Red Roses

The quest for a Stella replacement continues....well, actually thats not strictly true, its now ended because of this! Jo Malone's Red Roses is as it says on the label, a big, red F***-off rose in a bottle and I echo what others have said about the longevity being amazing on this, it really is a room rocker when applied with a heavy hand, so please bear that in mind, but when spritzed with a light hand you get a fresh, crisp, easy going rose that you can totally wear casually, to a formal event or to the office. On first spray I get a very strong Turkish Delight whiff which quickly fades to a more clean, airy rose which is to my nose and on my skin, similar to how Stella opens and dries down, what I love with this is, despite it having beeswax in it, it doesnt smell cloying or thick/sweet, it just adds a more powdery/polleny nuance to the rose, lemon and mint mingle in the background and prevent the rose and beeswax from becoming a syrupy, heady affair, I do wish that the lemon was more prominent though, however. I really cannot say much more about the scent development, it is a fresh, plush rose and it stays like this throughout wear, it doesn't smell stale and the silage doesn't die down either after the 5 hour mark so there is no need to carry it with you to freshen up with. Rose for some can be quite a challenging note and I can totally appriciate that, it wasn't until I started wearing Chloe, Stella and Nahema that I really got an appriciation for rose, this is not your grandmothers rose, oh no, this is a fresh British rose garden in the morning, picture it; its a warm humid day, you've just had a shower and slipped into a comfortable cotton shirt, t-shirt or flowy dress and gone for an early morning walk where there are dew covered roses, the scent of the roses fills the air as the sun warms them up and the morning dew dries, that is honestly what this scent makes me think of. Silage is moderate bordering on strong and longevity is amazing at 8hrs from 4 light spritzes, solid love, wardrobe staple and future 100ml bottle repurchase worthy, I LOVE it!

This is one rose fragrance that doesn't receive much fanfare, perhaps due it being buried in the oeuvre of endless fleeting and gossamer creations from the Jo Malone line that often seem incomplete, skeletal, and without much substance, really. Sure, many are beautiful to start, but the development curve is steep most of the time, leaving a feeling as though the experience is anticlimactic. Red Roses is one exception, however. This opens as a rose in Technicolor. There are no superfluous dulcet tones, no powder puffs, thankfully no screechy attempts to exoticize. A rose is a rose is a rose here: dewy, green, and somewhat velvety but not exceedingly plush. My technical nose detects a good dose of Rosalva, an aromachem that imparts an aldehydic dewy rose note. It is just the right dose; they found that sweet spot as I have found during my experiments that it can easily overtake a blend if not dealt with a light hand. Damascenone is evident for that ever-subtle tobacco-wine mystery that one could argue makes this rose "red." Then there is this rose oxide in the top notes that lifts it all with this ever slight metallic hue that paints a full picture of the rose in bloom. I promise not to go all "ATH" on you folks and start using jazz hands but there is one more material from the perfumer's organ that I detect, and this is what I feel is most compelling to my nose. I could swear that Animalis base was included. There is this musky, sensuous, cedary, costus-like quality that others have pointed out but I feel certain that Animalis is responsible for it, and this is what won me over (and apparently repels others who have reviewed it). Oh well, you can't please everyone, but as someone who loves Animalis and its use in some classics, this is why this Jo Malone has appeal for me. It has true development, something to look forward to, rather than leaving the wearer yearning for more...but you have to like a little bit of an edge like I do to fully embrace it and I know that many out there do, so, yes, this happens to be one of my favorite rose fragrances.

when i sprayed this at the jo malone store, i swear the art style of the episode changed and i was suddenly surrounded by a frame of 70s shoujo manga roses, sparkling and exuberant. i may have gasped audibly. i love the smell of roses, but i'm picky with them as a fragrance note; it needs to feel like a freshly picked bouquet of real roses, dew and all, not rose oil or rose jam or rosewater. this scent manages to strike that sweet spot; in fact, at first blush it smells seamlessly and uniquely of rose. once you know they're there, you can detect the lemon and mint in the top notes, working quietly to enhance the freshness of the florals, but otherwise you might miss them. there's the barest hint of greenness rendered by the violet leaf. the roses themselves are bulgarian red or dark pink, a little spicy and heady, and they bloom beautifully with warmth. i like this as a summer scent. the base notes that linger are curious, and might be a dealbreaker; the honeycomb and rosy remnants create a waxy sweetness that smells of decay, like a bouquet left in a vase for too long. the scent is barely a whisper at that stage, and i have to really shove my nose into my wrist to feel it, but there it is, the off-kilter whiff that's vaguely wandering towards bathroom territory. i don't really recommend blind buying this as i did, but i was surprised at myself to discover it's not a dealbreaker for me. am i the sort of person who's okay with this sort of thing now? apparently, yes. the vivid red roses are just too good; i'll love them as they wither, too. recommended if you want to live your old shoujo manga protagonist dreams.

For me and my own fragrance experience, this is the quintessential rose perfume. No other rose scent on the market gets as close to a whiff of rosa damascena, short of actual rose attar and the rose extracts that sell for an equivalent extract of your mortal soul. I'm plaintively obsessed with roses, but I prefer to stay away from the scent of tea roses for the richer scent of damask roses and their wide spectrum of fragrance. Whether it's the Illinois Prairie Rose of my childhood, rosa setigera, or the rosa damascena that made the perfume industry, or the invasive and beautiful rosa multiflora which are taking over native roses in my beloved praries and woodlands, wild roses are a thing to behold in bloom. For a rosarian, looking for a base to complement other notes, start here. Other scents that open too close to candies or gourmands don't have the lofty dreamlike ribbon of silk that I know from putting rose essential oil in a diffuser. Once this fragrance settles into drydown, it activates a sensory experience I only know from the ghostly tonal harmonies of choral music echoing from ancient cathedral ceilings. To bees, damascus rose must surely conjure images of paradise. If Aphrodite were to appear to me tonight, she would be wearing this dripped on her fingertips.

Red Roses is not abstract or trying to reinterpret roses. It's simply photorealistic red roses. Lush, fully bloomed red roses still cool from the morning air with enough sweetness to make the dew inoffensive. What comes to mind are dates in the springtime when everything feels new again. Romantic, flushed cheeks, beautiful bouquet, evocative. Red Roses is the first perfume I fell in love with in my adulthood. It was the only perfume I owned at one point and had been my signature scent for the past four years. I've been branching off, but I get a lot of compliments from this. It's not for the gatekeepers because people will ask what you're wearing. Even certified rose haters are taken aback. Men LOVE this stuff. One guy I dated broke no contact just to tell me he missed the way I smelled. With all this being said, it's not a safe blind buy if you don't love rose. The only downside is when you get halfway through the bottle, it slightly smells like cat piss before it dries down. It still settles beautifully but you'll get less time with top notes and less of a balanced blend towards the end of the bottle. The sweet base note will eventually outweigh the green and citrus notes.