perfume shop in the narrow alley. It was my last month in Budapest, and I was 20 years old. I saw this perfume on the shelf, along with some other perfumes from the same brand, named after my favorite author. It was way more expensive than all the other perfumes I bought at stores like sephora, but I paid for it without a doubt. I could really use a good souvenir, I thought. This perfume was a love at the first sight (sniff), just like Budapest. Now, every time I open this bottle, I can't help thinking about Budapest, the winds by the Danube, as well as the spring of my 20th year. This bottle is also my absolute favorite of all perfumes. I would put my other perfumes in the checked suitcase when I travel, but always carry this bottle with me in my purse/backpack/etc.

I've been wanting to get this perfume since checking it out at the Fueguia 1883 Soho store. Orig $240 + tax for 1.7oz = it is not cheap. Ended up snagging it when it went on sale online via Neiman Marcus approx 25% off + 10% Rakuten discount money back. The notes are point with this. To me it smells like very rosy, very woodsy pepper spicy. Maybe a woodsy, stone fruity rose. Quite strong at first on skin, lasting that way for over an hour. Past 4 hour mark, it's about the same but there's a powdery and sweet candy undertone. Mild rose dry down at hour 13. It lasted awhile. If you love roses, and a hint of woody spice, you're in for a treat!

I love this fragrance. It is one of the best rose fragrances in my opinion. I do have an older batch (don’t remember which number exactly) and the performance is pretty good given that most perfumes do not project well off of my skin. Juan Manuel is signature worthy in my book. It is natural, jammy, classy, and refined rose. I find it very feminine and appropriate for all seasons. FYI: I am a big fan of Amouage Epic as well and they smell nothing alike, at least the batch that I have. I do know that differnt batch is can vary quiet significantly, so perhaps another batch can be more similar, but I just can’t see even that being the case.

The first impression may be to have sprayed a given rose water. In fact, Juan Manuel is far from being trivial and given. And 'no doubt it is a tribute to pink, but is expressed in different facets which make the fragrance very original. And it is the maximal expression of freshness and romance of the rose. When the scent finds its balance on the skin, it makes you think of summer, and in particular to the skin warmed by the sun: this gives an identity to Juan Samule very cheerful, sweet and bright. If you want to have a rose fragrance, you have to buy it.

I don’t really get rose. For me this is boozy (rum/cognac) with lots of tropical fruit and warm buttery vanilla toffee. Beautiful and not feminine either.

I have a sample of this... Love at first, second, and third and so on sniff. Will have to buy a bottle, I think.

For reference: I received this as a gift from my boyfriend whose only fragrance memory/reference is a rose scented room spray his middle school girlfriend would douse herself in in lieu of real perfume, and his teenage nose found it utterly intoxicating. Even now on the rare occasion he notices scents on strangers it always turn out to be a bash-you-over-the-head rose. I mention that to say that Juan Manuel must have some heavy handed rose going on for him to have chosen this over the 80 other Fueguia scents. However, I smell zero rose in this perfume, or any florals at all for that matter! To me it opens in with a very tart, tropical, exotic, technicolor mix of southeast asian fruits. But the whole fruit, skin, pith and all. Not the sugar rush of biting into a pineapple slice. The opening is very nice. Fragrant and sour but not citrus, sweet but just enough tartness and bitterness to be interesting and exotic, and extremely colourful: bright green, bright fuchsia, bright yellow/orange. What follows 30 minutes later is a gloriously warm, salty and buttery period, like shimmery skin on warm sand. There’s no coconut here to skew suntan lotion, and nothing aquatic so it's not beachy either—it's more like skin warming in the sun after an expensive spa treatment, and you're sweating through the delicious, clean and creamy/buttery oils. Under the salty buttery vibes the scent is still overwhelmingly tropical and tart, and then it becomes more and more green and dry over time, like kafir lime leaves and lemongrass. The just as you’re about to really relax into this tropical paradise, about one or two hours in, it quickly morphs into to a sharp, almost sour/acidic vetiver (or perhaps it's the pink pepper I smell?) which continues to be very strong even after even 12 hours. Reminds me of leaving beach after staying way too long as a kid: passing through tall dry dune grasses whose edges are so sharp that it will literally cut you, sunburned skin, sea salt burning my eyes, salt water burning my nostrils, and picking sand spurs and stinging nettles out of my bare legs. Sadly, depending on the faint odors of my surroundings, the dry down can very easily lean into a damp hay or pickle note. Yet, when layered with something a little sweeter or prettier (honeyed tea steeping nearby, or a sweet/creamy soap) the fragrant fruits and fresh tart greens reemerge. I like it enough to wear it often, but I think the trick will have to be layering this with something a few hours in with a melon or milky/creamy note to mellow out the sharp and prolonged ending. I should say that at various moments from the opening all the way to the dry down and even some 12 hours later, the boyfriend just continues to smell one perfectly linear big, pretty, floral (rose I assume) scent. Definitely test this out before buying! *UPDATE* I swapped my fresh bottle for an older batch from Fueguia which is a totally different animal! A tamer, nicer animal. The tropical technicolor fruit of the fresh batch is more of a singular deep rich blackberry in the old batch. The glorious buttery moment of the fresh batch is sadly missing in the old batch. However, the punishing grass notes in the newer batch are a dry, clean cedar in the old batch. And at the very base of the old batch I can actually get a hint of sweet rose on my skin!

A simple natural woody rose scent. It opens with a lovely Damask rose note moving to a middle of pink pepper and cedar and drying out into mostly plant based musk. The unisex scent has moderate sillage and projection and good longevity. Nothing exceptional but so naturally warm and comforting. Enjoy!

I've tried a sample.I think it remember me Quartz Rose by Durbano but a with a little less incense.The rose smell fresh and heavy but the longevity is short.

Meh smelt this smell before... Spicy rosy coca cola. 5/10

It's an amazingly organic, deeply herbal, almost sour treatment of real red roses. It's not quite right for me - almost a bit too butch (which is weird?), the rose almost TOO richly present, and with overtones of a punchy patchouli which reminded me strongly of Portrait of a Lady, even though this is a very different beast. However, not at all too sweet or cloyingly 'fragrant' - unlike a cheaper sort of blowsy rose scent, it seduces rather than chokes you. And as with all Fueguia scents, smells real and natural and almost alive, redolent of the outside world and of actual plants, not just generic aromachemicals. True rose lovers who wish they could find a rose scent with real integrity, smelling more of the garden than the catwalk or the department store, would absolutely love it.

I feel like I'm smelling a different perfume than what the notes indicate or what others are talking about. If there is any rose in this, it is an extremely green rose. Similar to the review below, I get mostly a very tart (bordering on sour) fruity opening that dries down into a very pungent woody scent. It sounds like batches vary profoundly with this house and this fragrance in particular. Not a safe blind buy and now I don't even know if the actual bottle I would buy would be the same as the tester in the shop.

Spices, roses, and woody scents commonly found in so-called “niche perfumes.” Although not described in the notes, there is a sweet yet strangely rum-like nuance reminiscent of guaiac wood.