Rostracto

(To be read as Morgan Freeman) Beautiful, young Rostracto glides along the autumnal path, though her bright green roller-skates suggest a nod to spring. She winks at the legendary statesman, one Chanel's Egoïste, as she passes him. Pipe in hand, and out for his daily stroll, Egoïste sports an aromatic carnation on the lapel of his tweed jacket — pulled from the closet for the first time this season, the pockets of which contain his polished brass lighter and companion Czech tool. As a rule, he never strays from the path during these walks, but this is more for the sake of regimen, than it is an aversion to adventure. His quiet dignity suddenly skewered by the bitter green shock of artemisia, he catches Rostracto sticking out her tongue, in what seems to be the flirtatious mocking of his apparent agedness. The serenity of his daily ritual abruptly upended, she takes off skating flowing circles around him; a sensual plume of smoke detectable as it twirls in and out from her musky wake. Free from the weight of dense spices that keep him planted firm in his leather boots, she instead dances on air; making him appear as though stubbornly rooted to the grounds through which the path forges. She blows him a kiss, and tucks away into the fragrant underbrush of the lush evergreens. Compelled, with a long pull from his pipe he follows her cautiously, emerging on the other side to himself waist deep in what could possibly be the most mythical wild rose garden ever imagined. The sweet smell of the infinite dewy roses drowns out most of everything as the aroma fills his lungs, fully and to the point of utter intoxication. He struggles to make sense of her shape through the intense floral haze, but manages to bear witness as she trims one of the dreamy blossoms from its thorn-laden stem, allowing it to tumble gently into her satchel, where it becomes company to a dozen or so more. She turns, and now breathtakingly ethereal, drifts over to him, planting a perfect specimen of a rose in his warm, creased hand before evaporating into the surrounding mist. Scent: Photorealistic Rose. Smoky. Woodsy. Application: Roll-on. Inner elbows. Longevity: I get 6-8 hours on mixed skin type. Projection/Sillage: Moderate. Not overwhelming in intimate scenarios ;) Overall: I looove Rostracto, but also know I am heavily biased towards rose-centric and fir fragrances. One of my favourites from Rogue Perfumery. Well done M. Cross!

Delightfully different , a very unique fragrance quite possibly a little strange in a way like an abstract painting of a rose. The rose is the main player of the fragrance but it's not a pure realistic rose smell. It is an abstract interpretation of a rose made possible by brilliant blending techniques of Manny Cross . The smoke, fir, spice , cedar and artemisia add enough to bring this rose to a completely different place in olfactory senses. I have been to Turkey and I have tasted Turkish delight which is much sweeter than this fragrance. This one is a very dry rose and to my nose on my skin this smells quite like a glass of Sloe gin maybe mixed with a bit of orange juice.A "Sloe screw" they used to call the drink and It gives me that impression, I have fond memories of that concoction from when I worked as a musician on the Cruise lines back in the late 80's. I purchased the full bottle of Rostracto after sampling the roll on in my sampler set. It is not a sexy date night scent for sure but I think for casual day wear you are good with this as it isn't offensive and presents a unique spicy element which is not sweet and nauseating. It would be a clever signature scent sure to not have many noses on this smell before. I do not agree with the ranking of this and would probably have it as a 4.15 score. Anyway 7.5 /10 for me.

Very uneleguant and strong start that quickly morph into something much more pleasant and beautiful. Seems very nostalgic to me, for reasons I can't really understand/explain. The marketing around the perfume resolves mostly around roses (duh), but in my personal opinion I find its woody aspect way more interesting. There is also some casual oud and musk notes that could be decisive for some people's appreciation of the perfume. It could come to some as really masculine because of the strong start, but it becomes more "androgynous" (in a weird and cool way) and gender-confusing after only a few minutes. Love it. Would recommand sampling before buying though.

A wildfire that sweeps through a field of roses and the surrounding forest. Animalic nuances here too, civet-y almost. Dry down is fresh hay. I love that this smells like the countryside on fire. Great stuff from Cross, again. He’s so great at using vintage aldehydes and modern Ambroxan in his creations.

Another masterpiece from Master Cross. I didn't know i needed it and here i am now wearing it on a regular basis. Classic, classy, old school, very masculine. Don't let the rose trick you into thinking it is a feminine leaning scent. it is an old school scent with reminiscence of Tabac Vert.

The rose perfume of my dreams! Beautiful sweet, jammy rose, supported by smoky, musky base. A romantic, androgynous scent--makes me think of a princely female anime protagonist ala Utena Tenjou or Lady Oscar from Versailles no Bara.

I haven't made up my mind about this one, but I certainly appreciate its artistry. For the first hour, it feels a bit difficult -- it's very "prickly" and hard to approach. It almost feels "barnyard-like" during that first hour, but I would hesitate to call it animalic. It doesn't *quite* reach that level. (I asked other people to smell this on my skin, as well, and no one else suggested "animalic" as a descriptor, so maybe it's just me! I kept my observations to myself when soliciting input. The note I identified as "barnyard-like" went away after the first hour, anyway.) I smell the sharpness that usually denotes ambroxan or cetalox, but this is something different... it's not quite either of those things... it's something worth waiting out. And so, I did. I waited for a few hours, and allowed it to reveal itself on my skin. In a way, this feels like... what I imagine extroverts feel when they're trying to get to know an introvert. (I'm an introvert. I'll admit... it's not always easy. Sorry, extroverts... we're different. And so is this perfume!) Eventually, this evolved into something that I would describe as a "sharp green" fragrance. It's a very bitter shade of green. It's "deep," and "dark," but not "spring-like." This is neither "good" nor "bad." It simply *is.* (Whether you like this or not will depend upon what you are looking for and/or your general inclinations when it comes to fragrance preferences.) The rose emerges, but it's always a very green, razor-sharp rose. It's thorny. It's prickly. It puts up barriers if you try to approach it. It doesn't want to be held, or touched, and you can forget about picking it, because *that's* not likely to happen under any circumstances. I don't get cedar or balsam fir when I spray it on my wrists, but I *do* smell fir trees when I apply it to my elbow creases and chest. It *does* read as "green," though, either way (which fir balsam definitely is), and I like it because of that. It's different. It's not like any of the rose-heavy perfumes I already know and own. I feel like there is a time and a place for this perfume, but I'm not quite sure what that is (for me) at the moment. It's definitely interesting, and I'll continue to sample it, as I want to see how it performs in different temperatures/weather conditions.

The only similarity between smolderose and rostracto is they start off with a deep red and jammy rose. After that the similarities end. The rose in Rostracto is on a journey from the bush then plucked and placed in a vase. As it slowly starts to fade just a bit and it starts to give a slight aged wine aroma it is then place inbetween the pages of a leather bound book as a keep sake. The journey continues and the scent of that same rose has faded to resemble the smell of parchment. Or I should say parchment made from roses. Bone dry and slightly herbaceous the roses journey has ended and now this dry paper rose of faded memories mingles with a very strong and charred cedar and the fresh aroma of fir balsam. Bitter wormwood adds a biting freshness that compliments the contrasting blackened cedar. This is a fragrance for a man who is moody, serious, a bit melancholy. An outdoorsman who is quiet, maybe a bit aloof but deep down a romantic at heart. Smolderose maybe smoky and deep but it is much more cheerful and less aloof than rostracto. Both are beautiful. Smolderose leans male (I wear it) but rostracto is male. Disregard my like vote this is a love. Stunning all male rose.

First Impression wearing: I'm a fan of this house but this doesn't get my blood flowing aa much as others from the house, like Mousse Illuminee for example. It's another rose oud ( I know there's no oud listed so maybe the musk is giving those vibes) in a sea of similar fragrances out on the market. That said, there are some differences, the biggest being the addition of coniferous notes that appear in the opening and mid. I like that part, and I like the musk. But it doesn't do enough to separate itself from the pack for me. Quality seems good which is typical for the house that uses good natural ingredients. Performance is also good, in the range of something like Oud Ispahan. I'm sure die hard fans of the house will grab this, and if you don't already own similar type fragrance, this certainly isn't a bad option and better than many ot niche frags. But I personally wouldn't go out of my way to seek out of full bottle. But I also wouldn't turn away from it either, because it is good. Scent 7.3/10 Performance 7.5/10

I didn't like this much on my first couple wears, it reminded me too much of Smolderose which overwhelmed me with smoke. I've come to realize this perfume isn't even smoky, which goes to show you the power of association in scent. I put it away for several months and when I came back to it again I was much more into it. After I got a compliment from my physical therapist, I grew to appreciate it even more. For me it is very evenly balanced between rose and woods, with a green quality to both. Others will likely disagree but I like it for the spring.

I like this, and I like even more that this perfume exists: because otherwise, how else would I have learned that you can combine rose with fir? The freshness of the one complements the freshness of the other, which I never would have imagined possible. This would be liked best by someone who really wants to stand out in public for being original, given its charming oddness .

For the 30 seconds I thought applying this was a terrible mistake. Opens with a loud, bitter, medicinal wood/rose. But within a few minutes, when the moss and labdanum peek through from the base, it calms down to a sweet, smokey, slightly powdery wood with a touch of rose (and maybe tuberose or jasmine). One of my favorites from this perfumer.

I'm usually not a fan of rose. I don't like the sharpness it often has but in this case the cedar and fir balance it so well. The dry down after a few hours is gorgeous. Dried rose petals, dark woods, musk and sticky but not cloying raspberry jam. Vaguely associations with christmas, my grandmother, raspberry shortbread cookies.

I start with a sweet rose, borderline Turkish delight, with a distinct cedar backbone. However those overtime commingle and dry down to become an asphalt-y Oud rose. I prefer the former to the latter, but the latter certainly has more depth and interest. Definitely worth sampling.

Smoky, woody rose. An airy rose scent carried about by a camphorous fir balsam, grounded by the charred cedar base with ambery tones. Moderate projection for 2-3hr, catching faint whiffs through 5-6hr, longevity 12hr+.

Huge woody opening, very fresh cedar with prominent artemisia giving a green bitterness to the scent. There is something hinting at the petals of a rose floating in the air, but there is no rose accord to my nose on the opening. As it settles, there is a nod to rose through a vague soapy floral accord that starts to sit on the bed of woods and what smells like oakmoss. The rose starts to become more apparent as it dries down, and its a dry aromatic rose, stem, thorns and all. The musk and powdery aspects of the rose come out toward the end, and it becomes more recognizably rosy. It feels like the woody/green facets obscure the rose until at least an hour or two into the wear, when the rose starts to bloom out of the cedar, oakmoss, and artemisia. If you try this thinking its a rose-forward fragrance, you may be disappointed as the beginning has more in common with a masculine woody chypre from the 70s than a photorealistic rose. However, if you like the mentholated, green aspects of rose that scents like La Fille de Berlin hint at, Rostracto really emphasizes those accords after an hour or so into the wear.

Rostracto opens with a very pleasant rose note. It's quickly obliterated by the appearance of a smoky-resinous scent. Perhaps "obliterated" is too extreme. "Dominated" would be better. The rose note is still there after the drydown, but very well hidden or subtle to the point where I'd say Rostracto is more of a smoky-resinous fragrance than a rose fragrance. Rostracto would be perfect for a guy who doesn't want to smell like any flower, even if it's rose, but somehow still wants a rose fragrance. Rostracto would fit the bill. For me, the rose is way too subtle after the drydown and the resiny-smoky scent isn't the best. For me, Amouage's Opus XII Rose Incense is more successful than Rostracto. Even Dunhill's Egyptian smoke is better, although slightly synthetic compared to Rostracto. Rostracto's performance is moderate all the way around.

Pyroclastic flow through a forest glade of roses, but all of it set in an abstract landscape. Heavily charred, and infact, almost mineralic, wood. Scorched or singed floral. Bitter green (which I don't have a good track record with unfortunately), 5/10 I'm honestly split because I can see the artistry behind what Mr. Cross was doing, but I just plain don't like the scent very much.

Artificial rose right from the start, & smoke. This is not smoke from a sweet wood like alder, cedar, apple, or grape vines. This smoke is like the smell from fire damage, or burnt books. Acrid & sharp. Definitely not for me.

This rose isn’t sweet. It’s surrounded by sharp wood and amber. A bit of a chypre-style rose fragrance. My mom likes vintage Lauren and I think she’ll like this too.

This is a deep red rose, jammy and spicy with a sharp bite of citrus, like drinking a zinfandel so full in body you're almost chewing it. I very much agree with a lot of reviews here - there are prominent animalic and oud characteristics of this fragrance that don't seem to be captured in the notes. There's a citric sharpness as well that I can't quite put my finger on - perhaps it is the conifer note, but it is almost gasoline-like in how abrasive it comes across on my skin. This reminds me a lot of Dior's Oud Ispahan, with OI being a lot sweeter and muskier in comparison to Rostracto. If you like gothic scents, this might be for you. It's way too heavy a rose to be wearable for me.

I'm typically a fan of rose scents, however, this one is not for me. The opening feels smells like the pollen filled pistil of a rose, a scent that to me came across as screechy. The screechy aspect took several hours to fully mature into the gentle rose petal scent I enjoy, but that was a few hours after spraying.

Flat and dry. Pissy rose, wood and smoke. Not the good kind of pissy that we love but won't admit to our non-fraghead friends but like actual stale urine in a nasty underpass or a gas station bathroom.

Horridly sharp, bitter green rose bush stem, wood smoke. Nasty.

As some else here wrote—it is a field of roses on fire. It’s such a brazen blend of masculine and feminine, like Grace Jones or Prince. Despite Rostracto not being a scent I would personally wear, I’ve been sharing my sample bottle with everyone around me because it’s just that singular. For a shy woman on a night out, this scent imbues confidence—for a bold one, invincibility.

The rose is made dry, green and slightly bitter from the Fir and the herbal Artemisia. These green aspects are very dominating and give it a darker, more pungent smell that may be divisive. Not light,fresh or sweet but it does evoke nature and the outdoors, though it's hard to pinpoint where to wear this as it is quite sharp but not very fresh.

A rose garden in a pine forerst in the opening, it is great! later the rose predominates, becoming too rosy for me. 6/10

All I get is lighter version of bulls blood II by imaginary authors