Hedonist Rose Absolute

A delicious candied rose. I am a huge rose fan, I make no secret of it. When I ordered the sample set of Hedonist Absolutes, however, it was Hedonist Rose Absolute which I was expecting to like the least of the trio. Not that I was expecting not to like it; I do enjoy rose-ouds, but I wouldn't say that it's my favorite scent profile in the olfactory world. This, however, completely eclipsed both Hedonist Absolute and Hedonist Iris Absolute for me. Both are fine fragrances in their own right, but this the only one of the trio that I'd consider purchasing. The opening is a blast of sweet rose. Contrary to what other reviewers have mentioned, the fragrance gets spicier and woodsier as it evolves, rather than the other way around, but I am testing from a dabber rather than a spray. The operative word to describe the rose in this fragrance is "candied". I get a clear mental image of a rose englobed in transparent red candy - like a rose 糖葫蘆 (tánghúlu), a sweet made of fruits like strawberries, grapes, cherry tomatoes, oranges, kiwis, and etc. covered in hard candy that you find in the night markets here in Taiwan and in China. It's sweet, but also tart, fizzy (sparkling, even) and a little bit green, somewhat akin to the rose you might smell in Moschino's Toy Boy. The sweetness is further tempered by the rich base of oud, amber, and sandalwood. It is definitely a sweet fragrance, and some might even consider it gourmand, though I wouldn't go that far. However, it never becomes too cloying, jammy, or over-the-top. The proportions are just right, and the blending impeccable. The oud never dominates, and it's not at all animalic or funky. In terms of scent, that's about it. As the note breakdown implies, it's not an overly complex fragrance. It is, however, very pleasant, and in my opinion, sexy. Performance is excellent. I get at least 10 hours of longevity (if not more), with strong sillage and projection for the first handful of hours. It is no slouch, and this is from a dabber; I can only imagine that the performance would be even great from an atomizer. I'd say that it is unisex, right down the middle, though some guys might consider it to be on the feminine side. I think it would smell ravishing on the right woman, and delicious on the right man. I happen to consider myself the right man, so I think that I can wear it just fine. There is some freshness to the composition, so I'd say that you could pull this off on spring and summer nights, if sprayed cautiously. But this is powerful stuff, and thus better suited for fall and winter. Whatever season you choose to wear it, go easy on the trigger. Overall, this is a great fragrance. There isn't much else to say other than that it's a delicious, sexy candied rose with a smooth base of oud, amber, and sandalwood with excellent performance. If you want a classic oud-rose, look to something like Dior's Oud Ispahan or Guerlain's Rose Nacrée du Desert. This one ain't it. It's much more fun, less serious, and more youthful. I'm absolutely considering a full bottle. 8.5/10

I absolutly love this scent! Beautiful, unique, feminin and the first rose fragrance thet leans gourmand in my opinion, since I'm a gourmand lover. I think some notes are missing here: Amber, Civet, Castoreum, Labanum, Mousus, Oud, Rose, Red berries! I think they are all here, becouse the fragrance basically sweet! The first 2-3 second dominantly amber and oud, very strong at first, (I never thougt I will ever love amber this way but I actually like the first few strong seconds as well), but after thet few seconds it's fades, then the rose-fruty sour sweetnes comes alive! Oh I just love love love it!!! (You know those rainbow colored sour candys? If they had a rose-fruity flavoured type, and if they had a scent, maybe this would be close to this.) Edit: Maybe my description was a little bit miss leading, becouse it's NOT A TYPICAL Amber! Not an old fashioned type, not a masculin type and definitely not a stinky type!!! (Nowadays I'm discovering Amber fragrances, and I need to realize, thet amber based fragrances are typically not like this at all.) It's a sweet amber. With a little bit of stingyness, which drives everyone nose to little bit of spicyness, or my nose a little bit of sousness. In a good way ofcourse! Before the only amber based fragrance I encounterd was Initio Magnetic Bland 1, and the stingyiness was the same as in this fragrance, but it was way more masculin, and wasn't sweet at all.

Today I get this parfum- bought blind based on the original Hedonist Rose wich I adore. And this Hedonist Rose Absolute is incredibly amazing and very-very pleasant too! The opening is preserves the miracle from Hedonist Rose but gets lot of wild animalic note (not listed here). It's a bit heavy for me and it's just the first 10 minutes then it settles down and come the most beautifule part and lasts for hours. The fruity sweet Rose with the oud and the animalic note- very complex and well balanced, sweet, deep, wild and ideal for colder weather. Good for elegant clothes and for evening but I will wear for casual clothes too. - Whenever you want to be wild and special 😉. After hours fades the rose and stayes the oud and comes the amber with a little santalwood. Longevity is long lasting (more than 12 hours) and it has a very good sillage. I can imagine on a man too- it is much more unisex like Hedonist Rose. So I'm happy that I have it, it makes me feel wild and unique :) EDIT 1: I can sniff some peach accord (or some friut) in the first 6 hours... And those black-gold bottles are so very elegant, beautifule, special, unique! So good to see in my parfume case! :))) Edit 2: After 2 weeks wearing I can say it's very addictive, wild, sweet, deep...It has many faces- beautifule and SO GOOOOD!!! HUGE LOVE!!!

It is a beautiful oud rose, with a bit of oud and more sweet jammy rose.

I'd have to agree that candied rose best describes this one, at least initially. There's a tangy quality i can't nail down, maybe the oud funk, but it really makes the rose note interesting. The rose is initially more prominent and less spicy. I'm not much of a florals fan but this one is great. Not powdery at all, not cloying, makes me think of a jammy rose dipped in a little bit of spice and dripping with syrupy amber. The drydown is where this one starts to lose me, it becomes a lot more woody and loses the jammy amber rose that originally enticed me. The drydown is surprisingly unisex (possibly even leaning masculine, since the oud is so prevalent and funky), whereas the opening was decidedly feminine to my nose. The oud funk kind of creeps in with the drydown and the rose becomes a bit sharper and more spicy as well, losing its floral potency. Viktoria Minya's absolute line of perfumes straddle that unisex line with their drydowns, I found that Hedonist Absolute was also surprisingly more unisex with its drydown. This one is undoubtedly more wearable on colder days, it's quite heavy and I'm sure that wearing more than a few sprays of this will make a statement and get you noticed. Do I love it? Not enough to grab a bottle. This one is definitely not a safe blind buy, you gotta be a fan of bold oud fragrances to be comfortable with this one. I wish the spiced jammy rose note lasted longer to balance out the oud... The oud standing alone makes this a difficult fragrance to wear.