Café Rose (2023)

Y'all. 1. It's the same formula as the Private Blend version. As another reviewer below pointed out, the ingredients and formula code (ILN39023) are the same. I know it's rare for a packaging and price change to not automatically include a reformulation, but the brand literally can't lie about ingredients and formulations without risking unthinkable legal trouble. 2. Tom Ford Beauty, the company responsible for every TF fragrance and makeup product ever, was always part of Estée Lauder. It was created under a licensing agreement before the launch of Black Orchid back in 2005ish. The recent buyout that people are mistakenly wringing their hands over was for Tom Ford's entire brand, including fashion and accessories. The beauty division was already Lauder's. Your favorite Tom Ford perfume smelling different may be for various reasons, but it's not because Estée Lauder came out of nowhere, busted the door down and started maniacally messing with formulas while Tom Ford looked on helplessly. (Besides, that's a L'Oréal move.) 3. Café Rose is strong , and if you think it's vanished after an hour, your sniffer has gone blind. Don't sit there huffing your wrist and wondering why you can't smell it. You've knocked out your nose. Go get some fresh air. 4. Tom Ford's fragrances have always been overpriced. It's not a new development. Let's stop acting like they've suddenly lost the plot and only recently started charging a king's ransom for small bottles of smelly water. Oh, the perfume review? It's good stuff. Incense-laden Damask rose (fruity, spicy, saturated) with a crisp opening and a woody, silky drydown. Dark, yes, but not trying too hard to be. The coffee reads more like a rounded, slightly bitter nuttiness that bolsters the rose, rather than standing on its own as an identifiable note. But it does help set Café Rose apart from brighter, softer, more mincing roses with little depth or mystery. And for such a bold scent, it’s also remarkably well-behaved. Most of Tom Ford’s fragrance output is just too loud and unsubtle for my taste - Ombré Leather and Black Orchid are on my short list of perfumes that I treat like mustard gas - but Café Rose keeps things classy and as close to refined as a Tom Ford has ever been. Basically faultless.

So my partner and I are getting married in less than 2 weeks and we went on a perfume hunt for something special to wear on the day. We sampled LOADS of different scents, I honestly had so many spray cards on me by the end of it! Having sampled everything else, on the cardboard strip, this was a definite stand out to me. It was incredibly strong and bold on the card. It's interesting, we tried a lot of the other TF fragrances on the cardboard strips, and they were very polarising, but I just instantly fell in love with Cafe Rose. So what you get initially is a blast of pure, unadulterated rose. Not like old lady powdery rose, but a spiced, exotic, almost Turkish delight-esque rose. It's really quite unique and beautiful, heady and dramatic. I get the patchouli blast too. People are saying they don't get the coffee, I suppose everyone's 'nose' is different, but I can definitely sense it. It gives Cafe Rose a sweetness almost, gourmand and intoxicating. There's something almost medicinal about this, an timeless drama that you could almost imagine in a smoky old-time Jazz club or something like that. I'd definitely pitch it more toward the feminine side than the masculine. Sillage is intense on first spray, as it begins to settle on your skin, I personally get a clean, almost soapy scent, a bit like Dove soap. The coffee sweetness adds a syrupy undertone to it but it's not heavy-going, the coffee is subtle, the spice is exotic and heady. Dry down is subtly sweet, almost faintly vanilla. As beautiful as this undoubtedly is, and as intense as it is on first blast, unfortunately it doesn't last. Longevity is poor, on me, anyway - I get about two hours tops. It's very expensive, so you'd expect it to last longer. My partner's cologne almost completely drowned the smell of Cafe Rose out (JPG's Scandal for reference), and although I applied it twice today, my partner said he couldn't smell it on me at all either time. For an £150 perfume, and as rose is usually a very strong note in any perfume, I'd honestly want something a bit longer lasting.

If you’re looking for an “strong, independent, empowered female CEO” scent, this one’s for you! Imagine walking into a room full of men in black and they kneel to the power of your fragrance. I can’t emphasize enough how much I LOVE this perfume. This has become my go-to signature date night/girls night out scent. I feel so powerful and energized when I wear this, so much that it’s actually a little too strong for some men (this is how you know who’s worthy of dating you I guess 🤪). This is not the sweet type of rose. It’s a dark rose that’s creamy and velvety but not gourmand. It’s a really spicy and strong, earthy floral but not a “grandma” type of scent too. I’ve seen comments about the lack of coffee scent that I quite don’t understand. I spray this on my skin and I literally instantly smell the coffee. This lasts all day on my skin too. I’d leave the house at 8AM and come home 12 hours later, and I can still smell this on my clothes and skin. I don’t see the need to reapply. In fact, I leave my bottle at home and don’t bring any other perfume with me, and I’m still getting compliments on how good I smell! I think the only downside of this is that it is just too expensive, and it’s very hard to find in the Philippines since it’s a fall/winter fragrance (we only have wet/dry season where it’s hard to fit in) Again, this is a really strong and spicy floral scent. Definitely not for clean girlies because they’re more for women who wanna make a punching bold statement.

95% rose than other ingredients but not cheap, of course, it’s Tom Ford. Very pleasant (for those who love roses) freshly cut type of roses rather than mysterious dark jammy rose. 🌹 I’m a guy but just can’t get enough roses, love on me and it’s very aroma therapeutic uplifting rose scents all around. Of course there are more sophistication than just rose itself, but mainly ROSE, no coffee unfortunately but I can sip my coffee while wearing this so it’s ok, and has that subtle frankincense vibe in the background especially as it dries down. It’s a luxurious rose scents of two different types of roses but of course you won’t see or smell separately, this is something you want to wear and feel positive, mature(not grandma!), sexy, confident and stylish. Guys can absolutely pull this off if you’re confident enough to be a good smelling put together type of men and always happy. Not show off kind of men but genuinely a good guy. For women, it’s definitely add to your nice characteristics and attraction. It’s nice to wear this for party (not necessarily disco nights) but cocktails, fancy dinners, social events and definitely traveling. 50ml bottle would do because it’s a flat bottle so nice shape to slide into your purse. This is one of my favourite TF fragrances among many of his lines. Of course, comes with those price tags but test them well before you buy impulsively.

I ordered this based on the scent on a tester paper card On paper it’s a sweet airy delicate clean rose, no coffee, no coriander etc On skin, i do sense just a hint of coffee along with mostly rose right in the opening but that goes away within minutes which is kinda sad bc the coffee note is pretty, then i sense a warm but kind of sour rose which is translated to me as a sophisticated grown up evening kind of scent, then in the deeper dry down on my skin under my top i can smell the coriander and ylang along with the same kind of rose that reminds me just a slight slight slight tiny bit of amouage guidance (i had they perfume so if it was a lot i wouldn’t like this perfume). I believe what i hated about guidance was the combination of coriander and frankensence being too much. The sandalwood in the base kind of smooths all of that out which helps the perfume a lot from being the stinky mess that guidance is (at least to me) There’s really nothing sweet about this fragrance except the natural tart sweetness of rose and that coffee in the opening is the selling point of Tia fragrance which is why it’s such a shame that it doesn’t last, if it persisted throughout the whole fragrance the is would be so much more enjoyable to me. I have a 30ml / 1oz bottle and i got it preloved for $50. I think I’ll keep it. Will be nice during these fall and winter months!