Firedance

What an extraordinary and wonderful fragrance. I have dreamt of finding a scent that encapsulates the intensity of burning a beautifully fragranced rose. The rose in this is stunning and yes oud, patch and leather are present but it's the fiery rose that really holds court. There is fire yet it is kept cool by the patch. A fragrance of contradictions. The oud is dry backdrop that is pretty low key. This is a top quality scent which is proven by how wonderful the rose is in this. No adding rose geranium to bump up the rose in this creation. I do detect a little apple adding a touch of sweetness and the lemon a zing. There is an almost smokey, leathery intensity that seems to increase along the timeline. The rose even seems to get stronger with ones body heat. If there is an animalic element then it is very low key. Im definitely not one for animalic notes. Its not too sweet and bang on unisex. If you love the rose note this is one not to miss. If you loved Diors discontinued Midnight Poison then I think this beauty is well worth trying. It's quite an experience. I do hope this wins an award as it surely deserves one.

This perfume is fascinating... In the opening there is an overpowering smokiness; smoke from a bonfire rather than a fireplace - burning woods and Autumn leaves. After a while the smoke slowly fades away and I'm left with a blend of rich red rose and leather. Later on, the rose becomes creamy and musky and this beautiful creaminess lasts till the deep dry-down on my skin. I love this part the most. I'm intoxicated by this scent. A true masterpiece.

This is the first time I feel a fragrance deserves the term "witchy". Firedance is a fitting name as this fragrance evokes smoky bonfires and ancient ritual. It smells like a sacrificial altar or ancient tradition. It would suit a folk costume or fetish outfit equally. I can also confidently label this "goth". It is the perfect finisher to the dark, mysterious outfit of a person who dries flowers and grinds their own spices. In the bottle: A syrupy, smoky rose. More incense than BBQ. Patchouli and amber are prominent. Resiny wood. Medium leather scent. Cashmere wood adds subtle softness. Apple and Lemon provide the barest hint of fruit note to keep it from being musty. On me: The rose is sweet and very burnt. I get charred wood and incense. Almost a pot pourri scent. The amber is stronger than the patchouli. I get more apple and lemon than cashmere wood. The oud and leather are stronger on my skin. While the rose varies in the bottle and on the skin, it is reminiscent of a heady rose-water. This is not an English Rose or garden rose. It is closer to Turkish delight. And the leather is also very different from the suede commonly used in perfumes. Another reviewer was very right to point that out. It feels higher quality. As it wears, the rose becomes a bigger player and overshadows many of the other notes. But it has major longevity. I am deeply impressed by the vibe I get from Firedance. This is what I wanted Nirvana Rose to smell like. I am sad this is so expensive, however, and Will be nursing my sample for a while. Such is the world of perfume!

Aw, yes there is Oud, but this one is sooo goood. (For those who don’t know me: I am not an oud lover.) It opens with dry oud. Now, I wouldn’t call myself an expert in this wood (see above, it doesn’t belong to my favourite notes), but I have sampled a few oud fragrances over time and never come across a dry oud note before. It’s unusual to me, but I don’t need any time to get used to it, I like it (not love, but like). After about half an hour it gets richer, that’s when the apple and leather kick in. From the 2nd hour onwards I can see why people make reference to burnt roses. I didn’t get it on the first day of wearing it, but now it’s crystal clear and the name Firedance makes perfect sense. Later on the Cashmere Wood steps up slowly and the oud makes room for it without a fight. At the end of the day I’m left with a gorgeous skin scent with all notes blended to perfection. It’s during this time that I regret the most that again I haven’t been brave enough for a more generous application in the morning. But with an oud-heavy opening, dry or moist doesn’t matter, I’m afraid I’m just not the type. Maybe tomorrow...

Wow, this is a heady one! I don't get any of the top notes and I go straight to a bewitching rose, stunning, dazzling, royal rose. A few seconds in, smoke takes the centre stage. Then in a few minutes leather begins peeking through, and finally oud. This is not for the faint-hearted, it will easily suit a queen!

really really wanted to like this but the drydown is NO

Unfortunately I don’t get the rose in this at all. On my skin it overwhelming smelt like heavy smoke and something medicinal or cleaning product like. The smoke was unpleasant - it reminded me of waking up after a big night out in the early 2000’s before we had a ban on smoking cigarettes indoors. That stomach churning, nauseating smell of everyone’s cigarettes in your hair when you have a hangover. The medicinal smell reminded me of the cleaning products pubs use for men’s toilets. I know this is a very harsh review but this is the first perfume I’ve ever had to scrub off after a couple of hours because it made me feel physically sick. On the positive side, if this fragrance works for you it has amazing sillage and lasting power (sadly, this was not a positive for me). From other reviews it seems that this is a fragrance that can smell wildly different to other people so don’t necessarily be put off by my review but definitely sample rather than blind buy!

I don't think I've ever experienced a more putrid drydown in my life. A few years ago I went to France and sampled andouille de Guemene, a pork sausage made of pig intestines and stomachs. If eating that felt like eating a barnyard, then this perfume is like smelling it. The oud is animalic in the extreme and quite overpowering, so much so that none of the fruit or floral notes ever make an appearance to my nose.

This is not at all a gentle rose. It actually is fiery. I think of oud as a heart or base note, but Firedance has smoky oud right up front. There's a medicinal note that I also pick up in Ruth Mastenbroek's Oxford, which floats to the fore after a couple of minutes. Gourmand perfumes are popular at the moment but in Firedance I actually got a slight whiff of ham! - I think it’s suggested by the smokiness. Firedance is not a run of the mill perfume! It's like a bonfire in a nursing home at breakfast. There is a note that reminds me of carbolic soap mingled into the smoky wood. I couldn't get the leather note, but like others in this range, Firedance is complex and intriguing. The dry-down is woody, balsamic and spicy. I love this perfume but I haven't bought it because I think it might just be too challenging for people around me to wear out of the house. Edit: I sampled Firedance as one of 5 perfumes in a Ruth Mastenbroek discovery set and the one I ended up buying was Oxford. However, I have ordered another tester of Firedance because it lingered in my memory. It has just been delivered and I am wearing it now. It is just as complex as I remembered, or perhaps even more so. I have to say that the first few seconds are too challenging for me but the bitterness I get dissipates very rapidly and you are into the smoky wood and balsamic note as mentioned above. I didn’t comment on the rose when I first wrote this review and it only manifested itself to me after the first few minutes. It is a cool and powdery rose, reminiscent of the scent of a lipstick or a powder compact and almost overwhelmed by the smoke. Several hours in, Firedance is almost a different perfume. The smokiness is now the merest hint and the lovely, powdery rose Is the strongest note. This is a perfume that takes time to reveal all its faces. Fellow Fragranticans, how often out of all the launches do we come across something genuinely original? Ruth Mastenbroek is a true innovator. I have also loved reading the reviews, which have all helped me appreciate the many facets of this most complex perfume. I still don’t know whether I could carry Firedance off, but I’m so glad I have tried it. A second edit: my husband likes where this gets to several hours in but is repulsed by the first few hours and thinks it makes me smell as if I had been standing over a bonfire. As he won’t be the only person who reacts like that, I will be sticking with Oxford from this range and not buying a full-size Firedance. ☹️

I really enjoyed this scent. I realise that I have become accustomed to what rose/leather/amber scents normally smell like (too pink and synthetic) so I was surprised by the vivid strength of this one. The fruity top notes bring some freshness before the deep, velvety rose kicks in. The leather is real leather - not suede as in Kelly Caleche etc - and the amber really adds a fiery quality to the scent, rather than providing a sweet, vanilla drydown it acts to give a hot glow of embers to the scent. It is absolutely unisex. This reminded me a little of Rose Oud by Parfums de Nicolaï but I found Firedance to be smoother, less sour and to have better projection. Both have top quality, velvet rose and a very unisex wood-amber bolstering the scent. This feels well-considered, excellent quality, no rough edges, albeit fashionable - with the craze for rose and oud at the moment - but it's a fashion I'm happy with since I love a dark rose. I was impressed with the longevity, sillage and polish of this. And a great name - it does feel fiery!

I had and recently sold Firedance, as it was literally like bonfire smoke and I couldn't handle it. It is supposed to be a rose centric fragrance?? but I got nothing apart from smoke; a wet, earthy, bonfire smoke and it had a tinge of dryness. It wasn't acrid but it wasn't necessarily sweet either. I was highly disappointed though as I got no apple, lemon or leather. Just pure smoke. Smoke that smelt like im standing building the biggest bonfire at night, using wood from trees that don't burn well. And I don't know if its the oud, cashmeran or patchouli that gives off this nuance, but I think that it must be something else thats not listed. Like a chemical and its the same kind they put in fragrances like Raghba and Sheikh Al Shuyukh and it dominates everything. So there's just smoke and burning right through from the opening, drydown and the ending and your nose can't escape it.

Every time I take a long sniff, I notice rose fluttering lightly at the top as powder overpowers before oud triumphs through. Instead of equal parts of rose and powder intermixed, I sense exactly half powder and then half rose, independently. It’s as if the powder transforms itself as powder is completely left behind when rose arises. I’ve been applying unscented lotion beforehand as a base then spraying onto skin alone instead of skin and clothing.