A.Maze

If you're a rose aficionado, chances are that you have many categories of rose perfumes in your stash. Hypothetically, if you're in the mood for an innocent, springtime bloom, L'Arte di Gucci or Une Rose will be a disappointment. Those are "Diva Roses", and masterpieces, at that. Perhaps one may be turned off by the "Diva Roses", but that will never be me. There are many exquisite roses in several categories. I categorize my rose stash by: Ingenues, Earthy Roses, Divas, Sexpots, Soliflores and Eccentrics. The "Divas" for me rule the stash and don't you dare forget it (LOL). I put A*Maze in that category because she won't take a back seat to anyone. She sees Une Rose and can look her square in the eye. There's a complete balance in A*Maze's strength by the notes in the composition. What a shame that it is no longer in production. The "Diva" personification is Maria Callas, of course.

I love this scent! Intense, dry rose scent, with some spice. Not a big, flowery in-your-face rose, but a more secret and intimate one. Very long lasting. Want it so bad, but it is hard to come by and very expensive to import to my country.

I ADORE this scent! It always made me feel very feminine and a little bit different than everyone else. Very special!!

I was debating which perfume to put on this evening and was about to select one of the Nejma or Montale rose-oud perfumes, when I happened upon a couple of samples from The People of the Labyrinths. They were in a gauzy red drawstring bag indicating that their provenance was in all likelihood one of the smaller niche emporia (Luscious Cargo?), and I probably received them with an order last year. "Why not?" I thought, throwing caution to the wind and donning A.MAZE, about which I knew absolutely nothing, but which turned out to be none other than a saffron-oud-rose! Big rose was my first pleasant surprise: high-quality, natural-smelling voluptous rose--taif, I guess they say. Then I noticed what seemed like oud, and I started to wonder whether it might be saffron instead. In fact, it's both. Well, I think that I've said enough now to make it clear that this is not an earth-shatteringly revolutionary or original composition. There seem to be dozens of these saffron-rose-oud perfumes out there, all vying for our affection, and this one I must say smells quite good. The standards should be high though, I can say having now espied the prices at their website... Until tonight, I had absolutely no idea that The People of the Labyrinths was a fashion label. Oh well, they have a very nice saffron-oud-rose perfume, as well. Right up there with Montale and Nejma. No one needs to be making anymore of this type of perfume, but if they're going to, they'd better make it good, if it's going to be able to compete, and The People of the Labyrinths has succeeded in creating a perfume which is not an embarrassment to their name. That is a distinction unfortunately not shared by all designers these days--whether of haute or basse couture...

this is very rosy as expected, and i get something which seems to turn just a bit sour on my skin. after a few minutes i think i'm getting the oudh coming on stronger, but the rose really continues to dominate the scent. eventually this blooms into a woody, somewhat musky oudh-rose and the herbal/sourness thankfully disappears. the dry down is a musky rose that's very very pretty.