Perfume Review. HRH Rose: Sa Majesté la Rose by Serge Lutens

We are so accustomed to being constantly surprised, if not shocked, by the unusualness of Lutens’ perfumes that it is indeed astonishing, how comparatively simple this composition is, all rose, only slightly enhanced and showcased by woods and a light clove note. Luca Turin wrote in his blog that he finds Lutens florals “a little trite in a white-lace sort of way”. Having enthralled us with his art of juxtaposition, having startled us in the past by brutally animalic (Muscs Koublai Khan), cold, rubbery (Tuberose Criminelle) and camphoric (Borneo 1834) notes, Serge Lutens is perhaps starting to suffer consequences of his customers always waiting for a "twist", that curse of M. Night Shyamalan's career. Where Sa Majesté la Rose is concerned, the twist is that there is no twist. What we have here is simplicity of a classic creation with its immaculately balanced proportions and harmonies. This is the Rose to rule all roses; she is a classical beauty, full of serene sensuousness and refined splendor, and all is order, beauty, richness, quiet and pleasure in her fragrant kingdom. Sa Majesté la Rose is an idealized portrait of a flawless rose, a rose as rose should be, a rose imagined by a love-struck poet, painted by a hopelessly romantic artist, Pygmalion’s perfect rose. Sa Majesté la Rose is available at Aedes, $92.00 for 1,69oz *The photo of Sa Majesté la Rose is from Aedes.com. *The painting is Galatea by Gustave Moreau, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.